Musings on TNR, Tea Party and "I Can't Breathe"

On The New Republic,  I know journalistic endeavors need to be profitable, and they certainly need to find their way to profits in this digital age.  But I fail to see how losing all your writers and editors, and pissing off your existing subscribers who have been loyal to you, is a path to a successful transition.  It's kind of like doing a takeover, closing the U.S. factory and moving production to Mexico or China, but in this case, the existing customers have been told we don't care about you, unlike the manufacturer customers who can get the same product at a lower price.

TNR has not communicated with its subscribers and I really don't think they have a plan to do so, so it is really taking a 100 year old concept and starting it as a new company.  How do you produce powerful thoughtful policy discussions if you don't have writers and editors who understand all sides of policy and are in touch with the thoughts of think tanks and Capital Hill? How do you get customers to want to click on your website unless they believe you have depth of coverage?  How do you convince people you have depth of coverage?  I am a subscriber and I don't have a positive answer for any of those 3 questions when it comes to the future TNR.

I click on the New York Times, the Washington Post and Politico because I know they have the depth and expertise to cover the news well.  There is a void on powerful thought pieces in those organizations which is why I subscribed to the TNR.  But do powerful thought pieces translate into reading on a digital screen?  I have my doubts.

I read an article on Kansas showing some small signs of turning around on Forbes website.  Forbes website allows you to follow the comments without making one yourself.  I thought Forbes would have a better than average quality in its comments section so I clicked on this article's follow comments.

I cannot believe the diatribes that were written.  So I guess that will be the last time I follow Forbes comments.  But I did gain some insight into the Kansas Tea Party attitudes toward government.  One prolific commentator stated he uses tax loopholes to shelter all his income and pay no Federal or State Income tax and he is proud of it.  He considers income taxes to be unconstitutional and he considers all of us who pay income taxes to be chumps.  His answer to the resulting budget issues is to simply layoff thousands of government workers without regard to national defense, the judicial system, border control, local schools, police, fire.  He believes in privatizing everything and doesn't believe the transition would have any effect on GDP or employment.

Now that I have written that, I am speechless.  How do you reason with someone like that?  They clearly don't understand how the economy works?  They clearly don't have any sympathy with the history of local/state/Federal government providing services and the problems that such a dramatic transition would create for millions of citizens.  Remember, the reason ObamaCare focused on employers providing health insurance was the desire to not anger the millions of people who get their health insurance through their employers.  The biggest problem with ObamaCare is the fact that, on the margin, it encourage employers to hire more part-time people and fewer full-time people.  All because everybody needs health insurance and no one wants uncertainty in how they will obtain health insurance.  With a vibrant individual health insurance market, and no employer provided health insurance, you would have that.  But how do we transition that from where we are to where we need to go?

I might have looked for the answer to that question in a future issue of the TNR, but alas I will not expect to see it.

I ran into a protest of the "I Can't Breath"Crowd at Grand Central last night.  They were peaceful but loud.  I wanted to join them, but didn't see the point of my risking arrest.  So instead, I went up at to a NY State policeman and told him my belief that the lack of gun control causes legitimate fear in policeman, but clearly something was very wrong in the deaths of Mr. Garner and Mr. Brown.  He nodded in agreement and I caught my train home.