Back To Basics

Well, it is showing signs of starting: true to form, we Democrats seem about ready to start assembling for the usual circular firing squad. We do this often, and, to some extent, it is natural. While Republican Radicals take it on Faith, we Democrats, as a whole, tend to think and to analyze. As a result, while we all reach the same broad conclusions, we each come to believe that we, and our intellectual allies, have the most finely nuanced version of "the Truth" and, that those who don't possess the same intricate insight are just as doomed to failure as our benighted Republican neighbors.

In other words, we spend a lot of time arguing violently with each other about how many Liberals can dance on the head of a pin.


And, if you trip lightly through the blogosphere this morning, you can see the signs for yourself. Philip Baruth, in Vermont Daily Briefing, rides dramatically to the "Rescue" of Howard Dean, the Party Chairman sprung from the self-named "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party". I don't begrudge the Governor a little "crowing" about his 50 State Strategy. And I think,(despite my personal doubts about the "DWOTDP") that this "No State Left Behind" policy, as it has been dubbed, worked like a charm.

At the same time, the good folks over at the Democratic Leadership Council, have posted that:

This is a victory for the vital center of American politics over the extremes. In pursuing the Bush-Rove formula over the last six years, Republicans have deliberately abandoned the political center, and invited Democrats to occupy it. If you look at the victorious Democratic candidates in "red" and "purple" states and districts, it's clear that they did. And while Democrats benefited from an energized party base, the key to the victory was in the contested center of the electorate, among moderates, independents, middle-class voters, and suburbanites. These voters could represent an expanded Democratic base, and an enduring progressive majority, if Democrats use their new power wisely.

In defense of their position, the DLC points out that Joe Lieberman, running as an independent, kicked the crap out of the challenger who knocked Joe out in the Democratic primary. Ned Lamont won the Democratic nomination by motivating the "democratic wing of the democratic party", yet the voters of Connecticut as a whole said "NO" and chose the more conservative (yet still Democratic, as it turns out, Lieberman) The implication presumably is that, like Dean, while this wing won in cyberspace, it loses in the real world of a general election.

It seems to me that we must, as a party, take the time between now and the New Year to find out where our BASIC COMMON INTERESTS are, and fight, hard, for those. When he re-forged our modern Democratic Party, Franklin Delano Roosevelt managed to unite disparate wings into a unified center- it is time to look at moving in that direction again.

What are those basic interests?

• Social Security


• A Vital Middle Class


• A Decent Minimum Wage


• A Less Reckless Military Strategy


• Rebuilding Our International Relationships


• A balanced Budget and a Healthy Government

There are even more things we, as Democrats, can agree on. But this is certainly a start to the list.

It is time to dig down to the bedrock of what makes us Democrats and fight on those lines. I don't think I'm engaging in hyperbole when I say that the future of the nation is dependent on our success in finding common ground.

Pretty Flowers

Now that the political season is over, at least for the moment, I thought that it would be worth taking a moment to reflect on some of the more important things in life. It seems to me that, often, we take the good, simple things for granted. Like a vase of flowers, for ex----

SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT

We interrupt this blog with a Special Report

Sources:
Losses on ballot measures jolt religious
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061108/ap_on_el_st_lo/eln_ballot_measures_15

Woman bitten by snake at church dies
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/15947481.htm

If you can not access this special report hear it at:
http://www.shadowprod.com/alexspage/audio/rip_special_061108.mp3

We now return you to our regular blog.

SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT SPECIAL REPORT

--- And that's why I think we should ALL take a moment to smell the pretty flowers. Thanks for listening.

It's A Walter Wrenchall Wednesday.

Good Day, and welcome to this week's edition of Rip and Read with Walter Wrenchall. This week: Chinese Contraceptives and an unprofessional swipe at the Vice President.



If the player on this site doesn't work, you can also hear Walter by clicking this link: Rip and Read Audio

Look for Walter back again next Monday!

Election Night- I Feel Lucky

So ends the first campaign in which I actually took part as more than a simple voter. Last winter, I decided that, after years of watching from the sidelines, this would be the year that I would volunteer and put my hours (since I don't have much money) where my mouth is.

And so I volunteered for the Welch campaign, and, as we now know, Peter Welch will be the first Democrat to represent Vermont in the House since the late 50s! (That, according to VPR. And of course, as a socialist independent, Bernie doesn't count!)

The most exciting thing about this campaign, however, has been learning (despite the 27 years that I've lived in this state) how lucky we are to live in Vermont.
This campaign has shown me, once again, how democracy really does work best in a small place. In Vermont, I got to meet ALL the candidates for statewide office, and make up my own mind about them, despite the media bombardment to which we, like the rest of the nation, were subjected. I spent the day as a side-checker for the Democrats at one of the polling places, and when my shift was over, got a chance to see Scudder Parker, Democrat for Governor, working for his votes the hard way- one hand at a time. But, that's the Vermont way.

At the end of the night, I found my way to the Democratic Party's Victory Party. In that room, this simple volunteer found himself rubbing elbows with United States Senators, former Governors, and a host of other "newsmakers". I have to admit, it was a lot of fun, and at the same time, I kept wondering how much money it would have cost me to be in similar rooms around the nation. I was proud to live in Vermont, where you can earn your place by simply volunteering your time.

Adding Links - Making Friends

The great thing about having a lot of links on your blog, or your website, is that it makes you look like you've got a lot of friends. Having lots of friends, with lots of links, is a great way to make yourself feel important.

So...it is with great pleasure that I add another link to my blogroll. Today, I welcome Heather, an old friend from grade school. Heather brings a individual outlook to life by filtering things through her unique sense of humor

I've always enjoyed Heather's sense of humor. Particularly when, in 5th grade, she poured water on the sled run, let it freeze, and allowed me to go shooting over a 50 foot embankment at the bottom of the hill. Oh yes. A fascinating sense of humor, Heather has...

So, if the spirit moves you, check out Gourmet Knitting Disaster and enjoy the wry wit of this member of underpaid lower management as she spills coffee, balances on the bureau at 3:00 am, or spends the day with a chicken foot tied to her hair. It's worth the trip.

And, even if you don't go, at least I know that I have friends...because I have links!

Lost And Adrift

Just casting a glance over the AP Wire on My Yahoo page and saw this headline that I'd overlooked earlier: Why do so few people vote in the U.S.?

The article gives all the usual reasons, voter disgust with negative campaigning, voter disillusion with politics in general (taking on a quick tour through Nixon, Clinton, and W's non-existent WMDs).

But to me, the real gold was near the bottom of the article:

Most broadly, the poll found that non-voters are not just disconnected from politics, but also from their communities. Non-voters were less likely to trust others, to have a strong support network of friends and family or to know their neighbors than regular voters were.

and the article quotes Curtis Gans, from the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University:

"We've had the fragmenting and atomization of our society," Gans said, driven by the 500-channel TV culture, the interstate, strip malls, abandonment of farms and the rise of the Internet. "All of those things have undermined community."

I've been trying to convince a friend of mine who's been feeling a little rootless and a little lonely to volunteer for some public cause: a soup kitchen, a political campaign. She mentioned that she wasn't convinced that it would be "worth it" (I think she was talking mostly about volunteering for politics, not the soup kitchen.) I think that, just by being able to sink a few roots into the soil in which you live, you begin to build community, and that is a good thing no matter who wins or looses an election.

War Games

War games conducted by top level American Officials in 1999 revealed that, even with as many as 400,000 troops involved, American intervention in Iraq stood a good chance of degenerating into anarchy and violence.

According to an Associated Press article by John Heilprin which was posted at 4:48 AM Eastern Time, November 5th, and which seems to have fallen"below the fold" as of 8:43 AM Eastern Time, November 5th, the George Washington University requested, and received, a declassified report describing the results of the games.

(It's a good thing I'm old enough to have to go pee in the middle of the night, or I would have missed it.)

The AP article provides a link to the George Washington University's "National Security Archives" page...but when R&R tried to access it, we were served an error message from the University. Not being conspiracy theorists, we'll try again later. The URL is:
http://www.gwu.edu/nsarchiv/index.html

The AP article goes on to offer excepts from the report:

• "A change in regimes does not guarantee stability," the 1999 seminar briefings said. "A number of factors including aggressive neighbors, fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines, and chaos created by rival forces bidding for power could adversely affect regional stability."


• "Even when civil order is restored and borders are secured, the replacement regime could be problematic- especially if perceived as weak, a puppet, or out-of-step with prevailing regional governments."


• "Iran's anti-Americanism could be enflamed by a U.S.-led intervention in Iraq," the briefings read. "The influx of U.S. and other western forces into Iraq would exacerbate worries in Tehran, as would the installation of a pro-western government in Baghdad."


• "The debate on post-Saddam Iraq also reveals the paucity of information about the potential and capabilities of the external Iraqi opposition groups. The lack of intelligence concerning their roles hampers U.S. policy development."


• "Also, some participants believe that no Arab government will welcome the kind of lengthy U.S. presence that would be required to install and sustain a democratic government."

Mr. Hailprin goes on to point out that many of these predictions are similar to what actually transpired...go figure!

Take It On Faith

Penetrating the essence of the peasants’ faith is difficult. Essentially, it was a belief in the supernatural. They revered [the Pope] not as the Vicar of Christ [but] more like a great magician….if the pontiff’s magic failed, they would begin to turn away from him.

-William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, 1992

In the dark ages, mankind lived by his faith (or perhaps it is more proper to say, by his superstition). This happened because Science was inadequate to meet the needs of the day. It did not explain the invisible plagues that crept through the land; it did not explain the things that went bump in the night.

So, mankind used his superstition to provide a framework upon which to hang the often troubling events that defined his world: Vampires, Werewolves, and Satan himself prowled the landscape. These dark images served very well to provide some rationale, some explanation, for those troubles which beset him.

Today, we are plagued by the opposite problem. Science has postulated so much information that those of us who either don’t have the education to understand, or who do not wish to take the time away from our daily lives (by far, I think, the greater number) have chosen to operate on faith.

In a world where we are beset by offerings of new information: podcasts, blogs, talk radio, streaming talk radio, TV, You-Tube, newsfeeds, RSS, and, of course, old fashioned books and newspapers, printed on honest-to-god paper, the possibilities are endless, and the shades and nuances of truth are, like my computer’s monitor, displayed in “millions of colors”.

In the end, who has the time to chase them all down? Did Kerry insult the troops, or did he take a righteous shot at the President and get quoted out of context by the Right Wing Media. Is the economy failing, or is it growing? Is Global Warming a fact? If so, is it part of the natural course of things, or is it the result of human activity? Can we stop it? Should we try?

In the end, most of us, and I must include myself, begin to act on faith. We operate on what we believe to be true.

In an article in The New Republic, Alan Wolfe reviews Tempting Faith, a book by David Kuo, a former Bush Administration official. In it, Wolfe describes the mindset of those evangelical Christians who help put Bush in office, and who helped keep him there:

Born-again Christians tend not to be liturgical in their religious practices;
spontaneity of expression takes priority over never-changing ritual. They are
not given to excessive theological exegesis; the text of the Bible tells them
all they need to know. They generally prefer their rock music to Bach and
Handel. Compared with Catholics, they are distrustful of hierarchy. Compared
with Jews, they emphasize belief over observance. Compared with their mainline
Protestant brethren, they worship with enthusiasm. And compared with every other
religion on the face of the earth, they judge sincerity by the power of the
stories that they tell each other.

And also…

Sincerity, for them, is everything, which is another way of saying that facts are nothing. The proof of their faith is its credulity.

Meaning, of course, that it boils down to two things: Keep It Simple, Stupid; and, the greater your ability to believe without proof, the more you exhibit to God and the world that you have Faith.

In arguing with conservative friends, I have been amazed at their ability to completely block out what I believe to be overwhelming evidence that the Bush Administration has failed on almost every front.

But, looking at this, I realize that their worldview does not depend on the evidence, or on logical argument. In a world defined exclusively by Faith, logic holds no place at all. Science and empirical reasoning do not hold sway. If the Bible says the world stopped spinning, then it stopped spinning; a man walked upon the water; and water was literally changed into wine.

When one is dealing with faith of this sort, a faith which, for some, postulates that George W. Bush is part of this great plan, one must not expect logic to carry the day: because Faith is a defense mechanism employed expressly to fill the gap created by lack of specific knowledge. It doesn’t matter if that knowledge is lacking because it does not exist (as in the Middle Ages) or because it is too complex to grasp (as in modern times.)
The result is the same.

Many of us despise this childlike and foolish ability to deny facts, to embrace faith, and thus avoid finding REAL solutions. But the lesson to draw from this is that we, too, must always be on guard against our own tendency toward Faith. Faith is, in the end, harmful. It stands in the way of progress. It doesn’t matter if one’s gods are God, or Rachael Carson, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Jefferson, Eugene Debs, or Karl Marx. Everything must be subject to examination. Even our own certainty.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see if the people’s faith in “the great magician”, George W. Bush, and his congressional minions, will show solid signs of failing next Tuesday.

If so, I hope that those who will begin to gather in the reins of leadership have a better plan than taking everything on Faith.

Changing Spots

“Well, well! What next?... Brother Mycroft is coming round…It is as if you met a tram-car coming down a county lane. Mycroft has his rails and he runs on them...What upheavel could have possibly derailed him?”

It is with these words that Sherlock Holmes announces that his brother, Mycroft, is going to do something very out of character: leave his stodgy club and pay a visit to the detective and his friend.

I recalled them because today struck me as a day in which a lot of people did things that were out of character.

First of all, Rip and Read did something out of character: we actually went to a newsworthy event rather than simply engaging in our usual style of, well, rip and read “journalism.”

The event in question was the “Victory Rally” hosted by Senate Candidate Bernard Sanders. If you are one of the faithful, as I am, it was great. Rousing speeches, enthusiasm, cheering, and a heartily expressed wish on the part of all present to see George W. Bush become the lamest of all lame duck presidents that ever were.

So, at a gathering headed by Bernie, and showcasing Patrick Leahy, Peter Welch, Gaye Symington, and a host of other Democrats, what did I find that was out of character?

Well, the fact that it happened at all really.

In his Freyne Land entry, Peter Freyne described the new dynamic duo, Leahy and Sanders, Vermont’s new U.S. Senate delegation: They move well together. Smoothly. Like an old couple.
He's right, they do. And, while it is encouraging to an old faithful Democrat like me to see such a powerful and coordinated show, it is also odd. See, I’ve been in Vermont long enough to remember another Bernie. A Bernie with wilder hair, dirtier sweaters, and no idea how to tie a tie. And that Bernie used to thunder on endlessly, castigating us who had faith in the Democratic Party (the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and, yes, Patrick Leahy) lambasting us as mere Democans and Republocrats.

Used to set my teeth on edge.

And while I am grateful to have him on our side for a change... I still have to wonder when and why Bernie, who used to have his rails and run on them, jumped the track.
Did he sell out? Or did he just grow up?

In either event I, for one, am grateful for the change.

Oh, and the other out of character happening? Well, this is more a wish than a fact, but I hope it is going to be this: Karl Rove chokes (figuratively- I write, just in case the Justice Department is reading) on Election Day.

The Incomplete Works of...

This morning, I read an article in the New York Times On Line on market segmentation within the malls of America.

But as retail companies race to open new chains that serve ever-smaller slices of the population they are using storefronts cloaked in wood and brick to ward off those who do not belong inside (and whose presence might diminish the shopping experience of those who do).

The copy of Newsweek that I'm reading now has an article about a reporter who finally swore off botox and who swears she will swear off fighting the aging process, and right next to her is a picture of Nicole Ritchie (whoever the hell she is) looking like death...warmed over. (Or like a young version of Nancy Reagan, which ever you prefer.)

At any rate all of this inspired the beginnings of "deep thoughts" about the ever growing tendency in our society to segment ourselves into groups of people exactly like ourselves.

And I'll try to write about this...I will...but now I have to go to the dentist...so I offer this musing instead:

Ever walk by your bookshelf and notice these kinds of titles: The Complete Works of So and So?

I did, just this morning, notice such a title on my shelf: The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain and I wondered...would an incomplete work feature pages of offerings like this?

In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, "Thish-yer Smiley had a mare-- the boys called her the fifteen minute nag-- he set the frog down and took out after the feller, but he never katched him."

And then I wondered. Are these two topics really the same? Am I perpetrating modern art. Will I make the dentist on time if I keep writing?