Romney Etch-a-Sketch

Another week without an original posting, sorry everyone. But my 10 day stretch of madness is nearly over and I should have two new postings next week.

I did want to pass along one link from last night's Rachel Maddow Show. I usually find the first segment of her show the hardest to get through. For the past months it seems she's always leading with 'here's what's dumb about the Republican Presidential Nomination' today. Though there's certainly plenty of stupid to go around, its hardly necessary that someone with such fantastic ideas on social spending, infrastructure, civil rights... basically everything (let's face is, she's a genius) spend so much time paying attention to the Republican clown car. I'll more into this in a post at some point.


However, last night's Rachel Maddow show ran a story on the newest 'gaffe' (which, in this nominating cycle, really do seem more like Freudian slips) from the Romney campaign. She is absolutely right to point out that this one is different. The idea that the Romney campaign would be so brazen as to admit that their entire plan is to try and forget about everything R-Money has said in the past 6 months to 6 years shows the candidate's base immorality and utter disdain for the American people. And I believe it is this particular character trait that the Obama campaign must attack in the general election. If George W. Bush could paint a decorated war veteran and public servant as a coward, surely Obama can paint the (true to life) picture of the Recreant Romney.

Check it out: Etch-a-Sketch

A few recommendations

I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to post for the past week or so. My theatrical-life has switched into high gear, but I should ideally have enough time to get out at least one posting next week. I've got a few things swimming up in my head.

But, I wanted to share two interviews I've heard on two of my favorite blogs / programs over the course of the past week.

The first is an interview on the Majority Report with Richard Kahlenberg on why he believes that the right to Unionize should be a civil right. If you're like me and have always wanted someone to really the philosophical rational behind Unions... this is perfect. If you're more informed than me, as some of you no doubt are, I'm sure it will provide new context for some of your believes. And if you know nothing about Unions... really listen to it. Kahlenberg also presents a fantastic example of how to push progressive causes working within the confines of the structures of the American government. Its a fantastic interview and one of the best I've heard on the Majority Report for a while (which is high praise, not a backhanded complement). You can find it here

The second is from The David Pakman Show (which has just gone from 2 shows a week to 4, including an international thursday show, which I'm very excited about). On Tuesday, David aired an interview that he did with Neil deGrasse Tyson on the future of space exploration. Not only does Tyson provide a more plausible, palatable, and Progressive path into space than Newt Gingrich's Moon Base / 51st State, but he also provides a compelling argument as to why science (and by extension of that, space exploration) has been under attack and what we can do about it. You can find it here

So really, watch / listen to these clips. They're both from great shows (which everyone should try and catch every so often... and donate to if you can).

Against Centrism

The idea of centrism has been under attack for the better part of the Obama presidency. From the Right this has manifested through electoral politics. The attacks on women, unions, minorities, elderly, students, the poor, etc. have predominantly come from newly elected more hard-core conservatives. These are not your father's Republicans, they're your great-grandfather's. On the left we are not seeing the same type of electoral shift. Instead, the changes have come on a more sociological level with the ongoing Occupy protests as well as the growth of groups like Anonymous and Wikileaks. The country is becoming more polarized. People who believed they had no interest in politics are starting to pay attention and realize that not only do they have opinions, they usually tend to have strong opinions. The idea that a knowledgeable electorate living in such turbulent period would favor centrist policies is absurd.

After all what are centrist policies? There is a different centrism and bipartisanship. Issues like having a police force, a national highway system, schools: these are not centrist issues, they are bipartisan issues. There may be a multiplicity of opinions on how such edifices of society should be run, but, by and large, their existence is supported across the board. Even if the centrist becomes a champion of, say, public works, and does not prove that politician to be a centrist, simply a pragmatist.

What defines a centrist is having an opinion on hot button issues that is moderately palatable to everybody. Centrists, by and large, do not believe in gay marriage, but they're willing to give some rights to homosexuals. They tend to support the idea of having access to healthcare, but see far too many problems to truly implementing a universal system in our country. They tend to speak against the horrors of war, but usually vote to pass every new military funding bill. Mistakenly labeled as flip floppers, all they really are are pen pushers. They're in the business of maintaining the status quo. Period. 

Last week famed centrist Olympia Snowe threw up her hands and declared that there was too much partisanship in Washington for her to run for reelection. And certainly the partisanship particular from the Republican side certainly has attributed the deadlock in our nations capital. But I would argue that it is simply weak leadership, from both sides of the aisle, that is causing this debacle. After all, perhaps the 2 most successful and celebrated presence of the last century, FDR on the Left and Ronald Reagan on the Right had a vision not of managing our country but re-imagining it. In our electoral politics there is now a clear right-wing. There is quite a clear center (center right). We must elect Progressives who present not simply a buffer to the onslaught from the right but true alternatives.