Perspective.

authors note: for the purposes of this blog post, I have marked with an asterisk any fact or reference that I believe — out of pure conjecture — that Sarah Palin does not know or would not get.

I’m sitting in Florence, Italy as I write this. I came over to Zurich to visit my Mom for her 60th birthday, and as I’ve never been to Italy and with everything being so close here in Europe, I decided to take a couple of days to visit this beautiful country that I’ve wanted to see for so many years.

Florence is an amazing place. According to UNESCO*, this one city contains roughly a third of the important art in the entire world* including Michelangelos David*, Botticellis Venus*, and countless other masterpieces.  Florence, for many years was the center of Western civilization*. The birthplace of the Renaissance,* it is where — literally and figuratively, human beings gained… perspective*.

Literally because this is where Brunelleschi* — in addition to constructing what must be the most beautiful building in the world* — with the help of his mathmetician pals* built on the work of his predecessors and completed the transormation of human figures from flat two-dimensional objects whose only purpose in art — and life — was to serve God in submission into living, breathing, three-dimensional beings. Figuratively because after centuries of living in fear and darkness and illiteracy, this is where we entered an era in which thoughts, intellect, individuality, artistic expression, and the human being as a whole became paramount.

It’s interesting to be here in the cradle of human enlightenment in the midst of our current debacle of a Presidential race, because, to be frank,  it really puts things in… perspective.

So let’s put things in perspective. One of our candidates for the highest office there is doesn’t believe in evolution. She believes that dinosaurs and people coexisted on planet earth 5,000 years ago, which, according to her is just about how old the world is. She believes in Armageddon. She believes that certain thoughts and ideas — in the form of books that go against her particular worldview — should be banned.

According to WikiPedia, “Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a context or a reference from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another.”

Simply put, Sarah Palin doesn’t have perspective. She doesn’t have the context that is the very definition of perspective. I’ll go out on a limb and say that she probably doesn’t read that much. She’s never been abroad. She probably wouldn’t care too much for David or Venus because David has a penis and you can see Venuses tits and she would probably think that’s gross and immoral.

Last month, when asked why she didnt get a passport until 2006, Palin replied:

“I’m not one of those who maybe come from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduated college and their parents get them a passport and a backpack and say, ‘Go off and travel the world.’ Noooo. I worked all my life. In fact, I  usually had two jobs all my life, until I had kids. … I was not part of, I guess, that culture.”

“That culture.”

“One of those.”

Sarah Palin — and increasingly the Republican Party as a whole –divides this country along the imaginary lines of culture; of who is a real American and who isn’t. Apparently, according to Governor Palin, “real Americans” don’t travel. They don’t care about places like “Europe” and the rest of the world. Well, as a result, guess what – those particular ”real Americans” don’t have… perspective. If we want to summarize along the culture lines that she — not me — has drawn in the sand, America is divided into those who have perspective and those who don’t. She doesn’t. Barack Obama does.

If the Republicans — as is increasingly obvious — want a culture war, then I say bring it on. After the centuries of darkness it took humankind to emerge into the light of rational thought,  I will take those who have perspective over those who don’t, any day of the week. Barack Obama speaks like what he is — an incredibly smart person. He has written two books that — while I may not agree with every single policy choice within them — are incredibly thoughtful and show a man who clearly has… perspective. The choice between fostering and forwarding the values of thought, intellect, and enlightenment or electing “hockey moms” and “plumbers” and “joe six packs” is pretty clear.

The war on intellectualism, worldliness, eloquence, thought, language, and perspective that is being cynically waged by the architects of the Republican Party is extremely dangerous. And not without historical precedent.

In the midst of the total revolution that was the age of enlightenment, another famous Florentine emerged. His name was Savonarola*, and as a religious zealout he was partial to Palinesque activities like fomenting fear and frenzy among the masses and burning books and works of art. Countless masterpieces of Renaissance Art and books containing who knows how many … perspectives… were destroyed.

If Obama and Palin were Florentines, its pretty obvious who would be “palling around” with Brunelleschi and who would be lighting bonfires with Savonarola. Let’s just consider this the most important election of the 15th Century. Fellow Florentines, the choice is pretty clear.

Hope that puts things in… perspective.

Colin says it all.

socialist. terrorist. arab. muslim.

idiots.

Define Unamerican.

Apparently Sarah Palin, Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann, and the entire Republican Party have a lock on whats American and what isnt.

Hey Ladies… define Unamerican.

I live in New York City. I was there during 9/11. I pay taxes.

Go ahead, call me Unamerican. Call this entire city Unamerican while youre at it. Yeah, New York has never done anything for America.

I`d love to drill — no pun intended — Sarah Palin`s seccesionist pals on their “Americanism.”  Secessionist rebel = real American; Constitutional scholar = Unamerican… good old fashioned Republican logic.

I cant wait until November 4th when we show the world that electing Barack Obama over a creationist secessionist and her angry, irrelevant, and out of touch boss is the most American thing America has done since guarantee liberty, justice, and equality for all.

To the polls!

Real America Looks Different

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

check out what the folks at 538 are saying…

Fear Of Europe 101: The Ballad of Josef Sechs-Braü

“The problem is that the Republican Party of the United States has to serve three masters in principle but really only serves one in practice.”

Over the last 24 hours, John Mccain has been stepping up attacks on Barack Obama as a ’socialist’ and comparing his policies to the policies of European governments (Oh No…).

The hatred of Europe that our American nation was founded upon at this point may be simply genetic. How else to explain everyday America’s blatant disdain for Europe’s free medicine, free education, five weeks of mandatory vacation, no public drinking laws, hands off government where it counts and hands on where it helps, and a general sense that the people are the ones who matter most.

I’m writing this from Zurich, Switzerland, where I am staying with some friends of my Moms for the next week. The people I’m staying with speak four languages around the dinner table. From what I can tell from walking along the shores of the Zurich lake today, Joe Six Pack Switzerland, aka Josef Sechs-Braü, has plenty of opportunity to chill out on the shores of
the lake after a hard days work and drink a Sechs-Braü without the police getting involved. Josef also gets almost two months of paid vacation a year and both he and little Josefina Sechs Braü get paid to make their own little six packs and take, respectively, one month and six months paid paternity/maternity leave after the fact.

Every citizen here is a patriot—in the sense that none if any of them are trying to secede from the Swiss nation — every citizen is required to do Army service and every homeowner is expected to have an
underground bunker in their house in case of emergency.  Everyone who has done Army service – aka everyone — gets to keep their gun after their service is over. (And its not a pistol, it’s a fucking AK-47).

So, JSP America… where’s the problem? These ’socialists’ have far more to offer to you than your ‘Mavericks.’ They’ve got guns, free healthcare, bunkers, pot, beer … They are Joe’s wet dream. Only apparently Joe doesn’t know it. Because apparently Joe is caught in a tangled web of Republican lies.

The problem is that the Republican Party in the United States has to serve three masters in principle but really only serves one in practice. In principle, they serve the 2-8% of their base who are hardcore religious zealouts who believe in overturning Roe V. Wade and ushering in a new era of book burning and armageddon and good semi-literate Christian values. Then they serve JSP, the elusive working class voter with Southern Rebel values who votes for hands off government and libertarian rights.

Who they really serve is their third master – the old boy network of rich Republicans who stay tax free and wealthy as a result of the Republican tax policies and get fat contracts along with every despicable bill their party passes. Joe Six Pack is not only an afterthought, he is a pawn in the Republican Game. If, after McCain’s repeated references to the average ‘Joes’, Republican Americans don’t realize that they are getting empty pandering… well, they aren’t paying attention.

Modern day Confederates —  as much as the Republican Party through blind and immediately self-serving strategies has cultivated them as a voter base and now  turned them loose on the National Stage —  are
not nearly the most important faction of the Republican Party. And thinking Republicans know that.

Which is why, after this election is over, there is going to be nothing short of total upheaval in the GOP.

Which is also why, if there are thinking men among them, the modern day Con-Feds will start to realize that they are more socialist and less Republican than they ever imagined.

Alaskan oil revenue = sharing the wealth, anyone?

You do the math.

The fires of hell are frozen glaciers.

“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred of my government. My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

–Joe Vogler, founder of the Alaskan Independence Party, which Sarah Palin’s husband Todd belonged to for 7 years, and to which Palin delivered a warm welcome speech at their annual convention while she was Governor.

And that’s not all. Palin’s road to the White House also includes banning books, playing the flute in beauty pageants, accusing people of killing moose and drinking beer in squad cars, chilling with secessionists, punishing rape victims, and opposing abortion even in cases of incest.

The other guy is only a constitutional scholar. Your choice.

The hockey mom gets booed by hockey fans.

wait a minute Sarah… it doesnt get much more working/middle class than philly hockey fans. maybe you don’t ‘represent’ them after all. or maybe introducing yourself as the ‘best known hockey mom in the United States’ comes across as exactly the shameless pandering that it is. or maybe philly fans will take any excuse to boo…

CNN picks up the anti-intellectualism thread… a little late.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/zelizer.intellectual/index.html

A Strange Patriotism: Confederate Values and Republican Deceit.

Its well known that the anti-Obama fervor among the Republican voter base increased dramatically over the last week, with McCain-Palin rally attendees deriding the Democratic nominee as a terrorist and a socialist and shouting cries of ‘Treason!’

Underneath the outright hatred for Obama and all he represents to everyday Republicans– which, from the commentary captured in this video, isn’t exactly clear or very well articulated — is the deeply flawed assumption that Republicans are more patriotic than Democrats.

Sarah Palin in one of her campaign stumps last week said she was ‘just so fearful that Obama doesn’t see America the same way you and I do… as the greatest force for good in the world.’

Barack Obama is a Constitutional Scholar who has spent the majority of his life studying the fabric of American history, society, and law.  This would be a rather strange course in life for someone intending to commit treason to take. While Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review, Sarah Palin was ‘palling around’ with the Alaska Independence Party, a group who advocates outright secession from the United States. Treason, anyone?

Somehow, in the logic of the everyday Republican, this ‘Government get out of our business and let us govern ourselves’ attitude is almost the very definition of patriotic. Its a pretty tough argument to make. Secession as patriotic.  Unless of course, your ‘patriotism’ is not towards country as it is, but country as you believe it should have been 147 years ago.

Intended or not, the ‘government get out of my hair’ patriotism is a retro-active patriotism to the values of the Southern confederacy.

In this interview, former head of the AIP and Sarah Palin pal describes his personal arsenal, talks about secessionist movements, and notes that ‘Abraham Lincoln was wrong to invade the South’. What, you may ask, is a Southern-style secessionist doing way up there in Alaska? The answer is that those confederate values are more prevalent than we’d like to admit. Rustbelt Intellectual posted an article last week on how the values of the Northern working class have been almost entirely replaced nationwide by the ‘leave us alone’ values of the Southern white working class. I think he’s spot on.

In 2005, I spent four months on the road with NASCAR. We crisscrossed the United States from North to South and East to West. My tour crew — as was quickly and often noted by the Alabama/Tennessee/Virginia contingent– was evenly split on either side of the Mason-Dixon line. (Though the A/T/V contingent didn’t really know what to make of my New Mexico roots, unsure of what camp we fell into in 1861). The first night I spent on the NASCAR tour bus, I was force-fed moonshine and asked about my views on the ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ If I had a dime for every Confederate Flag I saw on the road — in every state from New Hampshire to Michigan to Pennsylvania to New York — I’d be able to retire and start my own little secessionist kingdom.

My time on NASCAR was actually quite brilliant; I had every stereotype I’d had of middle America shattered and other stereotypes drastically reinforced. But the common thread in every political discussion I had was a sense that government should stay the hell out of people’s lives. Among the more extreme tour crew members, there was outright condemnation of the North and repeated references to the Civil War. To say the least these divergent political views led to some heated discussions, but usually we’d just laugh it all off with some name calling and descend into typical tour crew toilet humor.

From what little I saw on the road, there are legitimate reasons for the resurgence of ‘hands off’ values and even positive things to be drawn from them.  There is an American rebelliousness, restlessness, and independence that drives us and serves us well in everything from our economy to our inventiveness to our creativity.

But there are also two giant misnomers at work here. One is that the Republican party best represents these values, and two is that to embrace the other side of that which is truly American — intellect, study, equal opportunity, freedom of religion — is somehow unpatriotic.

With the attacks on Senator Obama on the rise, I think its important to reflect on what patriotism is and what it isn’t. So I’ve broken the flawed logic of everyday Republican patriotism down into several falsehoods.

1. Wanting smaller government = being more patriotic

Government, like it or not, is and always will be directly involved in and responsible for the lives of the people. Republican ’smaller government’ has not had less impact on the lives of working class Americans; quite the opposite, it has unarguably had more impact. Less regulation does not equal less impact. Its a mantra that bears repeating.

Usually what less regulation does is benefit large corporate and financial institutions while simultaneously pulling the rug out from under the working class. Less regulation has a long toxic legacy of destroying every institution from the American farm to the American family (how many mothers died of cancer from the deregulated factories of the 1970s and 1980s)  to the American doctor to the American financial system.

Government is meant to provide social services and checks and balances; the absence of those services does not equal greater freedom, it equals greater poverty, less support, and an increasing inability to compete on the global scale.

In the VP debate, Joe Biden was derided for an earlier comment suggesting that paying taxes is patriotic. But he’s right. Paying taxes is certainly more patriotic than telling the government to shove off and advocating secession. And paying taxes, my Republican friends, will happen whether there’s a Democrat or a Republican in office. Its just a matter of what — if anything — you get for those taxes.

2. Rekindling the rebelliousness of the confederacy = being more patriotic

Yes, one aspect of the multi-faceted nation known as America is our rebelliousness and our hands off attitude. But there is nothing inherently patriotic about being a ‘rebel’ if its not backed up with a clear analysis of what is best for the nation. Patriotism means acting in the interest of the nation. And intelligent analysis of what this nation needs right now points to things that ‘rebels’ can’t offer. Worldliness, intellect, sophistication — dirty words to most rebels — are 100% necessary for this nation if we are to remain competitive in the world.

As one Republican friend said when asked about the appeal of Sarah Palin: “Well, I sure wouldn’t want to drive a Chevy Cobalt, but there are a lot of people in America who do.”

The problem is, that Chevy Cobalt is going to be asked to compete in LeMans. And she’d clearly come in last.

As zeal-inducing as Sarah Palin’s ‘I’m going to ride into Washington with guns blazing and shake things up’ attitude is, there’s absolutely no analysis there of what type of a shake up Washington needs. If shaking up Washington is patriotic, then at least get someone who’s studied Washington for years and knows what to look for.

On the flip side, spending years of your life studying the Constitution of the United states and its legal framework is the height of patriotism. Knowing that document inside and out so that your words and deeds as President reflect it, is the height of patriotism.

Banning books from Alaska’s libraries is not.

3. Questioning your nation’s foreign policy = being less patriotic

What is more patriotic than trying to defend the citizens of your nation from harm? And no, I’m not talking about the brave and unfortunately misled young men and women in the US military serving in Iraq. I’m talking about those who tried to prevent them from having to die in the first place.

Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq. And while the very same population whose sons and daughters are dying in Iraq are accusing Obama of ‘treason’, President Bush has gotten away with clearly impeachable offenses. He lied to congress about the threats that Iraq posed on multiple occasions. He deliberately misled us. This is not partisan politics, it is fact. So who’s a bigger patriot? The one who lied and has killed 5,000 of our sons and daughters, or the one who tried to keep them out of harms way in the first place?

Analysis of foreign policy is critical to the future of the nation. At this point, there is nothing more patriotic than having someone who is slower to pull the trigger and more likely to really understand the situation.

4. Being an intellectual = being less patriotic

Since the days of Nixon, Republicans have pursued a strategy of false populism and literally derided Democrats for their education. I won’t spend much time on this one, as my article Year Zero goes into the toxic effects of this strategy, but suffice to say that this country was founded by intellectuals, has always benefited from the thoughts, words, and deeds of intellectuals, and in the face of global crises, needs really, really smart people in office.

Here’s an intellectual who just won the Nobel Economics Prize. He saw the economic crash coming three years ago, only a certain President wouldn’t listen. Is he not a patriot?

***

Being a patriot means embracing the entire, multi-faceted set of values and ideas this nation was founded on. Yes, independence and rebelliousness are two of them. But there are many more.

Come November 4th, if you want to be a real rebel, why not cast a ballot for the son of a Kenyan immigrant and a working mom from Kansas who beat all the odds and is really ready to shake up Washington — in fact, by beating Hillary Clinton and coming this far, he already has shaken up Washington. What could be more rebellious, what could be more patriotic than that?

The Russia Sarah Palin Can’t See From Her House

In addition to being a political ranter, I’m also quite interested in photography. And one of my all time favorite photographers is Andrew Moore, who has spent a great deal of time snapping pictures of the country that Sarah Palin ‘can see from her house’ and that John McCain recently labeled as ‘maybe’ an evil empire.

Moore takes particularly amazing photographs of the homes of poor working class Russians, which, in his beautiful large format prints he captures in brilliant detail.

There is one thing that is very striking about the homes of the working class Russians that Moore photographs. These homes are — without exception — absolutely crammed full of books.

It seems that working class Russians still read. And that a stones throw away from the Wasilla Library, where Sarah Palin busily tried to ban titles that didn’t conform to her religious worldview, the country that she has never, ever ’seen from her house’ still has a place for that unique character that is dying off in this American century — the working class intellectual.

Once upon a time, the working class intellectual was a proud figure of American society. From Jack London to Neal Cassady, the man of blue-blood roots who took his country’s bold offer of free access to information and thought seriously, who stayed up nights debating politics and philosophy and union laws, was a viable force in American society and shaped American politics and thought.
Now, in many parts of the country, reading is a dirty word. Writing is not a respectable profession. “Intellect” is not a term that makes the average American sit up and take notice. Its more likely to get your ass kicked.

Why is this? I have several thoughts on what has brought about the decline of the working class American intellectual which I will cover over the next several posts. None of them are groundbreakingly new, but all of them lead back to the premise that it starts at the top. The slow and steady culture war that is being waged against American intellect is a pre-meditated function of the right wing designed to consolidate a voter base around a common set of values. Its not because of television (many of those Russian homes in Moore’s photos have TVs as well), its not because we have access to so much information we just don’t care anymore. Its not because of our celebrity/entertainment driven culture. Its far deeper.

Many people have written on this topic. But my perspective may be a little unique. I’m going to start it at a human rights conference in Prague that I attended in 2003, and finish up in a tour bus discussing the ‘war of northern aggression’ in the parking lot of a NASCAR race in Darlington, South Carolina. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, a little something to chew on….