November 6, 2008 archive

Well I’m sure you’re all excited about last night, but I must admit to being somewhat disappointed.

While we made a great deal of progress and had some successes, I’m not convinced the euphoria in some quarters (and fear in others) is entirely justified.

If only Obama were a hard core socialist, riding to the Village to pillage and burn the foundations of free market capitalism to the ground.  If only the communist Democratic Representatives were prepared to nationalize the means of production and place management in the hands of the workers, or at least not greedy conmen and thieves of proven incompetence.

Instead I listen to the Village drums pounding out the message of center right bi-partisanship peace.

No justice, no peace.

Here’s an acronym I’m going to be watching, a bell whether or not we’re going to get squat in terms of powder dry performance from the most craven and cowardly group of legislators ever to disgrace the halls of Congress (and frankly, that’s saying a lot)- EFCA.

Supposedly this is a first hundred days priority.

Now sometimes people misunderstand that I am all about electoral victory.  I am a politician and a community organizer.  I am an anarcho-syndicalist not a Stalinist.

Union building is community organizing and has in the past and could again be the institutional infrastructure of the Democratic Party, a permanent counterweight to the organizational abilities of the dominionist fundies AND the financial resources of the corporatists.

You know, not to mention that it would be good for the economy, build the middle class, break down some of the wealth disparity, act as a break on outsourcing.  Little things.

So it just makes sense on multiple levels, but these are Democrats and unlike Wall Street buccaneers they’re more frequently fearful than greedy.

DKOS Version: Debunking RedState America -v.2008.  

America

(Credit: University of Michigan)

What happened to this map?????  All is answered after the fold!

(Hint: It’s Cool Map thingy time! 😉 )

I first encountered the work of the radical intellectual Manning Marable in the mid-1970s when he was sending out his self-syndicated newspaper column (for free) to alternative newspaper editors and publishers. Those columns were always deep, thought-provoking and erudite. Marable is now Professor of Public Affairs, History and African-American Studies at Columbia University, is writing a book about Malcolm X and is chair of the Movement for a Democratic Society, the non-profit arm of the revivified Students for a Democratic Society, having always combined activism with his prolific scholarship. I’ve always admired him for his calm but principled approach to progressive politics, an approach that analyzes without blinders. My favorite book of his is W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat.

He endorsed Barack Obama in January. Like many of us left-progressives, he is glad of Obama’s victory and cautiously optimistic about the chances that his administration will truly transform politics in America. But he is clear-eyed about it and knows full well the many pitfalls that lie ahead. Today he was a guest on Democracy Now. Here are some excerpts from his interview:  

Cross-posted from Burning the Midnight Oil

Seriously.

Hurray, Senator Obama is now President-Elect Obama.

Hurray, John Boccieri is now Congressman-Elect Boccieri.

Hurray, Larry Kissell is now Congressman-Elect Kissell.

Hurray, What’s-is-name in Cincinnati is now Congressman-Elect What’s-is-name (I guess I should look that up again)

California passed … narrowly, but it passed … Proposition 1A for a High Speed Rail system, including $950m for funding non-HSR systems to connect into the HSR system, helping set up the possibility of leap forward into a more sustainable, more Energy Independent future.

And I’m crying.