Saturday Thoughts on Politics

The following are a few random political thoughts I've put together for a post on another forum.  They might be of some interest to my friends here on LJ.  You comments are, as always, welcomed.

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I put the Republican and Democrats in the same basket of coalition politics.  This in in contrast to the Libertarians and Greens which I'd put in the category of value politics.  You pretty much know what you'll be getting with a true Libertarian or Green over the decades whereas the duopoly candidates can be all over the road depending on their funders and constituents.

In one era you can have the Party of Lincoln and the next you can have the converted Democrats of Nixon's southern strategy flying the same flag.  Likewise you can see the party of the New and Fair Deal and labor rights morphing into the corporate money chasing party of the 1980s.

The two dominant parties will trim their sails such that they can win elections without a great deal of concern about the direction that might take them.  One might be harsh and call them value neutered parties.  Just win baby. Thus the Southern strategy for the GOP and conversely the lack of motivation for impeachment of Bush among even the most liberal of Democrats and Independents.

The other syndrome that I see going on is that liberals, in recent years, generally are political fire chasers and not institution builders. The Unitarians, Quakers and the Institute for Policy Studies are no organizational match for the big box megachurchs, televangelists and the Heritage Foundation.

The new wild card in all this is the Internet.  It seems unlikely that Obama will be the only candidate to put this into harness.  Are we looking at a Web 2.0 transparent, participatory, interactive and granular democracy and, if so, what will that look like a few years out?

Saturday Thoughts on Politics

The following are a few random political thoughts I've put together for a post on another forum.  They might be of some interest to my friends here on LJ.  You comments are, as always, welcomed.

 -----

I put the Republican and Democrats in the same basket of coalition politics.  This in in contrast to the Libertarians and Greens which I'd put in the category of value politics.  You pretty much know what you'll be getting with a true Libertarian or Green over the decades whereas the duopoly candidates can be all over the road depending on their funders and constituents.

In one era you can have the Party of Lincoln and the next you can have the converted Democrats of Nixon's southern strategy flying the same flag.  Likewise you can see the party of the New and Fair Deal and labor rights morphing into the corporate money chasing party of the 1980s.

The two dominant parties will trim their sails such that they can win elections without a great deal of concern about the direction that might take them.  One might be harsh and call them value neutered parties.  Just win baby. Thus the Southern strategy for the GOP and conversely the lack of motivation for impeachment of Bush among even the most liberal of Democrats and Independents.

The other syndrome that I see going on is that liberals, in recent years, generally are political fire chasers and not institution builders. The Unitarians, Quakers and the Institute for Policy Studies are no organizational match for the big box megachurchs, televangelists and the Heritage Foundation.

The new wild card in all this is the Internet.  It seems unlikely that Obama will be the only candidate to put this into harness.  Are we looking at a Web 2.0 transparent, participatory, interactive and granular democracy and, if so, what will that look like a few years out?

The New Feudalism

Barbara Ehrenreich (author of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America") notes what I've been seeing a lot of in my personal travels (Cape Cod, Hawaii, San Luis Obispo): All the nice places being taken over by the fiscally loaded and often socially disconnected. 

Which ties in to a comment by Steve Fraser (author of "Wall Street: America's Dream Palace") who commented on Moyer's show that consumerist culture was privatizing people.  Making them selfish and inward looking and defining self-worth and liberty in terms of what you buy and not what you do socially and/or politically. Another one of his essays here: "In the Last Gilded Age, People Stood Up to Greed -- Why Aren’t We?" - Alternet.org

This Land is Their Land - The Nation -11 Jun 08

"I witnessed this kind of deterioration up close in Key West, Florida, where I first went in 1986, attracted not only by the turquoise waters and frangipani-scented nights but by the fluid, egalitarian social scene. At a typical party you might find literary stars like Alison Lurie, Annie Dillard and Robert Stone, along with commercial fishermen, waitresses and men who risked their lives diving for treasure (once a major blue-collar occupation).

Then, at some point in the '90s, the rich started pouring in.

You'd see them on the small planes coming down from Miami--taut-skinned, linen-clad and impatient. They drove house prices into the seven-figure range. They encouraged restaurants to charge upward of $30 for an entree. They tore down working-class tiki bars to make room for their waterfront 'condotels.'"

"Once they've made (or inherited) their fortunes, the rich can bid up the price of goods that ordinary people also need--housing, for example. Gentrification is dispersing the urban poor into overcrowded suburban ranch houses, while billionaires' horse farms displace rural Americans into trailer homes. Similarly, the rich can easily fork over annual tuitions of $50,000 and up, which has helped make college education a privilege of the upper classes.

There are other ways, too, that the rich are robbing the rest of us of beauty and pleasure. As the bleachers in stadiums and arenas are cleared to make way for skybox 'suites' costing more than $100,000 for a season, going out to a ballgame has become prohibitively expensive for the average family. At the other end of the cultural spectrum, superrich collectors have driven up the price of artworks, leading museums to charge ever rising prices for admission."

This Land Is Ted's Land - Progressive Farmer

"The colorful, controversial media billionaire and environmentalist [Ted Turner] now owns 1.7 million acres, mostly ranchland, in the U.S. He owns more land than any other individual in the U.S. His 2,600-plus square miles would cover more than half the state of Connecticut.

And the buying, which began in earnest 13 years ago, isn't over. In the past year alone, Turner has purchased roughly 320,000 acres in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota."

The New Feudalism

Barbara Ehrenreich (author of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America") notes what I've been seeing a lot of in my personal travels (Cape Cod, Hawaii, San Luis Obispo): All the nice places being taken over by the fiscally loaded and often socially disconnected. 

Which ties in to a comment by Steve Fraser (author of "Wall Street: America's Dream Palace") who commented on Moyer's show that consumerist culture was privatizing people.  Making them selfish and inward looking and defining self-worth and liberty in terms of what you buy and not what you do socially and/or politically. Another one of his essays here: "In the Last Gilded Age, People Stood Up to Greed -- Why Aren’t We?" - Alternet.org

This Land is Their Land - The Nation -11 Jun 08

"I witnessed this kind of deterioration up close in Key West, Florida, where I first went in 1986, attracted not only by the turquoise waters and frangipani-scented nights but by the fluid, egalitarian social scene. At a typical party you might find literary stars like Alison Lurie, Annie Dillard and Robert Stone, along with commercial fishermen, waitresses and men who risked their lives diving for treasure (once a major blue-collar occupation).

Then, at some point in the '90s, the rich started pouring in.

You'd see them on the small planes coming down from Miami--taut-skinned, linen-clad and impatient. They drove house prices into the seven-figure range. They encouraged restaurants to charge upward of $30 for an entree. They tore down working-class tiki bars to make room for their waterfront 'condotels.'"

"Once they've made (or inherited) their fortunes, the rich can bid up the price of goods that ordinary people also need--housing, for example. Gentrification is dispersing the urban poor into overcrowded suburban ranch houses, while billionaires' horse farms displace rural Americans into trailer homes. Similarly, the rich can easily fork over annual tuitions of $50,000 and up, which has helped make college education a privilege of the upper classes.

There are other ways, too, that the rich are robbing the rest of us of beauty and pleasure. As the bleachers in stadiums and arenas are cleared to make way for skybox 'suites' costing more than $100,000 for a season, going out to a ballgame has become prohibitively expensive for the average family. At the other end of the cultural spectrum, superrich collectors have driven up the price of artworks, leading museums to charge ever rising prices for admission."

This Land Is Ted's Land - Progressive Farmer

"The colorful, controversial media billionaire and environmentalist [Ted Turner] now owns 1.7 million acres, mostly ranchland, in the U.S. He owns more land than any other individual in the U.S. His 2,600-plus square miles would cover more than half the state of Connecticut.

And the buying, which began in earnest 13 years ago, isn't over. In the past year alone, Turner has purchased roughly 320,000 acres in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota."