Why Ignorance Has Ruled Washington

If you've been wondering how these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington in the first place, there's a plausible explanation by George Monbiot in The Guardian entitled, well, exactly that. Monbiot asks in his article, "How did so many U.S. citizens become so stupid and so suspicious of intelligence?" He cites Susan Jacoby's book 'The Age of American Unreason' as providing "the fullest explanation" he has come across.

Jacoby points to the fact that that education in the U.S. is controlled locally, not by the federal government. In the southern states when you bring in several factors such as the anti-desegregation planter mentality, the earlier rejection of Darwinism (but the acceptance of social Darwinism), the suspicious view towards intellectuals (even that they're subversive), and the Southern Baptist Convention whose beliefs have permeated the public school system, you then start to understand why Obama (and others) have had to play down their education in order to appear qualified for the presidency. You start to understand the red state/blue state distinction and also why lower income people vote against their best interest. And you start to understand why the likes of Bush and Palin are so appealing.

[My thanks to my liberal elite uncle in Boston for sending this article to me.]

Thea's Perspective

[Note: This is a guest posting by Thea, a very good friend of mine who used to live in Chicago. She's in her late 20's and though we had spent hours and hours talking politics over the last eight or nine years that we've known each other, and had even attended protests and demonstrations together, I thought that something she said in an email to me yesterday about growing up in the Clinton era really explained why it is that Americans of her generation are so engaged in this year's presidential election. And why there is so much at stake for them, after the last eight years, in an Obama presidency. Thea currently lives in Germany where she just completed a masters degree in public art last month and is job-hunting in Köln.]


As an American studying in Germany, finding myself in the middle of a discussion about U.S. politics is quite commonplace. So is hearing intense criticism of Bush administration policies, which, more often than not, I entirely agree with or have brought up in the conversation myself. That the legacy of the Bush presidency is lasting damage to justice, world economies, hope for peace, the environment, and the United States' reputation in the world hardly bears repeating. It is now all too clear.

I can't help but think that it didn't have to be this way. I grew up during the Clinton administration and I recall a sense of optimism and hope in the ability of government to do Good. As a teenager in the 1990's it felt like my family's and my community's values were aligned with the country that we lived in or, actually, it was the other way around. We trusted that our leaders were working towards the goals of equality and peace, the same ideals we believed in. It was lucky that my young bleeding liberal heart had been sequestered away during the Reagan/Bush years in a progressive Catholic elementary school whose non-graded curriculum was based largely on conflict-resolution and U.S. civil rights activism. Some of my earliest memories include singing along to "We are the World" and seeing Hands Across America snake down my street.

When Bill Clinton came onto the national political scene in 1992, I remember seeing him play saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show. I was 14 years old and I must admit I had a little crush on him at the time. I begged my parents to let me take saxophone lessons. Clinton was cool. He was young and idealistic. And Hillary was no wilting flower; she was a model 90's woman with a career and a maiden name. The Clinton years seemed a natural extension of the environment I was used to. At the time, thought, one couldn't see the forest for the trees: that liberal presidents were in power for just three short terms since 1968-- a couple of rest stops on a careening trip to an extreme and divisive neoconservatism.

Then, eight years ago, my optimism and trust were crushed *literally* overnight when Florida's electoral votes flipped from the Democratic to the Republican column. I cried and cried. All the scandals Republican radicals had flung at Clinton stuck, clearing the way for a right-wing government that a childhood spent in Montessori school and hippie sing-alongs did not prepare me for. Surely this was a mistake.

It was not a mistake when Bush won the election in 2004, thanks to his manipulation of Americans' fears of radical Islamic terrorism and perhaps an an even greater fear of elitism. This was a stone-cold confirmation that not only is the U.S. full of evangelicals, xenophobes, and misguided people, but they are running the show.

I wonder now at my own idealism; was it just typical childhood naiveté? Or was I living in a progressive bubble stuck in 1968, which is just not sustainable in centrist, isolationist America? I sold my dusty saxophone two years ago as I prepared to move to Germany for grad school. Gone is the little reminder taking up space under my bed. I am gone now too.

I have fears, like many on the left, that this election will be stolen out from under us. Even with the numbers in our favor, we worry. We have been burned before. As I sit glued to the internet here in Germany I am shocked and shamed at the polarizing and bigoted language coming from the extreme right. But I am also filled with pride for Barack Obama and the efforts of huge numbers people all over the U.S. rallying behind him. I turn 30 on Monday, November 3rd, the day before Election Day and I wait, excited and nervous for the best present of all, a President Obama, to be delivered one day later.

The 30-Minute Informercial

If you missed Barack Obama's 30-minute informercial that was aired on a few TV channels last night and are curious about it, here it is, in four parts. Warning: it resembles a Hallmark movie... the breezy small-town landscapes, the sentimental music, the bright colors, and even a faux Oval Office setting. Watch if you can stand all that! Of course it is targeted at undecided voters, but also, I think, at McCain supporters who a) might believe some of the myths out there about Obama's tax cuts, his health care plan, etc. and also about his personal background, and b) who might well end up having a president whom they right now simply cannot envision in the White House for whatever reason.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Was this broadcast that cost millions of dollars even necessary? This amusing short video illustrates the Obama campaign's argument for why it was, but you be the judge.

Have You Seen These?

These Obama music videos have been out there for a while and you might have already seen them but if you haven't, take a look. The first is a "We Are the World" type thing, but the second one is... well... either just plain hilarious or serious stalker material!

Yes We Can by will.i.am

I've Got a Crush on Obama by Obama Girl

I'm sure there are sociologists out there who are already incorporating these (and the many other songs out there) into their study of political music... In the meantime, good luck getting that second tune out of your head!

Grassroots Organizing Goes a Step Further

Wow! I'm so impressed with the online neighbor-to-neighbor feature that the Obama/Biden campaign has! This past weekend I didn't feel like schlepping out to the campaign office, not even to the one here in Hyde Park that I recently discovered, so I decided to try this online feature where they provide you with telephone numbers to call from home.

You can choose to either get addresses in your neighborhood to visit (for door-to-door canvassing) or telephone numbers in certain regions of the country to call. They give you 60 telephone numbers at a time, and when you click on each one, up pops a page providing you with the person's name, address, gender and age, a script to follow (right now the objective is to encourage Obama supporters to vote early), the address of that voter's closest early voting polling place and its timings, and so on. The same pop-up page functions as a way to provide feedback to the campaign. For example, it asks you to click on whether this person plans to vote early, or on Nov. 4, or is a McCain supporter. It also allows you to indicate if the person wasn't home, if you left a message, if it was a wrong or disconnected number, etc. There's much more, but you get the drift. It's incredibly simple to use too.

I chose to call voters in Indiana and thought I'd make a few calls last evening. I got a lot of answering machines which is a little surprising for a Sunday evening (but then again, people might have been screening their calls). The first person to whom I finally got through to said to me very shrilly, "I'm not innerested in a Muslim for president." [slam]. Yes, that myth still persists, and yes, even this close to election day. But her intense prejudice completely shook me up and made me decide to call it a night. I'll resume my calls today, but only after I can do whatever mental calisthenics it takes to 'reset' myself to have higher expectations of that neighbors. And after I can figure out an appropriate response to statements like that. I'm thinking of quoting Colin Powell's response on this matter but if "Muslim" is a code word for "Black" then that may not hold much water. If you know of a good response, please let me know! I've asked people in the past to look at factcheck.org but I need something more immediate.

On a more positive note, the poll numbers are still looking good. Eight more days.

I Voted!

D. and I went and voted this morning! Whoo-hoo! That was my first time voting in a presidential election and I have to say that there's something oddly exhilarating about it. You can help with campaign efforts, you can go on protest marches, you can donate to causes, but there's a sense of empowerment at the opportunity to cast a ballot alongside... er... Joe the Plumber (ok, I'm going to change that to Carlos the CTA Bus Driver... and D. the Professor). I hope I'm not kidding myself. After what happened in 2000, there's very real concern about ballots not being counted, and that concern turned into worry that MY ballot wouldn't be counted. So I figured that as long as the machines are still reported to be working, I'd get my vote in early. Apparently up to 30% of voters will be voting early this year, including this voter whose vote, I'm happy to report, I have canceled out today.

Chicago has 51 early voting locations, and you're allowed to go to any of them regardless of where in the city you live. We chose one in our neighborhood, the Chicago Park District's Jackson Park building. It's a community center that has table-tennis tables, pianos, etc. (I heard the most beautiful jazz piano being hammered out on my way in). There was not a single person in line when we got there. All of the voting machines were occupied though, so there was a brief wait. We had brought along our U.S. passports as ID, and I was highly amused that the lady who took it from me opened it up to a random page in the center, looked at what turned out to be my visa to India issued two years ago, and handed it back to me. I told her that she had just looked at a visa in my passport and not the front ID page. She said, "That's okay, it's a government-issued ID with a photograph on it." So apparently, that government could be Republic of India? (I shouldn't be too harsh... these are all volunteers from the neighborhood and I may one day volunteer to do the same thing, but that just shows one more hole in a process riddled with holes).

The last time I voted, it was on a huge paper ballot that you had to mark and then have an official scan into a machine. This time it was a touch-screen machine that resembled an ATM machine. ("What would you like to do? Withdraw Cash? Check Balance? Vote for Obama?"). I'm not sure if photography was allowed but if anyone followed my travel blog from last year, you know my policy on taking photographs: desist only if asked to. So here's a (blurry) picture of one of my screens.

A Look At the Polls

With twelve days left to go until election day, I still have some remaining doubts about a Democratic victory. While there are days when I am confident that it is entirely possible and will indeed happen, I see the outrageously negative campaigning that the Republican party has been engaging in and the utterly vile, slanderous pamphlet that they produced today. One can only wonder what will really go through the minds of each voter as they get into the privacy of the voting booth.

All we have to rely on are the polls. Here's the New York Times/CBS News Poll depicting changes in opinion over the past one month. Opinion towards the Democratic candidates have become more positive while opinion towards the Republican candidates have become more negative. Notice the data for Sarah Palin especially. There's not even a single subgroup that has stayed the same or felt more positively towards her. Even the Republicans polled there are more negative towards her and towards McCain too. So that's the overall standing. The Rasmussen Reports poll shows Obama with a 7-point lead overall as of today, and Gallup shows him having a 5-point lead.

What about Independent voters? (Not to be confused with undecided voters who are... undecided). According to today's Diageo/Hotline Poll, Obama has an 7-point lead over McCain (43% - 36%) when it comes to the Independent-likely voters. He did, however, have an 11-point lead 3 days ago with the Independents. Not sure what's happening there. Perhaps they've received a pamphlet or two. It's worth paying attention to what the Independents do because as you may remember in the too-close-to-call 2000 elections where George W. Bush was judged to be the winner by a Supreme Court decision, it was claimed that Ralph Nader took away votes from Al Gore by having inserted himself in the presidential race. Had Nader not been in the running, those voters would have more likely voted for Gore than for Bush, and that would have made all the difference.

Some good news from Gallup polls: the majority of first-time voters say that they plan to vote for Obama (65% for him, 30% for McCain). Most of these first-time voters are between the ages of 18-25 (62%, in fact). Unfortunately, it's not clear just how many of them will actually get over to the polls that day to cast a ballot. Figuring out where your polling place is, finding a way to get over there, standing in line for possibly an hour or more, and then deciphering that complicated ballot takes a little bit more than it does joining five different pro-Obama Facebook groups (and, for effect, 3 different anti-Palin groups) or even attending a rally. Hey, if you don't vote, you forfeit the right to complain for the next four years!