A musing Beam

This is the eighth and final installment of a series of posts on lessons we progressives should take on the Presidential election. The overview is here . Okay, so this last installment is about tactics, not policy.  Progressives need to start telling better stories.  Facts are important and all, but … well, most people obviously don’t really care about them .  It doesn’t matter that NAFTA probably was a net positive on the economy as a whole as long as the opposition has a story of a factory closing. Global consensus among people that have spent their lives on studying climate is irrelevant when we have scandalous emails that show peer review processes are not perfect . Saying you had one position on the Iraq invasion even when there is demonstrable proof you had another  is irrelevant if you have a cool narrative about a secret conversation with a TV personality. Note that I’m NOT being snarky here.  I’m being absolutely serious that, as far as elections or other public-opinion-

This is the seventh installment of a series of posts on lessons we progressives should take on the election. The overview is here . Simple economics says that if you pay more for something, you get more of that thing. If I had to choose one area where I most commonly believe my progressive brethren go wrong, it is in not seeming to understand this truth.  They understand it for some areas: Want more hybrid cars? Subsidize them. Want more foster parents? Pay more! Why are we having trouble getting good teachers? They aren’t paid enough! But when you turn to other areas …. For instance, do we want more single mothers? We should pay for them. Do we want more people claiming poverty or disability? Do we want more poor children (or just children in general, for that matter)? Want more unemployed people? And we can verify that this happens, if that is needed – look, for instance, at the dramatic increase in disability claims after the reduction to welfare . Of course, I would disagr

This is the sixth installment of a series of posts on lessons we progressives should take on the election. The overview is here . We really need to stop trying to control speech.   I get it: Free speech is tough, and it always has been. We don’t make speech free because it is weak – we make it free because it is strong, and “bad” speech can be really hurtful.   But one of our societal values has been that we learn to have thick skin, and we don’t try to exercise control over what others say. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have counter-speech. Free speech isn’t speech without consequences , it’s speech without control .   So if you say something that is jerky, the correct response is for someone to say you are being a jerk, and that’s completely within the spirit of free speech, which goes both ways.   What is not okay is to say that the person cannot speak AT ALL. We should let people say hateful and hurtful things, and then get good people to denounce those ideas and wor