Author: Robert I. Grundfest

I am a teacher, writer, voice-over artist and rationally opinionated observer of American and international society. While my job is to entertain and engage, my purpose is always to start a conversation.

Categories
marriage equality Politics

Get The Hell Off The Beach: The GOP Tsunami Heads Towards Shore

Last week I wrote that the conservative movement would crash this year because of internal disagreements and the inability of one candidate to unify the Republican Party’s fractious components.

Then I waited to see what the next few days would bring. They were uglier than I could have imagined.

Mitt Romney came out against the rescue of GM, even though the auto giant reported record profits and a sustained increase in hiring. Not to be outdone, Rick Santorum expressed the same sentiments, which makes Romney’s stance even more vexing because Mitt’s supposed to be the business savvy candidate with a keen eye for profits and efficiency. That they both agree with each other shows just how out of touch the GOP is. What sense does it make to oppose a policy that saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, revived the tax base of scores of towns, and forestalled what might have been an even worse mortgage and foreclosure crisis in Michigan and Ohio, among other states? Being anti-Obama is one thing. Being pro-ignorant of consequences is quite another.

On the contraception front, both men made sure that they offended a wide swath of the electorate, starting with Santorum backer Foster Friess’s comments about gals using aspirin between their knees as a reliable form of birth control. We also found out that Santorum views contraception as harmful to women. The uproar was so great over this issue that Mitt Romney was forced to veer away from his economic message and attack President Obama as waging a war on religion. As it turns out, the Republicans are waging a war on reason as poll after poll showed that most Americans and most Catholics supported the president’s policy.

I understand the religious objection and think that the Obama administration could have managed the issue more delicately than they did, but in catering to the most base of their base with appeals to hatred, war, and sexism, Romney and Santorum showed that the far right demands absolute fealty to their cause. Discussion and debate is not an option.

Marriage equality was also in the news this week and the GOP was on the wrong end of that debate as well. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie vetoed a legislature-backed bill to grant equality under the law to all citizens and called for a referendum on a constitutional right. His veto will be overturned by the deadline in 2014. Bank on it.

In Maryland, the marriage equality bill will be signed by the Governor, but will probably be on the ballot this November. Opposition by African-American churches make passage difficult to gauge. Washington State also saw a bill pass, but opponents have vowed to delay or stop it.

The short-term prospects for these bills might be cloudy, but the sun will shine on marriage equality simply because it’s the right thing to do and the demographics support eventual passage of these laws in a number of states. Younger people support marriage equality (even Republicans) in far greater numbers than their older counterparts, a trend that began last year. Since death of the older generation is inevitable, so is marriage equality.

And there’s more. Santorum also questioned the President’s religious beliefs and Romney has had to protect his right flank against accusations that he’s not conservative enough. With the economy beginning to grow the GOP has to bank on things getting worse. Their new line of attack is high gas prices. Wasn’t that George Bush’s fault in 2008? No? Then how can it be Obama’s in 2012? Anybody hear of supply and demand? Anybody?

It seems as though the Republican candidates we have this year will be the ones remembered for the “Fall of Rome” for their party. They are too extreme, too conservative and on the wrong side of the generational issues. They talk about progress while making sure that we regress into a less tolerant past that they’ve convinced themselves was rosy. It’s one that blamed women who were sexually active and slammed the closet door on gays and lesbians. It was intolerant of those who decided they didn’t want to be religious. We’re not going back to that time.

We’re moving forward!

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Christian Politics right winged

The Conservative Wave Is Cresting: Next Comes the Crash

If you listen carefully, you can hear it gathering momentum, foam, vitriol, recrimination and self-serving hypocrisy. It’s the conservative wave roaring towards the beach, cresting and ready to crash. The 2012 election will be the beginning of the end for the far-right conservatives and, like the liberals who didn’t see their wave tumble in 1984, will likely lead to an even uglier aftermath. Republicans are angry now: Imagine what will happen if they lose another presidential election this year (and they will), especially if they’re able to hold on to the House and take back the Senate. So close, yet so far.

The conservative Republican era that began in 1980 and tilted the country to the right had a good run if you supported the cause, but it was never able to achieve its stated goals of severely scaling back government, ending the New Deal and Great Society programs, overturning Roe v. Wade, and ending the progressive tax structure (though they’ve come pretty close with this one). They built up the military and got a Democratic president to end welfare, passed a too-expensive Medicare prescription plan and raised taxes enough to begin to pay off the deficit, though that cost George H. W. Bush his reelection.

The era lasted because Ronald Reagan and both Bushes were able to tame the party’s conflicting passions. Reagan galvanized the economic old guard GOP while paying lip service to the religious conservatives led by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Reagan was never a religious person but he talked the talk well enough to keep the support of Christian conservatives, and really, where else were they going to go? That he was able to raise taxes, reform Social Security and work with liberal Democrats speaks to his political skills. The Bushes had a mixed record with the party’s disparate groups. George H.W. inherited Reagan’s mantle, but he was considered suspect on abortion. W. was more conservative, but still did not fight all that hard for the religious agenda.

Of course, the damage that all three presidents did with their hostility to government, marginalization of gays and women, and their Supreme Court choices will endure for many years.

The more recent history of the movement shows most conclusively that it is indeed on its wheezing last breath. The public still sees the Republican Party as the architect of the economic disaster of 2008, and as the economy improves President Obama will get the lion’s share of the rewards. More people support marriage equality than oppose it and the recent flap over contraception shows that the GOP is out of touch with the way most Americans, especially women, view both the birth control and religious issues.

That brings us to why this is the beginning of the end.

The far right wing of the Republican Party is driving the party’s agenda and there’s not one candidate who’s shown they can corral the competing factions. Conservative reaction to Mitt Romney ranges from suspect to hostile and none of the other candidates can claim the right’s support. Yet. That might change as Rick Santorum showed in winning three non-binding primaries last week.

If anything, the nomination battle has proven that the movement has splintered along economic, social and religious lines. Many of the proposals we’ve heard are meant to appeal to the far fringe Tea Party wing of the party (Ron Paul) or to the religious conservatives (Santorum and Gingrich). Romney’s attempts to appeal to the center while throwing the right some scraps on abortion and taxes have so far fallen short of gaining wide acceptance.

None of the candidates would take the deal that offered $10 in budget cuts for $1 in tax increases. Some in the party still question President Obama’s citizenship and religion, and the candidates accuse him of the most outlandish things: anti-religion, creating a communist state, forsaking Israel, and wanting Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

It’s an extreme agenda to say the least, and it will lead to the GOP’s crash. History shows that when you lose the middle of your constituency, you lose your mandate to govern. The Republican Party is on that path.

My sense is that this will all be exposed during the general election campaign and, combined with an improving economy, will result in Obama’s reelection. The 2010 Congressional elections resulted in redistricting that solidified the Republican’s majorities in the House, though Tea Party seats are certainly up for grabs in many districts, and the Democrats have to defend too many Senate seats to count on continued control of that chamber. Conservatives will still hold sway on many issues, but the wave is over. The United States won’t become more liberal, but it will become less conservative and less extreme. Most Republicans probably don’t see this trend coming, and it’s already too late to stop it.

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Categories
Mitt Romney Politics Republican Rick Santorum

The Campfire After Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri: Santorum Sweeps! Mitt to be Nominee!

And the headlines will be breathless. Rick Santorum hit the trifecta last night winning all three states and setting himself up as the chief conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. Which is like being the first raccoon to cross the Interstate before the semi barrels by going 80 mph, good buddy.

Never mind that no delegates were at stake in any of the states. It’s all symbolic for the conservatives as they attempt to pull Romney so far to the right that he’ll have to lean just to stand up straight.

In the end, it won’t matter. Mitt will be the nominee, but he’ll be damaged and forced to say even more things that he doesn’t believe in order to mollify the conservatives. The Democrats are trying hard to give him an issue over religious groups forced to cover birth control. I would say this was a winning issue, but somehow, Mitch McConnell lecturing the country about religion and the pill is probably the best thing to happen to reproductive rights in a long time.

That sound you just heard? It’s just Tim Pawlenty baying at the moon. Move along citizens.

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Politics

Polling Report: Special Mitt-Will-Be-the-Nominee-Edition

Since I didn’t post a Polling Report for Nevada, my public wanted to know if there was a problem, or if I was indeed in good health. All is well. I’ve just been saying for a while that Mitt will be the nominee in posts both recent and past, and there aren’t too many other ways to say it. Well, I did say it in December, but that’s the last time I’m going to remind anyone. The upshot is that I will continue to write feverishly about the campaign, but not on a primary-by-primary basis. Unless Mitt gets upset. Which he won’t.

So for Nevada, I’m going to invoke the possibly unconstitutional religious-but-maybe-I-don’t-have-to-be-religious excuse. Romney won the caucus. ‘Nuff said.

As for Tuesday’s contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, the tune hasn’t changed. I expect that Romney will win two out of three solidly, with a possible loss in Minnesota to Santorum, who is ahead in the latest polls. I’ll even go out on a limb and say that Romney will sweep them all. And he’ll keep on winning, but maybe not in Georgia because that’s Newt’s home state, and he – Romney – would be the Republican nominee.

Then Barack Obama will beat him like a linty rug in November.

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Newt Gingrich Politics

Sunshine State Recap: Mitt In A Walk

At least it was quick and fairly painless. Not for Newt, but for the rest of us who need to move on to something important like Friday’s jobs numbers or the Super Bowl.

How’d I do? Again, not bad. My prediction is first, then the actual.

Romney    43%              46%

Gingrich    31%              32%

Santorum  14%              13%

Paul           11%                7%

I thought Paul would do better, but at this point we’re beyond the possible phase of the race and have entered the Nomination Zone. Boutique candidates need not apply

The other issue is this continued talk of the motivated Republican voter. Florida GOP officials had said that they were looking for north of 2 million primary voters, and it looks as though they fell a bit short. So much for the enthusiasm gap. Democrats are becoming more energized and could match Republican participation in the fall.

Newt says he’s staying in the race. We’ll see.

Will conservatives flock to Santorum as the conservative du jour? I’m thinking not. Mitt is in a commanding position and will be the nominee. The rest of the campaign will measure how much he’s been damaged by the infighting and how much that will affect his chances against Obama.

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Categories
Elections Politics

Polling Report: Special Florida Edition

I thought this one might be more fun, but Mitt’s got Florida all sewn up. It will be the first non-New England state he’ll have won so far, and if he gets over 40% (he will) he can claim a sizable mandate for the nomination. Newt is sounding too screechy these days, and his call for a moon shot was one of those over-the-top moments we came to expect from Herman Cain or Rick Perry.

Here are the latest RealClearPolitics numbers. Clearly, they show Romney running away with the Sunshine State. He’s feeling good, cracking jokes and generally loosening up on the hustings. If he can keep that up, he might actually be able to change the perception many people have of him as a tightly wound button-down candidate. The only other drama I can summon from this race is that perhaps the conservatives will abandon Newt as their standard-bearer in favor of Rick Santorum. That might take time to play out. Ron Paul is, well, Ron Paul.

The prediction:

Romney    43%

Gingrich    31%

Santorum  14%

Paul          11%

Romney gets big headlines, more endorsements and money for his PAC. Gingrich says he’s going to stay in the race, but I can see him not making it to Super Tuesday in March. Santorum leapfrogs over Newt into second place as more conservatives see him as the last best forlorn hope. Paul is, well, Paul.

That wailing sound you hear in the distance is Tim Pawlenty.

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Politics

Mitt To GOP: You Can’t Always Want What You Get

But if you try sometimes, you might find…

Make no mistake about the Florida primary and the race for the Republican nomination. It’s Mitt Romney’s to have and to hold, ’til November 6 tears it asunder. The press, both virtual and paper-based, will continue to spin out stories showing that Newt still has some time to close the gap, or about how the conservative base will rally around Newt, and if he falters they’ll move on to Rick Santorum, or how Mitch Daniels will be recruited to run a write-in or otherwise rogue campaign for those right-wingers with buyer’s remorse.

As the famous saying about history goes, it’s all bunk.

Romney is pulling a reverse Newt in Florida, coming from 9 points down after South Carolina to now lead by 9 in the latest polls (I’ll be writing a Polling Report for Florida on Tuesday morning, but if you want a summary, you just got it).

The key to Romney’s rise is the real story both for Florida and for what it bodes in the general election. It was not based on some new policy, or a burst of endorsements (in fact, Florida Governor Rick Scott hasn’t endorsed anyone), or new-found respect in the blogosphere. It is based on virulently negative advertising and a debate performance that stressed attacks over substance.

That’s it. Romney still has the same problems with his wealth, Bain Capital, his shifting stances on most issues and an inability to convince conservatives that he’s one of them. But when he came out swinging last week attacking Gingrich’s record, all of a sudden he became a rock star. His poll numbers rose. Newt became angry and lost his debating edge. GOP insiders began to turn on Newt. Which prompted this response saying that the GOP elites don’t get it. Which also prompted Sarah Palin to use “Stalin-esque rewriting of history” correctly for grammar’s sake, but totally wrong historically. In short, most of his party doesn’t want Mitt to be the nominee, and that’s a huge problem. They might warm up to him as the year progresses, but that’s hardly a recipe for the vaunted Republican enthusiasm machine, which is coughing fumes at the moment.

The Republican Party is at war with itself. It will nominate a moderately conservative former governor who shares some of the right’s disdain for common sense with a practicality born of his wealth and place in society. This will drive the hard-rightists crazy for the next 9 months and could fatally damage Mitt in the general election. But if his debate performances will be the bellwether for his campaign, he’s rolling some mighty large dice. President Obama will have time to prepare and counter all of Mitt’s arguments, and can appear as the steady leader behind an improving economy. Romney will have to be careful not to sound angry.

In the meantime, Newt says he’s not going to drop out of the race. That will mean more negative ads and contentious debates. And more damage to the eventual nominee.

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Categories
Politics State of the Union address weekly address

State of the Union – Let The Games Begin!

State Of The Union 2012

Let the games begin. President Obama made a forceful, compelling case for a balance of free market and governmental reforms on a wide range of issues, and defended his record on foreign policy and an improving economy. He called out both parties for inaction, and reminded us that one party’s class warfare is another’s common sense. He also sounded themes that will be part of his reelection campaign, such as tax cuts for businesses and investment in future technologies.

His call for fairness was in all of the previews, and evidently, that’s a dirty word among the Republican leadership. Tax fairness? Socialism. Economic fairness? Socialism. Fair access to social institutions, education, and job training? Socialism.

Ahead of the speech, Mitt Romney said of the economy that, “In a normal recovery under strong leadership, it could now be full of workers.” The problem is that this isn’t a normal recession, it’s a Republican-caused recession. And when the GOP screws the economy, the economy doesn’t walk right for years. Further, research has suggested that the economy would have been worse off under Republican policies and fewer people would have been employed. Electing either Romney or Gingrich would mean more tax cuts for the wealthy, fewer services, no stimulus and worsening infrastructure throughout the country (except for a very high wall on the Mexican border).

So what exactly is the GOP for? The right to make millions and to pay a lower tax rate because you’re not earning wages? Most working and middle class people earn only wages. The right to pay for a better education because you have money? Most working and middle class people can’t pay or don’t want to go into debt to the tune of $200,000 dollars. The right to health care only if you can pay shockingly high premiums, don’t care about preexisting conditions, or don’t take your medicine because the doughnut hole would cost you thousands? Running against the health care reform law might be good politics, but repeal would set us back decades

After months of listening to the radical right bloviate about the threat that gay marriage, financial and health reform, legal and illegal immigrants, and Sharia law presents to our nation, it’s about time that we heard some actual policies that make sense and serve the interests of actual citizens. And that’s exactly what we heard.

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Newt Gingrich Politics South Carolina

South Carolina Saturday Night After-Party: What Happened?

Newt pulled the upset, and the exit polling shows him with strength among conservatives, those concerned with electability, and women. Of course, that last demographic will get the most talk in light of Newt’s affection for more than one partner at a time, but I guess the desire to defeat President Obama outweighs all other desires combined. It was a solid win, and by an even larger margin than I thought. The results:

Prediction          Actual

Gingrich        36%               40%

Romney        34%               28%

Paul              15%               13%

Santorum      14%               17%

Obviously I missed out on Santorum and the margin, but Gingrich did what he needed to do. The debate performances and his robust conservatism won in a very conservative state. Now he can go on to Florida and see if he can win over the conservatives there. My guess is that he can. And if he wins Florida, then Romney’s stock will have taken a Great Recession-type hit.

Santorum says he won’t quit the race at this point. He gave it his all, but is clearly not the conservative voter’s choice and he would only make it easier for Romney in the Sunshine State. Paul has his reliable 15%, but is now more marginalized than ever.

At this point, all of the candidates have been vetted. What’s left will be an expensive, potentially nasty fight, although Mitt has to be careful because he was seen as running the most unfair race in South Carolina. I’m not sure what unfair means, but maybe Newt’s charge against negative ads has something to do with it.

On to Florida, where voters have already been casting ballots. I imagine that after yesterday, Newt will see a surge of support.

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Elections Newt Gingrich Politics South Carolina

Polling Report: Special South Carolina Edition

What a week this has been for the GOP Pack o’ Presidential Potentials. We started out with Mitt Romney strolling leisurely toward the nomination with a big lead, and today finds the contenders in an absolute dogfight (but will the dog hunt?).

Newt Gingrich’s well-received performance in this week’s debates has given him a new life. Rick Santorum can now claim to have won the Iowa caucuses. Rick Perry is now free to take Texas out of the union if he so desires. And Romney? He’s hit a bit of a rough patch on the way to the nomination, which I still think he’ll win. It just might take a bit longer for him to claim it.

The latest RealClearPolitics polling average, including the latest PPP tracking poll, has Newt surging to the top of the pile, which spells real trouble for Romney. Paul will win his 15%, and despite an endorsement from many conservatives, Rick Santorum will be lucky to approach 15%, as some of his voters move to Newt. With Rick Perry out of the race, the real question is where do his supporters go. Again, I’m thinking Newt.

South Carolina is now critical for Romney. I said after New Hampshire that he could end the whole race with a showing above 40% and could claim inevitability with more than 30% in SC. Now, that’s not necessarily the case. Mitt could get 30% and lose to Gingrich, or only win by 1 or 2 points. That would be a win, but he needs to improve, not regress. If he loses, or loses steam, Florida would be in play. Santorum could drop out, with his voters moving in larger numbers to Newt. Conservatives would be emboldened. Democrats would jump for joy.

My predictions: An Upset Special

Gingrich        36%

Romney        34%

Paul              15%

Santorum      14%

Santorum drops out. The race in Florida tightens. Gingrich and Romney duke it out through Super Tuesday in March. More GOP moderates publicly endorse Romney in order to save the party. Chris Christie gets even more bombastic in his support for Mitt (is that possible? healthy?). You join in here at ezkool, at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and follow me on Twitter @rigrundfest.

Isn’t this fun?

Categories
Politics teachers

Education Reform: Baseball Bats to Bad Data

Remember when Joe Clark was the face of educational reform? The former Principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ patrolled the hallways of his out-of-control institution in the 1980s with only a bullhorn and a baseball bat, fighting poverty, gangs, crime and under-performing students as the face of urban education. His tactics were crude and anti-education, but the fact that he was a hero to many spoke volumes about the way in which people saw the problems in our schools.

Today, the people with the bullhorns and the weapons are politicians and business owners who believe that the best way to cure the ills of public schools that have educated the freest, most productive people who’ve ever lived on this planet, is to make our schools just like the entities that led the way towards job outsourcing, unconscionable home loan processes, and a laser-like focus on stock prices that have almost bankrupted the economy.

Joe Clark’s sounding mighty effective right now.

I can understand how many politicians view the public schools. When your political ideology glorifies competition above cooperation and the bottom economic line over investment in the future, you’re going to behave this way.  Of course, it’s easier if you have little contact with the public schools, either becuase you didn’t attend or you’ve decided that even in the great neighborhood that you live, a private school is better. Even the progressive Clintons sent their daughter to a private school. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were the last White House residents to put their money where their mouths were. Just so you don’t think I’m contradicting myself too much, I do believe firmly in the right of parents to make decisions in the best interest of their children. Those choices, though, have consequences when you are an elected official with direct influence on public schools.

The main point, though, is that the people pushing for changes in schools now have little, if any, experience working in education and are deliberately excluding those who do.

Here in New Jersey, the person in charge of the program to ensure teacher quality has not one minute of experience in the classroom. Is classroom experience absolutely necessary in order for someone to create a program that will assess teachers? I would say yes. Everyone who works in schools or education should have at least 5 years of teaching experience and preferably even more. How else will you know the pressures and challenges that teachers face on a day-to-day basis? How will you know how to evaluate teachers of students with varying learning styles, academic strengths and weaknesses, and social problems? How will you see the effects that more testing has on the curriculum? Reading articles and interviewing stakeholders (well, most of them) is fine, but there’s something about direct experience that warms the souls of those who will be evaluated. Maybe it’s that we’ll see you as one of us. With some credibility. On education.

That won’t happen. And that’s the point. Without experience, all someone can do is apply the research on teacher evaluation, which is certainly not conclusive, and make assumptions. Governor Christie has not consulted public school teachers about his proposed plans not because he has legitimate differences with the teacher’s union, NJEA, over curricular matters, but because he wants to destroy the union. He isn’t interested in what public school teachers have to say about the issues because they might bring in valid but contradictory evidence that he would be responsible for addressing. His is a political argument, not an educational one. That’s why most teacher oppose them, and him.

But what about merit pay, you say? Don’t teachers want more money? In Washington, D.C., some teachers are earning up to $20,000 extra per year because they’ve been labeled “highly effective” by their supervisors. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a similar system of merit pay for the city’s teachers. So why do many teachers oppose it (listen to the podcast)?

There are many reasons.

Competition, while a highly prized skill in business, works against the interests of schools. teachers need to cooperate with each other in order to educate students. They share lesson plans, teaching strategies and materials. If you force them to compete for money, or tell them that they are competing against other 4th grade teachers for a bonus, it destroys the trust that’s built up between those educators.

It also begs the question of where this extra money is going to come from. Budgets are already tight and spending is capped at 2% in New Jersey. If more teachers earn bonuses than the district has budgeted for, then what happens? Are raises for other teachers sacrificed?

There is also no reliable evidence that shows merit pay for teachers results in better teaching, even if you use the false argument that teachers can be evaluated based on student standardized test scores.

Merit pay is not the only issue that will harm public schools. Among the other reforms, promoting Charter schools is probably the most prominent. Charter schools do have their place as laboratories for innovative programs, but there is no reliable evidence to show that Charters perform better than public schools. They might also be harmful to a district because charters are also publicly funded and take money away from local schools. In the New Jersey suburbs, the blow-back has already begun.

The governor’s educational reform program is on hiatus at this point, but he is going to make it a priority for this year, starting with today’s State of the State Address. If he is serious about making our schools better, he’s going to have to include teachers in the conversation.

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Categories
Mitt Romney Politics Republican Rick Santorum United States

It’s Capital, Not Capitalism

Mitt Romney has said on the campaign trail that an attack on him is an attack on capitalism. Aside from being a self-serving, disingenuous, mendacious statement (which is enough, don’t you think?), it also shows how shallow and dangerous the Republican party has become.

Romney’s career at Bain Capital is a touchstone for his presidential aspirations, and his success at convincing American voters that it makes him qualified to be president will decide whether he wins in November. As of this moment, I would say that this particular venture is off to a rocky start.

Polling for President Obama’s PAC is showing that anti-Bain rhetoric is a winning issue for him. Rick Santorum is saying that Romney can’t win based on his Bain experience. Rick Perry called out Bain as “vulture capitalism” (and this is officially the last time that anything Rick Perry says will be quoted in the Farmer blog). Newt wants Romney to stop the “pious baloney.” The attacks have continued at such a pace that conservatives are rushing to defend Mitt and capitalism itself.

They must really be worried. After all, the GOP has fought for the last year to defund social services such as Planned Parenthood, enact cuts to education, redesign Medicare so seniors will actually have to pay more, and demonize people who are on unemployment benefits as lazy. Their candidates want to deny law-abiding children of illegal immigrants a shot at the American Dream, obliterate the Federal Reserve, go back into Iraq, make abortion illegal even in cases of rape or incest, oppose full civil rights for gays, keep taxes low on the wealthy so the rest of us have to make do with less, and allow banks and financial institutions to continue to do what got us into this recession in the first place.

But don’t mess with capitalism, mofo.

As usual, they have it all wrong. The questions about Bain Capital and venture capitalism are not about the future of our financial system. The problem is the function of that type of business in the American system. Venture firms do play some positive roles in the economy by either rescuing companies that might otherwise go out of business or by scooping up bargains due to bankruptcies. The makers of Twinkies recently went back into bankruptcy for the second time and I, for one, would like some venture firm to resuscitate it.

The negatives, though, are compelling. These firms have a reputation for chopping up companies into parts and selling them off to make money, and as a result people get laid off and towns suffer. They are seen as paper-pushers whose only concern is for profits and bonuses, not for actually building something. And they’re seen as being cold, calculating, number-crunching entities that don’t care about the effects of their work, only the results. They are ruthless in their Darwinian cruelty, but criticism of their tactics is about capital, not capitalism. Has Bain engaged in this type of behavior? Yes, yes, and yes.

The Republican Party has bet its success on a combination of Cold War-era baiting and big lies, as if their candidates are the only ones who can fix the financial problems created by their ideology. In the end, that strategy will fail because it ignores the fact that more people are not siding with the wealthy (though they don’t always blame them for the inequality). Romney’s defense of capitalism is laudable, but by aligning himself with the 1%, he’s left himself open to the withering attacks not only from his right flank, but from a full frontal assault that’s coming from Obama and the Democrats.

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