Play Podcast | “The Romney Tax”

When Governor Mitt Romney finally heeded to repeated calls from his opponents and the press to release his tax returns late last month, a flurry of even more media attention followed. Romney’s effective tax rate was 13.9 percent, and no one was happy about it. It was also determined that the GOP presidential contender isn’t just a member of the “one percent” of America’s highest earners—he’s in at least the top 0.006%. Needless to say, people weren’t happy about that either. But is this really something Romney did wrong—some kind of loophole or tax break from the rich—or was he just playing the name of the game? Lucky for us, Associate Professor of Economics Robert Rebelein looked through the 200-page document to help make sense of it all.

—”Primary Education” is a weekly podcast series covering the 2012 Election with Vassar’s professors

Play Podcast | “Painted Politics”

This week I asked James Mundy, Anne Hendricks Bass Director of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, to look at Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich’s official government portraits—two seldom discussed paintings of the most talked-about men in politics. Romney had his done as Governor, and Gingrich as Speaker of the House. These portraits were commissioned as each candidate was on his way out of office—and so the works may be able to tell us something about what Romney and Gingrich wanted to leave behind.

—”Primary Education” is a weekly podcast series covering the 2012 Election with Vassar’s professors

Play Podcast | “Does Character Matter?”

It was President Richard Nixon, of all people, who said, “You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character. Character,” he said, “is the most important qualification a president can have.” That was in 1964, when he was campaigning for Barry Goldwater. Fast-forward 10 years and Nixon was offering his resignation following Watergate—a scandal of dirty tricks, harassment, money laundering and, most of all, bad character.

Last Thursday, one of our current presidential candidates had his own character attacked. Just two days before the South Carolina primary, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was accused by his second ex-wife of asking for an open marriage. And this on top of what we already knew about Gingrich’s past—two extramarital affairs and a congressional ethics violation.

Professor Richard Born, of the Political Science department, explains how character plays in the Republican primary.

Born points out that forgiveness is a hallmark of Evangelical and socially conservative voters, and that Gingrich has apologized for his checkered past. Recently, he even signed a fidelity pledge, which Born has posted on his office door. Still, Born likens Gingrich’s character to Nixon’s, saying that voters will have to overlook an awful lot to accept the former speaker as their nominee.

—”Primary Education” is a weekly podcast series covering the 2012 Election with Vassar’s professors

Two weeks ago, the African Students Union hosted a screening of a short informational film on the conflict in Eastern Congo.  The screening was meant to begin to lift the silence around this conflict and get students aware of the horrific events occurring in that part of the world, a story that has been neglected by international media.  Only one person attended the screening.  While many factors contribute to the lack of attendance at events like these, including the plethora of overlapping events at Vassar, lack of sufficient advertising, and timing, this incidence serves to illustrate the perpetration of silence and lack of discussion on this issue.

Why should the death of millions of innocent civilians in a distant African country matter to US college students?  We are taught at Vassar to question everything; authority, the status quo, generalizations, assumptions and limitations which dictate the operating systems of power.  We are taught to believe in justice, in human rights, in individual self-determination, in freedom.  When we hear about situations where these values are blatantly destroyed, our personal belief systems are destroyed as well.  If we truly care about these values, we must work to see them implemented.  We must be conscious that we are the next generation of adults who will supervise the systems of operation in the world.  If we want to see the values that we intellectualize as forces in society we must begin to make the shift into praxis now.  The history of student movements proves that students are a social force with the power to make change.  Students are crucial activists because they have the time and energy to put into organizing protests, they have the resources of institutions to work with or against, they are often less jaded and have not yet lost the belief that the world can be changed for the better.

The situation in the Congo is extremely complex, rooted in a history of colonialism, civil war, dictatorship, corruption, and autonomous militias and violence.  In brief, groups of militias run around Eastern Congo, invading villages, killing, raping and pillaging with impunity to gain control of mineral resources.   Many of these militias are made up of the perpetrators of genocide in Rwanda who fled to the Congo to escape retribution.  Rape is used as a tool of warfare, to tear apart and destroy communities.  The minerals that fuel the conflict are tied to the technology industry and are bought by the multinational companies who make our cell phones and laptops.  There is a huge activist push to divest from these minerals and from the companies who support them.

Many activist groups concerned with this conflict and other cases of human rights abuses focus much of their attention on lobbying U.S. policy makers to take action.  The idea that it is the responsibility of the United States to play the role of international policeman through chastisement, intervention, sanctions, or outright invasion demands a second thought.  The US has sought to posture itself as a world leader, giving itself the right to be personally concerned with events taking place in all parts of the world.  This attitude smacks of hegemonic imperialism.

I do not intend to argue that the US, or the international community, ought to leave conflicts such as this alone, for this would mean abandoning the innocent civilians targeted and victimized by the larger conflict.  However I argue that the role of international arbiter should belong to an independent multilateral institution.  It would seem that this role ought to belong to the United Nations, after all the origin of this institution stems from post-World War II goals of international peace.  The United Nations however has failed to act effectively to mediate and to aid civilians and refugees affected by conflict in numerous cases, notable recent examples include Rwanda, Darfur and East Timor.  UN Peacekeeping troops have been on the ground in DR Congo since 2000, during which time over 6 million people have been killed as a result of the crisis.  The UN troops, charged with disarming warring militias, run democratic elections and assist with reconstruction, have failed to protect the Congolese people.  In fact, a BBC investigation in 2008 reported that UN troops in Congo have been involved in the illegal trade in gold, have been involved in arming and training rebel militias, have been accused of sexual abuse and have direct dealings with the militia responsible for the Rwandan genocide.[1] The UN has failed in its role as international peacemaker.

The violence in Congo shows no signs of resolution.  African history Professor Ishmael Rashid gave a brief history of the country during a discussion with students after a second film screening with slightly better attendance.  He asserted the role of the international community in helping to end the violence, but emphasized a need to not victimize the Congolese or strip them of agency in their own lives.  Protection for civilians, demilitarization of mines, control of arms trade, and a boycott of the minerals involved should be the first aims of an international coalition of actors working in tandem with local groups to reduce violence and return a semblance of peace to this region.  Student mobilization is one way to pressure those in power to take action.

THIS WEEK: the VASSAR GREENS

The Vassar Greens are an environmental activist group with projects ranging from on campus, local and regional initiatives.  The 50-60 member group meets as a general body on Wednesday nights at 8 pm in the Jade Parlor, and meets as smaller, focused campaign groups during other evenings.  The campaigns focus on initiatives such as shutting down a local incinerator, running the Free Market, putting composting in the dorms, shifting Vassar’s energy usage away from coal power, and kicking bottled water off campus.

Here is a video made by the Greens to explain who they are:

Interview with the co-president of the Greens, Jillian Guenther, a junior and Environmental Studies major:

Q: What is the most exciting event or campaign the Greens are working on this semester?

A: Working with the Green Umbrella (a network of college environmental activist groups in New York state).  The value of working with this organization is two-fold, it connects us to other New York students, we already have a relationship with Bard and hopefully soon Marist and Dutchess Community College, as well as connecting us to state-wide movements against hydro-fracking and the tar sands pipeline among others.  This network allows us to participate in activism off-campus that matters to others outside of Vassar and helps us to be part of the big picture.

Q: What personally motivates you to get involved in environmental activism?

A: My interest started in middle school, with a good science teacher.  But, especially more recently, it have become more urgent rather than a theoretical academic interest.  I had a moment in Albany [during a protest against hydro-fracking last spring] when I really realized how important this work was.  The girl next to me was in tears as we protested, and after talking to her I realized that this issue was directly affecting her life and her health.  As college students at Vassar we are not directly impacted by fracking or really any of these issues, but this shit’s real.  There are consequences if we don’t act.

Q: Do you see your activism fitting into your plans for life after Vassar?

A: I believe that there are always opportunities to act.  Not everyone needs to be an activist, in fact its important that not everyone is.  But there is a degree of citizenship responsibility that includes being informed and acting when necessary for what you believe in.  I definitely see myself involved with activism in the future.

Q: What does Vassar need to know about the Greens?

A: We want to serve as a platform for projects, campaigns, and ideas.  That said, we also want to emphasize our intersection with environmentalism and other issues.  Social Justice connects everything we do together.  We are not just a group of hippies, we like to have fun and we get real work done.

Q: How does the work of the Greens fit into the larger environmental movement?

A: Our work with the Green Umbrella is helping to make fitting into a larger movement more possible and powerful.  We participate in conference calls with students from other schools and have been learning about what projects they are working on.  A lot of them are also doing Take back the Tap [a campaign to reduce dependence on bottled water] and we are all going to coordinate together now.  The networking between us and other college campuses increases our strength in numbers and helps us to make a larger impact.

Q: What is an example of something you have done that made you feel like you had a part in making an impact?

A: There were two events in the last year that felt inspirational and that I was proud to participate in. The first was the march after Powershift [the national youth environmental conference which took place last April], and the other was the Tar Sands action where I got arrested in front of the White House.  Those exciting moments of protest are important to galvanize people and to give them the drive to go back to the real work of change, like the conference calls and 2 am brainstorming sessions.  These efforts are not as showy but both pieces of activism are needed for real change.

* I am going to use some of this space to feature the wonderfully hard-working activist groups on campus. If you would like your organization to be featured please contact me at Nadann@vassar.edu

Over-worked, over-committed, over-involved and under-slept are common words we Vassar students used frequently to describe ourselves.  This incredibly diverse, engaged, and active campus provides a myriad of opportunities to get involved.  Too many even.  One of the biggest complaints we hear on a daily basis is “There is never enough time to do everything I need/want to do!”

Vassar activists are involved in everything from helping to support our workers to renegotiate contracts, reducing the amount of bottled water consumed on campus, working with Poughkeepsie students on socially conscious theater, selling baked goods to raise funds for hunger relief, working with local legislators to shut down an incinerator causing pollution and social justices issues in Dutchess County, educating voters and hosting lobbying trainings, the list goes on and on.  As important as all these activities and others are to our personal journeys, our intellectual interests, Vassar’s campus, Poughkeepsie, the global community…a central problem plagues activism on this campus and elsewhere.

Each of us as individuals or as organizations are so focused on our own political agenda, social justice issue, event, or campaign that we cannot support each other’s work.  The effect that each of our individual projects has on the improvement of society is inherently limited by the support we can garner from each other.  There is a limited amount of energy and time that we can dedicate to activism.  If that energy is divided amongst many different initiatives with similar broad goals, then each initiative lose the power that could be gained from uniting the energies of our activist community.

Recognition of the fact that we all hold dear the same goals of justice and community improvement is the first step to reconnecting and redirecting our methods.  Everything is connected.  The same plastic water bottles present an environmental concern: waste, a health concern: BPA and other harmful chemicals, and a social justice issue: pollution and cancer-causing effects of factories which are placed in low-income neighborhoods.  We all have different priorities, but all of the problems facing society are connected and therefore it is crucial that we work together and support each other’s initiatives.

Last spring the Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics (GAAP) organized an activist conference.  One of the outcomes of the great conversations we had was an Activist Calendar and discussion blog.  Please visit: http://vassaractivists.wikispaces.com/ and fill in your organization’s events.  If you have ideas for how to run/expand/organize the blog please contact GAAP (gaap.vsa@vassar.edu or myself nadann@vassar.edu).  Also, if you are interested in activism in the Hudson Valley visit: http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/.  Please comment on this post if you would like to share about your experience with activism at Vassar.  

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked me what I thought about Obama’s presidency so far. As I tried to defend what will eventually be considered a notorious failure of a president to communicate his or her goals and accomplishments, she complained, “He’s a moderate!”

“That’s true,” I agreed. But it’s something more than that. Before Obama was even inaugurated, op-eds were pronouncing him–above other labels– a pragmatist. During the election, he was able to maneuver through the most divisive political issues, and stick to the issue Americans needed to be comforted about:  the economy. While Obama has certainly steered us away from the reactionary course of George W. Bush, he has disappointed a huge number of liberals who thought his presidency, in combination with a Democratic majority in the House and super majority in the Senate, expected magic: an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, a cut in the defense budget, higher taxes for the rich, gay marriage, carbon taxes…

But that was never going to happen. And it’s not just because we lost our super majority and the Tea Party started yelling about Communism. It’s because as Obama was being sworn in on January 20, 2009, the date he was really thinking about was Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

36 states have term limits for governors and 15 state legislatures have them for representatives.
But federally, presidents have only had term limits since after FDR’s death, and senators and representatives and Supreme Court Justices can serve until they die.

As a devoted fan of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a somewhat delusional idealist, the unlimited tenure is not what I see as problematic here. The problem is that as long as an elected official has to be reelected, every decision he or she makes will be based on how that affects their chances come that next election day.

Obama hasn’t made definitive stands on gay marriage or Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or the Defense of Marriage Act, or even the Bush tax cuts that are about to expire–which, tangentially, are a failure whether you are a conservative or not:  GDP growth has shrunk since they were enacted, and the deficit is always climbing–because he is still in campaign mode, and will be until he has been categorically, absolutely, indubitably elected for another term.

Being a mainstream politician has and probably always will mean filtering and concealing one’s true ideological beliefs. But taking away a politician’s chance of being re-elected not only sifts out those who only a long period of power, but also turns off campaign-mode, and allows politicians to actually achieve change, without fear of electoral repercussions. While this applies to all elected offices, presidents guide public dialogue and set the nation’s agenda.

Those who claim politicians must be held accountable to their constituents are forgetting that our entire Constitution was written to dampen emotion and sudden change and maintain the status quo. Unchecked power in the American executive branch is only a problem when it comes to national security, issues that are “too dangerous” to be brought to public referendum. Congress and the Supreme Court will always be there to challenge policy that is too radical.

If American presidents could have only one four or six year term, change might be something I could believe in.

Tess Dernbach is co-president of the Vassar Democrats and a regular contributor to Main Circle.

Opinions Gab Podcast | Why don’t American students protest like their European counterparts?

This week Opinions Editors Juan Thompson and Josh Rosen discuss the reasons why American students don’t have their voices heard as much as their peers in Europe.

2010 Election Results Map from Politico.com

During election season, campaigns focus mainly on the image of the candidate. The media, and consequently voters, get caught up in details like their family life, voting record, embarrassing college photos (don’t mix keg stands and camera phones, poli sci majors), friendships and affiliations and other significant aspects of how a candidate will perform in office. However, every once in a while, an incident brings to the forefront candidates’ knowledge of issues and current events, or, more often than not, lack thereof.

General awareness and understanding of the situation of the county, state, country, and world seem like such obvious precursors to even thinking about running for office that they are sometimes forgotten.

On October 19, Jon Runyan, the Republican nominee for New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, was asked at a debate to name a recent Supreme Court decision he disagreed with. “Dred Scott,” he answered–a decision made in 1857.

The  media is portraying this gaffe as either one more example of how stupid teabaggers are (MSNBC) or not addressing the incident at all (Fox, etc). But as much as my bleeding heart and my hatred of the “Tea Party” tell me otherwise, this phenomena, of painfully uninformed candidates and elected officials is not restricted to conservatives. Especially on the state level, with regards to most issues, congresspeople only know what their aids and pollsters tell them. There are no educational pre-requisites to holding any elected governmental office. While this leaves open the American dream that anyone can grow up and be president, it also means that someone can get elected to making our laws without ever having taken Intro to Macroeconomics.

Maybe I’m elitist, but when I visited the Pennsylvania Legislature as a recent high school graduate to talk to my representative about natural gas drilling, I didn’t feel comfortable knowing more about basic scientific concepts than my middle-aged representative.

Congressmen vote on so many bills while they’re in session—many on the state level are congratulations to various sports teams—and often don’t have time to become fully informed about issues. While this brings to mind some serious questions about the efficacy of a representative democracy, or at least the logistics of our particular Congressional schedule, it also means that as voters, our responsibility is more than just voting. Voting is clearly the first, most important step, as it is our only way of ensuring that we elect people that, rather than perfectly aligning with our personal views on every issue, are well informed and will listen to what their constituents are saying.

But when it comes to elections, voters too are culpable. If you voted this Tuesday, you deserve adulation; usually only about one-third of the country votes during non-presidential elections. But before you pat yourself on the back, let me ask you:  did you watch any debates? Read any articles about the candidates? (Op-eds don’t count). I saw a Facebook status on Election Day encouraging people to vote down the party line. However you are registered, that is simply not appropriate behavior. For a variety of reasons—including the new dominance of 24-hour media, the blogosphere and the degeneration of print newspapers—slogans and vague ideologies are trumping most forms of fact, research, and logic.

Election season is hectic enough without finding a still point in the turning world. I’m suggesting this:  pick knowledge. Pick information. Know your candidates, know your senators and representatives and governors. When there is an issue you really care about, you owe it to yourself to go in and talk to your elected officials about it. And if the most you know about a candidate is their party, you’re doing it wrong.

P.S. Jon Runyan was elected to the House of Representatives on November 2nd, with 50% of the vote.

Tess Dernbach ’12 is the co-president of the Vassar College Democrats and will be contributing regularly to Main Circle.

Opinions Gab Podcast | Should Cuomo take the high road in the gubernatorial race?

This week, Rosen and Thompson discuss the political tactics in the race to govern the state of New York.