In These Times

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• • 16 Aug 08
  • 9:47 pm

  Please Mr. Sirota: Stop it with (1) the ad hominem attacks and (2) the gossip style of journalism. I hope you are well.

  Posted to Will Obama Wave Bayh Bye to the White House?

• • 05 Aug 08
  • 9:12 pm

  The fourth-to-last paragraph also provides a useful insight into the problem. The image of a "movement" being "in the very air we breathed" has long stood as both a beautiful ideal and as not-entirely-realistic nostalgia. On the other hand, the overall historical success of "progressive" politics might explain the current lack of a galvanizing critical mass. For example: The draft having been abolished (plus plenty of propaganda), national feelings about war might be less visceral because fewer parents and children have to face the raw reality of war. Abortion (and birth control, divorce, etc.) having been legalized (despite recent erosions), images …

  Posted to Does a Nationwide 'Progressive Movement' Actually Exist?

• • 18 Jul 08
  • 10:46 pm

  Sirota's article reiterates an admirable effort to make us rethink uncritical notions of "centrism." His logic and evidence, however, should not be uncritically accepted. Sirota rightly criticizes mainstream media coverage placing recent Obama policy statements as efforts "'to appeal to the center of the electorate.'" Responding to such media coverage, Sirota writes that "empirical data proves 'the center of the electorate' is exactly the opposite." To support this claim, he cites poll results on three important issues. Instead of writing "empirical data proves," it would have been more honest to write, "statistical data suggests." Yet Sirota goes on to claim that …

  Posted to 'Centrists' Running the Asylum

• • 21 Jul 08
  • 8:52 pm

  Diciteco: Fair enough about my use of the term "serious progressive"; upon reflection, that could mean a variety of things. I need to think about it. That said, some topics I would like to discuss: (1) Clearly Obama is a politician, and a skillful one. Clearly Obama has alienated a variety of erstwhile allies over the course of his political career. (The New Yorker article gives an interesting bio on his Chicago roots.) I am not saying it's right to "prize winning [or money] over principles," but should it be surprising? (2) Which electorate is Obama disenfranchising, exactly? (3) The Green …

  Posted to 'Centrists' Running the Asylum

• • 23 Jul 08
  • 9:47 pm

  What The Heck: Thank you for giving me some research to do. I say this honestly, as the electoral commitments--and disillusions--that you describe fall both within and without my frame of reference. Personally, I suspect that most modern presidential candidates have found ways to successfully project a mass image of "general welfare" at the same time that they have been quite beholden to those "special interests" that made them nominatable in the first place. For what it's worth, here are three books that come to mind: Mike Royko's "Boss" WEB DuBois's "Black Reconstruction" Marx's "The 18th Brumaire" Such readings have informed …

  Posted to 'Centrists' Running the Asylum