Democrats
Democrats’ lack of enthusiasm.
Sep 3rd
Glenn Greenwald has a post on Salon titled:
Glenn Greenwald
Thursday, Sep 2, 2010 10:03 ET
The profound mystery of the “enthusiasm gap”Here’s an excerpt, providing some of the relevant factors Greenwald cites:
(3) Substantial polling data makes clear that Latinos are among the most disenchanted Democratic voting bloc, as they are furious at the White House for repeatedly violating promises on immigration reform.…
(4) At Daily Kos, Joan McCarter documents that progressive and even Democratic Party journalists are now openly acknowledging what has long been clear: President Obama’s Deficit Commission was structured so as to ensure recommendations for, among other things, cuts in Social Security benefits, to be voted on right after the election is nice and over with (an election the Democrats are trying to win by parading around as the protectors of Social Security). Also at Daily Kos, Laurence Lewis describes how similar this dynamic is to prior political controversies, where Democrats held themselves out publicly as believing one thing while privately working for the opposite.
(5) Following Robert Gibbs’ announcement that liberal Obama critics should be drug tested, and before that, Rahm Emanuel’s declaration that the same group is “fucking retarded,” a new book by former Obama “car czar” Steven Rattner describes how Emanuel worked to thwart union interests and declared, in the midst of the auto bailouts: “Fuck the UAW.”
These are among the reasons I myself find this election so difficult. They focus on the White House. I cop to being among those Emanuel and Gibbs were referring to. I feel betrayed. I have a very, very hard time imagining I’ll feel any different in 2012. In fact, if the suspicions about Social Security prove accurate, I’ll feel even worse about Obama.
But that isn’t the whole story. In this district, I’ll be voting in November for a member of Congress, a U.S. Senator, a governor, and several candidates in the state administration (attorney general etc.). I don’t know if it’s really true that all politics is local. But I do know that I’m very enthusiastic about this year’s local election. I will not be voting for or against President Obama. I will be voting for candidates who will think and act independently and not according to White House scripts.
Gimme, gimme, gimme…
Jul 31st
Deadlines come and go. Some are no doubt important immediately (federal matching fund type stuff). Others are important indirectly: You raise money and meet your goals, then you look viable to the secret donors who control the serious money. Still others are just the meaningless equivalent of a TV spiel: “But wait! If you call right now! within the next 15 minutes! we’ll double the offer.” Total bullshit.
Here are a sample of the email appeals I’ve received just today. One day! A representative sample, mind you, not an exhaustive inventory. Now, anyone even remotely familiar with me or what I do and write will know that I belong to the Democratic Party, and I support strongly liberal/progressive social, economic, and political values. I’m on lots of mailing lists. (Not telephone lists, but I hang up on them.) I’m sure that Republican friends who mirror my profile receive their own inventory of solicitations, each and every day.
Place these individual, “little guy” appeals in the context of the Citizens United SCOTUS decision. Too complicated a phenomenon to be dealt with meaningfully in a short post. Read the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Or, if you prefer documentary films, rent and watch The Corporation, based on/inspired by the book. But if you have a really short attention span, here’s your executive summary:
- Corporations began as associations of persons, chartered for a limited time and for a limited purpose (like building a highway or digging a canal).
- Later (with collusion of conservative “activist judges”) corporations appropriated the right to be treated, not as associations of individually responsible private persons, but as imaginary, abstract “persons” in and of themselves.
- The salient implications? (a) The owners (stockholders) and the managers of these imaginary “persons” risk almost nothing, apart from an obvious fraud like Enron. (b) The corporate (pretend) person is required by its charter to promote private profit above all else. Ethics? Morality? Public interest? National interest? Piffle! If behaving morally and ethically earns you money, then cool. Otherwise? Fuck ‘em!
Remember that these are mostly multi-national corporations who “squat” in whichever nation best protects them from paying fair taxes and accepting legitimate liability. (Check the places where the “players” in the most recent BP environmental rape are chartered. Owners of the lease. Owners of the drilling equipment. Owners of the drilling platform. These are not U.S. corporations. They don’t care Jack Shit about U.S. citizens.)
- Fast forward to the Citizens United decision. Effectively, it means corporate pretend “person,” either international or floating from one temporary legal anchorage to another, as corporate self-interest dictates, are free to buy U.S. elections. Secretly. With no accountability.
Oh, did I mention? The Corporation book and documentary stipulate that a corporation is a “person,” as the SCOTUS insists. Then they measure the behavior of these corporate persons by a standard behavioral checklist: one that determines a person’s sanity. Result? Corporate “persons” are psychopaths. Scary! Still, these psychopaths can contribute as much as they wish toward buying elective office for their political puppets. Anonymously. Either directly or through front groups like the so-called “Freedom Foundation.”
Keep that in mind as you consider the appeals:
In respect to business, how small is “small”?
Jul 30th
I’ve written about this before, but I was stimulated to return to the topic by what Mike Pence said in defense of continuing the disastrous Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest fraction of our population:
I wrote the following as a comment to the blog entry where I found his remarks on Crooks and Liars:
The casualness with which the term “small business” is tossed around does everyone a grave disservice.
Let’s play George Lakoff’s little game. I say, “Quick! Don’t think of a small business!” In your mind’s eye you immediately see a small business. Now here’s where it get’s interesting: I ask you to describe what you’re seeing.
The great majority of persons would describe something like my friend Scott’s small deli, or the mom and pop optical shop where I get my glasses, or the hardware franchise with its 8-10 employees where I shop for nuts and bolts and shovels and such.
But compare that typical image to the U.S. government’s definitions of “small business.” Couple of examples. Depending on the field a “small business” might…
• have 1000 employees
• do $35.5 million in business per year
• have a net worth of $175 million
No conscientious person should ever use the term “small business” without qualifying what she or he means by it.
Never Surrender!
Jul 23rd
Inspiration from the Democratic Governors’ Conference. Trust me. This is good! 
Race Matters … but not always the way one anticipates
Jul 21st
The drone from the far right is that Obama’s race and upbringing have led him to be prejudiced against White people, especially White Christians. Yeah. Right! El toro ca-ca! (Don’t forget that he himself is a Christian, who belongs to a denomination known for welcoming persons of all races and ethnicities.)
Still, maybe those factors really are important, but for the opposite reason. Maybe they’ve led Obama to bend over backward into a spine-cracking posture in order to accommodate. Maybe they’ve encouraged him to be so non-confrontational as to be perceived as weak. A perception held by supporters as well as opponents.
Allusion to the title of Cornell West’s book “Race Matters.” Granting the clever ambiguity, the trouble is that issues concerning race do matter, but not always the way we expect. Sometimes in more subtle and sophisticated ways than the public is encouraged to perceive.
Republicans say: If you’re unemployed, it’s your fault!
Jul 20th
Good news! The Democrats finally got the unemployment bill passed.
What’s happening with local Democratic organizations?
Jul 18th
I want to share an experience I had with our local Democratic Club. I’m concerned about how representative it might have been, and hoping to be reassured that it’s atypical.
The occasion was the “Grand Opening” of the Club’s headquarters, timed to coincide with a city-wide event featuring food, music, shopping, and celebration. The Club leaders were expecting as many as 500 visitors at the opening, and they sent out a couple of lists indicating items they hoped friends would loan or donate. (That phrase “couple of lists” is significant.)
I knew who was in charge of food, who in charge of equipment, furniture, and the like, and who was going to be managing the office. But communication among these folks was apparently spotty. I showed up (as I had promised in writing) with an amplifier, CD player, speakers, and cables — plus adapters to connect everything.
No one was expecting me. No one welcomed me. No one showed the least interest when I put everything together and tested it. Silly me. I’d thought they’d be pleased.
Two days later. Shortly before the event was to begin, I showed up with a tray of cheese and a tray of cold cuts. Same sort of reception: “Where can we put it? Does it have to be refrigerated? I guess it’ll be OK.”
It’s not that I expected to be treated as someone special. Quite the contrary. In fact, that’s the point! I was just a regular guy, walking in off the street, showing interest, and offering material support. I might very well have been a representative of that middle group of “undecided but willing-to-be-convinced” voters who’ll make the difference in November…and in 2012.
Here in Florida we’re electing a governor plus a number of other state officials whose jobs are largely ignored by the media but whose influence can be crucial. We’re electing a U.S. senator; and, in our area, we’re electing two members of the U.S. House. (Why two? Think Republican gerrymandering.) We have an excellent chance of turning out of office the incumbent rubber-stamp Republican who now holds one of those seats. Important local races are at stake as well.
I’m not dissing the members of the local organization (my wife and I being among them). They’re good, generous persons, committed to a cause both they and I believe in. What I’m dissing is the fact that they haven’t been given more training. Howard Dean’s “50 State Strategy” was a wonderful project. But the resulting structure, having been built, can’t now be forgotten.
In fact, “structure” is the wrong metaphor. This is like staying in shape, being compliant with medical treatment, staying current with job skills, professional developments, etc. You can’t just “build” it and move on. You have to treat it as an ongoing discipline. I haven’t seen that kind of coordinated effort.
Florida U.S. Senate Race
Jul 14th
Who is the genuine Democrat, and who are the Elephants disguised as Donkeys?
