> Nevada & Florida both passed the minimum wage increase by large
> margins - and went for Bush. People voted for Bush not because of
> "issues," but because of crap like "character."
I beg to disagree strongly. People like *us* -- sharp as a tack, intellectually top-notch -- think it's crap, but we are a tiny minority of the public. In general, Americans vote on the basis of character because they think they are electing *people,* who have characters, and not walking, talking "issues," which are abstract theoretical propositions without character. And because they feel that they are competent judges of character, but can't understand "issues."
This is precisely why we intellectual leftists will probably *never* be any good at politics. Our approach is diametrically opposed to the approach 98% of the population uses, and until we understand that we will be totally impotent!
Minimum wage is a very simple issue to understand, so it is one of the exceptional issues that people will vote for. In fact, it's rather surprising to me that it's not popular in more places than Nevada and Florida.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax