Matt Stoller asks, Does the 2012 Presidential Election Matter? and seems to mostly suggest it doesn’t:
The 2012 election, in other words, is at this point a completely empty enterprise, bereft of substance, or integrity. This is new to our era, reminiscent of the late 19th century electoral landscape which was dominated by policy consensus around corruption and plutocracy while electoral contests were organized around “bloody shirt” smear campaigns. Populism intruded briefly, but there’s a reason that time period was known as the time of the robber barons. It’s increasingly analogous to our time.
And yet, I think the robbing would be even worse with the other guys.
It doesn’t help, though, that I got an online poll from “YouGov” today, which among other things asked me the following question:
How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right?
Just about always
Most of the time
Some of the time
No, I didn’t cut off the last line. There was no other choice offered.
I would like to hire two part-time summer research assistants. The hours are negotiable, but likely would be in the 10-30 hours per week range. It would be best if you could start very soon after exams finish.
