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You have arrived at the web home of Noah Brier. This is mostly an archive of over a decade of blogging and other writing. You can read more about me or get in touch. If you want more recent writing of mine, most of that is at my BrXnd marketing x AI newsletter and Why Is This Interesting?, a daily email for the intellectually omnivorous.

February, 2010

The Worst of Both Worlds

The current political environment of contradictory voter desires.
Over the last few weeks both Slate and The New Yorker have hit on the current political environment where every voter wants everything and, in turn, nothing. Here's an example from Surowiecki in the New Yorker:
And, while voters routinely say that the rising cost of health care is a problem, it is the bills' cost-control provisions--including a tax on expensive insurance plans and rules to restrain Medicare spending--that have proved especially unpopular. On top of this, many people are just annoyed with the whole process: a survey of voters who supported Obama in 2008 but voted for Scott Brown in the recent Massachusetts Senate race found that forty-one per cent of those who opposed health-care reform weren't sure whether reform went too far or not far enough. In short, they don't know why they're against reform; they just are. It's a bit like Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." Asked what he's rebelling against, he says, "Whaddya got?"
February 16, 2010
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Noah Brier | Thanks for reading. | Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk.