The NOT Gate (Hal Cohen)

Hal Cohen

Hal Cohen -- World News Trust

July 18, 2010 -- NEW YORK -- Since the 1970s, it seems that every political scandal in America has been dubbed something-gate.

Most of these “gates” have been much ado about nothing, and of little consequence to the American People. There has been an art installation in Central Park in New York called “The Gates” by Christo and Jean Claude that has inspired an ad for AT&T wireless that is currently running. Heaven has Pearly Gates. There are the Gates of Hell, which are presumably not made of pearl. The Secretary of Defense is Robert Gates.

I would like to talk about “Truth” gates, which, as so often seems to be the case these days, have nothing to do with politics. In this case, however, this is NOT true.  Allow me to explain. Science, in general, and particularly mathematics, is concerned with what we can know to be true. Scientists conduct experiments and gather evidence to create a hypothesis based on evidence gathered. Even were they to correctly predict the outcome of an experiment 100 times in 100 tries, they would be hesitant to say the hypothesis is now true.

In math, we can construct arguments that prove unequivocally that something is true. This is important because knowing absolutely whether something is true or not is what lies behind the ability of a computer to function. Computers break down every function that they perform into binary code -- a series of 1’s and 0’s. Something is either true, 1, or not, 0.

These 1’s and 0’s get sent through a series of truth gates depending on the function needed. Each gate can have only two conditions and only two possible outcomes. For example, say you have an AND gate. An AND gate will give you a value of true (1) only when both conditions have a value of true (1). An OR gate, by contrast, will give a value of true (1) if either, or both conditions, is true (1). To get a true (1) when exactly one condition is true, you use the XOR, exclusive OR gate. By combining different gates, and this is just a sampling, the options expand exponentially. Have you heard the story about how if you got paid a penny on day one, and your pay doubled every day, in a month you’d be a millionaire?

So, these truth gates are a powerful thing. One of these truth gates is called the NOT gate. The purpose of the NOT gate is to take the opposite of whatever result you got.

There are times where you might need a negative only when the two inputs are positive. A Not gate with an AND gate will give you that result.

I’ve taken a long time to get to the point haven’t I? Well, Yes, and by definition, No. I haven’t actually gotten to the point yet. But, here I go. Ever since the Inauguration of President Obama, the Republicans have been doing everything they can to obstruct him in implementing his agenda. Fair enough. That is what partisans do on both sides. I don’t take issue with the tactic, but I do take issue with the justification.

Beginning Jan. 21^st, 2009, Republicans have gone on every talk show to denounce every piece of legislation by saying that this is not the change Americans voted for, or the American People don’t want this, or this Administration is not listening, or they’re shoving this down the throats. In other words, the Republicans are claiming that they are speaking for the American People.

I have said this before, but it bears repeating. In the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, not a single incumbent Democrat lost, and nearly every open seat went to the Democratic party. They went from minorities in both houses to larger majorities in both than Republicans held at any time since they took control of Congress in 1994. When you take into account the population of the districts represented by Democrats compared to Republicans, you get more than the 60 percent of the Senate. This is not simply an angry reaction. It is a rebuke of policy of epic proportions.

In the last two election cycles, the Democrats didn’t just beat the Republicans, it was a rout! It wasn’t 3-2 in 12 innings, it was game called 18-2 for the mercy rule. Americans in record numbers voted for NOT Republicans. We were told by the punditocracy even that night of Nov. 4^th 2008, that we were still a center-right nation. Run that statement through a NOT gate.

Senator McCain got the same number of votes in 2008 that President Bush did in 2004 and yet he lost by 6 percentage points. Republicans talk about how legislation should get 70 or even 80 votes in the Senate to truly reflect the will of the people. This, in spite of the fact that nearly 70 percent of the nation is represented by Democrats, and Republicans wouldn’t vote for something that they proposed if it would get passed.

POINT ALERT: I just realized that I still haven’t gotten to the point. The point is this: Everything Republicans say when they are purporting to represent what the American People want must be run through a NOT gate. What the American People have said quite clearly to the Republicans is that what they want is “NOT you.”

Americans don’t want this, Americans don’t want that -- run it through that NOT gate and a double negative becomes proof positive. Americans may not be happy with Democrats right now. They are frustrated with the continued wretched state of the economy. Many Democrats are as much the corporate toadies that Republicans are. These reports of Republicans poised to take back Congress need to be run through only 1 gate -- NOT.