Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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January 2, 2008 9:14 PM
Thoughts About Iowa After A Vacation
I'm just back from a long vacation in which I tried to stay away from political news as much as possible. I find that stepping away from the day-to-day always helps ground me in reality - and realize just how idiotic much of American politics really is.
So, with my mind cleared, let me just offer these few thoughts as the voting in Iowa begins:
1. The media (and, to a lesser extent, the blogosphere's) obsessive focus on presidential politics to the exclusion of almost anything else is, to put it mildly, vomit-inducing. I reached my personal vomit point coming home from a trip into the mountains. As I scrolled through XM stations, I found a new one called "POTUS '08" - a station entirely devoted just to the presidential race, one that comes on top of all the other political stations which talk only about the presidential race. I'm not saying that the presidential race is unimportant - but it certainly isn't the only thing that's important - it's not even the only thing important in the realm of politics. Yet, it is as if the media would have us believe that local, state and even congressional politics is just not important at all, and that the only thing that matters is the televised game show that has become presidential elections. It's really quite a sad commentary on media laziness - in the American Idol era, it is far easier to report on a few celebrity presidential candidates than provide ongoing coverage of major issues like health care, economic inequality and debt facing Americans every day. And you better believe this focus only on presidential politics is making for a good laugh among the corporate lobbyists who manipulate local, state and congressional politics. The more heat and attention focused on the race for the White House, the less attention focused on the arenas where the rubber hits the domestic policy road the hardest.
2. Putting aside my nausea, let me just say that no matter who wins, it is absolutely great that economic populism has taken center stage so far in the presidential contest. Thanks to candidates like John Edwards and Mike Huckabee ignoring the Punditburo's attacks and trumpeting the populist line, Wall Street-backed candidates like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had to resort to posing as populists as well - and that's a good thing. The more candidates channeling the public's righteous anger at corporate greed and economic inequality, the better.
3. No matter what happens in Iowa, you can bet this is just the beginning of the presidential race. Similarly, no matter who wins Iowa (or the entire nomination contest), none of the problems that face America are going to go away. This may be hard for the most devoted followers of presidential cults of personality to swallow, but almost none of these candidates seems truly serious about attacking the systemic problems our country faces (I say "almost" not accidentally - I do believe one or two candidates ARE serious about this). That's not to say that we aren't going to solve these problems - but nominating and then electing a president is but one small step in doing that. It is going to take the kind of full-on, sustained uprising that I have been reporting on for the better part of the last year for my upcoming book.
We are at a historic moment right now - and I say that not in the way the Monday Night Football-mimicking political media bills every single election as "the most important election in our lifetime." I say it because I believe America is, for the first time in many generations, starting to think in terms of economic class. Put another way, the battle between Democrats and Republicans is being superseded by the battle between The Money Party and The People Party. How this new class awareness manifests itself in one election cycle is far less important than the fact that awareness is rising at all.
This, beyond everything else, is the storyline that will never be written by the Beltway media - because class awareness among the masses is something that threatens the powers that be. The system in Washington is set up to crush class awareness and solidarity among the masses - to break us up along racial, ethnic, geographic and religious lines so that we do not unify in support of an economic agenda based on fairness and equality. This Washington system exists, ironically, to preserve a well-coordinated class war being waged by an economic class very aware of itself - a class war by the wealthy against the rest of us. This may sound like hyperbole, but polls show most Americans know this is the undeniable truth. And no matter whether your personal preference wins or loses tonight in Iowa, We The People have already won, because class awareness and class-based politics is on the rise.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
Given the economic situation we're in and how its getting worse, the economy will be front and center this year.
There is no way the presidential candidates or Congress can keep ignoring the deteriorating housing market, ever increasing energy prices(inflation anyone?), the dollar on a death spiral, commodities reaching record highs(means higher food prices),a rickety stock market thats only being kept afloat by the Feds, shrinking tax base, etc.
And if any of these potential disasters really unwind its going to explode in the faces of both parties, who for the most part aren't even aware of these problems.
The only hope that both parties have to keep their power is if Bush and the Fed can keep the economy together until election time so as to install another oligarch. Otherwise the economic situation will open up the field to a populist and a real 3rd party insurgency.
And this also may be the year that the MSM loses control of the populace if the economy keeps going the way it is.
The IA caucus is nothing but a BIG JOKE because there is no democracy given that results are determined by fewer number of people there yet Big Media MISUSES it to RIG the elections for their "favorite" corporate crony puppet. The actual IA primary is ignored at large. America needs to bring democracy to America first and foremost by getting rid of these RIGGED-TO-FUCK-THE-ELECTION caucuses first.
As for economic populism, last I checked, both parties are still trying to dismiss it though it'll be interesting to see how it bites their ASSes. Unless a strong 3rd party candidate gets in, it'll probably be written off just like the last 3 elections.
Sirota, who are you working for. I ask because there is no way in hell you should believe huck is a populist.
As far as iowa/elections, it Is a total joke SpankinRankin. There is no way that one to four states determining everything is democratic. Sirota and the rest of the center-left are blind to the fact that elections are joke. I don't want to vote. But I will probably cast my vote for Kucinich in Maryland, just to get back at the elite capitalist rightwing media for marginalizing him. yeah, i got a BIG problem with Kucinich's support of affirmative action. But an important thing is that he is not anti-"white" like most supporters of AA. He just likes it as a policy to make america better, not as a tool to purposely institute reverse discrimination. And his populism is so strong that it outways all other problems.
And don't call me racist. The truth is AA is racist. And trust me, there are a LOT of workingclass "white" liberal dems, esp here in Baltimore, who hate AA. They just don't say it. They vote dem on economic issues.
On the issue of affirmative action. I believe that the original Civil Rights bill did not call for it but some lobbyists slipped it in. My understanding is that "conservatives" were no fan of civil rights but were more than happy to misuse affirmative action to play the victimization game. In any case, they love affirmative action when it comes to enriching the already well to do or for that matter celebrities of all strips but misuse gender and race to divide and conquer what's left of the working class. As for the entire concept of affirmative action, I'm no fan of it either especially since my wife, whose parents came here from India, learned about the dark side of affirmative action the hard way. She used to have to put up with racial discrimination from both blacks and whites and affirmative action proved to be of no use to her so she was prepared to take her chances getting a higher education even if it meant financial crunch ahead and never regretted it. The truth is a better educational and/or work experience background is a better weapon for job hunting more than counting on one's race, gender, or even financial connection to give them minor advantages.
Iowa and New Hampshire have no business determining who runs for president, it really makes the system look like a corrupt joke. These states don't even have the combined income or population of San Antonio or Boston.
All these states do is select loathsome, talentless, unappealing characters that the rest of the country has to put up with.
I'd love to see the caucus system banned or moved here to CA or Florida - big states with a diverse population.
Dave,
Do you actually prefer Huckabee over Obama !?
Waltc,
Yeah, Fed MAY keep us afloat thru '08; and come '09 all bets are off. But not expecting "3rd party" savior - at least not in our lifetime. W/O instant run-off elections or parliamentary framework at state or local levels, we're stuck with our tired 2-party structure.
spankinrankin and below_mason_dixon,
The logical and complete alternative to our IA-NH primary system would be a national one-day primary. Had we already done so, it would be HRC vs. Rudy. You could forget Huck, and certainly Edwards.
The early primaries compel the kind of retail politics that minimizes effects of big money (ask Romney) and handlers (ask HRC). The 15% cutoff in the IA caucus attemps something of an instant run-off.
On affirmative action:
For each case of reverse discrimination, dozens or more of deserving minorities are passed over with no provability or publicity. Thought we all knew this.
Conquer and divide has always been MISUSED by the wealthy elite ever since the Constitution was created. Now that I see it all, our Founding Fathers made this system such that it would be nothing but a two-party system inside and out. The only good news is that it is possible to break out of this two-party duopoly but only if the rank-and-file voters break out of their addictions to one party or the other. It's a total shame that even after all these years, the Democrats and Republicans allow IA and NH to come first. By the time other states are up for primaries, the nominees are already "fixed".
Affirmative action is racist and invalidates any notions of eglalitarianism and equality in America. I say this as a HARDCORE leftist, someone who is effectively a socialist, someone FAR to the left of Sirota. I want an America with NO AA, where merit ALONE is used.
Now I do not believe in race, majorities, or minorities. As a non-Aryan Euro, how the hell am I in the majority? Those of my ethnicity are minorities. So is everyone. It is RACIST and ARROGANT and EXTREMELY ARBITRARY for the rightwing corporate elite to label ALL Euros as majortiy, and all else as minority. There is no logic in that at all.
That said, for one to act as if the modern universtiy is racist against those who are classified as "minorities" is complete and utter BS. The "minorities" get UNBELIEVABLE favoritism at the expense of of "majorities" like me. Entire budgets and programs are directed towards them. The rest of us are just treated as scum who the university wants to extract money out of. Screw that.
You think rich "whites" hate AA? Nope; they LOVE it cause it keeps the blacks at bay, and it pumps in more people into the workforce for them. Why do you think our business-owned legislatures are SO concerned with "minority" performance? The answer is because they want them to WORK. It is a lot better for the business elite to have a black person working rather than unproductively sitting around smokin' Mary Jane.
And of course, it gives the APPEARANCE of racial equality by screwing over working class "whites" while not harming rich "whites."
Bottom line: AA is a racist tactic of the rightwing elite. And Nixon was the main founder of it. And now SARKOZY wants it in France, NOT the left.
I know all that because I am currently a "white" student on a very diverse campus.
Oh, and I FULLY support the biparisan efforts of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative in their efforts to ban affirmative action. They are the true civil rights pioneers of our day. I hope we get something like that in Maryland.
I HATE the rightwing, bourgeois ACLU and all the FAKElefties there who wanna sacrifice the kids of others so that their pseudo social consciences might be less burdened.
Not that you are going to, but please don't call me a racist, nazi, or white nationaist. I dislike all those groups the way I dislike Al Sharpton. Don't act as if just because a "white" person is against AA cause it hurts them then they are racist and trying to keep out blacks. Not true at all. I am a racial egalitarian. I don't believe in race. I am a leftist who sees the main war as a CLASS war.
Clarification:
When I say I don't believe in race that is not 100 % valid. I mean two things specifically.
(1)I do not believe in the conventional notions of race: "whites," "blacks," "hispanics," etc. I DO believe in the existence of national ethnicities. I want to make that clear.
(2) I do not believe that the main dividing line in humanity is race. I believe it is CLASS. So effectively, i do not see race as important when push comes to shove. So I do not "believe" in race to the extent that I do not BELIEVE in it as something that should divide humanity. But i am not pro-mass-immigration. I DO believe in national citizenship and there being nations. I just think citizenship is about IDEAS, not race.
Yeah, complexities in thought. DEAL with it. Nah, its easier to just call me a hypocrite.
So basically I when I say I don't believe in race I mean "I don't believe in race in its conventional wisdom" and "I don't believe in race as a divider of humanity." I do think there are various national ethnicities in existence. I am at odds with the way society sees race as a classifier of humanity.
As far as class, that is obviously not a biological divider. I do not mean to say that class is more relevant biologically than national ethnicity. In a biological sense I believe in ethnicity more than class. BUT, I still don't see how "race" is a biolocal divider. Animals vary and humans vary, biologically. One may call those variations ethnicities. Which are clearly more important than class in a biological sense. But to call these ethnic variations different "races" is something I disagree with. And although biologically more significant, the minor ethnic differences are not enought to overwhelm the socialogical differences.
In a SOCIOLOGICAL sense, I see class as much more important than race. So in that sense I believe in class, not race. And as far as not believing in race biologically, reread that first paragraph.
Summary:
SOCIOLOGY > BIOLOGY for humans
And IN the biological sense, there is one HUMAN race with somewhat varying ETHNICITIES. That's my belief, and it is obviously not enough to warrant a belief in full racial differences that SPLIT UP humanity. I believe in ethnicities and I believe they are secondary.
Okay, now respond with that stuff from the villified nobel guy who talks about racial differences. How consequential!!!!!
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