Business Conference or Plato’s Cave?
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney are just two of a long lineup of Republican all-stars cast for this year's Bakersfield Business Conference.
By Mark Martinez
In “The Republic,” Plato imagined a world filled with people living in a dark cave. Their eyes were capable of seeing only silhouettes and were permanently fixed to a cave wall. They could not see the events and objects that created the shadows. When one of the cave dwellers emerges to take a look at the real world, his senses are overwhelmed. For Plato, it was the duty of the elite, or enlightened leaders, to educate those bewildered by the shadows on the wall, and the events that created them.
Herein lies the problem that plagues our world. What happens when the leaders are as equally clueless about the shadows on the walls as Plato’s cave dwellers? It looks like we’re going to find out at this year’s Bakersfield Business Conference, to be held Oct. 9 on the campus of California State University, Bakersfield.
Traditionally, the BBC has been a conservative cheerleading-fest. This year’s BBC is no different. Rudy Giuliani, Michael Steele, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and more shadow talkers are scheduled to appear.
There are many shadows to talk about on our cave wall. There are the “dark paranoia” shadows. This explains Dick Cheney’s invitation. There are the “smoke and mirror” shadows. Welcome Karl Rove. And then there are the “ignorant and stupid” shadows that dance about on the walls more than the others. These, one would assume, will be covered by Sarah Palin.
What the Shadow Talkers are here to do is explain a world they don’t really understand because, quite frankly, it doesn’t really exist. Put another way, they’re here to explain market fairytopias and the demons that haunt their souls. Let’s take Dick Cheney.
He’s been getting virtually everything wrong about our enemies since the Cold War. For example, during the 1980s he was speaking about the durability and threat that an omnipotent Soviet Union posed to the United States – right up to the moment that its empire collapsed. Oops.
Then there were the many Russian and Eastern European threats that existed when the Bush administration arrived in Washington. The Bush administration wanted to dispense with treaties on weapons, and was on pace to reignite the Anti-Ballistic Missile defense program (aimed at Russia and China). This was to be the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s defense program. Then 9/11 happened. Oops, again.
Then Dick Cheney claimed that Saddam Hussein was the bad guy we needed to fear because he had weapons of mass destruction. We all know how that went.
Dick Cheney has a legacy of getting the world wrong, and the coordinators of the BBC think he actually has something meaningful to say to our nation’s myopic cave dwellers? (Cheney is also famous for claiming “deficits don’t matter.” But that’s another story.)
Then we have Sarah Palin. Or, as Cenk Ugyr from The Young Turks might put it, we have “the irrefutable stupidity of Sarah Palin.” (Don’t get ahead of me on this one; keep reading).
Now, we could discuss how Sarah Palin didn’t know that Africa is a continent, or that the players in the North American Free Trade Agreement are the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Then there’s that famous ABC Moment when she had no clue about the Bush Doctrine (it’s about preemption), or the bailout proposal. I could also discuss Sarah Palin and her position on Intelligent Design. I won’t say anything more than to remind everyone that the Flintstones isn’t a documentary.
But what’s really disturbing about inviting Sarah Palin to our regional cave convention is her complete and utter disregard for the historical record, and how her rhetoric is at odds with her reality. Let’s consider what she supported while she was in her Alaskan cave, and how her life is more socialistic and tied to the redistribution of wealth than anything President Obama has ever concocted.
Consider this little nugget. Alaska ranks number three nationally when it comes to what its citizens pay out in federal taxes, and what it receives from the federal government. For every dollar Alaskans pay into the system, they take $1.84 out. Put another way, Alaska’s hardened sense of “rugged individualism” is really built on a foundation of communal welfarism, direct from the American taxpayers in the lower 48.
This probably explains why Alaskans have come to see oil within their borders as a form of community property. Big oil in Alaska must send the state a check for every barrel they pull out of the ground. The state then turns around and redistributes the wealth. So much so that Sarah Palin and the federal government watch over a system that wrote a $3,428 check to every eligible man, woman and child in Alaska in 2007, and distributed at least $2,475 for 2009. In case you’re wondering, that comes out to about $23,996 for Sarah Palin’s family of rugged individualists in 2007, and $17,325 in 2009 (wink, wink).
With that much money you would think someone might inform Alaska’s cave dwellers about their socialist tendencies. Not Sarah Palin. Instead of calling it the “Redistributing the Wealth Because We’re Really Communists Fund” – as Sarah Palin might call it if President Obama suggested the same program nationally – the state of Alaska calls it the “Permanent Fund Dividend.” Just more shadows.
Does anyone think Palin’s going to explain her shadows at our regional cave convention? Imagine what would happen if she carried her redistributive message to oil-laden Kern County. But the chances of this happening are about as good as Dick “Chicken Little” Cheney explaining how his five deferments make him a true patriot.
We now live in a country where Christian Fundamentalists believe that abortion is bad, but war and the death penalty are to be exalted.
We now live in a country where people believe it was OK for Ronald Reagan to almost triple our national debt, and for George W. Bush to more than double it. But President Obama is a big spender because he inherited a $1.7 trillion deficit, a sinking economy, and two bungled wars.
We now live in a country where compassion has more to do with condemning the poor while we provide America’s wealthy with government escorted profits and bailout dollars that reach into the trillions of dollars.
These shadows need explaining.
Instead, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin are going to explain the silhouettes they see on the wall, as they want to see them. Palin’s a rugged individualist. Cheney’s a warrior-nationalist. Forgive me for saying this, but I think we are better off in the dark.
Mark Martinez
Mark Martinez is a professor of political science at California State University, Bakersfield. He is the author of “The Myth of the Free Market,” host and producer of “The Mark Martinez Show: Talk Radio for Liberals and Real Conservatives” (on hiatus from ESPN 1230 AM), and he blogs at markmartinezshow.blogspot.com.
3 Comments
Leave a Response
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Good morning,
Let me first admit that I am not as educated as you are Mr. Martinez. However I just wanted to point out some facts about Alaska and the Permanent Fund Dividend Program that you misrepresented. This information took about 7 minutes to look up on the internet.
Sarah Palin did not institute or come up with the idea of the Permanent Fund Dividend program. This program distributed the first checks in 1983, when Mrs. Palin was 19 years old and went by Sarah Heath. The governor at that time was Mr. Bill Sheffield. This fund came to be after voters passed a constitutional amendment which was ruled unconstitutional and then the legislature came up legislation for the fund that was constitutional. Mrs. Palin had nothing to do with that legislation. (wink wink)
Currently, to be eligible for a PFD you must be an Alaskan resident for a full calendar year. There are exceptions for babies born during a calendar year. If not a resident on January 1, of the prior year, you are ineligible for the dividend. When it comes to babies, a parent can apply the calendar year after a child is born or adopted. Trig was born in April 2008. So his parents would have filed his first application in 2009.
So for Mrs. Palin’s family, that would mean that in 2007 and 2008 her family would have only received six dividends. And furthermore, the amount you quote is WAY OFF. In 2007, the dividend amount was $1,654.00 for each eligible applicant, 2008 amount was $2069.00, and the 2009 amount was $1305.00. Now it is a fact that in 2008, the check amount was $3269.00. This total included the $2069.00 from PFD and the 2008 energy rebate of $1200.00 which was passed by the Alaska legislator in August 2008. This rebate was similar to economic stimulus payment in 2008. This $1200.00 was intended to help Alaskans who were paying outrageous amounts of money for heating and energy cost.
http://www.pfd.state.ak.us/dividendamounts/index.aspx
This website can help you check your facts.
Dear alaskarocks:
Thank you for your comments.
First, let’s keep in mind that I never wrote that Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) was Sarah Palin’s creation. I wrote that as a willing recipient she continues to support a government transfer program that – in public at least – she claims to oppose. At the end of the day, Sarah Palin could return the government checks on principle, but she chooses not to.
Second, it appears we do have an issue with the amount calculated per year and the actual year that the government checks are disbursed. Thanks for catching this.
The source for my numbers came from Alaska Department of Revenue Permanent Fund Division, which takes Alaska’s net income from the development of its natural resources and calculates the PFD amount each Alaskan is supposed to receive. If you look at the Alaska Department of Revenue’s cite we see that the number they calculate from lags one year behind the amount disbursed. So, for example, on earnings of $3,428 in 2007 the state of Alaska was able to distribute $3,269 (which includes $1,200 from the rebate) in 2008, as you note. My mistake.
To make things clearer I should have used the Permanent Fund Division numbers – which you cite – and wrote that Alaska was able to distribute $3,269 per Alaskan citizen in 2008 on income from $3,428 in 2007 (for a total of $19,614; minus Trig). So, yes, I agree with your math. I’ll correct this here, or on my blog. Thanks for catching this.
Still, as the numbers from the Permanent Fund Dividend makes clear, the tens of thousands of dollars that the Palins have received over the years suggests that Sarah Palin and the state of Alaska are not the “rugged individualists” that the press makes them out to be. The state of Alaska regularly takes in much more from the federal government than they pay into the system.
Again, thanks for the comments.
- Mark
Mark,
• Again, PFD did not fund the $1200.00 rebate. This was instituted by the Alaska Legislators. Also, the Permanent Fund Dividend program is part of the Alaska Constitution. It is not something that can be undone by a governor or the federal government.
• Alaskan’s must pay federal taxes on any money received from the PFD. Also, I have never heard of any Alaskan politician returning or not applying for a PFD on principal or any other reason. As you also point out, Alaskan’s don’t HAVE TO apply for the PFD year after year. However, I do resent the fact that you insult any of the approximately 641,000 Alaskans who are not ‘rugged individualists’ because they apply for and cash a PFD check. I spent 29 wonderful years in Alaska. My mother was born and raised in the Alaska bush. My father grew up homesteading in the Eagle River area. According to you, my family is not considered ‘rugged individualists’ because we cashed PFD checks? My family and friends who hunt and/or fish for either sportsmanship, subsistence, and/or a living are not rugged individualists?
• Also when you consider what the federal government does pour into Alaska, please also consider that the federal government owns and manages over half of the land in Alaska as well as several Army and Air Force Bases as well as Coast Guard stations.
• The proponents of the fund when first created were trying to generate future income for the state, prevent excessive spending by legislature and take some of the non-renewable oil wealth to transform it into a renewable source of wealth for future generations of Alaskans. Also, the PFD amounts are not based off one year’s revenue or losses. They are based on a five year average to protect against years where there is a loss of revenue. The fund receives only 25% of oil and gas royalties. The rest is based on how well or poorly the fund investments performed. The rest of the oil and gas royalties go to help fund the Alaska State Government.
http://www.apfc.org