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Ross Williams

Ross Williams's picture
Grand Rapids, MN
Commenter for
5 years 17 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 06/29/12 at 05:33 pm in response to More dribs and drabs after the big health care ruling

Here is what Tice actually said:

"But here's the curious thing. In none -- not one -- of these big final-week cases did a single "liberal" justice on the high court (Democratic appointees, all four) stray from the predictable liberal position."

In fact, as Jon Weiner points out, they strayed from that position on the very case Tice is commenting on when they voted on the medicaid expansion portion of the law. Tice had a point to make and chose facts to support it and...

Posted on 06/29/12 at 10:25 am in response to The media’s bias is the same bias politicians and voters have: narrative over social coordination

Nice narrative. Good story line. But where is there any "modern political science of understanding social coordination"?

The fact is politicians don't really deal in narratives, they make very specific decisions about the laws that govern us. But what we know of their activities is filtered through a media that is looking for good stories that hold the interests of its audience for advertisers.

Anyone who remembers "educational" TV and compares it to today's "public TV" will...

Posted on 06/30/12 at 06:57 am in response to The media’s bias is the same bias politicians and voters have: narrative over social coordination

" I would suspect that politicians do conform their decisions to narratives, because their primary motivation is reelection, and the way politicians secure reelection is to construct a narrative palatable enough for their voters and the media to create the perception that they deserve more time in power."

There is no doubt that the need to conform to the media's narratives influences politicians decisions. There is also no doubt that politicians spend a lot of time trying to influence...

Posted on 06/28/12 at 09:18 am in response to Americans losing faith in two-party system

"Yet Americans are losing faith in the two-party political system"

There is no evidence for this. The Pew poll you site actually shows the support for a third party slightly lower than is was in 1996 and with no discernible trend.

In general, Americans have never had much "faith" in the two-party system. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority identify themselves as members of one or the other party. And most of those that don't have a strong preference in voting for one...

Posted on 06/15/12 at 10:54 am in response to Message from North Dakota voters on religion has national implications

"They, too, claimed they were outspent."

They were outspent. Isn't that an objective fact?

"there’s at least one similarity between conservatives and progressives: They don’t lose; they’re just outspent."

Money has long been the "mothers milk" of politics. The requirement to seriously run for President is the ability to raise and spend it on media. Just ask Buddy Roemer. A former congressman and governor running for the Republican nomination who was ignored, while...

Posted on 06/11/12 at 08:05 am in response to Let's stop the war on public school teachers

"Privatization" of schools is another example of private industry looking for opportunities to make money from public spending. With millions of students and parents having to manage kids education individually, there are numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to sell them solutions. They aren't going to "privatize" paying for those solutions, just the decisions on how that money will be spent.

We see the same thing with prisons, military, roads and retirement to name several...

Posted on 06/11/12 at 03:11 pm in response to Let's stop the war on public school teachers

Teachers unions fund Democrats running for office. Opposition to public school funding from their political opponents both caused and results from that. Kids and public education are just caught in the middle of that fight.

Posted on 06/08/12 at 11:41 am in response to Why do working-class people vote conservative?

"For example, according to our data, if you want to hire someone to criticize your nation on a radio show in another nation (loyalty), give the finger to his boss (authority), or sign a piece of paper stating one's willingness to sell his soul (sanctity), you can save a lot of money by posting a sign: "Conservatives need not apply.""

Someone ought to have told Ezra Pound, Timothy McVeigh and Johnny Paycheck. Assuming this guy is telling the truth about his "conversion", he was once an...

Posted on 06/05/12 at 06:19 pm in response to The Age of Nothing's-Ever-Over

"It's quite possible that the Dems stole the 1960 election with a combination of fraudulent and tricky actions in Illinois, Texas and a very strange manipulation of electoral vote in Alabama."

No, it not quite possible. Its a silly conspiracy theory. Kennedy won the electoral college in 1960 with 303 votes to Nixon's 219.

Illinois's electoral votes were irrelevant to the outcome without another large state. And Kennedy won Texas by over 40,000 votes, far more than any alleged...

Posted on 06/05/12 at 04:11 pm in response to Is it a good idea to evaluate school boards using test data?

"broadly speaking the least skilled school-board members have an annoying tendency to misunderstand their highest-potential roles, to micromanage the business of the educators and administrators they oversee and to launch big initiatives that languish the second they quit.

Bad board members also have an irritating propensity for firing good superintendents, who are then doubly hard to replace because they are rare as hen’s teeth and, thus able to be selective about their postings,...