Category Archives: Political culture

Maine did the right thing

Maine’s governor, John Baldacci, did the right thing today and signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Maine. Like many others, I do hope that Barack Obama was listening when Baldacci said: “In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions. I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

This makes five states that now have legal same-sex marriage. There are something like twenty-five states that have outlawed same-sex marriage. However, since younger voters increasingly favor legalizing same-sex marriage, I hope it’s just a matter of time before most of those twenty-five states do the right thing, and alter their laws to allow same-sex marriage.

American Left with a sense of humor?

I’ve been reading The American Left in the Twentieth Century by the historian John P. Diggins. Published in 1973, the book covers the three main leftist movements in America from 1900 to 1973: the “Lyrical Left” of the teens, the “Old Left” of the thirties, and the “New Left” of the sixties. Each of these movements ended badly: the Lyrical Left was crushed upon America’s entry into the First World War; the Old Left began to die during the Second World War, and then was destroyed by the McCarthy witch-hunts of the late forties and fifties; and the New Left fell apart after 1968 due to internal factionalism and ineffectiveness, and external repression. Here’s a depressing thought: since there hasn’t been an American Left movement since 1968 (sorry, folks, but Barack Obama is Center-Right), you wouldn’t have to add much to make The American Left in the Twentieth Century cover the rest of the century.

My favorite American leftist movement has to be the Lyrical Left of the teens. They actually had a sense of humor. The only leftist movement that I knew personally was the remains of the New Left, and Lord knows they were mostly a humorless bunch. I guess that’s why I’ve always assumed that to be a Leftist, you had to be overly serious and inflexible, which would explain my extreme unwillingness to join any American Leftist organization, even though I’m a Leftist myself. But one of the primary publications of the Lyrical Left, a periodical called The Masses, said this on its masthead: “A magazine with a sense of humor and no respect for the respectable: frank, arrogant, impertinent, searching for the true causes: a magazine directed against rigidity and dogma wherever it is found…” Historian Diggins writes, “Free from doctrinal strains, The Masses gave radicalism a well-needed lift of laughter.”

Like American religion, most American leftist politics is rigid and humorless. So imagine that, if you can: an American Left with an actual sense of humor. Those were the days.

Community clinic

I have new health insurance since the last time I visited the doctor, for some bureaucratic reason that I do not understand. But that meant that I am no longer tied to a primary care physician (whom I never saw) with an office in a suburban office park. I have to say, I never felt I got good care at that suburban medical center. I think they were more interested in building expensive new buildings than in actually providing good patient care.

When I decided I needed to see a doctor this morning, I walked two blocks up the street to the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center. I filled out the preliminary forms, which included the question: “What is your primary language? Check one: English. Portuguese. Cape Verdean/Cruiole. Spanish. French. Other.” I was pretty sure I heard all five of those languages being spoken around me in the bright, busy, slightly messy waiting room.

Everyone was friendly. The woman who set up my account apologized when my insurance company kept her on hold: “Sorry to keep you waiting, hon.” I was shown to an examination room, and sat there for about forty minutes until the doctor arrived. He was the nicest, most humane M.D. from whom I have received care for at least the past decade. He talked with me at length, told me that I probably had a viral infection, that a viral infection with symptoms similar to mine has been going around, that I probably started eating solid food too soon. His manner was reassuring and healing.

The doctor told me to eat only clear broth, jello, and apple juice; just a little as a time. When I feel ready, I’m allowed to graduate to weak tea, rice, mashed potatoes, and other bland food, “but” as the doctor told me, smiling, “with nothing that makes food taste so good.” It may be another week before things settle down.

As I say, it was the friendliest, best, most reassuring health care visit I have had in years. And this was not at a fancy suburban clinic, but at an inner-city clinic which provides free care to anyone who needs it. (Your remarks on the current moral crisis in American health care may be included in the comments below; Marxists, don’t hold back.)

The year in review

There was good news and bad news in 2008.

First, lots of bad news:

The economy: From my perspective, it was already going downhill last January. I knew something was up when the minister’s discretionary fund at church was out of money, more people were asking me for money, and no one could afford to donate any more money. In September, Wall Street and the media finally woke up to the fact that our economy has been driven by predatory lending and Ponzi schemes for the past decade, and suddenly we were in a “global financial crisis.” The Dow Jones industrial average fell 34% in 2008, the biggest one-year drop since 1931.

War: The war in Iraq went nowhere. The much-vaunted surge didn’t seem to change anything except that the federal government was spending even more money over there, and the few people who were willing to be soldiers were going over for their fourth or fifth deployment. No improvement, just a slow ongoing decline. Blessed would the peacemakers be, if we had any peacemakers.

Climate: Summer was hot, hotter than ever. Yeah, I know that global warming is “just a theory” and “not really based on facts.” Even if it is true (and it is indeed a well-proven theory), we’re supposed to be calling it global climate change. Well, the result of global climate change here in New England is that it was hot last summer, and it is freakishly warm this winter.

But also quite a bit of good news:

Green technology: “On October 3, President Bush signed into law the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that included the hoped-for 8-year extention of the solar investment tax credit. The act also lifted the $2,000 cap on the tax credit for residential systems, granting both commercial and residential systems eligibility for a 30% tax credit…. The law will encourage rapid growth for the solar industry….” (Distributed Energy: The Journal of Energy Efficiency and Reliability, November/December, 2008, p. 50.) The lousy economy is driving us to become more energy-efficient, and to develop renewable energy sources.

Green religion: One of the more interesting things to come out of the presidential campaign was that about half the Christian evangelicals are now promoting what they call “Creation care.” It’s a little weird that they can’t bring themselves to say “ecotheology” or “environmentalism,” but at least they’re headed in the right direction, and are starting to catch up with liberal and moderate religious groups.

Personal: This marked year 19 with Carol, which is better than I can express. I have wonderful extended family, great friends, and a job that I love. I know 2008 was a tough year for many people, but from my selfish point of view it was a great year.

The president: Obama is no saint, by world standards he is pretty conservative, he has far too many ties to the corporate puppet-masters, but — he is Not-George-Bush. And as for George Bush, the shoe incident sums it up for me:

Yup. At great personal cost, Muntadar al-Zaidi became an instant folk-hero by summing up what many people around the world think about George Bush. (Image courtesy Dependable Renegade.)

More on shoes

Update on yesterday’s post:

Today the BBC reports: “An Iraqi official was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the journalist was being interrogated to determine whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at President Bush.” Given the stated policies of the current U.S. administration, the word “interrogated” could mean what the rest of the world would call torture.

The BBC also reports that the man’s name is Muntadar al-Zaidi, and they give an English translation of what he shouted at Bush: “This is a farewell kiss, you dog… This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq.”

Special take-home quiz: Who is on the moral high ground here, George Bush or Muntadar al-Zaidi, and why? Ten bonus points for citing verses from both the Koran and the New Testament.

Update: Leona’s selling T-shirts (see comments).

Shoes?!?…

At 19:16 GMT (i.e., 2:16 p.m. EST, less than 3 hours ago), the BBC Web site reported that an Iraqi threw shoes at George W. Bush. Shoes? Yes, shoes….

An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush “a dog” and threw his footwear, just missing the president.

The soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture….

In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him….

Correspondents called it a symbolic incident. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad after his overthrow….

Link to story and video.

What a wildly improbable story, and what an interesting example of political theatre. I guess peace rallies on the Mall in Washington are just too Old School, so nowadays the really cool protesters throw shoes.

I shouldn’t be so flippant. That journalist is dead meat, and is probably having the crap beaten out of him even as I write this. Watch the video — security is going easy on him because there are cameras watching, but they are not being nice to him — wait until there aren’t any cameras trained on them.

Voting in New Bedford

My polling place is the old New Bedford Hotel, now public housing. At 11:30, I walked past the people waiting to go into the Mo Life Food Pantry in the basement of the building, up the steps of the main entrance, through the door, and down the hall to the usual polling place. No lines. There was one person ahead of me at the table where the poll workers check you in.

“Address?” said the poll worker. The man in front of me gave his address. “Name?” she said. He gave his name. “You’re not on the list,” she said. “I’ve always voted here,” he said. “Have you moved recently?” she asked. “Yes, I moved last March,” he replied. The poll worker passed him on to another poll worker, who determined that the man had moved to another precinct, and thus now voted at another polling place. I waited five minutes while they straightened him out, but I don’t think that counts as waiting in line.

I got my ballot and went into the voting booth. In the next booth over, I could hear a conversation between a younger man and an older man. “That says Obama,” said the younger man. The older man grunted. “Do you like Obama?” said the younger man. The older man said something like, Who are the others? The younger man read through the list of presidential candidates. “Obama,” grunted the older man. “OK, mark it here. U.S. Senator is next,” said the younger man, “so do you like Kerry?” Again, the older man wanted the whole list of names read off, but this time the older man didn’t want to vote for any of them. “Congressman,” said the younger man, “Barney Frank.” “I like Barney Frank,” said the older man. “Then mark it right here,” said the younger man. By this time, I was done voting, so I left the voting booth, being very careful to not look at who was in the booth next to me.

A poll worker checked me out, and I fed my paper ballot into the scanner. The scanner has a digital display showing how many ballots have been cast, and after my ballot went in it read 402. I usually vote in the late morning, and usually there have only been a hundred or so votes cast by that time.

Revolution

Twenty months ago, when the campaign really started heating up, I didn’t think I’d be able to put up with the insanity and inanity of the typical U.S. presidential campaign for all those months. Twenty months of attack ads — twenty months of avoiding the issues — twenty months of insanity and inanity.

But I was wrong. This has been a fascinating presidential campaign. The primary elections were full of unexpected plots twists:– Mitt Romney going down so quickly, John McCain campaigning so well and wrapping it up so early, the epic battle bewteen Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In the summer, between the effective end of the primaries and their official nominations, the two presumptive candidates began sparring with each other, and we kept waiting for the attack ads — who would be the first to be vicious?

Finally, I have been absolutely riveted by the last two months or so of this presidential campaign:– McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as running mate was an utter surprise; I was sure Obama’s race would play a bigger role but it really didn’t; and the financial meltdown changed absolutely everything. As Justin Webb of the BBC put it, “In spite of all the loose talk of the decline of American influence, this is, once again, the greatest political show on earth.”

And Webb captured the real importance of this campaign in a little anecdote. He was in Denver, at the Democratic national convention, when he saw a motorcade begin to form…

Suddenly, in front of me there is activity. Men in grey suits are talking into their sleeves. Huge, sleek cars are being revved. Motorbikes are getting into formation.

It is not [Obama], it is his family.

As the SUVs pass — including several with the doors and back windows open, men with large automatic weapons looking out with keen hard glares — I catch just a glimpse of the children, of 10-year-old Malia and seven-year-old Sasha peering out. I think their mother was sitting in the middle.

This is the true revolution.

There have been, after all, prominent black politicians for decades now, men and women afforded the full protection and respect that the nation can muster.

But seeing little black children gathered up into the arms of the secret service, surrounded by people who would die rather than let them die, is to see something that must truly make the racists of Americas past revolve in their graves.

I do not think Barack Obama will win or lose because of his race, but if he does win, the real moment you will know that America has changed is not when he takes the oath, but when we see pictures of tiny people padding along the White House corridors — a black First Family — representing America and American-ness. [“The Greatest Political Show on Earth”.]

Even the real possibility of a black First Family is a revolution. What a presidential campaign this has been — and it’s not done being boring yet. I’ll doubtless be blogging frequently tomorrow — hope you drop by and leave a comment about your election day experiences.