Bigger Tent

After almost a year of discussion about domestic politics and domestic policy in the United States why is the Bigger Tent Podcast turning now to foreign policy and foreign affairs? The biggest reason can be summed up in a word: Afghanistan. Not since we left Vietnam in a similar way has our end to involvement in a foreign country drawn so much attention or scorn. Believe me, we see how no win it was when we didn't take a negotiated surrender offered by the Taliban 3 MONTHS after we started going after them. A monumental mistake we are paying dearly for today. The second reason is hinted at in our title today. It used to be said the politics ends at the water's edge meaning we will close ranks as Americans when it comes to foreign affairs and remain unified in our words and actions. The truth is THAT truth has not been real for a very long time - certainly not since the Vietnam War.  It IS a truism that politics is not something we should shrink from or run from because its what those untrustworthy politicians do. Politics is just human interaction to both get along and get what you want or need. Simple as that. Politics is in our family life, in our work, in our sports and in our religion. Wherever there are people, you will find politics. So instead of obsessing over the current question: How did this happen? I'd much prefer: Where do we go from here?   We need to have a discussion about our place in the family of nations. Are we going to participate or are we going to be the rich, aloof uncle that never comes to any family functions. The world has been shrinking for a hundred years and it hasn't stopped yet. We realized what goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq and other far flung parts of the globe can directly affect our lives here. It's not changing accept that its becoming more and more true every day. So if we're "in it to win it" what does that mean. How should we act to have the greatest security and freedom and prosperity possible? I have come up with 10 or so principles that if executed well would serve us well as our framework to guide us now and in the near future. Some of these guiding principles come from experience and have been tested. But of course some will say they are outdated and unworkable. THAT is a debate we need to have.  Others are about new subjects that are in our field of vision now due to technology. For example, there are weapons now more than ever that require no human lives (for the attacker) being risked. Drones are here and we need to decide if we should use more or less of them. Most new technology gets incorporated into the military if it can hurt the other side. But not  always. In WWI biological weapons were tried and the general consensus was this was a bad idea for so many reasons. Then there is cyber warefare.  I happen to think this should be high on our radar as a means to force solutions when diplomacy fails and we'd rather not kill in order to make our point. The United States is number one in cyber capabilities, but will we remain there. Then there are tremendous doctrines such as Reagan's Peace Thru Strength and The Powell Doctrine that has gone in and out of favor since the 1980s.  Join us as we tackle these topics and more over this episode and the next Bigger Tent Podcast. 

It is a study unto itself the way in which politics has informed people's views and words and actions regarding the Covid-19 Pandemic. Literally dozens if not hundreds of academics have and are studying various aspects of the intense politics of the Pandemic. The media has opinions. Politicians have opinions. Voters have opinions. Heck The Bigger Tent Podcast always has opinions! So after researching the mountain of newly minted literature on the subject, distilled here are a few thoughts on the subject.  For a long time Republicans have been skeptical of science and government and being told what to do. All of these suspicious forces converged with the Pandemic causing a vomiting of consternation and distrust and rejection of what most of the rest considered good advice from well-meaning people in positions of authority and expertise to make a difficult situation better. Vaccines are not new. George Washington had his men take the small pox vaccine in 1777. Vaccine mandates are not new. We have had them since the civil war. But neither are anti-vaxxers new.  What is new is the size of the resistance to what the health and science community are advising and most importantly, the placement of a true believer in conspiracies and disruption and a wholesale lack of norms. Donald Trump has been the X Factor giving cover and leadership to views that in every earlier iteration in our history have been a tiny minority and generally dismissed or ridiculed by the majority.  They used to say you can have your own  opinion, but you can't have your own facts. The anti-science/anti-fax/anti-mask/anti-vax crowd are proving otherwise. They used to say facts are stubborn things, but this new sizable crowd is perhaps even more stubborn in the face of harsh realities and some very cold, hard facts.  The more people get sick, the more they resist. The more people die, the more they minimize the risk and the threat. But the new Covid politics is more than facts. There's plenty of anger. For more than a year we heard the anger of folks refusing to believe the virus was that dangerous. We've all heard and seen that anger on the news and on social media and live and in person. But now there's a new anger - from the rule followers and believers in science. They have worn their mask and taken the vaccine. Now they are being denied their reward of no more masking  and no more to fear by those who refuse to gain immunity by getting a vaccine. They are seeing with the Delta variant and the 4,000 other variations going around that as long as the pandemic continues and is not snuffed out, it will only take one variant to mutate that is resistant to the vaccines we have, and we will be starting all over again.  In fact, it is on rich nations like the United States to take the lead to see that the world is inoculated and made safe and free of further mutations and variations of the virus. This is the humanitarian approach and it is also in our interest to wipe it out. As Mona Charen has written it is in our DNA to do this; to do well and do good at the same time. An nod to those before us who did similarly (i.e. the Marshall Plan, etc.) and those who will come after us who need to see and feel the generous American Spirit modeled for them that they may do the same someday for someone in need. 

Inflation has become a historical term. We pretty much know what it is, but its been a long time since we've seen the real thing. Somewhat like those who lived through the Great Depression and were forever changed by it, many remember the days, weeks, months and years that inflation  raged. Its seeds were sown by mostly Democrats in the 1960s with the promise of great government giving us  a Great Society.  And then there was the Vietnam War. Not speaking of the human tragedy of Vietnam, but about the immense cost to the Treasury piggybacking the expansion of government seeking a Great Society.  But the new Nixon Administration could have killed the inflation baby in its crib, but chose to nurse it and feed it until it was a monster without regard for who it attacked and injured. Things maybe just got away from Nixon. Had he not been consumed by his own and his minions many screwups on the ethical and moral parts of life, he may with all his government smarts have been able to address the growing inflationary spiral. But saving himself was the priority and he and his own took their eye of the ball and whiffed terribly. They struck out and the Ford and Carter folks who followed were faced with inflation gone wild.  Inflation eroded the wages and savings of every individual and the profits of nearly every business. The medicine to knock out the disease of inflation had side affects that were almost as bad as the sickness. Fed Chairman Paul Volcker pushed interest rates up to nearly 20% and sure enough was able to crush the scourge of inflation. But the two back to back severe recessions that followed were crushing as well to Americans of all persuasions. The Fed from those days on recommitted to keeping inflation low and subdued for more than a generation. For almost 40 years inflation has been a non issue. The trade off economists say is economic growth that is not as robust as most would like it. Quietly and without fanfare the Federal Reserve has this year embarked on a new path attempting to continue to contain inflation, but to take some risk and simultaneously push a stronger economy that people (read politicians) want.  With this deliberate change in policy and the unleashing of pent up demand from the Pandemic has arrived the by-gone inflation of so many decade ago. 2021 has seen quarters of growth not seen in decades, but along with it inflation not seen in 13 years. Biden and Powell and Liberal believers in Modern Monetary Theory believe we can borrow and spend without the same concern and all will be fine -- so long as interest rates remain at historical low levels for historically low periods of time.  We talked in a previous episode about the Hot Hand Fallacy which says no one and nothing is ALWAYS a winner. Sooner or later the hot hand cools. Unfortunately we have become addicted to cheap money. This is not a throw away line. The Fed really cannot use the interest rate tool as it did for 100 years to tame inflation. If it did the cost to service our $27 trillion debt with higher rates would be literally impossible. All of this is partly the result of not having even one political party that truly and consistently believes in fiscal constraint and living within our means anymore. Folks, we are in a very tight spot -- and its getting tighter by the day. 

In an earlier Bigger Tent Podcast we heard the perspective of a MAGA team member who attended the January 6 Insurrection. JR Mejewski gave a unique perspective having attended the Trump Rally on the Elipse and then having marched to the Capital as directed by the then president of the United States. To hear it all check out that earlier episode. Today we got to hear from one of those who were attacked - newly sworn in Congressman Peter Meijer of Michigan - who of course was in session with other House and Senate members attempting to certify the lawful election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States. Meijer recounts what it was like to hear the crowd storm the building. To fumble as others did to put on a gas mask in case tear gas was used to disburse the crowd. Hear how he and others were hustled to a safe location in the Capital basement and hid from the rioters above them. Phone calls to family were made and arguments among members ensued as they waited for their most unique lockdown to end. As one of only ten Republican House members to vote to impeach President Trump, we hear unique perspectives on that issue and several others. Cong Meijer gives us his take on Speaker Pelosi's plan to create a special committee to investigate the causes and issues surrounding the January 6 Insurrection. She is now talking seriously about naming a Republican as one of her own appointment to add a Republican to those appointments Minority Leader McCarthy will make. Might her appointment be Cong Meijer, our guest today?  Cong Meijer tells us what he thinks of earlier podcast topics like national service. We even touch on debt and deficits -- which the the Congressman is intellectually honest about admitting that Republicans the last 20 years have talked a good game about, but have really been little improvement on the Democrats across the aisle. Meijer also weighs in on electoral reforms we have discussed such as making election day a national holiday and automatically registering people to vote as a means to increase the use of the franchise to vote.  We talked as well to Rep Meijer about Trump's recent commencement of rallys designed to unseat Republicans who did not stand with the president to his level of satisfaction as he fabricated his "stop the steal" fable about a stolen election that might ease the pain to some in losing or be intriguing to some in an age of distrust of nearly everything and everyone, but most surely is not based on any foundation of facts or evidence. Evidence or not, early indications are the the new congressman on our show  this episode will in fact get a primary challenger courtesy of the former president. To which, Cong Meijer says, "Donald Trump is gonna do what Donald Trump is gonna do."  Its a refreshing interview with a public official not yet jaded by the process or broken down by a broken system, but clear eyed and conservative in a thoughtful and principled way. 

After podcast for over 7 months with the world changing ever faster, today's episode is a chance to catch up on many of the topics we have been tackling. We talked about the way Republicans have made an art form of ways to obstruct primarily in the Obama years, but even when they were in the majority. We kept our fingers crossed that maybe  they would turn over a new leaf and try something new in the Biden era. So much for that. They say that McConnell and Biden are personally good friends. But yesterday Biden's good friend made pretty clear that if Biden has a Supreme Court nomination in 2023 or 2024 and Republicans hold the majority in the Senate, there was little chance that nomination would ever get a vote. Not a single member of the Republican Party voted for the Biden Covid Stimulus bill even though they voted in the majority for similar bills just last year under a Republican president. In one stroke that showed their obstructionism AND their duplicity on spending, debt and deficits.  Conservatives and Republicans have given up on governing and in limited government. They only care about spending when Democrats are proposing the spending. when it was Bush - spend away. When it was Trump - spend away.  The plain fact is in the United States there is no longer a party that cares to hold the line on spending or to make the case for balanced budgets and living within our means.  What Republicans care about are the culture wars. Abortion, Transgender rights,  Dr. Suess and new laws to secure the integrity of elections that at least according to the evidence are pretty secure already. We go into depth in this episode about the nature of culture wars and why they have simply altered the face of politics in the 2020s.  Another topic we covered in our interview with David Jolly, the former congressman from the Tampa area is how realistic it is for us frustrated traditional conservatives to think about the formation of a new party.  History shows its not a cheap or easy road. But quiet frankly there has been more talk about doing something like this than at any point in my lifetime.  Jolly is now the head of SAM, the Serve American Movement and they are worth a look if you feel like listeners of The Bigger Tent Podcast.  Just google SAM and see what you think.  Another one is the Call for American Renewal. Miles Taylor, Evan McMullin, Tom Ridge, Christie Todd Whitman  and others who have had enough of Trump, MAGA, violence, ethical lapses and all the rest that describes Republicanism the last 5 years.  We wrap up with a discussion of the real and truthfully the only reason Donald Trump may seek the presidency again in 2024. Hint it's not the pay. It's not the crib. It's not the attention though that is appreciated. It's not to build a wall or make amazing trade deals or even to bring a return of 1950s America where everything was peachy -- if you were a Protestant white male.  Much as I'd like to tell you why he wants the office here, please listen and see if your guess was right -- and if we agree!