Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
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Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
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You may believe that a political party, which has been rejected by the voters, should look for ways to improve its performance – not just its election performance but its real performance. You may believe the party should ask itself, “How can we do better for the American people?”
Last year, the Republicans conducted research, designed to help them appeal to young voters. Here are some excerpts:
The following report assesses the findings from a variety of studies on young voters, including a new March 2013 survey conducted for the College Republican National Committee (CRNC).
There are essentially three camps that have emerged in the aftermath of the 2012 election, each of which has a different take on why the Republican Party failed to appeal to an adequate number of (young) voters. Broadly summarizing, these groups can be thought of as the “technology” camp, the “policy” camp, and the “brand” camp.
The technology camp posits that Republican losses had quite a bit to do with the GOP’s failure to keep up with Democrats on key items such as data systems, polling, social media, and advertising.
Translation: All we need are better data systems and polling. No change needed in how we actually want to govern.
For others, technology was not the problem: it was the party’s policies that kept young voters from supporting the GOP. Indeed – and as this report will examine in great detail – there are subjects where the Millennial generation and Republican Party are not in perfect agreement.
“Not in perfect agreement” is a polite way of saying, “The young people think we’re a a bunch of mean bastards, who would kick grandma down the stairs in her wheelchair.”
If young voters primarily thought the Republican Party’s policy plan in 2012 was to prevent gay marriage and to ensure very low taxes for very rich people, the policy camp has posited, it’s understandable that a large majority voted the other way.
Translation: Yes, prevention of gay marriage and lower taxes for the rich are exactly what we Republicans want, so we need to find a way to hide that fact from young voters.
The third take on the election is that the party’s policies are largely fine and that technology is an inadequate reason for explaining Republican losses; instead, it is the party’s branding and messengers who are to blame.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor prominently espoused this position in his statement likening the GOP to a pizza company, saying that the party needs to focus on changing the “pizza box” rather than the “pizza.”
Translation: The pizza is rotten, but if we redesign the box, the public won’t notice. This also is known as “putting lipstick on a pig.”
The question for them is, what can Republicans stand for that will broaden their appeal among young voters?
Translation: What can the Republicans do to seem attractive to the young people, while continuing to be biased against the young, the old, the poor, the middle, the black, the Latino, the women and the gay?
Here are some of the recommended “solutions.”
1) Focus on the economic issues that affect young people today: education, the cost of health care, unemployment.
Talk to young people about what’s really driving the rapidly increasing costs of college tuition, what’s really standing in the way of their ability to get a great job, what’s really going to happen to their health care costs under Obamacare.
And even more importantly, there’s an opportunity to talk about what a Republican might do to fix these things
Translation: TALK about education, TALK about the cost of health care and TALK about unemployment, but reject every proposal to actually DO anything. Instead, cut the legs out from under the federal deficit spending necessary to improve education, health care and unemployment. And by all means, do not propose any plans that help the poor and middle classes.
The goal is to defeat Democrats, not to improve the lives of Americans who are not already rich.
We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer a hand to help you get there.
Translation: We love the rich and hate the rest, and we’re proud of it, but we have to fool enough of the rest to get elected.
2)Capture the brand attributes of intelligence, hard work, and responsibility. When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal stood up and said that the Republican Party cannot be viewed as the “stupid party,” he was absolutely right.
Intellegence, hard work and responsibility: That’s why our candidates were Romney, Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, Bachmann and Cain.
3) Don’t concede “caring” and “open-minded” to the left. “Caring” does not have to equal “giving out free stuff,” and “open-minded” does not have to equal “being liberal.” It’s time we try to take these attributes back.
The Republican Party can push back by promoting a narrative of economic growth and opportunity, with policies behind it that clearly show how those who are down on their luck or disadvantaged aren’t left out.
This will go a long way overall, but particularly with Latino voters, who tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.
On the “open-minded” issue, yes, we will face serious difficulty so long as the issue of gay marriage remains on the table. In the short term, the party ought to promote the diversity of thought within its ranks and make clear that we welcome healthy debate on the policy topic at hand. We should also strongly oppose the use of anti-gay rhetoric.
Translation: We old, white men must pretend to care about the disadvantaged, Latinos and gay. Ugh. We know, we know. They’re disgusting. But we need their votes.
4) Fix the debt and cut spending, but recognize that messages about “big government” are the least effective way to win this battle of ideas with young voters.
Bloated bureaucracy, waste, fraud, abuse, and overreach plague governmental solutions to problems that would have been best solved by individuals, communities, or private entities.
Focus on fixing the debt, on tackling long-term problems, on reforming institutions that are broken, absolutely. But realize that railing against “big government” isn’t the most effective way to win the hearts and minds of this generation.
Translation: Tell young people: “Don’t expect any help from the government. Let the rich individuals and corporations run America. Our hearts are with you.”
5) Go where young voters are and give them something to share. Democrats give an interview to MTV, Republicans are nowhere to be seen. Pictures appear on Facebook of Obama at a college dive bar with a young student and go viral. Obama campaign ads appear during the MTV movie awards, and supporters rush to win a dinner party invitation from Sarah Jessica Parker.
To win young voters, the Republican Party and its candidates must embrace this reality . . . having a campaign website that is seamlessly accessed from a mobile device, that encourages supporters to text in their support, that is optimized to get a message across to the girl at the gym listening to Pandora on her headphones and the guy watching clips of last night’s Daily Show on his iPad.
Translation: Show our old, white, male Republicans watching the Daily Show. That should fool the young people.
As Obamacare is implemented and headlines continue to tell the tale of increasing costs and new problems. Republicans (should) outline a vision for how they would build a better system that does contain costs and improve quality. For the moment, the advantage that Obama has on the issue is largely due to the fact that he attempted a reform plan at all.
Translation: People think we don’t have a health care plan, but our plan is simple: Be self-sufficient and take care of your own health insurance, just like the rich people do.
We need to reform Social Security and Medicare. The challenge for Republicans is that these issues are not top-of-mind for young voters. There is also not a sense that there’s a solution on the table that will truly fix things.
Translation: Privatize Social Security and Medicare so that Wall Street investors and the big insurance companies will make a fortune, while the average American will receive fewer benefits.
Student loans are enormously important to many young voters. Republicans should offer a way forward that doesn’t just propose to subsidize the problem of sky-high tuition; they should offer solutions that would help make an education more affordable in the first place. Point out Republican solutions, especially at the state level.
Translation: Let the states (which already are broke) try to pay for it. They’ll fail, and in that way, only the rich will receive an education.
While voters may say they are concerned about climate change, they rarely list it among the issues on the top of their minds. Moreover, they are not necessarily convinced that government programs are an ideal way to help the environment.
Translation: Ignore and deny the climate change problem while doing everything possible to delay any proposed solution.
It is important for the Republican Party to be clear about the difference between legal and illegal immigrants, and to also differentiate illegal immigrants from the children of illegal immigrants and how they would be affected by policies.
Translation: Pass laws to delay the citizenship process even more, thereby making all immigrants illegal. Then, ship them back to where they came from.
Abortion: The challenge is to be mindful of ways that the issue of abortion branches into other policy areas where the GOP does not enjoy the same level of support.
Translation: Young people favor access to abortion, so whenever abortion is mentioned, change the subject.
Same sex marriage: Promote the diversity of opinion on the issue and to focus on acceptance and support for gay people as separate from the definition of marriage. If a candidate is compelling enough on economic opportunity and spending, they may well be able to overcome a difference of opinion with young voters on same-sex marriage.
Translation: Babble incoherently, use double-talk, and put up good-looking candidates.
Asked which they felt best described the GOP, 41% (of respondents) said the GOP was rich while 34% said it was religious. Some 27% viewed the Republican Party as “principled” while 18% chose “hardworking” and 17% chose “entrepreneurial.”
Asked which words least described the GOP, respondents gravitated toward “open-minded” (35%), “tolerant” (25%), “caring” (22%), and “cooperative” (21%).
Translation: Yikes! They think we’re rich, religious, closed-minded, intolerant, uncaring and uncooperative hard asses. Wonder how they found us out.
Theoretically, the good news in all of this is that while the Republican Party’s negative brand is being driven heavily by a perceived lack of open-mindedness and caring, the other brand attributes that matter to young people – intelligence, a strong work-ethic, and competence – are not out of reach and are certainly up for grabs.
Translation: If we focus on intellegence (i.e. Michele Bachmann), work ethic (Sarah Palin) and competence (Herman Cain), we can make the young, the old, the poor, the middle, the black, the Latinos, the women and the gay forget we don’t give a fig about them.
And that folks is how you win an election and save America.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%
10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt
No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 