Although we are not among Trump's "deplorables," we had high hopes for his pro-worker promises to stop sending jobs offshore and to reduce corporate influence in Washington. Unfortunately, the July issue of Public Citizen reports that companies, like General Electric, that offshore jobs are still getting new federal contracts. We expected more from the new President and we need to keep up the pressure to make sure that firms that continue to offshore are not rewarded with government contracts.
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Why the Dems really hate Trump?
Today I listened to one of Trump's "deplorables" on the radio. He was discussing the Trump family in very positive terms, pointing out how attractive and accomplished the women and men were in their personal and professional pursuits. While listening to him, it appeared to me that what he was saying about the Trump family could serve to replace the special standing of the Kennedy family in the thinking of most Americans. Due mainly to the efforts of the media, the Kennedy's hold a special place in memories of many Americans. Will the Trump family and its attractive men and women finally drive a stake into the heart of Camelot and the medias love affair with the Kennedy family. Could this be one of the reasons for the continued effort to run down the Trump brand?
UPDATE:
On Sunday, 3/18/18 CNN had a one hour show on the Kennedys. I guess that the head of CNN felt it was time to remind everyone about our Royal Family. The show will be continued next Sunday. In the glorification of the Royal family, here are some of the things that I didn't learn.
1) Where did Joe Kennedy's money really come from? The Royal Family special made it sound like he was just a smart trader on the stock market. But I remember something about Joe Kennedy's involvement with illegal alcohol during prohibition.
2) After Jack defeated Nixon in the Presidential election (the show did mention something about questionable votes by dead people in Chicago, but the reference was brief) Jack and his brother Bobby go on to make America Great Again (where have I heard that before).
3) I look forward to next week's show and hope that it will tell me that our involvement in Vietnam was started by President Jack Kennedy, NOT President Lyndon Johnson.
4) Do you think that the CNN special will tell us that Teddy was the first Harvey Weinstein. Maybe CNN should have done a special on Mary Jo Kopecne, (sp.?) the intern, and Teddy the man with the power.
It is difficult to tell the truth about a Royal Family, but maybe CNN will try.
UPDATE:
On Sunday, 3/18/18 CNN had a one hour show on the Kennedys. I guess that the head of CNN felt it was time to remind everyone about our Royal Family. The show will be continued next Sunday. In the glorification of the Royal family, here are some of the things that I didn't learn.
1) Where did Joe Kennedy's money really come from? The Royal Family special made it sound like he was just a smart trader on the stock market. But I remember something about Joe Kennedy's involvement with illegal alcohol during prohibition.
2) After Jack defeated Nixon in the Presidential election (the show did mention something about questionable votes by dead people in Chicago, but the reference was brief) Jack and his brother Bobby go on to make America Great Again (where have I heard that before).
3) I look forward to next week's show and hope that it will tell me that our involvement in Vietnam was started by President Jack Kennedy, NOT President Lyndon Johnson.
4) Do you think that the CNN special will tell us that Teddy was the first Harvey Weinstein. Maybe CNN should have done a special on Mary Jo Kopecne, (sp.?) the intern, and Teddy the man with the power.
It is difficult to tell the truth about a Royal Family, but maybe CNN will try.
Monday, May 1, 2017
College for the Underserved
In a 2014 article entitled The Good Society we wrote the following: "There should be an institutional basis for embedding achievement values in local primary and secondary schools. This could be achieved by establishing partnerships between public and private universities in each state and the primary and secondary schools that have weak performance records for their students. The purpose of these partnerships is to instill high achievement values in the student population as well as provide stronger curriculum and instructional resources to enable more students to be eligible for tuition awards for postsecondary education." The recent decisions by the President of Purdue University are two big steps in the right direction. The first was the creation of the Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indianapolis and the second was the acquisition of Kaplan University. While we question the process which took place without faculty input, those are the ways for universities to reach out to underrepresented and underserved students.
Friday, March 31, 2017
CISPES: Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
In the mid-1970s, two Purdue University professors, one in political science and the other in sociology, worked together to establish an Indiana chapter of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). At the time, El Salvador was in the midst of an internal civil war between the government headed by Jose Napolean Duarte, and the opposition forces under the banner of the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front). The government and military were accused of using "death squads" to intimidate many residents of rural areas from supporting rebel forces. The goal of the Indiana CISPES chapter was to inform community organizations throughout the state of events in El Salvador, and how the U.S. support for Duarte and the military was working against the interests of most Salvadorans. A second goal was to provide support for social and political groups from El Salvador that were traveling in the Midwest to meet with groups in the U.S. CISPES also undertook special projects like bringing a post-graduate student from El Salvador's national university to Purdue to study how field methods could be applied to reach the general pubic in hostile environments like the one existing in El Salvador.
On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed at the campus of Universidad Centro-America in El Salvador. The killings made many think of the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated while saying mass in March of 1980,when there was a major crackdown by the Death Squads against anyone with sympathies for the FMLN. The first thoughts of the CISPES group was that our former student at Universidad Centro-America was fortunate not to be involved in the attack, but for how long would she be safe? We began efforts to get the student out of El Salvador and into the United States. It was not easy, but we received specific instructions of how to do so. Robert and Carolyn set up a bank account in the student's name at a specific bank in Southern California with deposits in the amount of $15,000. In 2018 dollars, that would be $31,000. All went well, and our former Salvadoran student is now living a full life in the U.S.
On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed at the campus of Universidad Centro-America in El Salvador. The killings made many think of the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated while saying mass in March of 1980,when there was a major crackdown by the Death Squads against anyone with sympathies for the FMLN. The first thoughts of the CISPES group was that our former student at Universidad Centro-America was fortunate not to be involved in the attack, but for how long would she be safe? We began efforts to get the student out of El Salvador and into the United States. It was not easy, but we received specific instructions of how to do so. Robert and Carolyn set up a bank account in the student's name at a specific bank in Southern California with deposits in the amount of $15,000. In 2018 dollars, that would be $31,000. All went well, and our former Salvadoran student is now living a full life in the U.S.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Buy American to Create Jobs
In March 2014 we published an article in Sociological Forum that was titled "The Good Society: Core Social Values, Social Norms, and Public Policy." That article had a section called Buy American to Create Jobs. Here is what we wrote.
One of the desirable features of a good society is that it should have a strong and growing economy which provides employment opportunities for all of its citizens. In contemporary America such an economy does not now exist, and much of the turmoil and political conflict is about the best policies to achieve that end. Keeping in mind that our view of the good society is a bottom-up view, not a top-down view, we begin with the things that all citizens can do to create a vibrant economy before we discuss what government can do.
Thus, we begin with a set of prescriptive norms that are meant to guide behavior as consumers. When Americans call upon their government to create jobs, they must be prepared as consumers to take the lead and to exhibit behavior that is consistent with job creation. The first step is to buy autos, home appliances, and electronics from companies that produce in the United States with a high percentage of domestic content in their products. Of course, the imperative to buy American will probably lead to higher costs for consumers, because it will mean avoiding the "big box" stores that attract customers with lower-cost goods that have been produced in low-wage countries. But it is also possible that the development of community industries would catch on and lead to revitalization of textile production in the United States and be a stimulus to the growth of co-ops and worker-owned businesses.
If you want to know more about these ideas you can read the article or our 2009 book America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring.
One of the desirable features of a good society is that it should have a strong and growing economy which provides employment opportunities for all of its citizens. In contemporary America such an economy does not now exist, and much of the turmoil and political conflict is about the best policies to achieve that end. Keeping in mind that our view of the good society is a bottom-up view, not a top-down view, we begin with the things that all citizens can do to create a vibrant economy before we discuss what government can do.
Thus, we begin with a set of prescriptive norms that are meant to guide behavior as consumers. When Americans call upon their government to create jobs, they must be prepared as consumers to take the lead and to exhibit behavior that is consistent with job creation. The first step is to buy autos, home appliances, and electronics from companies that produce in the United States with a high percentage of domestic content in their products. Of course, the imperative to buy American will probably lead to higher costs for consumers, because it will mean avoiding the "big box" stores that attract customers with lower-cost goods that have been produced in low-wage countries. But it is also possible that the development of community industries would catch on and lead to revitalization of textile production in the United States and be a stimulus to the growth of co-ops and worker-owned businesses.
If you want to know more about these ideas you can read the article or our 2009 book America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Illegal Immigrants
In our 2009 book, America At Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring, we presented our views on how to deal with the matter of illegal immigrants. Here is what we wrote.
A current issue facing Americans that has great potential for dividing them in warring camps is the question of what to do regarding the estimated the 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. Most of those undocumented migrants are Mexican nationals, while some come from Central American nations. Most have come to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their children, and Americans are divided about how welcoming we should be to people who have broken the law and what should be done. Let us exclude for the moment the views of groups that have their own agendas, like political groups that see immigrants as potential voters, union leaders who see them as workers who can be organized, and xenophobic or racist groups defending white supremacy. The remaining Americans who disagree on this issue tend to be divided into those claiming to be compassionate and generous versus those who are firm law abiders.
In order to move beyond the shouting and divided zealots on both sides, it will be necessary to identify a set of values that both sides embrace. For example, if both side in the immigration debate can agree on endorsing the values of family and hard work, then it may be possible to develop legislation that both sides can endorse. Let's call it the Working Family Pathway to Citizenship Law and apply it to the current population of undocumented immigrants. Under this plan, if an illegal is married, has a family, has been employed in the United States for at least five years, has been paying Social Security, has children in local schools, and gets a reference from an employer, than he/she will be on the fast track to U.S. citizenship. At the other end of the spectrum, unmarried immigrants who have been in the United States a short time and have erratic employment records will be eligible for deportation. The law would list eligibility for citizenship according to the family-work conditions of the immigrant, with some becoming citizens and some deported.
We think that a Pathway to Citizenship Law that affirms certain shared values has a chance of unifying Americans who, on the one hand, want to be welcoming because they acknowledge that we were all immigrants once, with Americans who place high value on being law abiding and fair. The goal is to find common ground on divisive issues that identify values that bring Americans together rather than those that divide. That is the only way in which a nation of people that has many identity groups can engender trust of each other.
A current issue facing Americans that has great potential for dividing them in warring camps is the question of what to do regarding the estimated the 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. Most of those undocumented migrants are Mexican nationals, while some come from Central American nations. Most have come to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their children, and Americans are divided about how welcoming we should be to people who have broken the law and what should be done. Let us exclude for the moment the views of groups that have their own agendas, like political groups that see immigrants as potential voters, union leaders who see them as workers who can be organized, and xenophobic or racist groups defending white supremacy. The remaining Americans who disagree on this issue tend to be divided into those claiming to be compassionate and generous versus those who are firm law abiders.
In order to move beyond the shouting and divided zealots on both sides, it will be necessary to identify a set of values that both sides embrace. For example, if both side in the immigration debate can agree on endorsing the values of family and hard work, then it may be possible to develop legislation that both sides can endorse. Let's call it the Working Family Pathway to Citizenship Law and apply it to the current population of undocumented immigrants. Under this plan, if an illegal is married, has a family, has been employed in the United States for at least five years, has been paying Social Security, has children in local schools, and gets a reference from an employer, than he/she will be on the fast track to U.S. citizenship. At the other end of the spectrum, unmarried immigrants who have been in the United States a short time and have erratic employment records will be eligible for deportation. The law would list eligibility for citizenship according to the family-work conditions of the immigrant, with some becoming citizens and some deported.
We think that a Pathway to Citizenship Law that affirms certain shared values has a chance of unifying Americans who, on the one hand, want to be welcoming because they acknowledge that we were all immigrants once, with Americans who place high value on being law abiding and fair. The goal is to find common ground on divisive issues that identify values that bring Americans together rather than those that divide. That is the only way in which a nation of people that has many identity groups can engender trust of each other.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Cold War Script
We recently wrote a post that argued that people are often guided by "scripts" when they make choices of how do deal with new situations. That post may be found on this blog. We now want to extend the idea of scripts beyond being a guide for individual action, to the idea that there are "social scripts." We propose that one such script may be called a "cold war script." It is obviously based in the political opposition to the new president and his positive views of Russia and its leader Putin. But the anti-Trump theme is often couched in recollections of the long-standing "Cold War" between the US and the USSR. Remember, the USSR no longer exists, but the "cold war script" goes back to the days following World War II and it is presented as if the US was still engaged in a struggle for the "hearts and minds " of many people around the world. (Aside: do you remember the "hearts and minds" script from the Vietnam era?). Anyway, where does the cold war script come from? Obviously, the media love it, because they have to write stories to fill up their pages every day. And they must glean their tidbits for daily stories from those who are politically connected elected officials and members of various foundations and "think tanks."
In the old days there were "cold warriors" who could always be counted upon to provide the media with tidbits for their daily stories. But today, there are as yet no "new cold warriors," at least any who have been identified as such. Again, in the old days, there were many organizations that enjoyed financial benefits from the "cold war," including defense contractors, universities, and think tanks. But who today benefits from the new cold war script? That is our question, and we leave it for you to consider.
In the old days there were "cold warriors" who could always be counted upon to provide the media with tidbits for their daily stories. But today, there are as yet no "new cold warriors," at least any who have been identified as such. Again, in the old days, there were many organizations that enjoyed financial benefits from the "cold war," including defense contractors, universities, and think tanks. But who today benefits from the new cold war script? That is our question, and we leave it for you to consider.
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