Getting past the anti-tax rhetoric

A May 2005 story in Governing magazine outlines how an increasing number of Republican governors are breaking anti-tax pledges. Surprisingly, the story said, most find breaking pledges don't significantly hurt their political careers:

"But in the past few years, as states have faced greater financial strains, quite a few prominent Republican lawmakers have broken ranks to support tax increases they considered necessary to deal with pressing fiscal problems. In addition to [Colorado Gov. Bill ] Owens, several Republican governors in the past two years — including Alabama’s Bob Riley, Georgia’s Sonny Perdue, Idaho’s Dirk Kempthorne, Kentucky’s Ernie Fletcher, Nevada’s Kenny Guinn and Ohio’s Bob Taft — have rejected their anti-tax campaign promises and supported increased revenue and spending. In 2004, according to ATR [Americans for Tax Reform], about 9 percent of incumbent pledge- signers among state legislators broke their pledges."

Maybe not the best buy

Sounds like a new book on the new, new left might not be worth fiddling with, according to a review in The New Republic. Christopher Hayes writes that Steven Malanga's book, The New New Left: How American Politics Works Today, doesn't really work because it doesn't talk about how American politics works. Instead it's a series of broadsides:

"But despite Malanaga's acid contempt for anyone he disagrees with (whom he never, by the way, actually takes the time to interview) he is onto something. There is a new kind of urban-progressive coalition that has won significant victories in the past decade or so, and The New New Left is useful largely because it lays out the rhetorical strategy that right-wingers are likely to use to try to defeat it."

Lappe: Frame on community, not family

The new online issue of Utne magazine includes a reprint of a story by Frances More Lappe on how progressives need to reframe issues in terms of stronger community instead of family, as argued by political linguist George Lakoff (Don't Think of an Elephant.) Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, argues that in wartime, reframing issues by answering right-wing rhetoric in terms of softer family metaphors will cause progressives to keep losing.

"A 'strong communities' frame might require progressives to stop, for example, talking about the 'environment,' which non-progressives can hear as a 'soft' distraction in war time, and frame ecological challenges as threats 'to safe air and water and food.'"

CBPP: Southern states at risk on budgets

A report issued last week by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that most Southern states face future budget problems because of structural weaknesses in their tax systems.

Most at-risk states included Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee, all of which scored 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale (with 10 being most at risk). Other scores: Alabama (8), Georgia (8), Kentucky (8), Mississippi (7), Virginia (7), North Carolina (6) and Louisiana (5). Full report.

"A prime cause of structural deficits is that most states have failed to respond to the economy’s shift from goods to services, which make up a growing share of all economic activity. That shift has cut into state sales tax revenues, since most states do not tax services. The rapid growth in Internet purchases is also hurting sales tax revenues, since states generally cannot collect taxes on these purchases.

"State income taxes have weakened in recent decades as well. Corporate income tax revenues have shrunk by nearly half as a share of total state revenues over the past two decades, as a result of obsolete state corporate tax policies and corporations’ increasingly aggressive tax-avoidance schemes."

Gergen: Be tolerant, not extreme

In a May 23 column in U.S. News & World Report, David Gergen explores the two national conversations that are going on in the country to the exclusion of each other. In one, conservatives of faith are "flowing into" politics, he says. In the other are secularists who want to keep religion out of politics. Both, he says, need to try to understand the other, be tolerant and keep from extremism:

"On the surface, there is nothing to fear from an infusion of people of faith into our politics; indeed, they should be welcomed. After all, people of strong faith helped to create some of our noblest causes, including the abolitionist movement in the 19th century and the civil rights movement of the 20th. Just because many of today's most ardent churchgoers come from the right is no excuse for people on the left to now say that religion must be kept out of politics. A people's values are inevitably rooted in its spiritual beliefs.....But we do have reason to say a firm, aggressive "No" to extremists on either side who try to impose their religious--or secular--beliefs upon the rest of us."

Vilsack interview: Reframe the debate

In a new Salon interview, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack suggests Democrats keep losing because they don't take advantage of language. They need, the oft-mentioned 2008 presidential candidate says, to reframe the debate:

"Democrats have spent all of their time and energy on policies and programs that impact and affect people's lives. Republicans have spent all of their time on ideas -- how to couch those ideas, frame those ideas, and communicate those ideas....In my view, our language has to be reframed in the context of the American promise -- the concept I grew up with in which each generation believed it had a responsibility to the succeeding generation to make life better. It's the reason why my folks sacrificed to make sure I had a college education, why people served in the armed forces and came back and built a strong and vibrant economy, then sacrificed to make sure that their children had a better life."

Looking for new tax system for NC

The opinion section of The Charlotte Observer this week is running a series of perspectives on how the state can develop a tax plan for the 21st Century. Among the thoughts:

Sunday: In an introduction to the editorial series, Observer editorial writer Ed Williams makes the case that North Carolina's tax structure is outdated and needs to be upgraded to be relevant in the 21st Century. Notes Williams:

Our aim is to generate a conversation about the need for tax modernization that will inform the public and encourage policy makers to act.

We'll publish analyses of North Carolina's tax structure in comparison to other states', plus interviews with experts and essays from scholars, public policy wonks and political leaders about what the problems are and how to solve them. We'll offer our editorial board's recommendations.

This is a serious long-term problem for our state. Solving it requires the attention of serious people. Our goal is to focus that attention and push for action.

Also Sunday: Comparing N.C.'s taxes nationally, by The Tax Foundation

Tuesday: Keep taxes simple, by John Hood of the conservative John Locke Foundation.

Wednesday: Modernize the state's tax code and generate stability through equity, by Elaine Mejia of the N.C. Budget and Tax Center

Thursday: Expand the revenue base to capture taxes from new sources, by Ron Aycock, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners.

Friday's commentary will be by an N.C. State professor on remaking income, sales, property and gas taxes. More than likely, you can link to it Friday by clicking here.

Georgia coast could support wind farm

Researchers at Georgia Tech say winds off the Savannah, Ga., coast could support a wind farm to generate electricity, according to a story in the Florida Times Union. Such a farm in Ireland generates enough electricity to power 16,000 homes.

"We have shown with credible data that there are good wind resources that deserve further study," said Sam Shelton, director of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Initiative. "They could produce electricity at a comparable rate to natural gas."

More research into renewable energy possibilities could benefit the South ... and progressive Southern candidates.

Doing the math

In today's Los Angeles Times, columnist Ronald Brownstein writes on how demographics are changing the electoral math.
Brownstein writes, "[N]ew long-term population projections from the Census Bureau show that anyone who believes Democrats can consistently win the White House without puncturing the Republican dominance across the South is just whistling Dixie. The census projections present Democrats with an ominous equation: the South is growing in electoral clout even as the Republican hold on the region solidifies."
Brownstein cites research by Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey:

In 2000 and 2004, Bush won all 11 states of the old Confederacy, plus Oklahoma and Kentucky. In those two elections it netted him 168 electoral college votes. That meant Democrats had to win about 73% of the remaining votes to secure a majority — a hurdle they found a little too high each time.
Frey projects that those 13 Southern states would cast 173 electoral college votes after 2010, and account for 186 after the 2030 census. If Republicans can still sweep the South at that point, Democrats would need to win a daunting 77% of the remaining votes to construct a majority.

Read the whole column here.

NC trying to address climate change

A movement is building in North Carolina to address climate change now, according to the cover story of the current issue of The (NC) Independent Weekly. More:

But amid the gloomy climate predictions shines a ray of hope. Because the Bush administration has refused to take regulatory action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the responsibility has fallen to the states--and in recent years a movement to stabilize the climate through more environmentally sustainable policies has gained momentum in North Carolina. Involving scientists, environmental organizations and the faith community, the movement succeeded this year in getting groundbreaking global warming legislation introduced at the General Assembly.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in the feature story is a sidebar story that shines light on the way various groups are working together to build a sustainable North Carolina.

Simpkins: Get to the heart of reconciliation

The Center for a Better South's John Simpkins looks deeply into a statement made earlier this week by S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who admitted that it likely would be awhile before South Carolinians elected a statewide black candidate.

Sanford's prescription -- for lawmakers to pass his restructuring act -- is politically convenient but is "like prescribing pain medicine to a heart patient who really needs an invasive cardiologist," Simpkins says in an op-ed in today's issue of The (Columbia, S.C.) State. "The underlying condition remains unresolved." More:

"There is deafening silence on this issue from our elected officials who profess to be reformers, independent thinkers and people of faith. Too much can be lost politically from engaging in a conversation about the volatile subject of race.

"However, a state that remains politically and economically closed to one-third of its population can never hope to be truly competitive on any meaningful level.

"The absence of any real attempt at racial reconciliation in a state that professes to be populated with “values voters” is disappointing. South Carolinians of all races live amongst each other, and a heroic few have demonstrated the capacity to reach beyond their racial circumstances to build meaningful relationships with those in other communities. Still, we dwell collectively in soul-killing apartness. We really don’t know each other."

Our dirty air

A new report from the Environmental Integrity Project finds:

The top 50 among the nation’s 359 largest power plants generate as little as 14 percent of the electric power – but account for a disproportionately large share of pollution emissions across four major categories.

Not surprisingly, power-generating plants in the South are some of the worst polluters. Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas are some of the states with the biggest problems.

South losing battle against AIDS, STDs

Despite efforts to curb the rate of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases, rates remain high in six Southern states, according to the Associated Press:

AIDS cases rose 27 percent for six Southern states - Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - between 2000 and 2002. [Duke University health policy expert Kate] Whetten said such cases only rose by 11 percent during the same period in the entire Midwest. A separate study found that North Carolina AIDS rates increased by 36 percent between 2001 and 2003.

"These six states are in a lot of trouble," Whetten said. "You're better off being born in Costa Rica or some South American countries than in Durham, N.C."

In addition, the nation's highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea remain in Southeastern states, many of which are plagued with high poverty levels, poor health care resources and low levels of health insurance coverage.

SC governor's race comments draw fire

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford said he didn't see a black candidate being elected statewide "in the foreseeable future," according to published reports of a televised interview featuring the governor. Sanford added, however, the situation was tragic and could be remedied by gubernatorial appointments and a restructured state government, which he is pushing for.

Critics say the Republican governor injected racial politics into his attempt to pass a stalled restructuring bill.

"We've got to give these kids the idea that the color of their skin is not going to matter, but rather the content of their character is going to matter," Rep. Fletcher Smith, D-Greenville, told The Greenville News.

Other black Democrats said they couldn't fault Sanford with being honest because they thought the only way an African-American leader would get a top statewide job was through gubernatorial appointment. More: Associated Press.

Shipp: Kitchen table issues are key

Georgia political columnist Bill Shipp writes today in the Athens Banner-Herald that state Democrats shouldn't fall into a trap of pushing to renew the federal Voting Rights Act because it would play into the hands of Republicans.

"Screaming at the Republicans on the voter ID issue will have one result: reaffirmation that the Georgia Democratic Party is the party of blacks - and no one else. Voter ID is a racial issue. So is the budding campaign to renew the federal Voting Rights Act.

"Of course, access to the ballot without fear of intimidation or restraint is important. It was the centerpiece of the civil rights struggle 40 years ago. Protecting minority voting rights remains essential to protecting democracy. However, one can already sense some leading Georgia Democrats plan to use voting rights in the 2006 election as a marquee campaign plank to galvanize black voters. That would be a dumb move. The plan may work in a Democratic primary, but it is a candidate killer in a state general election dominated by white independents and Republicans."

Instead, they should campaign on "meat and potato" issues to energize voters:

"Those middle-class matters are more pressing than ever. Addressing health care, shoring up the economy, cutting middle-class taxes and restoring dedication to educational improvement - those are only a few basic items the Democrats (and Republicans) ought to address. The Republican record of helping working-class Georgians in the past three years has been dismal."

Lamott: God doesn't take sides

Writer Anne Lamott outlines why God doesn't take sides in an April 27 essay in Salon. Essentially she says no one can appropriate God, even thought it might seem that the religions right have done so.

"A whole lot of us believers, of all different religions, are ready to turn back the tide of madness by walking together, in both the dark and the light -- in other words, through life -- registering voters as we go, and keeping the faith."

Wallis: Learn how to talk about religion

In a May 2 article in Salon, progressive evangelical Jim Wallis describes how to to deal with regressive use of religion: have Democrats and progressives attract moderate voters:

"It's so transparent when somebody is being inauthentic about religion," Wallis says. "There are millions and millions of moderate evangelicals and moderate Catholics who are simply not in the pocket of the religious right. And yet Democrats haven't got a clue as to how to speak to them. They have no idea! And Kerry gave them nothing to vote for."