Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Follow the Opposition Incentives

By Dave Anderson: 

The big problem in the US political system right now is that one party is operating under a parliamentary rule set and the other party is still scared of the dirty fucking hippies and are seeking the bi-partisan comity that was the result of racists being randomly distributed between parties. 

Rule set fail!

From December 2008:

Let's imagine that you are a member of the minority party in the US
government.  The President of the opposite party is fairly to very
popular.  He is pushing a big, hard to reverse program with uncertain
outcomes that has strong support from the Senators and Representatives
of his party.  The program has strong but not overwhelming public
support.  There is a bit of undefined unease about the program, but the
public,
after a bit of a PR blitz and publicity whipping will most likely fall
in line with elite opinion.  The big area of cleavage in public opinion
is between your strong supporters (as this is not an "Ice Cream is
Delicious" Sense of The Senate resolution) and everyone else.

How do you vote if your vote is not the marginally decisive vote (either #218 in the House of #51/60 in the Senate)

Am
I talking about the AUMF for Iraq in 2002?  No, although the
superstructure of the political calculation is the same.  I'm talking
about Republican votes for any stimulus package....


The
stimulus has non-symmetrical political pay-offs.  Seeing positive
impacts of the stimulus package and voting for or against it still
leaves the GOP rep SOL.  The big project is a Democratic Branded
project, almost all benefits will accrue to the Democrats.  Voting for
the stimulus and seeing a fairly crappy economy in the summer of 2010
deprives an incumbent of a good sledge hammer.  The only positive
political outcome is to oppose the bail-out and be proven right about
your wisdom....

Caving and
hoping that the popular opponent screws up without destroying your own
credibility as a critic is amazingly stupid political strategy (Hi John
Kerry, Dick Gephardt, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle etc) as well as a
predictor of crappy results. 



Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. Kevin (NYC)January 19, 2010 at 5:13 AM

    I said this long ago about the stimulus bill...there are only four outcomes for a repug.
    vote for it and it succeeds - you get no credit and help Obama.
    vote for it and it fails - as above you lose a great stick to beat the dems.
    vote against it and it fails - gloat, preen, call your opponent a leftist marxist scum bucket.
    vote against it and it succeeds - screw it! still gloat, preen, call your opponent a leftist marxist scum bucket AND say that the whole thing was a big stinking failure
    (and then take credit for the money when its disbursed)

    ReplyDelete

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