I wrote a version of the following as a response to a comment on yesterday's political post: The Real True Reason the Republicans Voted Against the Stimulus - Shhhh, It's Supposed to be a Secret.
I think of the Republican message as being analogous to a musical arrangement for one instrument. The single instrument may play beautifully, but this is in large part due to the intense focus on the one melody and lack of distraction from other instruments. The Democratic message, on the other hand, is more like an orchestra with many different sounds, many different levels of melody, melded to create the final message. In some cases it results in a beautiful symphony, but in most cases it seems to result in more of a really big jam session where separate instruments sometimes meld into harmony and sometimes seem to fight each other for attention.
In one composition, the message is clear but lacks diversity. In the other, the diversity can lead to harmonization but more often than not leads to cacophony.
What do you think? Does this make any sense as an analogy?
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Comments: 34
The author credited will be David K.
there is a potential downside to this for Republicans. The fact that conservatives over the past 20 years in the Republican party have been far more respected than moderates has led to moderates being replaced by Dems in many districts.
Of course the thing about legislating is that it is not exactly like fighting a battle or performing a Symphony. someone recently said on the radio that compromise is not always the best solution. If one side says two plus two is four, and the other side says two plus two is a duck, you could get the compromise solution that two plus two is two plus a half duck. The Republicans of course can say, we are right, so we need to enact policy even though we lost the election. It's wrong in practical terms, because elections do have consequences. But it is true that good solutions can sometimes be dumbed-down through compromise. Example: I don't think the stimulus program has enough infrastructure spending in the final version.
Quantity is of little use unless it is carefully focused so that in combination the sum is massively greater than the parts. When they are not carefully focused and just notes thrown into the wind they often wind up fighting against each other and muddle the performance. The stimulus package is just that, instruments out of tune playing multiple arrangements at the same time without regards to everyone else. It is, in the end, a disaster. Yes, less can be more if the less is targeted and coordinated.
SNL Political skit with Dan Ackroyd- 2/14/09