Finally, a Presidential Candidate Ready to Tackle America’s Fun Deficit
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Morning Jolt March 20, 2015 Finally, a Presidential Candidate Ready to Tackle America's Fun Deficit Who's ready for "fun camp," America? The punchlines write themselves on this one, and that's exactly what's happening. Hillary Clinton, soon to announce her candidacy for president, spoke last night before the American Camp Association in New Jersey. In an effort to try to connect with her audience, she said, "We really need to have camps for adults . . . None of the serious stuff. None of the life challenge stuff. More fun. I think we have a huge 'fun deficit' in America." So Clinton hands over to us all to consider the idea of a progressive sending adults to camps, and the idea of a politician infamous for being humorless and suspicious being an arbiter of "fun," wrapped in a great big bow. I haven't seen a Democratic presidential candidate this enthusiastic about camps since FDR. She may not have much to say about the national debt or the budget deficit, but you can't say she doesn't have a plan for the fun deficit. In some ways, this is perfect. Give her a smidgen of credit; a few days ago we looked at the right-track/wrong-direction numbers and noted that Americans are feeling anxiety about the future, and they've felt it pretty much since late 2008. Gallup tells us that Americans' fears about terrorism, illegal immigration, and race relations are spiking, and fears about the economy and health care are still high. Yes, Hillary, you're right, we're not having fun. Yuval Levin summarized it well: America's families face stagnating wages, excessive tax burdens, rising health and higher education costs, barriers to mobility and work, disincentives to marriage and childbearing, and an economy increasingly held back by over-regulation, cronyism, institutional sclerosis, and mounting public debt. And each of these problems has been greatly exacerbated by a federal government that is overreaching, hyperactive, unwieldy, and immensely expensive. The workforce-participation rate is at the lowest point since the late 1970s. Income inequality has worsened. A record number of Americans are collecting food stamps and living in poverty. And in the aftermath of the financial collapse of 2008, we have experienced the weakest recovery on record. Median annual household income has actually gone down more during the so-called recovery than during the recession itself. The median income of American households decreased by as much in the two years after the official end of the Great Recession as it did during the recession . . . Among the public, then, there is a very deep sense of unease and apprehension. Ground that people once believed was stable is seen as crumbling, and many Americans seem unsure what to make of it. But one thing they do believe: Right now politics is out of touch with what they're experiencing. We're witnessing a collapse of trust in government, most especially the federal government, and when it comes to Republicans and Democrats, the public's attitude is: A pox on both your parties. And Hillary's answer is fun camps! You know what would be a lot of fun? A roaring economy. You know those go-go 1980s that you guys keep lamenting as a decade of greed? That was fun.
No two ways about it, the '80s had the best parties.
Why the Rules Don't Apply to the Clintons, Part 4,578 I'll bet having wealthy foreign friends is fun, Hillary: The Clinton Foundation swore off donations from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. That didn't stop the foundation from raising millions of dollars from foreigners with connections to their home governments, a review of foundation disclosures shows. Some donors have direct ties to foreign governments. One is a member of the Saudi royal family. Another is a Ukrainian oligarch and former parliamentarian. Others are individuals with close connections to foreign governments that stem from their business activities. Their professed policy interests range from human rights to U.S.-Cuba relations. All told, more than a dozen foreign individuals and their foundations and companies were large donors to the Clinton Foundation in the years after Mrs. Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, collectively giving between $34 million and $68 million, foundation records show. Some donors also provided funding directly to charitable projects sponsored by the foundation, valued by the organization at $60 million. The Silver Linings to Starbucks' 'Race Together' Campaign Paraphrasing a point I made on this week's pop-culture podcast, I think the Starbucks effort to facilitate discussions about race in America was a bad idea. In fact, it was a stupid idea. An astonishingly stupid idea. This was an astonishingly, obviously stupid idea. But there's an aspect that I almost admire. It is astounding that this idea got past Starbucks corporate lawyers and any corporate-communications or public-relations team. Most companies are terrified of touching anything having to do with race with a ten-foot pole, short of generic hosannas to diversity. This Starbucks campaign is extremely risky, and while the jury is still out, it's hard to believe it's going to be good for sales. It's easy to imagine people avoiding Starbucks for a while. So the only reason Howard Schultz and the guys at the top could have done it was because they genuinely thought it would be a good idea and make the country a better place. Starbucks's "Race Together" campaign is one of those odd, terrible ideas that was done with no sense of self-interest. Mona Charen calls it "a hollow bit of moral exhibitionism." Sure, and it's condescending, and arrogant, and wildly naïve. So yes, it was a failure. But if you're going to fail, fail boldly. But it also kind of, sort-of united blacks and whites for a while in their relentless mockery of the idea: "Malcolm Xpresso," "Some of My Best Friends Are Black Coffee," "Buy any beans necessary," "The white chocolate mocha's burden" and "I have a cream." Secondly, you'll notice that the most vehement objections to the Starbucks campaign did not come from outspoken racists who defended racism. Starbucks is more than comfortable ignoring complaints from the right; see their effectively pro-gun-control policies. They openly proclaim their status as a progressive company. But after the company announced the "Race Together" campaign, the "social justice warrior" crew did what they did best, screaming that the company was somehow misappropriating the authentic experiences of oppressing minorities in order to sell coffee. By taking a giant, high-profile gesture to improve race relations, Schultz and Starbucks were accused of racism. No good deed goes unpunished. It's ironic. The Obama years were supposed to usher in an era of racial harmony. That didn't happen — which presumably is why Schultz feels the need to help mend our racial wounds. What has happened, however, is that hordes of college graduates, unable to find jobs suitable to their degrees, have ended up toiling away at places like Starbucks. It's kind of ingenious. Since sociology majors can't find relevant jobs, Schultz is making the jobs they have relevant to their majors. ADDENDA: As mentioned above, a new edition of the pop culture podcast arrives this morning. This week's edition covers a bit of March Madness, the intense attention on HBO's The Jinx and NPR's Serial, the Starbucks "Race Together" initiative, and how political junkies aren't quite so different from those "low-information voters" they disdain. This week's sponsor is Big Kahuna Burger.
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