I'm cleaning out the drafts folder left over from a week of dismay and complication, so bear with me: According to Cornell West on Bill Maher last week....
In order to call someone an elitist we have to define what we mean by "elitism." An Elitist is either someone who knows more than you in the face of relative ignorance, or it's someone who is "arrogant, condescending, or haughty towards everyday people..."
So, according to West, we are watching the spin on something that can be manipulated either way.
In my horrible paraphrasing and limited understanding, (in good company because Maher was pretty blown away too,) which is apparent from the clip below, and which I hope everyone will watch: What standards have we got concerning the concept of truth? If understanding truth is considered actually allowing suffering to speak, then understanding justice is what love looks like in public.
And...Then,what suffering voices did we hear in this primary debate? what questions and concerns about justice are manifest in the debate? Understanding this includes the questions askedand the answers given.... So according to West, and regarding Obama; Is he smart enough? Is he dumb enough? When we accuse anyone of being too elite are we asking if maybe they don't know just a little too much? And if that's the case, then don't we want someone who knows a bit too much? Or is that an attitude problem?...and where do we hit the "uppity negro" concept? Isn't this whole thing, tearing the party apart, some incarnation of a deep feeling of "how dare he aspire to the highest office in the country!"
Is there compassion informing our expertise? Because expertise without caring is empty. And at this point, I'm trying to figure if who the candidate is, isn't the very thing that might make it possible for America to get back on track.
The Silence of John and Elizabeth Edwards...New York Magazine's John Heilemann on Who Councils Hillary and Whatever Else About the Rest of It....
This week's New York Magazine has a piece by John Heilemann , and Ive been turning the thing over and over in my head since I found it in the mailbox, and shortly thereafter got a call from my Mom who, upon receiving hers, was excitedly reporting to me about how this little piece contains some answers about the silence of John and Elizabeth Edwards. Mom was saying that clearly he and Elizabeth had had some sort of falling out with Obama and that Elizabeth really, really hates Hillary.
Obviously she had just glanced at it, because the gist was really more about who councils Hillary and who is powerful enough in the democratic party to grab control of what seems to be a runaway train. The fact that Elizabeth Edwards finds Obama's health care plan to be not as good as Hillary's and that Obama had been supposedly "brusque" or rude to the Edwards' immediately following his withdrawal from the race, comes off as the gossipy headline but isn't the real story here. This is the sort of thing that you do find from time to time in New York Magazine, in that it can run with the more lurid lead, even in the face of a more substantial story, and people who do what my Mom does, which is to read the first paragraph and then scan the rest, can miss the point. And this is a kind of misleading journalism that is based on what the journalist can glean through his instant message interviews with party bigwigs, and just his gut, is a little misleading. I like Heilemann, but it seems that he is about opinion. Even as it seems like he is on the inside reporting real news, when you look through his columns, they are really opinion pieces, wrapped in whatever connections he has. I'm not saying hes wrong, but I read New York Magazine with a grain of salt, and I hope that everyone else does too.
Well, today Elizabeth Edwards responded to Heilemann's piece on Morning Joe. In her usual dignified way, she attacked just the gossipy parts and left the rest alone...though if Joe had been a better reporter he might have dug a little. The thing is that I don't think that he wants to go there; not really. Elizabeth stated that she didn't find Obama rude and actually found him quite charming. She did confirm that she doesn't like Obama's plan, and prefers Hillary's, and then she left the question of her storied open dislike for Clinton hanging.
Heilemann's in print guess seems to be that Elizabeth may be the reason that Johnny has not made an endorsement. Y'know, I'm pretty interested in knowing what the hell is going on in the Edwards camp, but this reaching and turning some vague snippets into a story that ends with sentences like "Maybe that's why he...." is a little pathetic. The piece implies, or rather states, that Edwards endorsement has been held up by how nice one or the other of the candidates was to him on the day of his withdrawal. Isn't that silly? Does that make any sense? These people are politicians, and yes they have big egos, but they also have thick skin, and there is no way that an entire strategy could come down to how one or the other acted towards him on that one day.
In going over how badly Obama did with the Edward's, Heilemann pushes the envelope further into concern for his diplomatic prowess, in comparison to the story that Hillary was all over them and was almost, maybe able to win Elizabeth over with her kindness and ass kissing. So, then...he goes on to say that if its true that Obama failed to impress Edwards, he doesn't have the diplomatic skills to run the country! And McCain does? Clinton does? Bush does? I dunno... I suppose that this is one area that Hillary has more experience than the average politician, because she traveled alot as first lady and was around the necessary niceties in diplomatic exchange, but I'd hardly call Obama a slouch, and certainly not because of this! But Heilemann must know that the art of ass-kissing is a very ass-specific endeavor, and best carried out by people who are very adept and the bend over and twist. I find this all a little embarrassing and rather condescending to the Edwards and everyone else involved in this farce of a democratic process...especially the main stream media.
The real point of this story is that Gore and Edwards are the most powerful people in the democratic party right now and...who is going to stop Hillary??? He eventually wends through the merits of Pelosi or Reid talking to her and how much weight or clout Terry McAuliffe or Stephanie Tubbs Jones might have. But ultimately, it appears, that even here, in the lap of gossip, Hillary listens to no one but herself....and that, my friends, is the real reason for everything that is happening.
We're fighting for our lives here, people, lets try to focus on McCain and his lies, lies, lies! Its apparent that this thing is gonna go all they way because the M$M needs to sell soap, and the daytime drama market is just not cutting it.
Dick Morris Calls Obama THE Democratic Nominee...Pundits Call Speech THE Most Important on Race EVER!
This story is THE biggest story out there. Like Rachel Maddow, I am tired of the race issue and I didn't want to give more time than necessary to any more divisive issues in the democratic party, but this speech was important and challenging. Every one of us should sit and listen to this speech and think about what Obama is saying. Clearly, the ideas that he brought to light are unsettling for some and unpalatable for others. For many, many others, what Obama talked about today is a way of life and a reality that needs to be brought to light. No one else could have made this speech...and I'm glad that he was forced into it. I think that those who would use the pastor story to call Obama out, bit off a little bit more than they bargained for.
The hyperbole coming from the cable news shows on this story is incredible: Chris Mathews thinks that it was one of the most important speeches on race since MLK jr's Dream... others are saying that it is the most important speech in their lifetimes. The pundits have embraced Obama after this "historic" speech, which was, according to them, earth shattering and something that surely has changed everything.
I was watching the speech this morning when I realized that Marc Maron and Sam Seder's Vod-cast was on...so I switched over to find Sam and Marc talking about how the speech was on and maybe they should watch it and then continue the show. At which suggestion, Marc brought his laptop over to his TV and we watched the rest of it sorta together through Marc's web cam...if that makes sense. What was great about watching it that way was that we got the little asides from Maron during, and then immediately afterwards we got a great assessment of Obama by both Seder and Maron. Check it out here. And be sure to catch Maron on one of the simulcast First Freedom First; Separation of Church & State events on March 26th, 2008.
So, having been in so much of a liberal bubble during the speech, I ran out to the dentist where I found that working people on the street were pretty much still repeating the network news talking points about what the pastor had said. I figured that the turning point would be more around the evening news and how this speech is going to be handled for the wider audience with a shorter attention span.
Sure enough, alongside the cable pundits going bonkers, the network news channels began at 5 PM reporting it right up front. How it plays will become clear only after a few days...but it seems like largely this thing is being embraced as the beautiful speech that it was. The only problem that I see is that it was very long. YouTubers had already chopped it into 2 minute sound bytes labeled with names like "Obama on the Pastor," "Obama on Race," immediately afterwards. How the thing plays in bits will probably be more important for all current intents and purposes. If this speech is something that school children will listen to is something that history will decide, but its too bad that it is so rare that we talk about anything real that is happening right in front of us anymore. Its too bad that its a historic moment in that someone stood up and spoke the truth. If Chris Matthews could predict the future, we have seen an MLK jr. who has outspoken the great speakers of our time. It seems that largely, except for some clearly sour grapes reporting, the talkers believe that Obama is the next President. (after some sneering mention of McCain's skewering on Letterman last night...which is something I will have to look into.)
Over at Faux News; Obama the next President?....not so much. The plastic sneering talking heads were going through their paces in their full and expansive glory. Dick Morris, all in-your-face, said that though he was fascinated by Obama's ideas about race and society, he is not any more interested in his ideas about politics than he is interested in his hairdresser's. His hairdresser apparently talks about politics while she cuts his hair, but he doesn't listen to her any more than he would to Obama. Stupid, silly, little man; don't you see that it's the people on the street that reflect what is going on with people in real life? Dick Morris said that there is no doubt to him that Obama is THE democratic nominee...and that this issue is going to dog him and be the subject of "swiftboat like" attacks. Don't say that Dickie didn't warn you. He is probably onboard as a mercenary to position that attack as I write this. What a horrible human being Dick Morris is. He makes me want to spit...and that's not because I'm so in love with anyone that he has smeared; its because of the way in which he sell his skills to the highest bidder or the devil.
The anchor, another mean looking ken-doll who's name I didn't care to catch, acted as if he was breaking a huge story in which Obama said that he was not in the pew during any of these speeches, and then saying that OH MY! He WAS!! The "I didn't know about it" defense has gone out the window, according to Brit Hume. What a great bunch of journalists these losers are... I have to take anything they say with a grain of salt because I know how much they lie. And, speaking of liars, Brit Hume was immediately brought in to talk about how Jesse Jackson had been in and had talked to him about the skill necessary for a black man to go between the establishment and the streets. He went on to say that Obama was particularly adept at it.
This may be an Achilles heel in the making. Its reminiscent of Obama claiming that he had tried drugs and then his friends saying that they never saw him with any drugs; so is he a lair trying to pretend that he has street cred and is the way that he moves between the two worlds so adeptly a plus or a minus when its examined? Should he have stood up and told the reverend to stop that language? Or is it OK to just see what people are saying and to take that with him into the other world as information gained while living his other life? How are people going to feel ultimately, to have to come to terms with the fact that for anyone who is not exactly in the middle of the mainstream there is quite a bit of bluffing necessary for any sort of public relations mastery.
See, most of us move between worlds with no problem; ist second nature and part of our survival mechanisms. Part of growing up is learning how to act in school versus home, and how to be cool to your friends but not to swear in front of grandma. The problem is that when a person of color who might have, in another time been suspect, uses that particular talent to integrate into white society, it can be unsettling. Is he a spy for the other side? Have we uncovered a fiery and dangerous side to Obama that we don't want in office? These are some of the gut feelings that are going around. Its so clear...and this is one of those psychological knee-jerk things that is going to have to play itself out.
Obama did alot of good today with his "ground-breaking" speech. Not only did he do much to explain his seat in that pew for all of those years, watching one half of the American experience rehashed, but he did much towards opening up our own fears of the anger that exists hidden, sometimes not so well, in the black community. Hopefully this discussion will go further than we have previously gone in coming to terms with what we all feel about our shared history.
Its a proud day to take the name Hussein to your blog...Lets all listen to these words very carefully and then hope to God that the democrats will sit down and figure this thing out according to what the majority of the people want.
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories tha t we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicia ns, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committ ed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
Midnight in America...Waiting for the Other Shoe...And Considering Obama Among the Wreckage....
...This is the America of the lucky, folks...the luck of the Russian-Irish/Catholic-jew, where a girl from Brooklyn wakes up in a cottage in the woods to find that her young hens have decided to start laying... How did I get here? Pure luck...hard work...kindness in the face of anger and dysfunction....but, probably really just sheer tenacity and luck... It's that pie-in-the-sky America that is hard for me to understand; like the lottery and the forces of nature that decided not to flood my basement or throw a tree on my house...or what made me live through it all, and how did I get through all of these years.
And its the middle management America of getting by, but looking towards the sky for the other shoe falling, while others who I have, by some sort of divine intervention crossed paths and become close with, can barely buy food or go to the doctor as opposed to heat and electricity...and what that could possibly mean in the scheme of the richest country in the world, that made me look to John Edwards as a light in the proceedings that have been grinding forth for these long months... And now? I'm waiting, like I always do, for the other shoe, whistling to earth like the road-runner's anvil, and in that Edwards will endorse Hillary, thus making my last drop of faith just a salty circle on the sand, proving that none of this is real or true, and all we can do is the busywork of trying to move, snail like, towards some outcome that will be a blip on future historical time lines of the rise and falls of empires just like this one... If this is the pyramid stone that we are spending our entire lives dragging across the desert in order to complete some monument to the empire, then so be it...Who ever told any of us that we were any more special than anyone else? ...our brothers and sisters who are hungry around the world, or those who live in war torn countries looking heavenward for a bomb, much less a shoe? Its all just luck...and we could be them, as easily as they could be us...and that "myfriends" is the very foundation of our society's more socialist tendency's, which are....surprise!...the very things that make us who we are!!
I know who I am. Who are you?
I'll just enjoy my eggs for now...enjoy my chickens...and try to figure what comes next. Of whats left in this race, besides the coming heartbreak of thinking one thing and the dawning realization of another, I like the danger of Obama. Tell me that you are not sure of his experience and if he can get anything done, and I am interested....because the safety of the same old beer with a buddy at the bar is what got us into this place, and the only times that America has really shone in its founding ideals is when some brave people took a flying chance and let the chips fall where they would. Sometimes thats a life or death decision, and sometimes its folly, but it always has historical significance, and more importantly, those moments have had a real effect on we Americans , and how we view the evolution of our society. In fact, those people and those moments have been the shining moments of discovery, invention, and the words and actions that make us who we tell ourselves we are...or who we strive to be...a more perfect union, and kinder, more humane, beings. When I was a young girl, I stood on a crowded curved street in Chinatown, holding my mom's hand, and watched as RFK Sr. drove through on the back of an old Cadillac convertible, waving. His brother had been shot, and he could've easily been shot there in the middle of the dense crowd, moving slowly past that old orthodox church with the tiny fair in the back complete with live goldfish to win and an erector-set sorta ferris wheel, knowing the danger and still grabbing hold of the moment to say the words that would be part of history....that would change my world as yellowing newspaper clips on the wall over Mom's old radio in the dark dining room in Brooklyn, where she sat for hours listening to talk radio in her grandmother's rocking chair.
So bring on the instability and unsureness of Obama over the same old Clintonian bureaucracy any day...bring it on quickly...because I've lost my faith in almost every part of this thing that I have been hanging on to and trying to believe in. And all thats anymore left is to tell myself that this piece of history is way to tiny for us to see the effect...way too tiny to matter in our lifetimes...and the real faith here has to be that what we do today will be realized by our children and their children...right?...and, that takes a kind of faith that I may spend the rest of my life trying to muster and I blindly move forward trying to divine whats right in this circumstance...as if we could ever imagine that what would be put forth would NOT be impeachment, criminal investigation, jail...a big change....Is there even a question? I don't know how to do anything else but watch and wait and chronicle this as best I can.... easy over or scrambled?
The Grammys and Crippled Chicken Farming While Reading Sunday's NY Times...Livin' in the Future and None of This Has Happened Yet....
I know, I know...where's she been? I don't know, I say, as I look through the unfinished drafts of the past couple of lousy weeks of school meetings and a sick, paralyzed chicken.... and just feeling overwhelmed by the political climate and the climate of my life which seem to meld like the mud and relentless rain that makes us run to the window at the sight of flurries, wondering what happened to our snowy winters? Is the end nigh?
All craziness aside, if i don't get something down about whats going on, I find that thoughts upon thoughts run round in my head, so maybe its better to just spit out a little something, rather than waiting for the time to get it all down here....and maybe its just a little shorter...maybe...just a little...
So, sitting here watching the Grammy's and with my fingers crossed for a positive outcome from the meeting(s) this week between the Writer's Guild and the Producers; the hope for 24 with Janeane Garafolo as an investigator looking into the actions of Jack Bauer, and, no doubt, swept up into the action of the world of 24; or I hope so anyway. Janeane is my favorite action hero!
The Grammy's show sucks, and maybe thats because a large percentage of the new talent out there sucks...and the snippets of a nod they give to what might be a real part of the canon of American Music are just not enough...for whatever thats worth anymore; like, if you were still proud to be an American and wanting to promote our culture. Funny how the Band, Canadians and one American, and the Beatles, represented by Ringo Star of the new smash non-hit, Liverpool 8, an oddly horrible song, and by Yoko Ono in a white top hat....where is Paul? Ah, I don't know/don't care about the most eligible batch in the world....and the Cirque du Soliel doing a pretty fantastic dance number out of the over pimped legacy (THERE! I used it!!) Are John and George looking down on this and smiling or just out there in the nothingness realizing how meaningless that anything of beauty that we've created is in the face of the real power in this world? Still, the bright point is really this Cirque strangeness set to Beatles music.
Oh, and the writers are pretty damned right in their demands, and absolutely correct to hang in there and disrupt the prime times of the lazy American couch people until the greedy producers give in.
Being a big MSNBC watcher, I've got to say that I'm pretty disgusted by whats been going down over there regarding the bad boyz club and their mysogynistic bullshit that is actively thrust upon us daily by the usual suspects, and the parade of the same old horrible pundits. Thats why I find it sort of disingenuous that the suits over there decided to suspend one of the better and more intellectual members of the reporting staff, for saying the word "Pimp" in regard to what Hillary Clinton has done with her daughter. Its a crappy, knee-jerk and overly PC reaction to a few letters written about someone who never ever says that kind of stuff. As opposed to the long history of abuse by Joe Scarborough and Tweet Matthews, I'm aghast that the management felt that Schuster was the right vehicle for whatever repositioning they are attempting. I wrote to them, and I would suggest that anyone else who has a position on this do the same.
I couldn't concentrate much on the morning shows today, except to re-register that the republicans hate McCain; and more power to them and him. I'm feeling confused by what we've been left with on our side. It isn't working very well for me, though I did vote for Obama. I just don't feel represented and I still cant figure out why Edwards backed out so soon. I hope that it becomes clear as time goes on because I just cant imagine that we can possibly go into what comes next without his values and vision. For Christ's sake, people are suffering, and we have to get some money back into the education system. Oh, so many other things too, I know...but from the get go, the system in this country seems stacked, like a wall over which the poor can't see, to even know what it is they could have or what they might want to strive for...This is a blindness that is meant to keep the underclass permanent, regardless of the wasted talent and dreams that are left there...That, to me, is un-American. Aren't we all supposed to have some value?
Today, I went through the Sunday papers and, as usual, pulled out a few things to read in paper form rather than online. There is something about the Sunday New York Times and how it feels in your hand...the smudge of it, the smell of it.
The book review this week is a political issue, and between the candidates, partisans, and the wars, is a piece on African American Identity Politics, which reviews the book Sellout, by Randall Kelly, and the book A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why he Cant Win, by Shelby Steele. They both seem to cover the difficulties faced by black people who either break out from the popular African American culture, or are not considered to be "black enough." Both raise some legitimate questions that are really timely but, according to the reviewer fall short in heavy handed, overwrought prose, and the authors also being somewhat self centered in their assessment of their subjects. I expect the market to be flooded with this sort of material before long. Honestly, I'm not surprised to see this so soon...and I hope that we see some deeper insight than the "who's to blame?" argument about the African American culture not taking responsibility for itself. I am going through some of this with some kids Im helping, and in the world of no-snitching and being trapped in the community center and/or in a dangerous neighborhood vs. getting out, even a little, there is the reality of accusation of not being "black enough." I wouldn't have thought it for afar, but on the ground, its very real.
Thanks so much to travel writer, James Vlahos, for exploring "The Other Iran," in the Travel Section. If you didn't get a chance to see this, pop over and see the slide show. This is the other Iran in the sense that it is the old Persian part of Iran, but the title of the article, the content, and the slide show, beg us to look at what John McCain and possibly Hillary Clinton have their sights set on as a threat worthy of preemptive strikes. Look, Im not saying that I endorse or understand their culture...nor do I know much about the weapon issue...but I sure as hell don't trust any sort of warning coming out of this administration. I would hope that a new administration wouldn't just continue the path of the war, but restart the investigations and involve the UN in them. This is a beautiful and intricate culture that the people of Iran have obviously preserved carefully. Other parts of the country range from sophisticated cities with universities and business, to countryside. Why don't the American people get to see more of this before Iran is totally demonized as part of the Bushco oil plan?
And finally, In the Connecticut Section, is a horribly sad story about 3 brain-injured soldiers who are struggling to pull out of what seems to amount to vegetative states, and after family struggles, horrible care, testimony before a senate committee, one was able to get the VA to pay for private care. The mother then called another mother from the VA hospital to help her get her son treatment...and so it goes. Why we cant provide our soldiers with better care is a question that is probably best posed to the existing administration that ignores these guys as much as is possible without getting caught. But the story is really about the mother's sacrifices, and about the support that they give each other. The soldiers are never going to be OK and there is just so much help a rehab hospital can be in these cases. This story is about the effect of this war on entire families, and on the very foundation of our country, if we are all not included in the war effort. We have to end this thing right away, but in the meantime, maybe we can actually sacrifice beyond shopping with our tax rebate. Maybe we can reach out to those in need and send to soldiers at the hospital and abroad...and help those in need right in our own towns...people are suffering and we are all a part of this thing, even if we opposed it and even if we despise it.
I also strongly suggest the magazine section ...the whole thing, this week. Its got the Defense secretary Gates on Iraq and Iran, and the beginning of pain...as in, does pain start in the womb? Do babies feel pain? This is not only interesting to those who suffer from chronic pain, but also to anyone who has a stake in the abortion battle. If it can feel pain, is it a human life? And then a guy who eats bugs, as part of the usual food report, and a piece on the ethics of organ donation....on to a portfolio of Oscar contenders.
OK, enough is enough. I haven't even gotten to frank Rich yet. Why is it that weeks can go by without much or much to say about the Times, and then there is a day with some really, really bright points?
Finally, for Springsteen fans, here is a song from his new record, Magic, which is really kind of fantastic, for the amount of the time Ive had to listen to it. I really like the words to this....there isn't much of a video here; just stills...Ill try to find a better cut of it. Magic really deserved the Grammy, and as of this publishing time, he hasn't won anything for it.
For Springsteen's commentary on this song see the live show cut below..."this is a song about the future, but its really about whats happening now."...I wish I had the energy to see Bruce live again...But look at that crowd; the size of that place...that used to really give me a thrill, but anymore, its just anxiety provoking. I've seen him plenty anyway...
Broken Government? More like Broken Health Insurance Industry...The Billary Campaign Trail..One Kennedy Endorses Obama...Heed Frank Rich's Warning!
Sam Seder will be covering for Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio on Monday, January 28th...The Maron V. Seder Vodcast will be broadcast on live Tuesday, January 29th, and there is a possibility of a live Sammy Cam session to chat our way through the State of the Union Speech...or a possible Young Turk-a-thon (not my favorite thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures!) All this and more at Sam's Blog. Check back often for updates on all the stuff that's going on! He's busy!
So, CNN is advertising a special report, after the debate on Thursday, that is being billed as SANJAY GUPTA Reportsssss...Health Care in America: Broken Government! Anyone with Medicare or Medicaid knows that the government healthcare programs work very well. They are probably the least broken parts of this screwed up country...Though one big problem with them is that when people like Rudy Giulliani are cutting the budgets of their fiefdoms, a good way of cutting bottom line services that should be immovable is by making social programs more difficult to find, fill out forms for, provide proper documentation for, and recert over and over, until people just leave the fief for a kinder and gentler state where one can sleep outside more comfortably, or a place that is more friendly to the poor. If you can get on them, the government programs are the most accepted, by law (and Medicaid needs some work in that area,) and pay providers pretty fairly. They operate with tiny overheads, compared to private insurance companies, and run rather smoothly, considering that they are part of the government bureaucracy.
I'm trying to find the commercial on CNN's website about Sanjay and his Gupta reportage, but since its not up yet, I'd like to suggest a rephrasing of that tag line. How about Broken Insurance Industry, (or how about,
This is what you get from outsourcing, you idiots!!
) Because I know from the commercial, its all about horrible medical crisis' that could have been prevented if only the Government wasn't Broken!Whats broken here is that we cant all get on Medicare and pay what we can. Its just that simple and will provide jobs, even as the insurance industry loses jobs. This is not the first time that Gupta has used an inflammatory tag line and made sweeping generalizations about medical issues that he is not really qualified to speak to. He is an MD, not a political scholar. And its questionable how smart of an MD he is too. But, I'm all ears, Sanjay...have at it!
The difference between me and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is one of having faith in human nature and hope that the American system and/or the American people are strong enough, at this point in history, to fall behind an idealistic young candidate and go through with what will be necessary to turn this ship around before it hits ground. I keep imagining the moment that, in the midst of a terra alert, we put McCain or Romney into office just to be "safe." Hey, Its happened before! Don't rule it out!
I don't know what rosy colored glasses the Kennedy's look through to maintain their hope in the face of tragedy, and as political insiders who have seen their share of the gruesome details, but its sort of heartening and lovely in a way...and a little unreal. I also think that it has something to do with being raised in an extended family of public servants who are steeped in being able to promote change. They are told this from the moment they hit the ground running, and they have the support, even in trauma and dysfunction, of their extended family and religion to keep going. They also are from money; not that they all have riches beyond compare, because there are so many of them, but operating from a platform of upper classiness, they are educated and prepped for a life of great privilege, and a life of service to balance it. Religion has something to do with it too. They are Catholics, and it seems that having a higher reason behind what the aim is, helps with all those questions of why. A coy Obama as much as admitted that Teddy Kennedy is on board as well. Breaking News: Tomorrow comes the endorsement. Do they know the real think when they see it just because they are Kennedy's? Because everything about Obama seems to rely more on the feeling that he gives people than actual substance. I'd like to see more substance and less positioning.
Granted, I would be the virtual Woody Allen neurotic New Yorker to any Kennedy hope filled spiel about this young candidate being of the flesh and the body of the father. It must be nice to feel like you've found the reincarnation of hope, but I'm not quite there yet, to be honest, I'm doubtful about the whole thing. America does not have a very good track record at successfully letting hopeful leaders make their way into office. Surely, if Barak Obama is going to be brave enough to throw himself out there, I'm willing to listen, but it took me four years and an in person meeting to make me start to think that John Edwards really means what he says, and I have some very concrete reasons why I like him.
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's reasoning about Obama had less to do with the specifics of what Obama might do, than with things that people have told her about how he reminds them of her father. See, she doesn't really remember her father, but I'm sure that she knows everything he ever did, and the concrete reasoning behind it all, so why this wishy-washy endorsement? It sounds to me like " He moves the American people and makes them feel good.." and people say that he reminds them of my father, so lets trust him to try to dig us out of the worst hole we've been in, maybe ever?
Whoever gets the job is bound to look bad pretty quickly if not right away. There is just too much to clean up, and even the most experienced politician is gonna have to get their hands really dirty, offending alot of people along the way, meanwhile trying to fix the diplomatic mess that they are going to be left with. I think that whoever is the winner of this contest is going to end up with the short end of the stick, and the war is going to be his/her's, thanks to the democratic majority's inability to get itself to act, even in the interest of getting some information on the record to protect the next president.
I've been a little shocked at the reaction of a few people in the blogosphere to Edwards not dropping out of the race when he didn't win South Carolina. I see no reason for him to drop out, and in fact, I urge him to stay in...I sent him money, and will send more after the 1st of the month. I guess that the best thing about this race has been the discourse. Some of it has been insane and some of it has been upsetting, but mostly, it's been good to see everyone allowed to talk out loud about whats been going on for these years in what seemed like a virtual gulag, as the terra alerts went from yellow to red, and we were told the best way to duct tape ourselves into a room in case of attack. Remember all that? Some woman around here actually killed herself and her kid because she sealed them into a room too tightly at a time when they had to use a generator or heater or something.
Remember not being able to buy duct tape because that asshole director of homeland security, Tom Ridge, said that all Americans should have these things...and survival food...doesn't it seem like a fucking dream? How did they successfully carry out all of the lies? How is it that they wont have to pay somehow? And isn't it crazy that any of these fools wants the job at all?
Yeah, you have to be pretty sure of yourself to think that you might be able to fix this mess up...even with a full staff of advisers, I cant imagine that anyone wouldn't have some trepidation. And I guess that I don't feel like Obama has the experience to run the entire country ...but I'd prefer to take a chance with him than to go with what I know will be business as usual with Billary. One way or another, we're bound to take a bit of a dip before we start to rebound. The dip might last what seems like a long time in our short sightedness, but historically it will be a blip. It's what we deserve for getting too lazy to pay attention and vote, and the turnout speaks loudly to the fact that its going to be a long time before people become that complacent again. Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times today about the dangers of a Hillary Clinton general election. He pretty much warned that while Hillary may consider herself vetted, Bill has not been vetted on whats happened since he left the White House. Apparently there is much there to make hay of, and if Hillary is running against McCain, a swift boating or even an attack grounded in fact could land us with a President McCain. The sudden heavy use of Bill Clinton to pull Hillary's numbers up could have a devastating effect on this country if he has not been squeaky clean over the last 8 years. Surely there is a danger in just the perception of going back to the same old water carrying that was a huge part of how we got here.
For the Republicans, that means not just a double dose of the one steroid, Clinton hatred, that might yet restore their party’s unity but also two fat targets. Mrs. Clinton repeatedly talks of how she’s been “vetted” and that “there are no surprises” left to be mined by her opponents. On the “Today” show Friday, she joked that the Republican attacks “are just so old.” So far. Now that Mr. Clinton is ubiquitous, not only is his past back on the table but his post-presidency must be vetted as well. To get a taste of what surprises may be in store, you need merely revisit the Bill Clinton questions that Hillary Clinton has avoided to date.
Rich seems to think that Obama is a contender...more than Hillary is anyway. When he writes like this it is usually because he knows something, and the only way to figure it out is to try to catch him on the TV machine, as he no doubt will be appearing here and there this week, (or so I hope.) What seems clear is that polls at Real Clear Politics already show Hillary running neck and neck with McCain in the general. They also project the rest of the democratic field the same with McCain. I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna make it through another tight race in which we have questionable vote counting. Make no mistake, the aim of this thing as to be to win, and we can only hope that the Republican nominee isn't old John McCain, because he seems to have some legs in this thing. Where are the fundies when you need 'em?
Congratulations to BarakObama on his South Carolina Win...Still waiting to see who comes in second. I don't know when or if American voters might choke at uncertainty mixed with racism, but if they're gonna start to have second thoughts, I hope that its before the general election. I guess that Bill Clinton didn't win much of anything until later in the primary season, so its impossible to guess what will happen as this thing goes on. As far as I'm concerned, with Edwards, its all about the message, and hopefully he will have a good long time to talk about these very important issues. Its early to pick a winner in this, but as much as I hear that people hate Hillary, I'm also hearing some trepidation that Obama might not have the experience that is is necessary for this time of war. If we get any kind of terra surprise, we might see a result that we didn't bargain for. I hope to god that any of our candidates who moves towards the front of the pack is ready to react and act like they know what they're doing and they're gonna kick some terra-ist ass !
Debate Night Chicken Blogging.....RIP to the Clinton Era...
The chickens love to roost outside in the cold...up on their roost trilling and cawing, all puffed up and warm inside their feathers...this is the best time to grab them for a hug and a kiss! The rumpless Arcuna is my favorite! He spends alot of time outside my window here watching me write. *****************************************************
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********************************** Meantime, inside the silly little cottage in the woods, I've been watching the unreal New Hampshire debates, and weighing the very real differences among the democratic field...and the circus-like insanity of the Republican field as a whole.(Cue: circus music) I miss Mike Gravel, and am sort of thankful for Ron Paul. Besides his really deep insanity and spitballing on how things would be run if we lived in colonial times, he speaks some pretty heavy and fearless truth. Having him in any sort of decision making position in this country would be a disaster...but I love to hear him exclaim and then watch the scary, half/dead Thompson guffaw and respond incoherently. ***************************************
What I'm not hearing on either side here is how we are going to document the bold crimes that are still bleeding this country dry. I want some answers. I don't want to wipe the slate and move forward, trying to forget this brush with the pathological. I want it spelled out so that every grade school educated, under-served and under-represented citizen in the furthest reaches of America, can realize that they should never feel again like they have to vote against their own better interests in order to keep America safe.
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John Edwards is clearly the winner of this thing, if you're counting content and concrete plans that make sense. I love John Edwards...I have to say that he has really stood out in this process for me. I have no reservations about him. Why does the media work so hard on shutting coverage of him as a candidate out?
************************************** I am, as usual when watching anything on ABC, bewildered at the mono-tonality of the Charlie Gibson-Diane Sawyer cult. Even Georgie Snuffleupagus has taken on the hushed morning tone of people who live in high rises with vast shiny wood floors and ununsed surfaces or perfect temples made of bamboo and facing just so. I can feel the Feng Shui of the delicacy with which these people report the news. ***********************************************************
All in all, I've found this process to be fantastic, because we have had the great fortune to have had a great field up until Iowa and to have heard what they have to say. The concept of hearing ideas spoken in a public forum had fallen away. And in a world where the Republican contenders are a bunch of bumbling nuts, I have to say that we still have an embarrassment of riches, in the bold ideas being laid out here; Bold ideas being just pulling ourselves together and trying to get us back to some semblance of where we were trying to be, so imperfectly, too many years ago.
Its gratifying that Americans seem to really want change, but I hope that the difference between Obama and Edwards become as strikingly clear as they are to me and the rest of the political junkies out there. Look at the differences in policy on globalization, healthcare, and nuclear power, just to start. Take a look before they start to pull together too much, as they have already. Soon you wont be able to tell them apart; and they do make good counterparts. Its just too bad that they each need a VP who has some sort of older statesman thing going on. The two of them would be the most dynamic white house that we've ever had.
Hillary? She was just so-so...very heavy botox, lots of struggle, fighting back from the brink, and, I feel sort of sorry for her. The blog word is that the Clinton era is dead...RIP to the Clinton Era....
Edwards Gains Ground, as Obamarah and Billary Slug it out...And On the Other Side? Cue the Circus Music, the Left Behind, and the Swimming Monkeys!!
Sunday: Life after the morning shows? Planet Earth on Discovery Channel..... The world outside seems pretty big sometimes.... and the pathological bullshit going on in here is sort of unbearable in the face of this:
These guys can stay down for up to 30 mins! Forget the tiny pandering of the animals with the biggest egos on this planet. we've got nothing compared to the survival skills that are evolving every day out there on Planet Earth...Pick your nature show, folks, and sit right down for a heart warming HD journey into how small we really are in the scheme of things. Maybe I'm getting old, and maybe its that I resisted the new technology for so long, but high definition really is the new hallucinogenic for people of a certain age.
And that drowning feeling? Well, after long strange dreams about swimming in the tropics with old ex-friends who I hope to never see again, I was brought back to Mitt Romney by Frank Rich, who shines a light once again on the should-be criminal ball-dropping of the pundits and press in this country. The frustration of that on this icy morning, chipping away at the path, and fuming about how a swift boat attack is all that could stand between us and a Romney presidency, is just too much for my weakened sensibilities! Surely, its our fault because we give them the ratings, but then, we also don't have much choice, do we? Why would it be so wrong to bring back some type of fairness doctrine? What are they so afraid of if they are so right...?
Pushed over the edge by his peers’ polite chatter about Mitt Romney’s sermon on “Faith in America,” Mr. O’Donnell branded the speech “the worst” of his lifetime. Then he went on a rampage about Mr. Romney’s Mormon religion, shouting (among other things) that until 1978 it was “an officially racist faith.”
That claim just happens to be true. As the jaws of his scandalized co-stars dropped around him, Mr. O’Donnell then raised the rude question that almost no one in Washington asks aloud: Why didn’t Mr. Romney publicly renounce his church’s discriminatory practices before they were revoked? As the scion of one of America’s most prominent Mormon families, he might have made a difference. It’s not as if he was a toddler. By 1978 — the same year his contemporary, Bill Clinton, was elected governor in Arkansas — Mr. Romney had entered his 30s.
The answer is simple. Mr. Romney didn’t fight his church’s institutionalized apartheid, whatever his private misgivings, because that’s his character. Though he is trying to sell himself as a leader, he is actually a follower and a panderer, as confirmed by his flip-flops on nearly every issue.
Polite chatter. That's what gets me. Its politeness that got us where we are now...so, for Christ's sake, lets at least look at the truth before we install another idiot president in place of the current one. The words that we shall not speak are the ones that need to be spoken, so lets look at the skull and bones underpants of this thing. The Iraq war shows us that if we keep quiet in the runup to a disaster, it can be nearly impossible to disentangle ourselves from the ensuing mess.
Racism; I keep hearing it mentioned as a cautious point on why we shouldn't support Obama. He might not be able to win the general. But that caution belies a disconnect with what is really going on out there. Its evident in how the press and other candidates on both sides underestimated the Oprah-Obama factor. Its evident in the condescending way with which Oprah, who is arguably a spokeswoman for not only African Americans in general, but American women and her fan base, which spans larger than most of us realize, was dismissed as a pop-icon with no real weight in something as heady as an election. Think again. The woman who decided to turn her back on trash talk, and who got the country reading again, is more powerful than maybe Jesus, and probably, at least as powerful as the M$M's script for this thing. At least she knocked things around a bit and made the contenders show some of their real colors. This is not Springsteen or Bon Jovi rallying the kids; Oprah is another animal altogether and she speaks to a different place in the psyche of real people who are struggling to get by. Why? I really don't know. Call it a mysterious phenomenon; but don't disregard it.
Oprah is a populist who has taken chances for her convictions, and as much as she turned her back on the wrestling masses that Jerry Springer gave a stage to for ratings, she still has been a forgiving force who finds the common ground that represents every person in every trailer park, every upper east side matron, and those in-between. Its uncanny how she has built on that and has managed to remain above the fray in her objectives, and its not something that anyone could have predicted. But, I would think that people who watch this stuff for a living might be a little more aware of who Oprah is.
Even as Oprah represents the black thing when she goes into her hey girl! ghetto voice or does her MLK I have seen the mountain tone,she crosses a line that white America cant cross; not even Hillary as the wife of the "first black president," or whatever he was....but as she crosses those lines, she does it as if white and brown America are right there with her. She makes people of all colors warriors in a battle that is more intellectual than anyone realizes. She is talking about racism, which is absolutely knee-jerk visceral in those who grew up in places where it was ingrained, but she does it as if we were all in the battle together against what might even be something even within ourselves. What works about this is that she has a tone of self-forgiving and understanding, which makes it all more understandable and acceptable as something that we all need to change. I say all of this as someone who doesn't much watch Oprah and who is not much of a fan, unless she has on a specific subject that I want to see.
According to Rich, though, the worry about ingrained racism shouldn't be that much of a problem for Obama:
Race is certainly a part of the groundswell, but not in a malevolent way. When I wrote here two weeks ago that racism is the dog that hasn’t barked in this campaign, some readers wrote in to say that only a fool would believe that white Americans would ever elect an African-American president, no matter what polls indicate. We’ll find out soon enough. If that’s the case, Mr. Obama can’t win in Iowa, where the population is roughly 95 percent white, or in New Hampshire, which is 96 percent white.
I’d argue instead that any sizable racist anti-Obama vote will be concentrated in states that no Democrat would carry in the general election. Otherwise, race may be either a neutral or positive factor for the Obama campaign. Check out the composition of Oprah’s television flock, which, like all daytime audiences, is largely female. Her viewers are overwhelmingly white (some 80 percent), blue collar (nearly half with incomes under $40,000) and older (50-plus). This is hardly the chardonnay-sipping, NPR-addicted, bi coastal hipster crowd that many assume to be Mr. Obama’s largest white constituency. They share the profile of Clinton Democrats — and of some Republicans too.
And that sticky religion thing? The things that we might prefer not to mention? Oprah and Obama both come off as pretty heavily religious, but they are not exclusive or freaky, like the underpants that Romney and his folks wear:
“Church free” is the key. This country has had its fill of often hypocritical family-values politicians dictating what is and is not acceptable religious and moral practice. Instead of handing down tablets of what constitutes faith in America, Romney-style, the Oprah-Obama movement practices an American form of ecumenicalism. It preaches a bit of heaven on earth in the form of a unified, live-and-let-live democracy that is greater than the sum of its countless disparate denominations. The pitch — or, to those who are not fans, the shtick — may be corny. “The audacity of hope” is corny too. But corn is preferable to holier-than-thou, and not just in Iowa.
I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of an Obama candidacy seems sort of nice to me. I don't want another Clinton crammed down my throat and I want real chance. I'm willing to, at least, pretend that there is some choice and that big corporations and oil interests don't control everything. Whats the worst thing that can happen? Hasn't it all happened already?
But it's worth keeping in mind just how wrong the media echo chamber can be when it comes to predicting winners and losers. At about this time four years ago, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was the press-anointed darling who could seemingly do no wrong in Iowa. Dour John Kerry was scorned by reporters as the should-have-been who had blown it and couldn't possibly win. But on caucus night, Kerry wound up the victor—and Dean wound up screaming. Reporters were left to wonder what they had missed. One story the talking heads may be missing this time: just how badly John Edwards hates to lose.
I'm so tired of being told who my candidate is gonna be. I'm so tired of the likes of Chris Matthews and his ilk bleating on about how Hillary cant possibly lose...so, why bother even voting? It seems to me that as the networks have a responsibility to not give results too early on election day, they should try to act like there is a choice and try to encourage people to vote. The problem with them is that their responsibility is to the shareholders and not to the process. Every time I get the feeling that I'm being told to not bother any longer, I send Edwards some money. I honestly think he is the best one for the job at this time, and I honestly think that he has a chance. I also would like to make Chris Matthews and Tim Russert wrong (even though they have started to change course already...cue Sam Seder's backup beep!) Its just nice to see a little coverage of Edwards, as if he were there and an entity in this race, and its also a nice article. It acts as if he is some new guy that no one knows about...but the background never gets old in a race like this.
Huckabee is on the cover of the New York Times Magazine this week and if you needed any further evidence of his particular brand of insanity, just look to the third paragraph for Huckabee's joy at the endorsement of Tim LaHaye, the author of the Left Behind series and game. I wrote about the game a year ago here, and, really, if Huckabee believes in the wrathful Jesus of the Left Behind series, and that our kids should be playing a game that allows them to ride at the side of the angry Jesus and kill those who were not raptured up to heaven (your choice of automatic weapons!)...you know, the left behind...kill 'em all! This is when I start to wonder what the fuck is going on in the republican party; what could they be thinking?
Chris Matthews played a video today of a fake Huckabee commercial that is supposedly posted on Andrew Sullivan's site. I didn't see it there, or on YouTube, but I am looking for it.
On the Iowa Trail.....Larry O'Donnell Tells it Like it is in the Church of Mormon; and Maher too.......
Godspeed to John Edwards. With the Iowa Caucuses offering probably the most fair picture of middle Americans (albeit, jaded by this rather heady process that allows most of them to meet and talk with the candidates,) barreling towards us, and Barack and Hillary neck and neck, with only one mistake possible between the two of them, John is well within the margin of error, with a good network already in place in New Hampshire. I really believe that Edwards is the only electable candidate that isn't under the sway of the powers of the ego/career trap or the big power of the ruling corporations that quake at the idea of Edwards raining on their parade. For God's sake, when are Americans going to look at the hard facts and cast a vote that serves them and their fortunes, instead of voting on a vague impression taken from media bytes being thrown about by the M$M?
