The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Category: politics

  • One month to go…

    … until the US Presidential election. Barack Obama seems to have the momentum now, gaining about 1 point in national tracking polls every three days. Nate Silver at 538 has a model predicting that Senator Obama will win about 340 electoral votes — over the required total by 70, a landslide by any measure.

    So here’s my prediction, and I’m sorry if I sound paranoid, but I am increasingly worried: Major terrorist scare in the next three weeks. Depending on how badly McCain has tanked, it might only be a “rattle the voters” attempt to scare them back into the Republican camp — something like capturing a “dirty bomber” in an American city. If there’s absolutely no hope for the erratic maverick, then expect an actual event — most likely abroad, but I’m starting to wonder if even that line will be crossed. Sure, it’s risky. People could find out and then there would be Hell to pay. But if it’s a McCain administration, that’s a lot easier to cover up.

    And there is no way that Dick Cheney spends eight years assembling the most executive power in American history, only to hand it over to an upstart Democratic candidate from Chicago. Not going to happen. Not going to be allowed to happen.

    And I don’t even watch 24…

  • What’s Going Wrong

    The failure to enact the bailout bill, or indeed, any economic recovery bill, has shaken some people to their core. It’s heightened a sense that our politics is broken and that we as a people no longer have what it takes. Someone wrote something at Political Animal that stirred in me a passionate response, and I’ve replicated it below:

    Dan Kervick on September 30, 2008 at 9:23 PM

    Maybe we can now stop hearing so many pious paeans to the great genius of Our Illustrious Founders, the guys who gave us this inflexible, unresponsive, creaking tub of a political system in the first place.

    No, they’re still geniuses. They met in Philadelphia, surveyed all that was known of human history at that point, and sat down to solve the problem of human governance. And here’s the kicker: They actually did it. They crafted a system that included self-correction, that respected the minority viewpoint while empowering the majority, and that could cope with a vast expansion in people and area. They actually solved the problem — and they did it so well, they changed the world as a result.

    The irony, of course, is that by changing the world, they rendered obsolete and invalid the conclusions they’d drawn from history. History is different, and so the old rules don’t work.

    On the other hand, their system has survived (admittedly creaking) for 220+ years, risen above existential crises both foreign and domestic, expanded the definition of “citizen” (indeed, of “human”) far beyond its original sense, saved civilization (or helped save it) at least twice, while providing a standard of living so amazing that the typical person far exceeds the wildest dreams of avarice of the most powerful of old. Not so bad.

    The failure isn’t in the system. The failure is in us. We live in reduced times, where we accept corruption and ignorance, where we sit back and watch cable news like it was no more significant than sport (when we can bothered to watch it at all), where we avoid the person of differing opinion and where we trust only those who already agree with us. The Founders have not failed us; it is we who have failed them, and ourselves. We have allowed ourselves to be lulled into a stupor of reality TV and Fritos; we celebrate the ignorant and mock the educated. We would rather have a President to share a beer than to solve problems, and we would rather believe the cynical testimony of implicated cronies than do the legwork to understand what’s really going on.

    The system hasn’t been tried and found wanting. It’s been found hard and left untried. American citizenship is advanced democracy and it’s hard work … too hard for too many.

    The failure lies in us.

  • A devestating campaign ad….

    … even if it’s one we’ll not see on TV. (It’s not from the Obama campign.) It makes the right connection between the mess we’re in and the so-called “maverick” who’s done nothing in 26 years to help fix it.

    http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=wJThPjvscFs

    It’s on YouTube and I’d embed it if I had time to figure out how. 🙂

  • Memory in Song (II)

    More oddly-prescient musings of Jackson Browne.

    “Lives in the Balance”
    Jackson Browne
    Lives in the Balance

    I’ve been waiting for something to happen
    For a week or a month or a year
    With the blood in the ink of the headlines
    And the sound of the crowd in my ear
    You might ask what it takes to remember
    When you know that you’ve seen it before
    Where a government lies to its people
    And a nation lies drifting to war
    There’s a shadow on the faces
    Of the men who send the guns
    To the wars that are fought in places
    Where their business interest runs…

    On the radio talk shows and TV
    You hear one thing again and again
    That the USA stands for freedom
    And we’ve come to the aid of a friend.
    But who are the ones that we call our friends,
    these governments killing their own?
    Or the people who finally can’t take anymore
    So they pick up a gun or a knife or a stone?

    And there are lives in the balance
    And there are people under fire
    And there are children at the cannons
    And there is blood on the wire…

    There’s a shadow on the faces
    Of the men who fan the flames
    Of the wars that fought in the places
    Where we can’t even say the names.
    They sell us the President the same way
    They sell us our clothes and our cars
    They sell us everything from youth to religion
    At the same time they sell us our wars.
    I wanna know who the men in the shadows are
    I wanna hear somebody asking them why
    They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
    But they’re never the ones to fight and to die.

    And there are lives in the balance
    And there are people under fire
    And there are children at the cannons
    And there is blood on the wire…

  • Memory in Song (I)

    It’s still surprisingly hard to write about 9/11. It galls me to see, again, our national “leaders” exploit this tragedy for political ends. And it saddens me that we don’t seem to have learned any lessons. So it’s really not in me to pen something deep and insightful. Instead, I’ll fall back on the melodic musings of Jackson Browne, writing long before today but seeing, apparently, the same sickening game.

    (more…)

  • I am a Values Voter

    After the election in 2004, we were preached at that George W. Bush won election (not re-election) due to the rejection of John Kerry by “values voters” .. as if the millions who voted for Kerry had no decent values. That spurred me to write the following, which I still embrace today. In this election, even more than that one, it’s important to recall that we on the left have values as well — values which I, personally, think are better than those evidenced by the rabid right.

    I am a “Values Voter”.

    I value

    * compassion over condemnation

    * debate over demagoguery

    * reason over rage

    * freedom over fear

    * truth over lies

    These are American values.

    I believe

    * that real patriots ask questions

    * that government should not decide who I am, or who you are

    * that a sound safety net serves the interest of us all

    * that people should be judged on the content of their character, not the content of their wallets or the color of their skin

    * that justice everywhere is threatened by injustice anywhere

    * that labor has dignity and diversity has worth

    * that each person deserves a fair deal and a true opportunity

    These are core American beliefs.

    I am a “values voter”…
    … and this is my country, too.

  • Lying Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them

    In case you — like me — watched Sarah Palin’s speech from the Republican National Convention and keep saying — like me — “I know that’s a lie”, but were unable to point to a source, let me offer this post by Hilzoy over at Political Animal @ the Washington Monthly. It sums up the lies and points you toward the evidence.

  • Senator Clinton’s Speech

    Senator Hilary Clinton has finished her address to the Democratic National Convention. My personal response: She didn’t hit it out of the park but she definitely got some extra bases and maybe batted some runs in.

    I think she delivered a full-throated, crystal clear indictment of the past eight years and of John McCain’s alignment with it. It was a bit corny but I liked the line about McCain and Bush meeting in the Twin Cities because you can hardly tell them apart. Senator Clinton did a good job enunciating what the Democratic Party is for — things like universal healthcare and improved public education — as well as what the Party is against — such as military adventurism, crony capitalism, and the abandonment of civilized society to a race of all against all. I still believe that had she delivered this message consistently throughout the primaries, rather than focusing on her opponents, she would have made the hurdle and would be speaking tomorrow instead of last night.

    Perhaps not surprisingly, the speech was nonetheless still mostly about her — her experiences on the trail, her motivations for running, etc. That’s to be understood and it was a historic campaign, so it can be forgiven. She spent a little too much time on that, and she did detour into the end into a polishing of the legacy of President Clinton. If you tuned in to the middle and you cut out before the last few moments, you would be forgiven for thinking this was a Clinton acceptance speech.

    (more…)

  • The rising South?

    Reading through Lawyers, Guns, and Money today, I was eventually directed to the US Army site on the service of African-Americans throughout history. The lead line of the section on the Civil War really raised my hackles: “When Federal troops invaded Southern states….” This bothered me so much I was motivated to actually write the webmaster (and my Congressman). Since I believe anything worth writing is worth using twice (at least), I’m just going to quote what I said to them:

    I visited your site on the service of African-Americans in the US Army. I must admit to being extremely disturbed by the section on the Civil War, which opens with the line “When Federal troops invaded Southern states…”

    Federal troops did not “invade” the South. Federal troops are free to move throughout the nation, subject only to concerns of Posse Commitatus. Federal troops redeployed to areas of the nation engaged in active insurrection, which to me seems the appropriate use of them. Secession by the Southern states was illegal and thus void, and carries no weight. Surely the official record of the Army of the United States should reflect this reality.

    Likewise, without belittling those slaves impressed into frontline war service, it was not possible for them to serve “with honor” the Confederate cause — not through failings of their character, but because the South stripped them of their honor and forced them to support a rebellion dedicated to suppressing them.

    I know that it’s becoming popular to sympathize with the Confederate cause, to focus on their “honor” and “chivalry” while downplaying or ignoring the brutal reality of four million people in chains for no better reason than the color of their skin. I am, however, shocked and dismayed to find such a pernicious lens deployed by the historians of the Army who fought to break those chains.

    With respect,
    -=-Bernard HP Gilroy

    Pro-Confederate revisionism is on the rise and it really ticks me off.

  • It’s Funny Because It’s True…

    … and it hurts so much for exactly the same reason: This cartoon neatly sums up the amazing failure of American democracy over the past few years.