While watching the cheerleading, it's useful to have a list of issues you wish politicians would address clearly. Here it is.
Matthew Yglesias wrote up a great hit list of five bad ideas in the Democratic platform—exceptions, for him. Like the electorate this cycle, Yglesias focuses his attention on economic issues. One example:
"[T]ough spending cuts that will bring annual domestic spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy in 50 years, while still allowing us to make investments that benefit the middle class now and reduce our deficit over a decade." This is a twofer. For starters, it's only true if we construe "annual domestic spending" to mean "domestic spending excluding Medicare and Social Security" which is a very misleading phrase. For second, it's a substantively bad idea. The domestic functions of the American government—health care, education, retirement security and transportation infrastructure—have become more important over time.
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Just like there are major inconsistencies in Republican thinking (for example, the funny dances they do when they say they're against big government and whatever causes them to lie outright, at length, about their own involvement in recent history), there are inconsistencies in Democratic thinking.
Check out Yglesias' piece for a few more issues to think about while watching the proceedings this week.
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