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How To Triangulate

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 11:24:48 AM EST
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Very clever post from Matt Yglesias:

Something that I think should be understood about the idea of “triangulating” via a proposal to freeze federal salary is that triangles are two dimensional objects. To triangulate properly you can’t simply occupy a point between where the left and right poles are, you need to also move off the line.

[. . .] Better triangulation requires a triangle. Liberals say spend more money on schools, conservatives say spend less. I say: School uniforms![. . .]

(Emphasis supplied.) Heh.

Speaking for me only

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    How To Triangulate | 25 comments (25 topical)

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    this (none / 0) (#1)
    by Capt Howdy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 11:25:48 AM EST
    could catch on I think

    Someone clue me in on the (none / 0) (#2)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 12:49:26 PM EST
    school uniforms thing.  I missed something.

    You and me both! Huh? (none / 0) (#3)
    by oculus on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 12:54:39 PM EST


    Parent
    I saw that BTD (none / 0) (#4)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 12:57:03 PM EST
    posted something earlier about school uniforms, and I've been busy so wasn't able to investigate what that was about.  Now Matt Y is posting about it?  Is Matt taking a cue from BTD or is there a political history of a school uniform issue in D.C. that I don't know about?

    Parent
    I just googled "school uniforms" (none / 0) (#5)
    by oculus on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:02:49 PM EST
    and clicked "news."  Nada--well, except in N. New Jersey.  

    Parent
    Me too (none / 0) (#6)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:03:20 PM EST


    Parent
    Back in the 90s the Clinton (5.00 / 5) (#9)
    by inclusiveheart on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:09:44 PM EST
    Administration started an initiative around school uniforms.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/25/us/clinton-will-advise-schools-on-uniforms.html

    I thought it was daft at the time, but looking back at the situation, it was what I call a "shiny object" strategy.  The GOP was trying to destroy the public school system as usual, so Clinton grabbed a piece of the conservative pie that was largely benign and ancillary and distracted them from their primary objective for a time.

    The reality is that Obama's people don't understand this strategy at all.  But then again they may not object as strenuously to GOP policies as their predecessors in the Clinton era did and see no real problem with allowing some measure of the conservative agenda to advance.

    Parent

    I like the shiny object viewpoint (none / 0) (#14)
    by ruffian on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:15:46 PM EST
    I don't think the current gang is so easily distracted though.

    I wonder how the big meeting with Obama and the Republicans went today. I'm sure they are hailing him as a uniter for his brave stand on federal wages. Not.  

    Parent

    I just figured that out (none / 0) (#15)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:17:01 PM EST
    I know that CLINTON was the despised triangulater so I tried googling clenis and school uniforms and BINGO

    Parent
    I think it's about (none / 0) (#10)
    by CST on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:12:29 PM EST
    this:

    "The era of big government is over ...

    ... our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms."

    There's some other quality "big government" stuff in the middle too.

    Parent

    It's a reference (none / 0) (#11)
    by lilburro on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:12:38 PM EST
    to Bill Clinton taking up school uniforms as an issue in the 90s.  NPR.

    Parent
    also a reference (none / 0) (#13)
    by Capt Howdy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:15:05 PM EST
    I would assume to the ridicule of such initiatives from Obama and his friends.


    Parent
    here (5.00 / 2) (#16)
    by Capt Howdy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:17:03 PM EST
    Shortly after the 2008 election, President-elect Obama told close aides he wanted them to "think big." Rahm Emanuel, soon to be chief of staff, argued, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." In early 2009, Obama took a not-so-veiled shot at Bill Clinton when he snapped (privately), "We weren't sent here to do school uniforms."

    in six months he may be happy to get school uniforms.

    Parent

    I take it as an example (none / 0) (#7)
    by ruffian on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:08:57 PM EST
    of a kind of lowest common denominator issue that once would grab onto in the name of post-partisan unity, to show you are a uniter not a divider, or a successful triangulater.  

    Ihe point is IMO that those solutions that everyone really agrees might be good are so far away from addressing the real problems that they are barely worth addressing. Like freezing pay for federal workers, or putting kids in uniforms.

    Parent

    Well, school uniforms weren't (5.00 / 3) (#12)
    by inclusiveheart on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:13:07 PM EST
    particularly harmful.  They were an off-topic on-topic lure away from other destructive policies that the Republicans were pushing at the time.

    Whereas freezing federal employee's salaries is on topic and actually potentially destructive.

    Parent

    Maybe, but I think they also let (none / 0) (#17)
    by ruffian on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:18:39 PM EST
    Republicans think they were getting their foot in the door for other reforms.

    Parent
    I would rather have the opportunity (5.00 / 3) (#19)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:26:12 PM EST
    and the option of slamming their toes in the door than this new flinging the door wide open in greeting and trying to catch a herd of elephants in an embrace while being trampled to death.

    Parent
    Great imagery. nt (none / 0) (#24)
    by inclusiveheart on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 02:40:17 PM EST


    Parent
    Ruff: The mention of "foot" reminded (none / 0) (#25)
    by KeysDan on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 04:26:32 PM EST
    me that the school uniforms was an idea of then Clinton advisor, Dick Morris.

    Parent
    Also, I don't think uniforms are harmful at all (none / 0) (#18)
    by ruffian on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:19:58 PM EST
    I think it was a genuinely unifying issue, but a pretty meaningless one.

    Parent
    I am not at all interested in (5.00 / 2) (#21)
    by inclusiveheart on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:47:20 PM EST
    debating the merits or demerits of school uniforms, but I do think that the uniform thing was launched in part as "busy work" that would take away from doing other more harmful stuff they had planned at the time.

    And, I don't think that this particular crop of Republicans would be difficult to distract.  The problem for the Obama Administration is that they seem to avoid going to the public with their causes at all costs.  The school uniform thing would never have worked in its era either without Clinton engaging the electorate in the debate and basically bringing it to the center of the political debate.  Since the OA refuses to use that tool in their woodshed of power, they can't be effective with a ploy like this one - or effective on most any other initiative, for that matter.

    Healthcare would have been far easier if the Obama Administration and Democratic Leadership had defined the goals, engaged the public and sold the basic principles of a good plan.  Same with the stimulus.  In both cases, they were non-committal and all too easily distracted by their detractors' inane objections.

    Parent

    ooops - 'one would grab', not 'once would grab' (none / 0) (#8)
    by ruffian on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:09:31 PM EST


    Parent
    I wonder (none / 0) (#20)
    by lilburro on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:29:18 PM EST
    if the catfood commission could've been used in a more "triangular" manner.  For example, pass a jobs/stimulus package, and have that trigger a stupid commission.  I don't recall that the stimulus and the commission had any relationship to one another at all, although the commission was set up after the stimulus.

    The commission was established by (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by Anne on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 02:32:28 PM EST
    executive order after Mitch McConnell led a Senate filibuster, in January 2010, to kill the Congressional plan for such a commission.

    Note: I cite the article only for the history of how the commission came to be, and do not endorse the opinions presented within it, some of which made me laugh out loud (albeit, in a bitter sort of way); if you read the entire article, you'll probably do the same.

    I offer one LOL passage:

    But here's what really irks Obama's critics on the left: they see the commission setting the stage for an assault on entitlement programs. They are not entirely wrong: it's the unsustainable growth of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that's driving America's long-term fiscal woes. But progressives ought to have more confidence in Obama's ability to take a balanced approach to reforming the Big Three. It's better, and safer, to do that now rather than risk handing off the job to some future Republican president who may be hostile to the idea of social insurance.

    Anyone here filled with confidence that Obama will handle this better than Republicans?

    Anyone?  Bueller?

    Parent

    The commission IIRC came to (none / 0) (#22)
    by inclusiveheart on Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:53:52 PM EST
    be around the time that the Republicans started screaming, "Deficit!" like it was a fire or something.  That's right about the time that Democrats ran screaming from the room to cower in some closet hoping that they wouldn't get saddled with the irresponsible spending moniker again.

    For a bunch of self described "incrementalists", I these people seem awfully reactionary, extreme and freaked out to me.

    The Dems suggest a moratorium on off shore drilling - the Republicans start screaming "Energy Security!" - and the Dems promptly come out with a plan to expand off shore drilling.  Fortunately, in that case, "god intervened" on that one.

    Parent

    How To Triangulate | 25 comments (25 topical)

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