The ‘bums’ aren’t the problem: We are A4 Wednesday, October 16, 2013
A new Associated Press-GfK poll reveals some troubling statistics for members of both major political parties, if they can be troubled, given what looks to be their lack of concern for what they are doing to the country. The poll finds fewer people approve of President Obama’s job performance (confirmed by a new Gallup Poll, which shows a 37 percent approval rating), but that Republicans score even worse at 5 percent approval. The AP-GfK poll “finds few people approve of the way the president is handling most major issues and most people say he’s not decisive, strong, honest, reasonable or inspiring.” It looks like hope has vanished. We can’t say we weren’t warned. The poll also shows many people are fed up with the government, leading to a return of the “throw the bums out” mentality. But the problem does not lie with the “bums.” If it did, the newest elected
EDITORIAL
OPINION
CAL
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“bums” would have fixed things by now. It’s the rabid careerism of politicians and the entitlement mentality of too many voters that has consumed Washington and led to its dysfunction. Putting healthy people in an environment where plague rages ensures they will likely contract the disease. What is needed is an entirely new (really an old) approach to government by “we the people” and by government itself. It’s difficult to change Washington because too many benefit from its current practices. Republicans,
who appeal to constitutional limits, spending cuts, lower taxes and the repeal of unnecessary regulations, are lambasted — even by fellow Republicans — when they try to rein in unsustainable spending. The Washington establishment is powerful and anyone who seeks to alter it risks isolation and condemnation. Would a third political party help shock the two major parties into behaving more responsibly? Possibly, but not likely. A new Gallup Poll finds: “Amid the government shutdown, 60 percent of Americans say the Democratic and Republican parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that a third major party is needed. That is the highest Gallup has measured in the 10-year history of this question. A new low of 26 percent believe the two major parties adequately represent Americans.” A third-party president, or a few members of Congress who
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eschewed the traditional party labels, would likely find themselves in the same rut if attitudes toward government and entitlement do not change. The problem lies less in Washington than in each American citizen. Since Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” many Americans appear to have abandoned self-restraint, individual responsibility and accountability in favor of government as provider, protector and guarantor. The notion that people are “owed” what others have earned is primarily responsible for our enormous and growing debt. We once promoted individual initiative and people who overcame difficult circumstances. Now we seem to punish the successful and treat the unsuccessful as victims who have no hope of improving their lot without government. This is a fallacy of course, based on the results of the failed “war on poverty.” Despite the fact — and it is a fact
— that government does many things poorly and at too high a cost, too many of us continue to turn to it for salvation. Politicians encourage this because addicting more people to government keeps them in power, solidifies their careers and keeps the special perks flowing their way. Nothing would change Washington faster than the transformative idea that only we can make our lives better by our financial and moral choices. It’s long past time for politicians to say “eat your vegetables, they are good for you” and for citizens to comply. Such a message will be labeled “harsh” by some, but it is necessary to restore a sick economy and a nation that needs to return to its constitutional roots. This return is the cure for our national dysfunction. (Readers may e-mail Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.)
Vouchers validated by most studies
Though U.S. taxpayers spend billions of dollars to help families pay tuition to private colleges, hardly anyone questions whether the “investment” yields academic gains. Yet the public education establishment continues to question the efficacy of school vouchers for K-12 students. And some, if not most, of the news reporting we read on vouchers raise the same question. The latest case in point is an article published by Politico under the headline: “Vouchers don’t do much for students.” The “inconvenient truth,” claims Politico’s Stephanie Simon, is that voucher students are no better off, academically, attending private or parochial schools than attending public schools. We frankly question Ms. Simon’s conclusion, which she bases on unspecified studies of voucher programs in three cities in particular — Milwaukee, Cleveland and New Orleans. In Milwaukee, she reported, 14 percent of voucher kids rated proficient in math and 11 percent in reading. In Cleveland, voucher students in most grades performed worse in math than their peers in public schools (although they fared better in reading). And, in New Orleans, she wrote, academically struggling voucher students hadn’t advanced to grade-level any faster the past two years than the city’s public school students. Without knowing more about those studies, we have no way of determining whether they represent serious scholarship. But we do know that a 2011 report produced by the Foundation for Educational Choice, “A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers,” is serious social science. Report author Greg Forster, a senior fellow at the foundation, examined randomized experimental studies and other highquality empirical studies of voucher programs conducted by researchers at such universities as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Cornell, as well as the Federal Reserve and other respected research institutions. Out of the 10 “gold standard” studies, nine found that vouchers improve student outcomes; six, that all students benefit; three, that some benefit, and some are not affected; one that found no visible impact and none that found a negative impact. Ms. Simon had to go out of her way to find three studies that contradict the findings of the Foundation for Educational Choice. We remain convinced of the efficacy of voucher programs, which are in place in 16 states and the District of Columbia, and which serve roughly a quarter -million schoolchildren. We continue to believe that the quality of education a K-12 student receives should not depend on their family’s financial wherewithal. If the family lives in a neighborhood where the public school is academically shortchanging kids, parents should be able to obtain a voucher to enroll their children in private schools providing a proper education.
Democrats, don’t pop the champagne yet The numbers for the Republican Party are beyond discouraging. The Grand Old Party is hemorrhaging support. In the most recent Wall Street JournalNBC News survey, only 24 percent of voters, an all-time low in the poll’s history, now have a favorable view of the Republican Party. The public blames Republicans more than they do President Obama, 53-31 percent, for the shutdown of the federal government. In this week’s Gallup poll, just 28 percent of voters — a 10-point drop since September — favorably viewed the GOP. This is the lowest favorable number that either political party has registered in the 21 years Gallup has been
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asking the question. Seventy percent in the Washington PostABC News poll, one week into the government shutdown, disapprove of congressional Republicans. Democrats whose own favorable and unfavorable numbers — 39-40 percent in a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll and 4349 percent in the Gallup — are nothing to write home about, yet Democrats are barely able to conceal their glee. It’s not that voters are smitten with the Democrats; they most definitely are not. It’s just that compared to the historically unpopular GOP, the Typhoid Mary of American politics, Democrats don’t look nearly as bad. It’s a little bit
like winning a humility competition against Donald Trump and Kanye West. But before Democrats start popping their chilled champagne in anticipation of their inevitable comeback in the election of 2014, they should understand that the government shutdown, coupled with the very public game of chicken over the nation’s debt ceiling, has led to even further hemorrhaging of voters’ already shrunken confidence in Washington and the public sector. Democrats historically have believed and argued that the federal government, at its best, can be an instrument of social justice and economic progress. Republicans, by con-
trast, have mostly been the antigovernment party. This was not always the case. In the middle of the Civil War, in which more Americans died than in all of the nation’s other wars combined, Justin Morrill, a Republican congressman from Vermont, wrote the Land Grant College Act, which the Congress passed and President Abraham Lincoln signed into law. It mandated the federal government to give every state 30,000 acres of land for each U.S. representative that a state had in Congress. The land was used to establish federal funding for every state to found at least one
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DEAR DOCTOR K: I do my best to care for my mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. But I often feel guilty and frustrated. Can you help me change my outlook — for my sake and my mother’s? DEAR READER: Fortunately, I never had to face the challenge that you face, as my parents both died while in full possession of their faculties. But many of my patients and friends are experiencing what you are going through. And like you, they often feel guilty and judge themselves harshly. The sad truth is that today there is little anyone can do to fully prevent the slow decline of someone af flicted with Alzheimer’s. As I look at the status of research on the disease,
I’m an optimist. I think some powerful ways to prevent and treat the disease may well be discovered in the next 20 to 30 years. As a caregiver, there is only so much you can do. And even when you’re doing everything right, a person who is not in her right mind may not appreciate what you’re doing. When that person is someone you love, that’s really hard to deal with. In her helpful new book, “Mindfulness Support for Alzheimer’s Caregivers,” my Harvard Medical School colleague Dr. Gail Gazelle helps guide caregivers back to physical and emotional health so that they can continue to care for their loved ones while preserving their own well-being. You can learn more about the book, and
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also order it, on my website: AskDoctorK.com. Dr. Gazelle offers lots of practical advice, tips and exercises to help you reframe your thoughts. Your circumstances might not change, but your ability to control the way you experience your circumstances can. Here are a few examples: — Guilt. When your loved one has Alzheimer’s, the guilt can
seem endless. You feel guilty that you don’t visit often enough, or that you don’t do enough. You feel guilty about things that you did or didn’t do before the disease took over. When you experience guilt, ask yourself: In what ways can I replace my guilt with awareness of the good things that I’m doing for my loved one? — The present moment. Experience what’s happening right now, without labeling or judging it. Don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future. Enjoy the view from wherever you stand. It decreases worry and stress. — Moments of joy. During the most trying times, we sometimes find moments of joy. With Alzheimer’s, such moments may be small but significant: a smile of understanding. Your mother’s
cooperation while getting dressed. A caress that takes you back to earlier years. Hang on to these moments by keeping a journal describing the times when you feel a strong sense of joy. Describe what made the moment so joyful. Be a source of reassurance and what you think may be happy memories. Touch your mother the way you always have. Sing a song she loved, and try to get her to join you. When you remind her of what she loved, you can bring both of you a measure of peace. (Dr. Komaroff is a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School. To send questions, go to AskDoctorK.com, or write: Ask Doctor K, 10 Shattuck St., Second Floor, Boston, MA 02115.)