Podcast 310

Jeb Bush “Conservative”. Jeb Bush talks about the Middle Class and the American Dream in the nitty gritty northern city of Detroit, Michigan serving up ‘The Right To Rise’ political concept. Will Republicans buy this warmed over rhetoric one more time? If Bush convinces the mainstream GOP ‘he can win’, bet on it. If someone doesn’t come along to counter Bush’s contributions, and command of the rhetorical battleground – regardless of what the few crummy polls say right now – he will be the Republican nominee in 2016. Yet, nothing is harder to define than the so called Middle Class, and The American Dream. The Middle Class is supposed to be an income bracket, yet pundits, politicians and academics have defined it as low as thirty thousand dollars a year and as high as two hundred thousand dollars a year. The American Dream is supposedly enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, on the Statue of Liberty, in Martin Luther King’s speeches and so deeply ingrained in our culture you’d think its in the US Constitution. Where did the American Dream come from? What about the dystopian vision of the American Dream? Really, these concepts – and that’s what they are – mean anything any politician, demagogue, preacher or commentator want them to mean. What policies will Bush use to ensure a ‘middle class rise’? Well, to start with, he says, power will pass from the Federal Government to the states, but the Federal Government will also pass policies that benefit the so called middle class. We won’t repeal Obamacare, we’ll just fix it. We’re going to fix immigration, because illegals are just like the people who came over on the Mayflower. What’s the fix? Truthfully, solidifying what the President has been doing by executive order for the past three years, or more. All of this provokes a question? Aren’t Republicans and Democrats really just different sides of the same coin? Aren’t they both conservative in that they want to continue the status quo? What if what we need is a radical departure, a radical reduction in the scope of Federal Government Power that could be catastrophically dangerous to a Republic. Moreover, as technological developments become industry; That is, the new retail, manufacturing, autonomous machines and software, new ways to use media (like this podcast), sell and buy, hire and find jobs the disruptions will be chaotic. Add more government to that mix, whether it has an R or a D in front of it, and you’re going to have yet more chaos. What are you? How do you know? What are your values? What are your principles? How do you translate these into political ideas, policies, and ideas people can get behind. This is what is meant by organization, and today’s radicals are a long way from being close to having all that work done. Sponsored by Baklund R&D.

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Podcast 307

Mitt Quits. Updates for the first week of February. While neighbors enjoy the Superbowl – enjoy their muffled screams through the wall – The Bob Davis Podcasts goes to work. Mitt Romney has decided not to run for President in 2016, provoking the Washington Post to name Jeb Bush as the front runner. Meanwhile a new poll of voters in Iowa, where the nation’s first presidential primary will be held, have picked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as the front runner, closely followed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. If you are an observer of politics, and you have a decidedly anti-government bent, it sure seems like the mainstream moderate wing of the Republican Party is selling policy and tactics from the 1990’s, while voters seem to engage with politicians with newer ideas. While the actual political season for the 2016 cycle is a long way off in political terms, the media seems to want to pick a moderate as the front runner, and the people might have different ideas. Stay Tuned. The new Economic numbers are out, and they aren’t as good as expected. Surprise! After 5 percent GDP ‘growth’ in the third quarter just about everyone ‘figured’ and predicted that we would have at least 3.6 percent ‘growth’ in the fourth quarter, what with gas being cheap and acting ‘like a tax cut’. Even President Obama declared victory over stagnation for weeks, culminating in his over the top State Of The Union Speech which would make the initiated think he was presiding over the most dynamic economy in US History. In reality, President Obama’s recovery doesn’t just lag Bush and Clinton and Reagan, the Obama ‘recovery’ is the worst economic performance of all Presidents in US History. The new growth number? 2.6 percent. What does the media blame it on? Those evil frackers who created all those jobs, and now they’re laying people off ’cause oil is so cheap. In fact the media that couldn’t bring itself to write a positive story about energy growth in the US in the last six years now can’t find enough down-on-their-luck in Williston, North Dakota, stories. Fact is, most of the manufacturing jobs the President likes to tout are energy related. Yeah, cheap gas is great. It acts like a tax cut. Just keep that in mind as the European Zone disaster starts to take hold, and China’s economic slow down begins to bite, realities which the US economy won’t escape. And what are US policies? Not clear away the gordian knot of taxes and regulation that chokes business formation, and the supply side, but continued efforts to stimulate consumption and ballyhooing ‘consumer confidence’. In Silicon Valley they are mixing morning shake cocktails of supplements and additives that are supposedly able to increase your IQ. Body hacks are all the rage, so Podcast 307 ends with an effort to play catch up, with the Broadcast Bunker Juicer. Sponsored by Xgovernment Cars and Depotstar.

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Podcast 306

Political Polarization. This Podcast is live from the backyard, on a warm summer night. This is made possible by the magic of on demand audio. How did politics get so personal? How did Political Polarization become something written and talked about all the time. These days it seems like the media tries to divide Americans by slicing and dicing poll data. What’s the real divider in America today? The Government. What’s the solution? Maybe getting the government out of the people’s lives. Is the solution a third political party? Former Minnesota Governor Jessie Ventura is saddened by the news that the Independence Party has lost major party status in his home state. What about Ventura’s one term as Minnesota’s Governor? How did that work out? Meanwhile, how does one explain the fact that ‘divided’ Americans keep putting up moderate candidates like Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and Jim Webb? If American Politics is so polarized, why do moderate candidates consistently end up as favorites? Mitt Romney continues toying with a presidential run, trash talking Clinton and Obama, but offering no solutions or plans of his own. (Editor’s Note: And you wonder why I say Republican arguments so far are nothing by rhetoric.) Is it possible we Americans run a little deeper on the issues than polling data can show? Is it possible people are divided on different issues, yet not necessarily ‘polarized’ when it comes to the leaders they choose? Has the growth of government in our personal lives made everything political? Is it possible the divisions, and frustration and anger might be mitigated if Washington and Saint Paul would just get out of the way? Sponsored by Depotstar.

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