Hello Advocates,
There’s still time to RSVP for the upcoming “Art Pope Exposed” community teach-in in Raleigh this Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7pm at the NC Association for Educators building, 700 S. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC. We’re expecting a good crowd and lively discussion.
Can’t make it to Raleigh? Don’t fret, we’re bringing it to you. Our friends at the Institute for Southern Studies will be webstreaming the Tuesday event at: http://www.ustream.tv/user/facingsouth.
RSVP to attend in Raleigh OR tune in for the webstream at 7pm Tuesday.
Onwards,
Adam Sotak, Organizing Director,
Democracy North Carolina
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
12/12/2011
1/11/2011
Response to Shooting in AZ
Gabby's Gift by Martha Sterling-Golden on Saturday, January 8, 2011
I am a well of anger. So angry that it scares me. I am trying to find some semblance of the America I knew, flawed though she was, but beautiful at the same time. She aspired to perfection. It is a bitter irony that Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic from Arizona, should pay the price, along with 18 other victims, including a dead nine year old girl. Rep. Giffords supports gun rights.
I met “Gabby” when she came to the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University (WCSY) in 1999, and I was there as an alumna to moderate a panel. She was making the rounds of the various political training programs in preparation for a run for the Arizona State House. She spoke with deep affection for her family and her home state, and shared funny stories about running her family’s sizable tire business and riding a motorcycle around the desert. She was a star in her class.
Gabby won her election, and was invited back as a speaker. She served on our board until her election to Congress. Always, Gabby was full of optimism and excitement about the future for Arizona and America. She’s an American girl.
So, on the morning of January 8th, 2011, a beautiful Saturday morning in Arizona, Gabby was out doing what she loved to do: listen to the people she served. A young man, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, allegedly ran toward Gabby Giffords and started shooting. Once she was hit, it appears he continued to spray the crowd with fire from an automatic weapon until he had accumulated 19 victims. He emptied two clips. I waited until I had seen for myself the image captures of his social networking sites. This young man didn’t cite Jodie Foster or Charles Manson as his “inspirations”; he cited Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.
At his first press conference after the incident, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said, “It’s not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included. That’s the sad thing about what’s going on in America, pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office,” Dupnik said, “vitriol might be free speech, but it's not without consequences."
For months, Sarah Palin featured a number of Democratic incumbent politicians on a gun-site riddled target map she called a hit list of Democrats. “Don’t retreat, reload!” she shouted with smiley-faced enthusiasm, and Rush chimed in with “Oh yeah, (Giffords) is on my political hit list too!” Fun! Except, in the words of an eloquent and anguished young man at a vigil in downtown Tuscon, “It isn’t funny.” He looked up and out and asked, “Why, ask yourself, why do you want power; what is it for?” That’s a good question.
Once upon a time in America, it was considered worthy to argue for what one believed in, and one presented those beliefs in a well-reasoned argument. People disagreed, but they didn’t call one another cowards or traitors or Fascists or Nazis. Now, it’s about bullies. Bullies who no longer have the Fairness Doctrine to answer to, and so they can say whatever they want and call it fact, and a lazy American public takes it as such. We sit, in stupor, in front of our television sets and computers and soak up whatever we agree with and damn the rest. All Republicans are Christian dominionists and all Democrats are godless traitors.
I am tired of you all. I will never believe that all Republicans are bad people, and unfortunately, I know that not all Democrats are good people. Although I am a liberal Democrat, I don’t watch Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. I take no comfort in the “echo chamber.” My teachers taught me to gather information from a variety of sources, and to reason out what I believed about it.
The rising level of hatred and mistrust in this country, which has really been growing since the Nixon impeachment and bloomed during the Clinton years, has finally taken over, completely overwhelming anything which might reasonably be described as civilized public discourse.
Tonight, people lay dead and dying in hospitals all over Tuscon, and one of them is my friend, Gabby Giffords. Another is a nine-year-old girl. Still another a judge. The rest are aides, shoppers, and townspeople. And for what? Because a young man with a skewed mental state heard the call one too many times? Even as the Washington Post updates their coverage, lunatics are smearing toxins over the page:
“I think there's something up here. This doesn't make sense that the Dems are getting death threats i.e. the 2 packages exploding and now this. Yes, they'll want to take away our guns, but thats the least of our worries. This almost sounds like an inside job by the dems or worse men in back rooms. Everyone knows that this country is on the verge of civil war or a revolution, either way, sometimes you gotta nudge things along. I think this is the beginning of whatever is to come, but I hope I'm wrong. http://thelibertarianblogs.com/ Posted by: TheLibertarianBlogsDotCom January 8, 2011 9:41 PM Report abuse”
This is exactly the kind of thing that drives marginally tethered people over the edge. It isn’t rhetoric, it’s incitement. Are we citizens or bullies? And when did it become acceptable in American society to encourage violence against one another? This sort of anonymous “speech” should not be tolerated another moment in this country. Anonymous posts on newspaper and television web sites should end, and if the sites can’t figure it out, stop the comments altogether. Letters to the editor require contact information; why should it be any different for online news?
To my Democratic friends, I will ask you to hold a little while, even as I have been so nearly over the wall myself, to see how things play out. To my Republican friends, and you know who you are; it is past time for you to ostracize the worst offenders; to stand the hell up and say, “Enough.” Otherwise, you make yourselves accomplices to this heinous degradation and violence. For the love of God, reach out that we may reach back.
I have no idea what news we will wake to; whether Gabby will still be alive, or whether she will ever recover enough to have a life with her husband, Mark, who is an American astronaut. What I do know is that we must take something better away from this mess than we brought to it. We can hate each other just a little less, can’t we? That is what Gabby would want this episode to teach us. Gabby Giffords is a gift to all who know her. Let her gift to us be her sense of fair play, and above all, her belief that America should be a civil society where people work through their problems, rather than shooting through a crowd.
The writer is an alumna and past president of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University. A program that provides campaign skills training for women who aspire to public office.
I am a well of anger. So angry that it scares me. I am trying to find some semblance of the America I knew, flawed though she was, but beautiful at the same time. She aspired to perfection. It is a bitter irony that Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic from Arizona, should pay the price, along with 18 other victims, including a dead nine year old girl. Rep. Giffords supports gun rights.
I met “Gabby” when she came to the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University (WCSY) in 1999, and I was there as an alumna to moderate a panel. She was making the rounds of the various political training programs in preparation for a run for the Arizona State House. She spoke with deep affection for her family and her home state, and shared funny stories about running her family’s sizable tire business and riding a motorcycle around the desert. She was a star in her class.
Gabby won her election, and was invited back as a speaker. She served on our board until her election to Congress. Always, Gabby was full of optimism and excitement about the future for Arizona and America. She’s an American girl.
So, on the morning of January 8th, 2011, a beautiful Saturday morning in Arizona, Gabby was out doing what she loved to do: listen to the people she served. A young man, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, allegedly ran toward Gabby Giffords and started shooting. Once she was hit, it appears he continued to spray the crowd with fire from an automatic weapon until he had accumulated 19 victims. He emptied two clips. I waited until I had seen for myself the image captures of his social networking sites. This young man didn’t cite Jodie Foster or Charles Manson as his “inspirations”; he cited Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.
At his first press conference after the incident, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said, “It’s not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included. That’s the sad thing about what’s going on in America, pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office,” Dupnik said, “vitriol might be free speech, but it's not without consequences."
For months, Sarah Palin featured a number of Democratic incumbent politicians on a gun-site riddled target map she called a hit list of Democrats. “Don’t retreat, reload!” she shouted with smiley-faced enthusiasm, and Rush chimed in with “Oh yeah, (Giffords) is on my political hit list too!” Fun! Except, in the words of an eloquent and anguished young man at a vigil in downtown Tuscon, “It isn’t funny.” He looked up and out and asked, “Why, ask yourself, why do you want power; what is it for?” That’s a good question.
Once upon a time in America, it was considered worthy to argue for what one believed in, and one presented those beliefs in a well-reasoned argument. People disagreed, but they didn’t call one another cowards or traitors or Fascists or Nazis. Now, it’s about bullies. Bullies who no longer have the Fairness Doctrine to answer to, and so they can say whatever they want and call it fact, and a lazy American public takes it as such. We sit, in stupor, in front of our television sets and computers and soak up whatever we agree with and damn the rest. All Republicans are Christian dominionists and all Democrats are godless traitors.
I am tired of you all. I will never believe that all Republicans are bad people, and unfortunately, I know that not all Democrats are good people. Although I am a liberal Democrat, I don’t watch Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. I take no comfort in the “echo chamber.” My teachers taught me to gather information from a variety of sources, and to reason out what I believed about it.
The rising level of hatred and mistrust in this country, which has really been growing since the Nixon impeachment and bloomed during the Clinton years, has finally taken over, completely overwhelming anything which might reasonably be described as civilized public discourse.
Tonight, people lay dead and dying in hospitals all over Tuscon, and one of them is my friend, Gabby Giffords. Another is a nine-year-old girl. Still another a judge. The rest are aides, shoppers, and townspeople. And for what? Because a young man with a skewed mental state heard the call one too many times? Even as the Washington Post updates their coverage, lunatics are smearing toxins over the page:
“I think there's something up here. This doesn't make sense that the Dems are getting death threats i.e. the 2 packages exploding and now this. Yes, they'll want to take away our guns, but thats the least of our worries. This almost sounds like an inside job by the dems or worse men in back rooms. Everyone knows that this country is on the verge of civil war or a revolution, either way, sometimes you gotta nudge things along. I think this is the beginning of whatever is to come, but I hope I'm wrong. http://thelibertarianblogs.com/ Posted by: TheLibertarianBlogsDotCom January 8, 2011 9:41 PM Report abuse”
This is exactly the kind of thing that drives marginally tethered people over the edge. It isn’t rhetoric, it’s incitement. Are we citizens or bullies? And when did it become acceptable in American society to encourage violence against one another? This sort of anonymous “speech” should not be tolerated another moment in this country. Anonymous posts on newspaper and television web sites should end, and if the sites can’t figure it out, stop the comments altogether. Letters to the editor require contact information; why should it be any different for online news?
To my Democratic friends, I will ask you to hold a little while, even as I have been so nearly over the wall myself, to see how things play out. To my Republican friends, and you know who you are; it is past time for you to ostracize the worst offenders; to stand the hell up and say, “Enough.” Otherwise, you make yourselves accomplices to this heinous degradation and violence. For the love of God, reach out that we may reach back.
I have no idea what news we will wake to; whether Gabby will still be alive, or whether she will ever recover enough to have a life with her husband, Mark, who is an American astronaut. What I do know is that we must take something better away from this mess than we brought to it. We can hate each other just a little less, can’t we? That is what Gabby would want this episode to teach us. Gabby Giffords is a gift to all who know her. Let her gift to us be her sense of fair play, and above all, her belief that America should be a civil society where people work through their problems, rather than shooting through a crowd.
The writer is an alumna and past president of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University. A program that provides campaign skills training for women who aspire to public office.
2/23/2010
Thursday, 23rd, with Abe Lincoln
"An Evening with Abraham Lincoln" will be presented by The Ruth Pauley Lecture Series on February 23rd at 7:30 pm at Owen Auditorium, Sandhills Community College.
An Evening with Abraham Lincoln is to be done by Lincoln impersonator Jim Getty.
An Evening with Abraham Lincoln is to be done by Lincoln impersonator Jim Getty.
1/20/2010
Haiti Now, Haiti's History
With Foreign Aid Still at a Trickle, Devastated Port-au-Prince General Hospital Struggles to Meet Overwhelming Need * One week after Haiti suffered the worst earthquake in over 200 years, a strong aftershock hit this morning. Initial reports said the latest quake measured 6.1 on the Richter scale—one of the strongest aftershocks since the 7.0-magnitude quake crippled this country eight days ago. While tens of thousands of the wounded await medical help, the survivors are still burying the dead. The death toll is now estimated at a staggering 200,000. Some three million Haitians—a third of the country's population—have been directly affected by the earthquake, with one-and-a-half million now homeless. Amy Goodman files a report from the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/devastated_port_au_prince_hospital_struggles
* Journalist Kim Ives on How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti's Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation * Shortly after Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock earlier today, Amy Goodman and Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté report from the Port-au-Prince airport. Amy and Kim discuss how centuries of Western domination of Haiti has worsened the impact of the devastating earthquake, from the harsh reaction to Haiti's independence as a republic of free slaves in 1804 to the US-backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Ives says, "This quake was precipitated by a political earthquake—with an epicenter in Washington, DC."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/journalist_kim_ives_on_how_decades
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/devastated_port_au_prince_hospital_struggles
* Journalist Kim Ives on How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti's Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation * Shortly after Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock earlier today, Amy Goodman and Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté report from the Port-au-Prince airport. Amy and Kim discuss how centuries of Western domination of Haiti has worsened the impact of the devastating earthquake, from the harsh reaction to Haiti's independence as a republic of free slaves in 1804 to the US-backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Ives says, "This quake was precipitated by a political earthquake—with an epicenter in Washington, DC."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/journalist_kim_ives_on_how_decades
11/24/2009
Running for NC Senate, Kenneth Lewis
Meet Kenneth
As a business lawyer in North Carolina for more than 20 years, Kenneth has been helping to create jobs and greater economic opportunity for all of North Carolina’s citizens. Kenneth’s clients have spanned the industries which have propelled the state toward its #1 business climate ranking* for seven of the past eight years. These industries include manufacturing, domestic and international distribution, high technology, and alternative energy.
Not content to forge progress only from the confines of his office, Kenneth has volunteered for and served organizations that promoted entrepreneurship and job creation, responsible lending, low income housing and community development, reproductive health issues, expansion of health insurance, healthcare delivery, early childhood development and advocacy for children’s issues.
Forging a New Path Forward
Having worked closely with businesses, government and social entrepreneurs, Kenneth understands the goals, needs and challenges of each. Many see these groups as having competing interests and goals. But Kenneth understands that continued progress in our country and in North Carolina requires that these groups work together toward a single vision — securing real and lasting prosperity for all. Kenneth has the experience, the ideas and the energy to find the common ground that will keep North Carolina and our country moving forward. As a business lawyer, that’s what he’s done for the past 22 years --- help parties with different interests and perspectives find ways to succeed together by focusing on their common interests.
Kenneth has also been active in North Carolina politics throughout his life, at the grassroots level and in advising and supporting candidates. His decision to run for the United States Senate comes on the heels of his extensive work with the Obama presidential campaign. This work involved fundraising, grassroots voter registration and early voting drives, outreach for the national campaign with state political leaders and more.
The Family Who Serves Together, Makes Change Together
The story of Kenneth’s family echoes the story of the American dream — it’s a story of hard work, reliance on education to achieve success, and a belief in serving the broader community. Kenneth’s parents were the children of sharecroppers from North and South Carolina. Despite their meager beginnings, his parents, through hard work and sacrifice, found educational opportunities. His mother became a schoolteacher and his father a minister and college professor. Kenneth’s parents demonstrated their commitment to community through their service. During the turbulent 1960’s his father served as president of an interracial and inter-faith organization that worked on reconciliation and healing of past divisions, and was a founding board member of an anti-poverty program.
Inspired by prominent lawyers like Thurgood Marshall and Julius Chambers, who were working to create change in the 1960’s and 70’s, Kenneth decided to become a lawyer. After graduating from Duke University and Harvard Law School, he turned down offers from prominent law firms across the country, and returned to his home state of North Carolina to be part of its growth into a more dynamic and prosperous state.
During his career as a business lawyer, Kenneth has been a partner in two of North Carolina’s largest and most prominent law firms. He also co-founded and ran a small law firm. That firm’s mission was to provide high quality legal services to a broad array of clients who might otherwise be unable to afford such services, including a nationally recognized Small Business Administration lender and one of the state’s largest nonprofit developers of award-winning affordable housing.
Kenneth, 47, is married to his wife of 20 years, Holly Ewell Lewis, who is a graduate of Duke and the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Graduate School of Business, and is a former marketing executive at Sara Lee. They live in Chapel Hill with their three children, Evan (15), Marshall (14) and Maya (9). Continuing in his family’s tradition of service, Holly and their teenage children tutor at-risk students at a local elementary school, and the entire family volunteers at a food ministry at their church, Asbury Temple United Methodist Church in Durham.
As a business lawyer in North Carolina for more than 20 years, Kenneth has been helping to create jobs and greater economic opportunity for all of North Carolina’s citizens. Kenneth’s clients have spanned the industries which have propelled the state toward its #1 business climate ranking* for seven of the past eight years. These industries include manufacturing, domestic and international distribution, high technology, and alternative energy.
Not content to forge progress only from the confines of his office, Kenneth has volunteered for and served organizations that promoted entrepreneurship and job creation, responsible lending, low income housing and community development, reproductive health issues, expansion of health insurance, healthcare delivery, early childhood development and advocacy for children’s issues.
Forging a New Path Forward
Having worked closely with businesses, government and social entrepreneurs, Kenneth understands the goals, needs and challenges of each. Many see these groups as having competing interests and goals. But Kenneth understands that continued progress in our country and in North Carolina requires that these groups work together toward a single vision — securing real and lasting prosperity for all. Kenneth has the experience, the ideas and the energy to find the common ground that will keep North Carolina and our country moving forward. As a business lawyer, that’s what he’s done for the past 22 years --- help parties with different interests and perspectives find ways to succeed together by focusing on their common interests.
Kenneth has also been active in North Carolina politics throughout his life, at the grassroots level and in advising and supporting candidates. His decision to run for the United States Senate comes on the heels of his extensive work with the Obama presidential campaign. This work involved fundraising, grassroots voter registration and early voting drives, outreach for the national campaign with state political leaders and more.
The Family Who Serves Together, Makes Change Together
The story of Kenneth’s family echoes the story of the American dream — it’s a story of hard work, reliance on education to achieve success, and a belief in serving the broader community. Kenneth’s parents were the children of sharecroppers from North and South Carolina. Despite their meager beginnings, his parents, through hard work and sacrifice, found educational opportunities. His mother became a schoolteacher and his father a minister and college professor. Kenneth’s parents demonstrated their commitment to community through their service. During the turbulent 1960’s his father served as president of an interracial and inter-faith organization that worked on reconciliation and healing of past divisions, and was a founding board member of an anti-poverty program.
Inspired by prominent lawyers like Thurgood Marshall and Julius Chambers, who were working to create change in the 1960’s and 70’s, Kenneth decided to become a lawyer. After graduating from Duke University and Harvard Law School, he turned down offers from prominent law firms across the country, and returned to his home state of North Carolina to be part of its growth into a more dynamic and prosperous state.
During his career as a business lawyer, Kenneth has been a partner in two of North Carolina’s largest and most prominent law firms. He also co-founded and ran a small law firm. That firm’s mission was to provide high quality legal services to a broad array of clients who might otherwise be unable to afford such services, including a nationally recognized Small Business Administration lender and one of the state’s largest nonprofit developers of award-winning affordable housing.
Kenneth, 47, is married to his wife of 20 years, Holly Ewell Lewis, who is a graduate of Duke and the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Graduate School of Business, and is a former marketing executive at Sara Lee. They live in Chapel Hill with their three children, Evan (15), Marshall (14) and Maya (9). Continuing in his family’s tradition of service, Holly and their teenage children tutor at-risk students at a local elementary school, and the entire family volunteers at a food ministry at their church, Asbury Temple United Methodist Church in Durham.
11/21/2009
Dem Women Christmas, Dec. 5, Carthage
Democratic Women of Moore County HOLIDAY PARTY
Saturday, December 5, 6:00 to 8:00 pm, McDonald Building in Carthage
RSVP Sybil Ryan by Friday November 29th, 215-9018 or email sylory@pinehurst.net
You are welcome to bring your spouse or a guest, just let Sybil know. The party will be a pot luck dinner. If you have not signed up to bring a dish please let Sybil know what you plan to bring. There is a liquor permit so you may bring beer or wine.
And please bring a donation for Moore County Dept. of Social Services for Foster Children's Christmas gifts, it will be much appreciated. Checks made to MCDSS are tax deductible. Please include Foster Children’s Christmas gifts in the memo section of the check so it will go to them.
Saturday, December 5, 6:00 to 8:00 pm, McDonald Building in Carthage
RSVP Sybil Ryan by Friday November 29th, 215-9018 or email sylory@pinehurst.net
You are welcome to bring your spouse or a guest, just let Sybil know. The party will be a pot luck dinner. If you have not signed up to bring a dish please let Sybil know what you plan to bring. There is a liquor permit so you may bring beer or wine.
And please bring a donation for Moore County Dept. of Social Services for Foster Children's Christmas gifts, it will be much appreciated. Checks made to MCDSS are tax deductible. Please include Foster Children’s Christmas gifts in the memo section of the check so it will go to them.
9/30/2009
What Happened to We?
The New York Times
September 30, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Where Did ‘We’ Go?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing.
I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to delegitimize Rabin, who was committed to trading land for peace as part of the Oslo accords. They questioned his authority. They accused him of treason. They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all.
And in so doing they created a poisonous political environment that was interpreted by one right-wing Jewish settler as a license to kill Rabin — he must have heard, “God will be on your side” — and so he did.
Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.
What kind of madness is it that someone would create a poll on Facebook asking respondents, “Should Obama be killed?” The choices were: “No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service is now investigating. I hope they put the jerk in jail and throw away the key because this is exactly what was being done to Rabin.
Even if you are not worried that someone might draw from these vitriolic attacks a license to try to hurt the president, you have to be worried about what is happening to American politics more broadly.
Our leaders, even the president, can no longer utter the word “we” with a straight face. There is no more “we” in American politics at a time when “we” have these huge problems — the deficit, the recession, health care, climate change and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — that “we” can only manage, let alone fix, if there is a collective “we” at work.
Sometimes I wonder whether George H.W. Bush, president “41,” will be remembered as our last “legitimate” president. The right impeached Bill Clinton and hounded him from Day 1 with the bogus Whitewater “scandal.” George W. Bush was elected under a cloud because of the Florida voting mess, and his critics on the left never let him forget it.
And Mr. Obama is now having his legitimacy attacked by a concerted campaign from the right fringe. They are using everything from smears that he is a closet “socialist” to calling him a “liar” in the middle of a joint session of Congress to fabricating doubts about his birth in America and whether he is even a citizen. And these attacks are not just coming from the fringe. Now they come from Lou Dobbs on CNN and from members of the House of Representatives.
Again, hack away at the man’s policies and even his character all you want. I know politics is a tough business. But if we destroy the legitimacy of another president to lead or to pull the country together for what most Americans want most right now — nation-building at home — we are in serious trouble. We can’t go 24 years without a legitimate president — not without being swamped by the problems that we will end up postponing because we can’t address them rationally.
The American political system was, as the saying goes, “designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots.” But a cocktail of political and technological trends have converged in the last decade that are making it possible for the idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.
Those factors are: the wild excess of money in politics; the gerrymandering of political districts, making them permanently Republican or Democratic and erasing the political middle; a 24/7 cable news cycle that makes all politics a daily battle of tactics that overwhelm strategic thinking; and a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world. Finally, on top of it all, we now have a permanent presidential campaign that encourages all partisanship, all the time among our leading politicians.
I would argue that together these changes add up to a difference of degree that is a difference in kind — a different kind of American political scene that makes me wonder whether we can seriously discuss serious issues any longer and make decisions on the basis of the national interest.
We can’t change this overnight, but what we can change, and must change, is people crossing the line between criticizing the president and tacitly encouraging the unthinkable and the unforgivable.
September 30, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Where Did ‘We’ Go?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing.
I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to delegitimize Rabin, who was committed to trading land for peace as part of the Oslo accords. They questioned his authority. They accused him of treason. They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all.
And in so doing they created a poisonous political environment that was interpreted by one right-wing Jewish settler as a license to kill Rabin — he must have heard, “God will be on your side” — and so he did.
Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.
What kind of madness is it that someone would create a poll on Facebook asking respondents, “Should Obama be killed?” The choices were: “No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service is now investigating. I hope they put the jerk in jail and throw away the key because this is exactly what was being done to Rabin.
Even if you are not worried that someone might draw from these vitriolic attacks a license to try to hurt the president, you have to be worried about what is happening to American politics more broadly.
Our leaders, even the president, can no longer utter the word “we” with a straight face. There is no more “we” in American politics at a time when “we” have these huge problems — the deficit, the recession, health care, climate change and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — that “we” can only manage, let alone fix, if there is a collective “we” at work.
Sometimes I wonder whether George H.W. Bush, president “41,” will be remembered as our last “legitimate” president. The right impeached Bill Clinton and hounded him from Day 1 with the bogus Whitewater “scandal.” George W. Bush was elected under a cloud because of the Florida voting mess, and his critics on the left never let him forget it.
And Mr. Obama is now having his legitimacy attacked by a concerted campaign from the right fringe. They are using everything from smears that he is a closet “socialist” to calling him a “liar” in the middle of a joint session of Congress to fabricating doubts about his birth in America and whether he is even a citizen. And these attacks are not just coming from the fringe. Now they come from Lou Dobbs on CNN and from members of the House of Representatives.
Again, hack away at the man’s policies and even his character all you want. I know politics is a tough business. But if we destroy the legitimacy of another president to lead or to pull the country together for what most Americans want most right now — nation-building at home — we are in serious trouble. We can’t go 24 years without a legitimate president — not without being swamped by the problems that we will end up postponing because we can’t address them rationally.
The American political system was, as the saying goes, “designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots.” But a cocktail of political and technological trends have converged in the last decade that are making it possible for the idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.
Those factors are: the wild excess of money in politics; the gerrymandering of political districts, making them permanently Republican or Democratic and erasing the political middle; a 24/7 cable news cycle that makes all politics a daily battle of tactics that overwhelm strategic thinking; and a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world. Finally, on top of it all, we now have a permanent presidential campaign that encourages all partisanship, all the time among our leading politicians.
I would argue that together these changes add up to a difference of degree that is a difference in kind — a different kind of American political scene that makes me wonder whether we can seriously discuss serious issues any longer and make decisions on the basis of the national interest.
We can’t change this overnight, but what we can change, and must change, is people crossing the line between criticizing the president and tacitly encouraging the unthinkable and the unforgivable.
9/19/2009
Important Quote by Kennan
The counsels of impatience and hatred can always be supported by the crudest and cheapest symbols; for the counsels of moderation, the reasons are often intricate, rather than emotional, and difficult to explain. And so the chauvinists of all times and places go their appointed way: plucking the easy fruits, reaping the little triumphs of the day at the expense of someone else tomorrow, deluging in noise and filth anyone who gets in their way, dancing their reckless dance on the prospects for human progress, drawing the shadow of a great doubt over the validity of democratic institutions. And until people learn to spot the fanning of mass emotions and the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance as crimes in themselves--as perhaps the greatest disservice that can be done to the cause of popular government--this sort of thing will continue to occur. -- George F. Kennan
9/16/2009
Racism, Obama
Carter says Obama row is 'racist'
Former US President Jimmy Carter says much of the vitriol against President Barack Obama's health reform plans is "based on racism".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/8258011.stm
Former US President Jimmy Carter says much of the vitriol against President Barack Obama's health reform plans is "based on racism".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/8258011.stm
9/14/2009
9/08/2009
Van Jones Resigns Obama Adm.
White House Environmental Adviser Van Jones Resigns Citing "Vicious Smear Campaign Against Me"
The Obama administration's special adviser for environmental jobs, Van Jones, has resigned citing what he described as a "vicious smear campaign" against him.
For the past month, Fox News has run a series of reports on Jones's alleged association with communists and his decision to sign a petition calling for a congressional probe of the 9/11 attacks. Jones is the founding president of Green for All and author of the book The Green Collar Economy. We speak with James Rucker, who co-founded the group Color of Change with Van Jones, and with Malkia Cyril, founder of the Center for Media Justice. We also talk to Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.
The Obama administration's special adviser for environmental jobs, Van Jones, has resigned citing what he described as a "vicious smear campaign" against him.
For the past month, Fox News has run a series of reports on Jones's alleged association with communists and his decision to sign a petition calling for a congressional probe of the 9/11 attacks. Jones is the founding president of Green for All and author of the book The Green Collar Economy. We speak with James Rucker, who co-founded the group Color of Change with Van Jones, and with Malkia Cyril, founder of the Center for Media Justice. We also talk to Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.
8/30/2009
8/23/2009
Guns of August vs. Democracy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/22/frank-rich-guns-of-august_n_266235.html
8/18/2009
7/20/2009
Bail-Out--for Goldman-Sachs
http://seekingalpha.com/article/149494-jon-stewart-takes-on-goldman-sachs-video
7/18/2009
7/15/2009
More on Sotomayor's Record
Review of Sotomayor's Record Belies GOP Charges of Biased Judicial Practice
An exhaustive review of all 1,994 constitutional cases decided by the Second Circuit during the decade of Judge Sotomayor's service found that Sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of her colleagues.
The Brennan Center for Justice report found Sotomayor voted with the majority of the court in 98.2 percent of constitutional cases. We speak with the report's author, attorney Monica Youn, and Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez, who's in DC covering the hearings.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/15/review_of_sotomayors_judicial_record_contradicts
An exhaustive review of all 1,994 constitutional cases decided by the Second Circuit during the decade of Judge Sotomayor's service found that Sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of her colleagues.
The Brennan Center for Justice report found Sotomayor voted with the majority of the court in 98.2 percent of constitutional cases. We speak with the report's author, attorney Monica Youn, and Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez, who's in DC covering the hearings.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/15/review_of_sotomayors_judicial_record_contradicts
6/02/2009
5/18/2009
3/10/2009
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