During the 2011 debt ceiling crisis, a highly respected, soft-spoken Republican congressional staffer, Mike Lofgren, abruptly ended his 30-year career in government. To the surprise of everyone who knew him, in September of that year he authored an explosive Internet post titled Goodbye to all that: Reflections of a GOP operative who left the cult, which exposed the dysfunction of Congress from the point of view of the ultimate insider. The post received over a million views.

Like fellow Republican apostates David Stockman and Bruce Bartlett, Lofgren has plenty of criticism for both parties, but saves the most devastating denunciation for the GOP. Lofgren has authored a best-selling book expanding on the theme of his original piece. The title is a pretty good summary of the book: The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.

Similar to several recent authors, Lofgren places blame for the sad state of our politics on two things: the capitulation of the GOP to extreme right wing reactionaries, and more importantly, the influence of big money, for which he blasts both Republicans and Democrats, although not equally. He documents the corruption and craziness of our elected officials in language that is both eloquent and devastating; not the kind of prose you would expect from someone with the reputation of being mild-mannered. Lofgren has obviously long been internalizing his frustration with the government he served so faithfully, and when the frustration broke, it came out with a bang.

These books usually contain suggestions for how Americans can rescue our nation from the influence of big money power brokers and give it back to the citizens. I found the ideas proposed by Lofgren extraordinarily intriguing; enough so that I’m listing an abbreviated summary (you should read the book for more detail). Some are familiar, some are unique.

• Get all private money out of our elections. All Congressional and Presidential elections must be publically funded, no private donations or self-funding allowed. Here’s a quote, typical of the language he uses in the book: “A politician is a hog that is grateful to whoever is rattling the stick inside the swill bucket. It is time to take that swill bucket away from corporations and plutocrats.”
  


• The above process must allow for independent/third party candidates, with a carefully designed qualification process to weed out the kooks but not be too onerous for legitimate candidates.


• Campaign season limited to 60 days before the election.


• Eliminate tax-exempt status for political advocacy organizations and think tanks.


• The law should oblige television broadcasters to offer a reasonable but limited amount of free political advertising during the campaign period. “The broadcasters’ permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use the public airwaves gives them a virtual license to print money – should they not give something back to the public for that privilege?”
  


• If media outlets choose to accept paid commercials for so-called “independent” issue ads, they must offer equivalent time to the opposing view for free. That’s what happened to cigarette ads on TV; they weren’t directly outlawed, but the requirement to give anti-smoking messages equal time killed them.


• Primaries should be open and non-partisan with the top two finishers contesting the general election, regardless of party, thus doing away with the hyper-partisan convention/closed primary process.


• Voting districts should be drawn by non-partisan commissions.

Most reading this would likely agree with many, if not all of the above recommendations – but are saying, “So what – there’s no chance any of this can happen!”

I don’t know. Here’s a thought: It’s too early to know how the election will turn out, but let’s assume for a moment the Democrats win (defined as a victory for President Obama, Democrats retaining control of the Senate, and cutting significantly into the Republican majority in the House). If that happens, what should we rank-and-file Democrats do?

I say we should pressure the President and congressional Democrats to take a page out of the playbook of obstructionist Republicans the last two years. The pattern was given by Lawrence Lessig in his book Republic Lost from last year. Here’s how it would work: The President would refuse to sign any bill from Congress until they place on his desk acceptable legislation to take big money out of politics. If that legislation needs to be a constitutional amendment, so be it. The above suggestions could serve as a pattern. Maybe there are better ideas. But here’s the deal: Barack Obama was right in 2008; our problems will not be solved until the broken system is fixed. Unfortunately (and I say this as an Obama supporter), he tried to fix the problems before fixing the system. My opinion is that his main priority his second term should be fixing the system. Once we get our legislators away from spending half their time dialing for dollars and take away the swill bucket, the system will start working again as intended and we can get America back on track.

While we will not ever say that our interpretation of Mormon doctrine's political implications is the only viable one, we here at MormonLiberals.org firmly believe that ours is the most viable. We will never say "You can't be a good Mormon and a good conservative" (even though we've been told we can't be liberal and be good Mormons hundreds of times). Here's what we say instead.

Read more

Post by Joseph M -

The Seahawks beat the Packers last night in this amazing down-to-the-wire knuckle-biter, (the finger nails were all gone by the end of the third quarter,) where Russel threw a 24-yard touchdown to Golden Tate.  Clearly, there were angels in the endzone to solidify this miracle of epic proportions.  (For optimum effect, reread that last line imagining Sean Connery's voice.)  Of course, this wasn't without controversy: football fans all over the country called foul (baseball?) in that M.D. Jennings maybe/probably/most-likely had a hold of the ball before Tate got his hands on it, making the play an interception, not a touchdown, as it was called by the high-school-football-type referees called in to replace the striking professional refs.

After the call, all of us in Seattle jumped, cheered, and high-fived each other, and even if us Hawks fans acknowledged that it might have been an interception, we sang together in one unified harmonious chorus: "We'll take it."

And President Obama also jumped into the fray, calling the outcome "terrible," and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan tried to score a political touchdown of his own by comparing the amateur-refereeing to the Obama administration.

Well, Ryan's comments seem to further the assertion that the Romney campaign is struggling and desperate.  The way I see it,  Mitt Romney is running out of ways to get himself to the White House.  While all roads lead to Rome, there's only one or two that'll get him to D.C.  With a series of missteps in the past few weeks (admittedly, no-apologies-Romney doesn't publicly refer to them as that,) Romney's image as an out-of-touch, privileged, and somewhat surly rich man continues to surge in inverse proportion to his chances of winning the election.

I am starting to think that he really only has a few ways to win at this point:

1.) Voter suppression.  I used to be unconvinced that this was a real thing.  However, I can no longer pretend this isn't actually happening.  Read here for an article on its effect on Latino voters.   We even have reports of people trying to register ONLY Romney voters.  See below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7RvuSnsNGI?rel=0]
But I have to admit that my heart goes out to this cute little girl - I swear she looks like a Mia Maid I knew growing up.  And plus, the woman with the camera is so mean!  She yells at her and calls her honey bunch!  My opinion (although patronizing and sexist) is that we should give this poor girl a pass because she seems so nice and sweet, and I think that her father probably made her do this.

2.) Money. Now that Romney and Obama are the nominees, spending on the part of both candidates is astronomical.  According to PBS News Hour yesterday, the rates of spending on TV advertisements has doubled the amount of what was spent in 2008.  Both candidates are after that (unbelievably) undecided middle-voter, and these ads target them without regard to truth or reality.  And of course, this says nothing about the Super-PAC money out there.  Michael Moore predicted a Romney win for just this reason: "Mitt Romney is going to raise more money than Barack Obama. That should guarantee his victory."  True enough; he does have a lot of dough to spend, and if Romney ever needed his wealth to buy something, the time is now.

3.) A miracle.  I believe in miracles, but I don't know that the Republicans should wait for seagulls to swoop down and gobble up the elderly and minority voters in those states that have overturned the voter-suppression laws.  However, that doesn't mean that some other natural disaster or man-made calamity couldn't set the president off of his stride.  Just look to Bush (W.) in 2000.  A bunch of hanging chads and that Michelle Bachman look-alike handed him the election - and of course, this was subsequently confirmed by the Supreme Court.  But all of that refers back to point number one.  So could more poor job numbers or an uptick in the Middle East conflict send voters fleeing for Romney?

But alas, pondering on a Romney win causes me to think about that wonderfully awesome football game from last night with its game-winning Hail Mary pass; while Republicans would celebrate if Romney was elected in November, somewhere deep in their heads they might recognize that it came about through happenstance, a bad call, or even nefarious means.  And just like in 2000, when the presidency was given to George W. Bush by the Supreme Court, the Republicans will intone simultaneously, "We'll take it."

[brightcove vid=1823261844001&exp3=961751338001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=961753523001&pk=AQ~~,AAAA3-z6Izk~,70dt0G6K4XP9jJGaqwc9VohXisAPIx8D&w=480&h=270]

This video and the following post are from Odyssey Networks:

Mormon Democrats are a rarity in Utah. They represent just 7 percent of Mormons in the state, but came out full force Tuesday evening at an LDS Democrats event held in Charlotte, N.C. in and around the Democratic National Convention.  LDS Democrats, many of whom were formerly Republican, say the Democratic party now best represents their core values, including caring for the most vulnerable in society. They are not monolithic in their beliefs however, as LDS Democrats range from feminists to anti-abortion.

Thank you to Odyessy Networks for this great video!

Post by Rob T.

Wednesday, in the Huffington Post, LDS historian and author Dr. Gregory Prince wrote a piece that, in some ways, I've been waiting to appear since Governor Romney said we should "double Guantanamo" back in May of 2007. The newly revealed remarks dismissing 47% of the country (including many Mormons), prompted Dr. Prince to write in part:

"The very basis of Mormon community, stretching back to the earliest years of Mormonism nearly two centuries ago, is that the more able have a sacred obligation to assist the less able. That sense of physical community was institutionalized in the Church's Welfare Program, which sprang out of the Great Depression as an exemplary and effective means of combining church and government assistance not only to give to those in need, but also to help them to help themselves . . . Judge Mitt Romney as you will, and vote for or against him as you will; but do not judge Mormonism on the basis of the Mitt Romney that was unveiled to the public this week. He is not the face of Mormonism."

Dr. Prince was on the Lawrence O'Donnell show on MSNBC Thursday evening to discuss his column, Mitt Romney, and Mormonism. I encourage you all to watch it here.

(Picture: pass-along cards used to invite people to see Mormons discuss their faith at Mormon.org.)

The liberal businessperson stops one day to survey her business. "Wow," she thinks to herself, "look at all these people who work at my company. They work so hard, stay so late, dedicate so much. All for me and my business. They must be Saints!"

The conservative businessperson stops one day to survey her business. "Wow," she thinks to herself, "look at all these people who work at my company. They work so hard, stay so late, dedicate so much. All for me and my business. I must be a Saint!"

Read more

This piece was originally published on the site Technorati.com. 

Guest post by Darin Hammond -

Interest in Mr. Romney’s Mormon faith is in decline, a shift from the U.S. News and World Report earlier this month, which claimed otherwise. Romney’s Mormonism was at a high point around the 9th of September, but research I performed on the 16th seems to indicate a significant decline.

Using the same sources, Google search trends, I found that the media have shifted the focus away from Mormonism. Try a simple Google news search, and you’ll find that the Mormon issue is receiving little attention. Perhaps a better indicator is the graph from Google Trends showing the peak in early September, followed by a rapid drop.

As a Mormon, I had mixed feelings about this drop because I will vote again for President Obama, and if the religion issue helps him win, so be it. I have written on this site about the political beliefs of Mormons, ones that might affect Mr. Romney’s approach to national governance. I feared, I must confess, to have our nation run by a member of my own faith.

My thinking has changed. I was refreshed to find yesterday the website Mormons for Obama, easing my angst over the Mormon issue because the site demonstrates that our faith can be open-minded, something I doubted. Mormons for Obama state that “we are Mormons and we are for President Barack Obama.  We created this website in order to represent the unique perspective of Mormons who are voting for Obama.”  My faith in the ability of church members to be open-minded was strengthened.

Obama Mormons believe that neither religion nor race define individuals, that Romney is not better because he is a Mormon. My thinking has shifted about the way members of my faith think critically, principally that they can. The Mormon issue is not so important to me now because I realize that Mormons can have open, inquiring minds in politics. This made me think less of religion and more about President Obama as an amazing leader.

Obama Mormons believe that Christian and family values are not owned by the Republican party and that President Obama can be the better person for the job, whatever his faith. We believe that, while abortion and gay marriage may cause moral problems for us, education, poverty, equality, and the environment are powerful moral issues as well. We take seriously the statement of LDS leaders that we are politically diverse and are free to vote our mind and heart.

Obama Mormons believe in the hope the President inspires, for a future that is blind to color and religion and a country vigilantly united in the struggle against oppression, ignorance, and hatred. I now believe that the shift away from religion is positive. I have more faith that Mormons can be open and tolerant. Mormons are not heretics for believing in President Obama’s plan for the future of our country.

Post by Rob T.

One of my lengthiest discussions about Mormonism happened with a high school friend who had just finished his first year at a top-25 dental school.

It started with his question: "Why do so many of you become dentists? Half of my class is Mormon: they're all from Utah, they're all married, and they all have two or three kids."

While I never answered that particular question, I've had many Mormon friends go to dental school. My wife completed professional school, I'm almost done with a doctoral program. We Mormons are told to get married, have children, and get all the education we can. This leads to a simple fact: despite the fact that we've settled down, we're raising the next generation, and we're working very hard to secure a stable future, we fall into Governor Romney's 47% who pay no income tax, who can't be convinced to "take personal responsibility and care for [our] lives." 

There are two broad reasons we pay no income tax (though, of course, we still pay sales, gas, and payroll taxes). First, as Ezra Klein lays out, Republican tax cuts have reduced the income tax liability for poor and middle-income Americans, even as that reduced liability is now being used as a reason to cut services to pay for new tax cuts for our wealthier fellow citizens. Second, as FactCheck.org explains, over the last few decades, presidents from both parties have supported and expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. This is because they've believed that it was good to encourage people to work and to have children. There's that personal responsibility again.

We don't consider ourselves victims for choosing to marry young, go to graduate school, and have a daughter. We've had incredible opportunities, and done our best to only use as much of the social safety net as we needed, and not begrudging others who used more. (If anyone out there doubts the general eligibility of young Mormon student families for government benefits, check out this thread from Mormon Mentality in 2007. It's one of the most epic discussions that has ever graced the Bloggernacle.) We do our best to take responsibility for our lives, both in the here and now and in planning for the future.

Four years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to hear Michelle Obama speak at a rally in North Carolina. She talked about how she and Barack only managed to finish paying off their student loans in 2004, as sales of Dreams From My Father started to take off. The President's also talked about this. Sitting in those bleachers back in May of 2008, listening to the future First Lady as we faced graduate school and having kids, we said to one another, "She and Barack get it. They know what we're going through. They're going to pursue policies that help young families who are just starting out." And so they have.

We Mormons are taught to take responsibility, to make choices that can lead to getting an education, to marriage, to children. Many of us are part of the 47%, and many of us are voting for President Obama, because we know he's got our backs.

This is another excellent video from Utah Common Values;
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbyPO5pHvsg&w=560&h=315]

It seems that Mormon democrats, liberals, and progressives have been in the news quite a bit of late. Here are some interesting articles I recommend:

Read more