Being African American helped Obama get elected Re: “Democrats’ race baiting gets in the way of civil discussion,” Feb. 3
Gregory Kane was right to criticize liberal Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., for claiming that Democrats got trounced in the 2010 elections because voters “don’t want to be governed by an African-American.” If there were any truth to that, voters would never have elected President Obama in the first place. Indeed, as Kane notes, Obama’s race “helped him get elected president.”
It was outrageous for Moran to compare voters in “Southern states” to those in “the slaveholding states” at the time of the Civil War. Obama did better in Southern swing states precisely because of his race. He was the first Democrat to carry Virginia since 1964. He also got far more votes there than white Democrats like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who lost Virginia even while winning in the country as a whole.
Hans Bader
Arlington
Arguments against bag tax don’t hold water
Re: “Study finds D.C. bag tax ineffective,” Feb. 2
Patrick Gleason claims that the D.C. bag tax will result in the loss of 100 local jobs, but does not say how he came to that conclusion. His bacteria scare tactic is very weak as well. Unless a person is wrapping open wounds with reusable shopping bags, they should not pose any more risk than sneakers. Gleason also argues that reusable shopping bags are bad for the poor because they don’t have cars in which to store them. I can fit a dozen in my shoulder bag easily. Perhaps Gleason has never walked home with a load of groceries, but I find it much easier to carry them inside a sturdy canvas bag with handles that don’t break.
I hope Gleason spends an afternoon at one of the local trash cleanup events sponsored by the Anacostia Watershed Society or Potomac Conservancy. When he has picked up hundreds of plastic bags in one afternoon, perhaps he will start to feel differently about the bag tax.
Marcy Chen
Washington
U.S. must bring back productive industries
George Mason economist Tyler Cowan explains our economic mess by saying we poured too much of our discretionary spending into education, health care and the banking industry and by implication, not enough in other sectors that have enjoyed productivity increases.
He’s right that the costs of our debt-based economy must come down, but his analysis sidesteps the real problem: Because of wage arbitrage, jobs, plants and investment capital in other sectors have left America. So what we are left with are the sectors that cannot be exported.
The only fix is to bring back those jobs and investments through tax incentives, protective tariffs and education reform like Germany’s. Eighty percent of German kids enroll in one of 380 apprentice programs rather than going to college, the result being a highly trained work force and huge trade surpluses.
Richard C. Kreutzberg
Chevy Chase
