What Rand Paul Doesn't Get About Abe Lincoln, Abe Vigoda, and Black Voters

 

 

 

 

 

Here's something that someone might want to share with Rand Paul. Abraham Lincoln was a president. Abe Vigoda was an actor. The fact that they both have the same first name, does not make them the same person.
That may seem obvious to you, but it's something that I feel compelled to share. Because after listening to his Howard University speech, I'm not sure it's a concept that Senator Paul fully understands.
Here's why: On some basic level, Paul's speech was an inquiry into the alienation that exists between the GOP and African-Americans. His conclusion: It's all just a big misunderstanding.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the Republican Party.]
You see, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It was Democrats who led the South's retrenchment after Reconstruction, established segregation and fought tooth and nail to protect Jim Crow. So it's Republicans, not Democrats, according to Paul, who have always been the party of civil rights.
So why aren't more African-Americans Republicans? Paul has an explanation: Having achieved electoral and civil rights African-Americans wanted economic equality, too. Republicans offered one way to get it, according to Paul, the free market, while Democrats offered another, government largesse. Thus far, Paul says, African-Americans have preferred the latter path to the former and what Republicans need to do is better explain why African-Americans should instead embrace the free market model. That's his theory anyway.
Here Paul's trying to pull off an interesting trick: using Republican performance from the pretty distant past to try and credential current policies. But in his historical retelling, Paul essentially collapses the timeline and says: look, we've always been for civil rights, and our free market prescriptions are just the latest iteration of that.

Now, it may be that this is the argument the GOP's been looking for. Perhaps, having heard it, African-Americans will vote Republican in droves in 2014. But I'm not convinced.
First, despite Paul's convictions, there's a pretty obvious reason why African Americans vote for more Democratic candidates than Republicans: They prefer Democratic policies. That's how most voters decide who to vote for – they review the candidate's positions on issues important to them, and then vote for the one whose views are more in sync with their own.
Paul probably wouldn't contest that – but he'd place the blame for Republican losses on someone who you might not expect: the voter. Instead of concluding that to compete for African-American votes Republicans have to change their policies, he suggests that the problem is the failure of African-Americans to fully comprehend the policies Republicans propose. That's what he means when he says that Republicans have to find a different way to talk about them, right? The policy isn't the problem, it's your ability, (or lack thereof) to grasp it.

And here, Paul finds himself on something of a slippery slope. I mean, politics isn't rocket science. And somehow every couple of years voters across the country manage to sift through the various policy papers and pronouncements of politicians up and down the ballot to make decisions about who to support. It's peculiar (at the very least) to suggest that African-Americans are somehow incapable of engaging in the required analysis to do it when it comes to Republicans.
There's something else about Paul's thesis that just doesn't add up. Yes, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and Democrats dominated southern politics during segregation. But really, which of these parties of the past has more in common with the iterations that exist today?
If the answers not obvious to you, there's another bit of history that can help clear it up. Starting in the 1940s and accelerating in the 1960s national Democratic attitudes about segregation moved to the left, while the attitudes of the southern conservatives who had long affiliated with the Democratic Party pushed further to the right. This created an untenable intraparty tension that couldn't last forever. And it didn't, because southern conservatives found a new, more comfortable party to call home, one that expressed values in sync with their own. It was the Republican Party. They switched to it in droves.

All of which means, you guessed it, the lineage of today's Republican party traces much more directly to those pro-segregation Democrats than it does to any southern Republicans who may have been around in that day.
So let's be clear: Yes, Rand Paul is a Republican but when it comes to civil rights, his version of the GOP has about as much in common with the one that helped free the slaves as Abe Lincoln has with Abe Vigoda.

 

Chaos over biggest employment tax shake-up in 70 years

Chaos over biggest employment tax shake-up in Seventy years

Businesses and families are heading into a “nightmare” today, amid fears that the biggest employment tax shake-up in 70 years will ensnare companies in red tape.

 Accountants said that many businesses are “completely unprepared” for a wave of bureaucracy coming into force tomorrow when employers will have to report Pay As You Earn (PAYE) information in “real time”.

They also warned that HM Revenue & Customs may not be able to cope as thousands of its staff are going on strike this Monday and its computer systems have been undergoing “essential maintenance” for the past few days.

Under the new Real Time Information (RTI) system, more than a million businesses — as well as charities, churches and families who employ nannies or cleaners —must report immediately any wage payments to the taxman.

Small businesses have a six-month grace period in which they can report once a month, but they will still have to get to grips with complicated new rules and computer software before complying fully in October

" The changes come despite David Cameron’s promise to “cut back on excessive rules” to help “unleash our small businesses”.

The new system is the foundation of the Coalition’s universal benefit welfare reform, because it will allow officials to adjust handouts immediately when their earnings change.
Last night a number of experts warned of impending disaster.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation said that many small businesses were thinking of folding because the system is the last straw in a long line of excessive bureaucracy from the taxman.
It described the RTI as a possible “route to insolvency”.
In a further warning to the Government, Dr Adam Marshall, a director of the British Chambers of Commerce, described RTI as a “massive change to the way that businesses operate across the UK” that may distract them from generating wealth and breaking into new markets.
He urged HMRC not to “underestimate the potential for problems” over the next few months as firms get to grips with the rules.
Among the problems facing the new system is the planned strike of up to 55,000 officials at HMRC, including call centre staff.
The PCS union has targeted the industrial action to upset the start of RTI and the beginning of the tax year. Meanwhile, the HMRC internet “gateway” for workers to access and report their tax information has been under maintenance.
Darren Fell, the managing director of Crunch Accountants, said the system is heading into a “disaster zone” over the weekend and early next week, because there will be a backlog of people trying to use the website as the changes come into force.
“Chaos is what we’re expecting,” he said. “It’s going to have to be the most amazing system in the universe to cope with it without falling apart.”
Some employers are also complaining that the free HMRC software that they must use on their own computers to submit information to the system has been crashing during its pilot stages.
Others say that the new requirements are so complicated that they will have to seek professional help or invest in expensive software, rather than use the free HMRC version.
Chris Mugford, the managing director of The Web TV Company, which produces online videos, has had to employ a bookkeeper for a company of only two people because of the changes.
Many employers are unaware of the changes, even though they are meant to have received a letter from the taxman. One survey estimates that one in five businesses is unprepared, while the Association of Accounting Technicians found that one in three small businesses is in the dark.
Baker Tilly, a firm of accountants, said one message from HMRC about further changes was written in “gobbledegook”.

The scheme has had unintended consequences for many groups that make payments, including pension funds.
Up to 25,000 pensioners with the John Lewis Partnership scheme are losing a month of pension, as their managers told them they must switch from paying at the beginning to the end of the month. It has had to offer its members loans to tide them over.
Companies have been told they do not face fines for late reporting for another year, but they could still be hit with penalties for submitting inaccurate data about their employees.
Tina Riches, an expert at the Chartered Institute of Taxation, questioned whether it was “workable” to make every employer report real-time pay information until October when they will all be subject to the same stricter rules.
“We are hoping they will extend it [the grace period] because we’ve heard of quite a lot of cases of smaller businesses thinking of packing up as it’s just the last straw,” she said. “It’s mainly ones that have odd hours that are just paid when they finish their work, particularly in the pub and hospitality trade. It’s potentially a lot of extra work for them.”
She said many employers still might not know that they should be complying with the new requirements from today.
“It could be a church that employs a cleaner and an organist,” she said. “Anybody that employs somebody under PAYE in their own home, such as a gardener, a cleaner or a nanny.”
Last night, Christopher Millington-Hore, who runs a family firm of accountants, said small business owners were facing an administrative “nightmare”.
Robin Worsnop, chief executive of Rabbie’s Small Group Tours, a tour company, said the new requirements will “add another layer of stress” on payroll day.
HMRC last night said that customers have reported no problems with downloading its software. A spokesman said HMRC believes 85 per cent of businesses are aware of the RTI changes, after an advertising campaign and two letters to all employers. It said the website maintenance should not affect businesses trying to submit RTI information.