Category Archives: Musings

Extreme Makeover, Heath Care Edition

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Absolutely fascinating reading about healthcare and President Obama, Extreme Makeover, Heath Care Edition | The American Prospect. I am reminded about my class today, as we are leading up to the American Revolution. I foreshadowed with a discussion about the notion of taxation without representation. Basically, we got the silliness of the taxation issue/non-issue out of the way right away, and cut right to representation.

Colonists wanted representation not dissimilar to what they’d experienced in their colonial legislative bodies, a sort of direct representation; the English countered with the notion of “virtual” representation. Pushed by financial, social, and cultural conflict, not to mention an overly pushy English King and Parliament interested in exerting its authority, the colonists found political representation to be increasingly problematic…

Interestingly, I noted to the students, the newly minted American republic would not really achieve a fully representative democracy for many, many years, and even then imperfectly: full free (white) male suffrage by the early 19th century; African American slaves received emancipation, but limited political rights, following the Civil War; Senators were not directly elected until something like 1913; Women did not get the vote until 1920 or so; the franchise was lowered to include 18 year olds in the 1970s; and we still don’t elect Presidents by popular vote. Of course, we don’t have a single national election either, but 50 different state elections, each with different rules, enforcements and procedures, which could effectively lead to mass disenfranchisement at any time. Of course, California has referendums on many issues, including spending issues, which has the effect of paralyzing the state government.

All of which is to say that Democracy is imperfect. So, too are our leaders and so too is our civil society. The only real disappointment, at least to me, are those folks who seek to actively undermine it.

Tea Party Racism

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The woman below attend the 9-12 teaparty promoted by Glenn Beck. Photos from the whole, frequently racist screeds can be seen on flickr.

This woman had a double-sided poster; it says, “What’s the Difference between the Cleveland Zoo and the White House.” Look at the flipside, below. Rather cleverly, she claims that they both have “Africans” but one is “‘lying.”  So, is this what she is mad about–the black president. Wow, and so clever too.  Here’s the problem, the first lie is that he isn’t African, the second deception is the denial that Barack Obama is American, and the third, most horrible part of this, is the use of an old-time trope about African Americans, that they are somehow subhuman, wild, and uncivilized as justifications for things like slavery.  This woman, probably a Clevelander, is exceptionally clever, even brilliant in the skilled way that she evokes rhetoric to express her hateful racism. Bravo.

Now, you’d think that someone in the media would call these events what they are. They are about remaking and reintroducing the original sin of the American Nation: racism as a basic tenet of citizenship and public life. You might think that a reasonable politician on the right would decry these hate-filled demonstrations, after all Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.  You might think that Republican politicians who wanted to debate political issues might find such hate distracting. But, no. We just get more hate, more incivility, and more obfuscation.  We get no discussion of real issues, just fear–very revealing about the priorities of the American right.

I am appalled. You should be too.

IMG_1487 on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.