In connection with the Senate special election in 2017, I tried to solicit the holding of a health care symposium as described at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/06/health-care-symposium.html. I was not able to get a response.
Recently I contacted three Alabama academics along the lines of the below inquiry. What kind of response I will get remains to be seen.
From: Rob ShattuckUpdate 2/13/19
To:
Cc:
Sent: Sun, Oct 14, 2018 9:33 am
Subject: Inquiry
Dear _____ ,
This is probably part of fruitless efforts on my part to try to draw into the public political discourse in Alabama, participation by academics and others with expertise on issues I wish to get discussed in the discourse.
My experience tells me that those whom I solicit consider participation to be unworthy, growing out of their having dim views of the capacity and willingness of Alabama politicians and voters to gain reasonable understanding of, and to give reasonable consideration to, the political issues in question, and also their feeling constrained by their academic and professional reputations and positions.
To give you an idea of what I would like to obtain, _____ (a fellow Alabamian with whom I have corresponded per below) has academic credentials in the field of U.S. foreign relations and policy. He and I have had conversation about how Trump has been able to achieve with North Korea that Trump says no prior President has been able to achieve.
In conversation, ____ and I have discussed that China and Russia have their own interests regarding North Korea,which are different from U.S. interests, and China and Russia have been enablers of NK nuclear and missile programs. With their own interests re NK, C&R resists U.S. pressures to do what U..S. wants re NK and not what C&R want. If NK is years away from being able to hit U.S. with nukes, U.S.is limited in its ability to pressure China & Russia to do what U.S, wants about NK, such as by imposing sanctions or by U.S. threatening military attack on NK, without severe risk of C&R pushing back and threatening to attack U.S. if U.S. attacks NK.
The foregoing becomes much different when NK is months away from being able to nuke U.S. China & Russia can understand that national security threat to U.S. & U.S.. imperative to protect itself, including imposing severe economic sanctions or attacking NK. To avoid that, China & Russia can decide to help US with NK.
If Obama was President in 2017 when Americans were freaking out with NK bomb and missile tests, and intell assessment was moving from years to months before NK could nuke US, I believe Obama would have done intense pressuring of China (and Russia) as Trump has been doing.
Notwithstanding the foregoing geopolitical realities,Trump is able to get away with saying he has been able to do what no prior President has been able to do about North Korea and attribute it to his personal abilities as President, and without indicating the geopolitical realities that changed, and that such change more explains what Trump has been able to do, and not his personal abilities.
The public political discourse in Alabama is pathetic, and it is virtually impossible to inject into the discourse something like geopolitical realities for understanding and consideration by the voters in evaluating Trump.
I have been ridiculous enough to try via the #alpolitics hashtag on Twitter. If you have a Twitter account, you can read an example of my effort in a thread of mine at https://twitter.com/RobShattuckAL06/status/990635027628163073.
Two other subjects as to which I have endeavored to upgrade the public political discourse in Alabama are the tax cuts and healthcare. I don't have credentials in either of those areas, but I do what I can.
As to the tax cuts, see http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/12/al-experts-re-tax-cuts.html, and as to health care, see https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/06/health-care-symposium.html.
While I know how little effect what I do has, it is nonetheless intellectually challenging and rewarding, and so I do it and continue to do it.
I further observe that election times provide the best opportunity for getting anyone's attention, and the next three weeks are prime for that.
So, let me put this inquiry (solicitation) to you this way:
If any of your Alabama academic colleagues or contacts have, or wish to compose, any writing directed towards any relevant political issue in this election, I would like to tweet links to the writing during the next three weeks and to play up the Alabama connection of the author and the author's credentials.
I know this is an unlikely inquiry (solicitation), but so be it, and I thank you very much for whatever attention you give to it.
Sincerely,
"6 questions with the professor who says Alabama can still reap billions by expanding Medicaid" is an interview with David J. Becker, professor in UAB’s School of Public Health, who is identified as being at the forefront in studying the economics of a Medicaid expansion. In the interview, Professor Becker says:
As a health policy researcher, I recognize that there are partisan issues all around me. Health care reform is difficult not because of disagreements about facts, but because of the fundamental differences in our core values. I’m not uncomfortable doing work on a topic that is partisan, because I accept that my role is to provide facts to an audience comprised of people who don’t all see the world the same way. Our elected officials have been tasked with the responsibility of making important decisions on our behalf. My role is to ensure that those decisions are well-informed.
