POLITICS AND ECONOMIC REALITIES

The snow is gone for a time and I look for a quiet if brief pause in mid-winter to relax and contemplate life. Alas, such is not to be. Today's(Sunday) newspapers arrive with two excellent columns I commend to your attention. The first, in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press is by that eminent thoughtful observer of Real World Economics, Edward Lotterman, a fine, well-traveled economist. In this first of several, he takes on the history of Social Security and Medicare and carefully relates it to Free Market Capitalism, Progressive Democracy and Socialism. It is an excellent column completely devoid of the current distortions and yammerings and misguided mud-slinging of some far-right ideologues.

The second column I commend to thoughtful reader's attention is in another newspaper I read daily, the Minneapolis StarTribune. Written by careful, thoughtful and (alas) retired columnist, Lori Sturdevant, it comes on the occasion of the run-up to an important announcement from the senior Senator from Minnesota, Amy Kloubuchar. She will announce, later today whether she will be a candidate for President. But the column in question is about a growing and important phenomenon in our political tent, the idea of Ranked Choice Voting. Sturdevant explains very well why this is an important topic on the eve of the presidential campaign start. I commend both columns to everyone the least bit interested in the role of politics and politicians in the future of our nation.