Screw Rock 'n' Roll

Exile on Maine Street: Middle America takes a trip to the Pine Tree State

In the minds of most people, Middle America is that massive stretch of flyover country between the coasts; a land of baseball games and picket fences, hard working, religiously-devout small-town folk, and, in recent times, closing down factories and widespread unemployment. It’s made up of states like Ohio, where in the past two Presidential elections, the media have descended upon its towns and cities to watch average American swing voters decide the fate of the nation.

For the next couple of weeks, though, Middle America is a land less about cornfields and more about lobster pots and cold Canadian winds. The central battleground in American politics has shifted to the north east corner of the country. For the time being, replace “Will it play in Peoria?” with “Does it matter in Maine?”

The first story out of Maine is an old American tale that could, this time, have a new… [read more]

I’m still on my grizzy over at the USSC blog, talking today about how some of 21st Century America’s most contentious political debates are converging upon Maine this week. For one small moment, middle America is way over in the upper-right corner of the map. And once you read that, you might like to check out my fellow USSC blogger Erin Riley repping for Yale’s Civil War course on iTunes U and how the current US health care system forces hidden costs on women.

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Oct 26

Just who is going to opt out of Opt Out?

I like maps like these, because they demonstrate the great diversity to be found within the United States of America, and how important regionalism is in the country. I posted it along with some commentary a couple weeks back on my other blog, but it originally comes from FlowingData.com. (Should you not like pictures, you can see the figures in table form over at Business Week.) The disparity should not be too surprising; the United States has a federal system of government, and while the Founding Fathers may not have intended for Hawaiians to live an average of eight years longer than… [read more]

As I tell y’all over at the USSC, the states that opt out will probably be the ones that could best benefit from the public option.

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USSC America Politics

Oct 28

All Mad Men are created equal: Glenn Beck’s common sense

I’ll say this for cable news programs: they really know how to up the ante. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart pricked the absurdity of the relentless and frequently meaningless 24 hour news cycle, but he couldn’t match Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly. Then Stewart launched protégé Stephen Colbert and his wicked parody of the rabble-rousing, self-satisfied conservative anchorman, and the game seemed over. How could you top a man who accused reality of having a well-known liberal bias?

Why, with Glenn Beck, of course! A year ago, Beck was… [read more]

Didn’t get around to linking to this one… Me at the USSC blog on Glenn Beck, “Mad Men” and American nostalgia.

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America Politics Television Mad Men USSC

Oct 30

Electoral Maths vs Electoral Math

New post up at the USSC blog, this time examining how Australia’s mandatory voting creates different political outcomes to America, with its optional voting system. Has a bit of health care discussion, too. Basically, you should go read it.

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USSC America Politics Australia

Oct 31

Democrats take health care one vote at a time

It wasn’t quite Grand Final day for health care reform today, but the excited atmosphere surrounding the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote was something close. Call it a semi-final, perhaps; one that ended with a 220-215 final score in favour of passing H.R. 3962: Affordable Health Care for America Act. 219 Democrats voted for the bill, and one Republican: Joseph Cao, a Louisianan representing a heavily Democratic district, who won election against an opponent who was under indictment on corruption charges at the time.

That makes it sound easy, but anyone who has heard the adage that watching the creation of legislation is like seeing a sausage get made can guess that something as contentious as health care reform was no cakewalk. As with a big game, it all kicked off when House Democrats were given a pep talk from Coach Barack Obama, who told his team, “When I’m in the Rose Garden signing a piece of legislation to give health care to all Americans, we’ll look back and say that was our finest moment.” I like to imagine his speech was followed up with one from Offensive Coordinator Rahm Emanuel, warning, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” (Or perhaps, “If you lose, you’re out of the family”).

I’ve had a great time watching the health care action on C-Span’s online feed (yes, really). You can read my wrap-up over at the USSC blog.

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USSC Politics America

Nov 07

Obama in Japan: A typhoon in a tea-cup, and something more serious.

Barack Obama’s been in Asia the past week, and he’s done more than simply dash hopes of a binding deal on climate change coming out of Copenhagen. (OK, that’s, a little unfair; more than a few parties share the blame for the lack of accord on that front.) But in Obama’s first Presidential trip to Asia, the self-described “first Pacific President” has had to face a range of shifting power relationships, from a China growing unsure as to how much longer it wants to prop up American debt to a Japan that has suddenly decided its apparently bipartisan foreign policy isn’t that bipartisan after all.

Obama landed in Japan on Friday to meet with the country’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Obama has the same celebrity status in Japan as he has in much of the rest of the world; his speeches are sold there as instructional tapes to teach English, and there are even reports that his name has been adapted as a verb, obamu, meaning to ignore setbacks and express a “Yes We Can!” spirit of optimism. But that doesn’t mean his trip is an easy one; the U.S. has a couple of unexpected problems in Japan (leaving aside that silly spat over whether he was right to bow to Emperor Akihito or not). One of these has gained a bit of attention in the States, but the more serious one has attracted less discussion… [read more]

New post up at the USSC blog.

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USSC America Politics Barack Obama Japan

Nov 17

2012: We are being warned.

Those political-polling tragics among us may have noticed that a couple of the guys at FiveThirtyEight.com have entered into a wager over a potential Sarah Palin 2012 campaign. The site’s Tom Schaller and Nate Silver are betting a steak dinner over whether Palin will run in ‘12, and an undisclosed sum of cash at 3:1 odds over whether she’ll win the Republican nomination. I don’t have a big problem with this kind of speculation; it’s a fun gimmick that has prompted a few interesting posts gauging the make-up of the American electorate, examining features of electoral cycles and analysing Palin’s temperament and personality. If anyone should be involved in this kind of wild speculation, it’s the FiveThirtyEight guys. Most importantly, it’s not stopping them engaging in more meaningful speculation, like the outcomes of the various Gubernatorial and Senatorial races due at the end of next year.

But the rest of the media shouldn’t have the luxury of conducting long-term thought experiments that a blog specifically devoted to the business of political prediction does, and yet somehow newspapers and TV programs across America are wasting their time speculating on an election that won’t be held until after the next summer Olympics. Do you remember the last Olympics? They were pretty recent!

My latest U.S. Studies Centre post, on the absurdity of trying to handicap the 2012 field. Particularly when Lou Dobbs is now, apparently, part of that field.

Lou. Dobbs. WTF.

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America USSC Politics

Nov 25

My American Thanksgiving

It’s the early hours of Thanksgiving morning in the States, and to celebrate the occasion, I thought I’d give the politics a break for a moment and talk about the odd little piece of Americana known as Thanksgiving. Americans say of Thanksgiving that, along with Independence Day, it is the one holiday the entire country celebrates, and on my one time experience, Turkey Day did seem a bigger deal than, say, Christmas. It makes sense that a religiously pluralistic country like the States, one with the separation of church and state sewn into its Constitution, would have its genuinely unifying celebrations be the ones inspired by history and patriotism. (Thanksgiving, of course, does have a religious element, but it is not as specific about it in the way Christmas or Hanukkah is.) It can be a little disorienting for Australians to experience Thanksgiving, since there is no real analogue to it in our culture, and although it has the familiar holiday touchstones - family and food - it was, for me, an entirely new experience.

My American Thanksgiving was in 2004. I was studying in Washington State at the time, and in an act of immense kindness, my American friend Jessica invited me to accompany her back home to Kent, in the southern suburbs of Seattle, for the holiday. I was curious to see what the day was like, since after all, there didn’t seem to be much more to the celebration than turkey-eating. Other Americans I spoke to, in the weeks leading up to it, had told me, with a surprising amount of feeling, that it was their favourite holiday. They said Thanksgiving… [read more]

This Thanksgiving, I was indulgent and talked about my one American Thanksgiving at the USSC blog. Football, turkey, what I saw as a foreigner, stuff like that. Check it out.

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America USSC Washington Holidays

Nov 28

Interview: Robert Hill in Copenhagen

Last Tuesday morning Australian time, Monday evening Copenhagen time, I spoke with the USSC’s Robert Hill, who also happens to be head of the Australian Carbon Trust, a former Australian Ambassador to the United Nations, and a representative at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Here’s what we talked about: [Read More]

The time difference between Sydney and Copenhagen is a bitch; practically the most inconvenient possible if I’m doing an international interview. But I stay grinding, so I called up Robert Hill, who is negotiating at COP15 on behalf of Australia. We had a long talk about what is and isn’t getting done, what different countries hope to see happen out of the process, and what he expects the outcome of the summit to look like. Have a read, because I’m calling him up for round two in a few hours.

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USSC Politics Australia America

Dec 16

2010

Screw Rock ‘n’ Roll is traveling. Also, it’s in America now. (Rough details here.)

Back in 2010.

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USSC America Housekeeping

Dec 28

Posts tagged "ussc"

2010