politics

19 May

So what about a "tea party" for those of us who live in reality?

Posted by media girl in abortion, Democrats, homophobia, politics, reproductive rights, Republicans, Barry Goldwater, Barry Goldwater, Conservatism in the United States, Democratic Party, Fox News, George W. Bush, Libertarianism, Political parties in the United States, Politics, Politics of the United States, Republican Party, Social Issues, Social Issues, Tea

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There's no doubting the energy in the tea bagger movement. The spittle practically flies at you right out of the TV screen.

There have been some interesting articles on the tea baggers lately. One of the most interesting is Mark Lilla's in The New York Review of Books: "The Tea Party Jacobins":

A new strain of populism is metastasizing before our eyes, nourished by the same libertarian impulses that have unsettled American society for half a century now. Anarchistic like the Sixties, selfish like the Eighties, contradicting neither, it is estranged, aimless, and as juvenile as our new century. It appeals to petulant individuals convinced that they can do everything themselves if they are only left alone, and that others are conspiring to keep them from doing just that. This is the one threat that will bring Americans into the streets.

Welcome to the politics of the libertarian mob.

I can't so easily dismiss everything that these "Jacobins" have to say, though. Among my concerns are indeed:

The increasing power of the government.
The increasing budget of the government.
The increasing deficit of the government.
The apparent erosion of civil rights.

No doubt your average tea bagger would define these concerns a bit differently than I do. But there's a bit of common ground there. And I'd say most progressives share these concerns. It's been a regular refrain in the progressive blogosphere for years.

But the tea baggers come with baggage — offensive, hateful baggage that I simply can't endorse, or even stomach:

The anti-immigrant cant that smacks of racism and xenophobia and fear.
The anti-gay rage that burns with homophobia and fear.
The anti-women's health attitudes that crackle with misogyny and chauvinism and fear.
The hysterical, amped up propagandizing, with liberal use of "fascist" and "socialist," often in the same sentence that drips with fear.
And the utter stupidity that wails about fantasy nightmares like "the government taking over Medicare" (which, for you who were left behind, is a government program).

So where's the party for those of us who are fiscally on the conservative side and socially on the live-and-let-live side? Obviously the Republicans have been on a government-regulating-private-lives bent for decades now, so they're out. And the Democrats … well … when they aren't selling out to right-wing interests, they're coming up with big projects like this was 1965.

I feel like I've had no party my entire voting life. The Republicans have been hyenas barking at everyone to get in line, and the Democrats have been gazelles, running away, always striving for style points.

In the olden days, there was a real debate between Democrats and Republicans. It seems like it was more principled, more about ideas than about strutting around, claiming to be "the real Americans." And there certainly was less brazen selling out to lobbyists.

There was a time when Republicans were led by people like Barry Goldwater, who had what today would be considered "radical" ideas about small government: that "the government should stay out of people's private lives," and that included homosexuality and abortion. He even supported gays in the military.

It's a wonder the tea baggers aren't burning him in effigy.

Imagine a Goldwater kind of Republican Party opposing the Democrats. I wouldn't agree with them on a lot of things, but at least it's philosophically consistent, and would be a good counterbalance to the Democrats. As it is, I find myself rooting for the Dems not so much because I support what they're doing up and down the line — far from it — but rather because I find the Republican opposition so unprincipled, so spiteful, so unpatriotic and so incredibly stupid that it doesn't just turn me off, it frightens me.

It's almost like George W. Bush was a restraining influence, and now the wingnuts are really cutting loose.

No, if you're a fiscal moderate with leave-people-alone views on private life, like I am, you know that, when it comes down to it, we have no party to represent us. We just support the party that works against us the least. Resigned. Disgusted. Seeing the appeal of embracing cynical distance from it all, because actually doing something sensible seems so out of reach of our government these days.

And meanwhile the tea baggers mock us with their lurid, tragi-comic mockery of what this country really needs.

So now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wrap up this little rant, pour myself a drink, and watch some TV like a good citizen.

20 Jan

Today the world changes

Posted by media girl in human rights, Barack Obama, birth control, civil rights, conservatism, corruption, culture, Culture of Corruption, Dick Cheney, evolution, George W. Bush, Global Gag Rule, global warming, Guantanamo Bay, habeus corpus, health, immigration, intolerance, Iraq, Katrina, law, military, national debt, national security, politics, pollution, poverty, privacy, progressive values, race, racial discrimination, racism, religious fundamentalism, Republicans, Rita, science, technology, terrorism, torture, United States Constitution, war, wealth, White House, world issues, Barack Obama, CDATA, Illinois, Luo people, Punahou School alumni, Religion, Social Issues, Social Issues, United States

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A nation built with African slaves inaugurates an African-American President.

A nation driven by culture wars born out of the Vietnam era moves into hope for more pragmatic, if still partisan, politics.

A nation fallen into the darkness of torture, of "collateral damage" of hundreds of thousands of lives, of ends justifying any means returns to an age of striving for the highest of American ideals.

A nation seduced by the fantasies popularized by Ronald Reagan, that markets are God, that government is evil, that global warming is a myth, that liberalism is out to destroy America, a nation almost paralyzed with the shock of the revealed lie of those fantasies -- a long nightmare, really -- returns to a reality-based vision of the world.

A nation coming off of one of the more ugly racist federal elections puts a black man into office.

Barack Obama is a pragmatic progressive whose intellect brings us hope that his leadership can guide the cumbersome bureaucracy and conflicting interests and influences into actions that make sense, based on reason.

It was truly audacious two years ago to believe this could happen. It took a lot of hope and the hard work of millions, and the faith of many more. But here it has happened.

Barack Obama is about to become President.

How unlikely.

How amazing.

The world is astonished. Today America returns to the light.

19 Jan

Obama: the President of global change

Posted by media girl in Barack Obama, culture, Democrats, election, election 2008, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, misogyny, politics, racism, United States Constitution, women, world issues, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Illinois, Person Career, Politics of the United States, Technology, Technology, United States

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Watching the round-table on the NewsHour tonight, with Gwen Ifill leading several observers:

Rev. Joseph Lowery, who with Dr. King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; he will deliver the benediction at tomorrow's swearing in; Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a NewsHour alum who was also the first African-American woman to attend the University of Georgia, she's now a special correspondent in Africa for NPR and other news organizations; Ta-Nehisi Coates, contributing editor for the Atlantic and a fellow at the Nation Institute; and Rael Nelson James, a development associate for KIPP DC, a network of high-performing inner-city charter schools in and around Washington, D.C.

... my friend asked me, "If Hillary had won the election, would we have a panel talking like this, about the "transcendental" nature of her election?"

Yes and no. It would be different.

If Hillary were elected, I don't think that the world's reaction would be quite the same. The world has seen a few quite prominent and powerful female leaders. Major nations today are led by female presidents (or similar titles). If America had elected Hillary Clinton, I think the world would be relieved that it wasn't McCain and the Bush era was ending, but I don't think they would be quite so rocked to their core. For all the misogyny in the world, women leaders are not so unknown.

(Stay with me, I'm coming back to Hillary in a moment.)

If you've traveled overseas in the past few years, you might know that, as racist as America has been (and still is), the rest of the world is on balance more racist. "Ethnic cleansing" is a foreign thing, not an American thing. Frankly, much of the world truly believed that America would never ever elect a black president.

And coming out of this darkest era in the modern history of the United States -- Iraq, torture, extraordinary renditions, surveillance, unilateralism -- the contrast of the impending Barack Obama presidency vs. the Bush presidency is pretty shocking. The world is relieved, astounded, hopeful, and I think inspired. We turned from the dark side. And this former slaver nation has elected Barack Obama!

So what about Hillary?

I'll say this: If Hillary had been elected, it would not be such a profound worldwide event, but it would be an earth-shattering change in domestic politics.

America does not have a strong history of powerful female political leaders. It's not just misogyny -- that's too easy. It's also a matter of cultural habit, and blindness.

It took an exceptionally intelligent, graceful, savvy, tenacious Barack Obama to cross the racial barrier. And perhaps it's his bipartisan rhetoric that has made it possible at all.

It will take an even more exceptionally intelligent, graceful, savvy, tenacious woman candidate -- also bipartisan, I think, to win against the prejudgers -- to cross the gender barrier.

Because there is a barrier, no question.

Hillary might have been that person, but I think she truly undermined her own candidacy. Someday a woman will win. And while the world at that moment may just shrug, it will be a transcendent event in America.

(Unless it's Sarah Palin, in which case America is doomed.)