Category Archives: political solutions

by Barry Kelly | January 28, 2013 · 8:40 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 32

Management of Complexity (Photo credit: michael.heiss)

Nearly every day I hear someone saying, “I can’t believe what I just heard the administration is doing.” If there ever was a bi-partisan statement, this is it. Democrats or Republicans, it makes no difference when it comes to dumbness.

English: Seal of the United States Department of Homeland Security. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since the first days of centralized authority, government dumbness has been with us. In the last 150 years, the level of government centralization has steadily grown to levels that jeopardize the continued development of our civilization. The roots of centralization have been nurtured by an explosion of progress in the transmission and processing of information. Good thing? Maybe yes. But many good things have dangerous side effects.

It is usually true, the closer a leader or manager is to a situation or problem, the more they know about the facts and can fix the problem or recommend a wise course of action. A hallmark of an effective leader and manager is their ability to put a premium on the advice from ‘people on the ground.’ As governments have moved more toward centralization, managers have been moved further and further from people on the ground. There are myriad management levels between the point of contact with the situation or problem and the top-level decision maker. Government managers, in my favorite example, of the Department of Homeland Security, are several light years beyond their span of control. While I don’t think the recent and current heads of Homeland Security are exemplary managers or leaders, no human can do more than pretend they can manage something as large and diverse as Homeland Security or the Intelligence Community or a number of other government agencies and departments.

You see, the catalyst of expanding centralization is the speed of information transmission and processing. Managers believe because they can communicate they can understand and manage. This is a dangerous illusion. How well did Presidents Johnson and Nixon, Secretary of Defense McNamara, and later National Security Advisor Kissinger personally manage the Vietnam War? Not well. I was there and read many of their directives. Some verged on comic relief.

A few organs of government like the Defense Department and NASA have been able to somewhat mitigate the downside of centralization because at all levels, except the very top, managers come from men and women on their way up the management ladder. They and their staffs can receive and understand the flow of information. They understand the culture. In a sense they have all been there, done that. I believe the only remedy to the downsides of centralization is to ensure organizations are made up nearly entirely of men and women who have had a deep immersion in various mission levels of their organization and to decentralize those departments and agencies that have an impossible scope of attention and management for anyone. Letting the states manage their own affairs according to the Constitution will check rampant centralization. This is truly a bi-partisan issue.

By the author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series.

http://www.factsandfictions.com

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by Barry Kelly | December 12, 2012 · 5:19 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 30

FISCAL

CLIFF

Are you tired of the term, ‘GOING OVER THE FISCAL CLIFF’? I am. I wish all the politicians in Washington would join a pack of lemmings and go over the nearest cliff. Then we could start over and get a real agreement. One that is good for the nation, not just good for radicals.

Why is it so hard to reach an agreement? The problem is simple and fundamental. Our two parties have very different objectives. Let’s start with the Progressives of the Obama party. Can you believe that a president who hasn’t had a Congressionally approved budget in all of his first term is interested in budgets, deficits, and future financing for entitlement programs or defense of the nation? His last “budget” was rejected unanimously by members of both parties in the Senate. Using my yardstick of what a president should do, this man is a total failure. But if you use a different measuring system, one crafted over the years by foreign and domestic Progressives, he has an outstanding record. He said he would transform America and he has and he still is. In another four years, America will be a very different place. What my generation and previous generations strived and fought for will be gone. Collectivism, not individualism, will be the banner. There maybe freedom but it will be a very different freedom.

From the president’s perspective, what does he say he wants before he can agree on action to avoid the cliff issues? He wants to raise taxes on the rich (people making more than $250,000 per year.) He wants the power to raise the debt limit whenever he thinks an increase is required. He does not want any cuts or changes to entitlement programs. He wants more money to spend on stimulus packages. He wants real revenue now and maybe, spending cuts sometime in the future. That is the package the Republicans think they are trying to negotiate. They are trying to find agreement on a fiscal and deficit problem. That is not the real battle. No matter how much they comprise or capitulate there is no fiscally sound path in these negotiations. Not now. Not later.

This cliff thing is another phase in the transforming of America. Keep your eye on the power game. Achieving a one-party system is part of the transformation process. The two-party system is an obstacle to the collectivist goals of the Progressives. The major goal is to marginalize the Republican Party. The president has proven his ability to out-message his opponents. His mandate, truly won, is for a far superior numbers game in getting out the vote and in defining his opponents in populist terms by endlessly repeating simplistic slogans. Accuracy and truth were not front and center. Instead it was the use of 21st century mass appeal campaigning, appealing to the fears and desires of targeted interest groups, not presenting plans or programs for the good of the nation. The election did not provide a mandate on ideas or national requirements. Neither the president nor the speaker should talk about mandates.

Rhetoric about going over the cliff is only the fog generated to conceal the real objectives of the ruling Progressives.

http://www.factsandfictions.com By the author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series.

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by Barry Kelly | December 5, 2012 · 11:36 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 29

President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2004 on October 1, 2003. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UTOPIA VS REALITY

Some things we can control for the better. Some we can’t. Deciding which we can and can not do is the essence of the struggle between liberals and conservatives.

Both sides want to improve the condition of the people. Neither faction is evil; it’s just that the fundamental belief system is different. The roots of liberal philosophy are imports from foreign thinkers. Utopian communes, kibbutzes, socialism, communism (to each according to need, from each according to capability), interpretations of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, ancient and modern age totalitarianism all emphasized the good of society over the individual.

Efforts to achieve these goals all had to, or strived to, centralize power. Centralized power is always required to channel and control individualism for the good of the whole society. The problem has been that those who end up in charge of centralized power are not capable of deciding or managing how to balance their judgement of the needs of the masses with the needs of the individual. Instead, centralized power, especially in totalitarian governments, is used to perpetuate the rule of the elite. And there is always an elite. Nowhere in the history of the known world has unfettered centralization been successful. Yet some humans still try to improve life by centralization in spite of the clear historical record of total failure.

As an example of this innate drive for people to see centralized control over every real or imagined problem is the liberal position on global warming. Is the Earth warming? Maybe, probably, absolutely, positively not. All those answers are possible. The record of the Earth is that it has warmed and cooled. Surely it is a question science can answer, if they avoid cherry picking data to prove strongly held environmental beliefs. At one time, I’m told, Chicago was covered by two miles of ice and much later, Vikings cultivated Greenland for a period of one hundred years or so until the Earth cooled. Surely Chicagoans did not cause Chicago to freeze over nor did Vikings cause Greenland to warm. Just maybe our heat source, the sun’s output, or slight changes in the Earth’s orbit are the cause. These are causes humans cannot control or change. Certainly prehistoric carbon emissions from man-made industries were not responsible.

Centralization has been used by both parties to “fix” problems. The conservatives tried with the organization of the Department of Homeland Security. But do you feel safer now that effective organizations have all been dumbed down to fit the limited scope of human management? Or how about the Director of National Intelligence‘s bloated staff? Do you feel like our president is better informed? I think, in fact I know, he is not. Benghazi talking points come to mind.

Utopia is not to be found in liberalism or conservatism. (See blog 6 for more on centralization.) Both parties have worshipped at the altar of centralization. Humans and our complex civilization need regulation. But it has to be as little as possible. Centralization is the fuel for the growth of government which is, then, itself a motivator of more centralization. (In blog 3 I state we are a great nation not because of what immigrants brought with them but what they left behind.) We did have some experiments with European utopian settlements in America. They all failed. Unfortunately, the roots of socialism and totalitarianism have now come again in the name of progressivism and have largely taken over the leadership of the Democratic Party. We now have a government trying to centralize and manage all aspects of life, individual and national.

http://www.factsandfictions.com By the author of the Jack Brandon thriller series.

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by Barry Kelly | November 28, 2012 · 2:06 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 28

politics (Photo credit: Asoka G M)

LEADERSHIP, NOT NOW

The nation is in trouble. Trouble, that is not the fault of either political party. We are all to blame. The problem is identifying and fixing the tax code, Government spending, social programs, allocation of resources and regulations. The problem can be fixed. Beginning to correct what needs corrected is not hard. What is hard is finding the leaders who can move us toward the required results. Leadership is sometimes defined as a person who can influence a group of people toward a specific result. If you have found that kind of leadership in our political system, you are either very kind or a lot smarter than I am. I’m from the school that believes leaders and managers are not necessarily the same thing. Managers are born out of experience. Leaders are born. Governor Romney is an example of a very good manager. The people were looking for a leader and he didn’t convince them he was that person. President Obama is neither a leader nor a manager, except of campaigning. There have been few equals of the President when it comes to winning election against formidable odds. He wasn’t born a leader and he didn’t have the opportunities or desire to learn management skills. And they must be learned in a crucible where results and progress are harshly measured. My examples of Presidential leaders are Washington, Lincoln and Reagan. Every major American industry has produced scores of good managers. Even the Government has had a few.

Don’t blame the President for seeming like he is always campaigning. He has mastered that skill and with David Axelrod in his corner, he is a winner. One of my rules of life is that no matter what the problem, people do what they know how to do. Our President knows how to win elections. Don’t fault him for talking to the people. He won on a successful campaign of dividing the populace. Don’t expect him to now work to bring the people together to solve our common problem. He can’t and he won’t. Why change when you are winning? He promised to transform America and he is making progress. To transform anything you must destroy the existing system. Is he a champion of Capitalism, the free market, individual freedoms or the belief that economic growth is the answer to overall prosperity? Off the basketball court, I don’t believe he sees winners and those who don’t. His fair shot rhetoric means to lessen the gap between those who have too little material goods and those who have more than enough, by handicapping our best achievers.

On the other side of our political spectrum are those who lost a political campaign when all odds were in their favor. Until they figure out who they are and that the goal of political life is more than getting re-elected, don’t expect much help from them. Fiscal cliff or not, go over it or not, is not the issue. Getting the Democrats to move back toward the center and the Republicans to move into the 21st century and both recognizing the crisis is at least half their fault, must come before a responsible solution is even remotely possible. Expect instead more kicking the oil drum down the street. Oil drums don’t kick very far, especially uphill.

http://www.factsandfictions.com By the Author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series.

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by Barry Kelly | October 17, 2012 · 3:47 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #24

OBAMA’S WALL

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney exchange views during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. They interrupt each other, bicker and ignore the moderator. Romney poses his own questions and demands answers. Thats not true, Obama huffs over and over. This is presidential conduct? It was squirm-inducing for some viewers. But the candidates have little to lose by cranking up the heat in a tight face, where the focus is on persuading the undecided and firing up their fans.

Throughout history, totalitarian regimes have erected brick and mortar walls as well as more subtle barriers to the flow of information. Often the walls and barriers are to prevent those outside the walls from seeing what the regime does not have, more than to protect what they have, from prying eyes. The Soviet Union was certainly ultra-sensitive to protecting their shortcomings when they built walls to hide behind. Outside their missile program and other militarized areas, the Soviet Union was a wet paper tiger. What they did not have in the 1970s was truly astounding. I spent two years in the Soviet Union from 1973 to 1975. I left being convinced they were a dangerous enemy, not because of their strength, but because of their weakness. Fear of the growing power of the West might have influenced them to strike before the gap widened further.

President Obama, with his totalitarian approach to governing and arrogance that only he and his Chicago mafia know what is right for America, have erected walls to hide mistakes and weakness as well as denying anyone outside the walls to see what has not been done. The president’s fiscal policy is non-existent. His military strategy for an increasingly dangerous world is not even a work in progress. His plan for job creation, beyond hiring 100,000 more teachers, infrastructure improvements, and green energy jobs, has never been seen. Unemployment numbers are seriously flawed. His energy policy is beyond understanding. He is not a brilliant or even a bright man and must hide his deficiencies, at least those David Axelrod cannot fix. Now there is a brilliant political strategist struggling with a hard-to-manage pupil. I cannot believe Axelrod told the president to cover up the Benghazi fiasco. In my opinion, Obama doesn’t even realize the importance Americans place on the protection of its fellow citizens, especially those sent in harm’s way without the tools to work and survive.

The presidential debates are beginning to tear down the walls erected to hide the failed promises, fantastic accumulation of debt, inept foreign policy, ignorance of economic development, amateurish military strategy, and the extreme left-wing objectives. You see a debater who is far better at displaying arrogance, anger, petulance, denial, and how-dare-you question me than he is at presenting a rational defense of his record or a cogent plan for the next four years. Don’t expect things to improve, no matter where your political allegiance resides. What you see is what you have. If you are a voter, push past the words and carefully consider if you and the nation can stand another four years of government behind the walls. Pull the walls down. Let the daylight in.

www/factsandfictions.com The author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series.