by David Burn | Oct 23, 2006 | Politics
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of conjecture from the talking heads about a Democratic Party sweep of the upcoming midterm elections. Living deep in the heart of a Republican county in a Republican state in a Republican region, I find the national news distant at best.
Basically, I have no indication whatsoever that Joe Wilson, my representative in Washington will be sent home next month. The guberatorial race, on the other hand, does provide a glimmer of hope.
Columbia’s newspaper, The State, recently spoke to some disconcerted voters.
Some Columbia voters want Sanford to join the pool of South Carolina’s 135,700 unemployed residents next year and want state Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Aiken, to take his place.
“I would support Mickey Mouse if he was running against Sanford,” said Vicki Price, 46, office manager for Van de Grift Veterinary Clinic. “I don’t think he’s done anything for us.”
University of South Carolina librarian Paul Schultz said the state’s economic woes the past six years are in line with national trends.
“My impression is Sanford spends a great deal of his term squabbling with the Legislature, playing musical chairs with state agencies and twiddling his thumbs,” he said.
After graduating from high school Moore worked several jobs, before starting a company that sells, installs and repairs industrial boilers. He was a nontraditional college student, attending classes at night while working and raising two sons with his wife, Dale. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina Aiken in 1989. In other words, he’s not a blueblood. He’s a guy who worked hard to make his way in the world, and as such will most likely have the working person’s concerns in mind should he be elected CEO of the Palmetto State.
by David Burn | Oct 12, 2006 | Politics
Brian Schweitzer, a 51-year-old farmer and irrigation contractor is presently govenor of Montana and a darling of the Democrat Party. According to an in-depth look in New York Times Magazine, some Democrats think Schweitzer’s brand of fresh air could sweep across the region and maybe even go national.
Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga puts it this way:
“Schweitzer is the antithesis of the Democrat stereotype. Too many Democrats look like targets for the school bully. Schweitzer is a tough guy. And people like guys who will bar-fight their way across a state.”
The article leaves no one doubting this man’s political abilities. He picked a Republican as a running mate, for one. Proving you can work across party lines is something we rarely see today. Yet, we need to see it regularly.
Here’s another interesting passage from the article:
As fertile as the West may seem for Democrats, some in the party remain skeptical that it matters much. “The problem with the Democrats is that they can’t count,” Dave (Mudcat) Saunders, a Democratic campaign strategist, said. Saunders’ book, Foxes in the Henhouse, argues that the party would be wrong to focus on the West and ignore the South. He notes that 30 percent of the country’s electoral votes come from the South, and that by 2025 that percentage will be 40. “Georgia and Florida have as many votes as all the West put together,” Saunders points out.
While Saunders makes an important point about how power works, let’s not overlook the power of one man to inspire many. John F. Kennedy did it when this nation needed it most. We’re at that place again. We need men and women of character to step up.
by David Burn | Sep 20, 2006 | Architecture, Politics
How does the word “democrat” make you feel? Given the Democratic Party’s total ineptitude at present, and the current state of American “democracy” chances are you’re not feeling too good about it. I know I’m not.
In December of 1949, 80-year old Frank Lloyd Wright, descended upon Radio City Music Hall and The Mary Margaret McBride Show. While discussing his organic architecure and his Middlewestern sensibilities, he said the Midwest is the heart of the country and the heart of democracy.
If democracy has a heart, of course, that’s the thing that particularly distinguishes it, isn’t it, from other -isms? The fact that it has a heart. The fact that it insists upon the individual as such and defends him. It has to live on genius–democracy. Democracy can’t take the handrail down the stair. A democrat has to have courage–keep his hand off the handrail and take the steps down the middle. That’s a democrat.
As with most things Wright, I’m blown away. The man could really think and he had an undying passion to care a great deal about important things. Nothing is more important than freedom and nothing is more American than freedom. Democrats–affiliated with the political party of that name, or not–need to be free to stand up and tell it like it is. I, for one, am not loyal to a man nor an office nor a political party. I’m loyal to my country. A country that needs me to be an agent for change, to speak up against institutional injustice, to offer better ideas.
Here’s one: Let’s stop paying oilmen to invade other countries and start paying teachers to educate our youth.
by David Burn | Sep 20, 2006 | Politics
As we fast approach the mid-term election, Princeton University has bad news regarding the integrity of voting machines used in precincts throughout this land. Princeton computer scientists studied Diebold voting machines and found that they can easily be hacked and an election thrown all in a matter of seconds. A paper trail would help safeguard against this malfeasance, but the machine in question leaves no such evidence.
by David Burn | Sep 12, 2006 | Politics
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five star general and President of the United States for eight years, had some prescient words for the nation on the eve of his retirement from 50 years of public service.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence–economic, political, even spiritual–is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
It’s amazing to me how accurate his vision was. It’s 45 years later, and we are deep in the muck. In fact, the military-industrial complex–a term coined by Ike–is now in total control of our federal government. I don’t care what your party affiliation is, this is a HUGE problem that needs to be successfully addressed, so we can move forward as a nation.
by David Burn | Sep 11, 2006 | Politics
I live in South Carolina’s second Congressional district. Republican Joe Wilson is my Representative. He won in a landslide two years ago, collecting 181,862 votes to 93,249 for the Democratic challenger, Michael Ray Ellisor. I lived in Chicago two years ago, so this November will be my first chance to vote against the conservative incumbent.
Since there are no radical independents running, I’m looking to Ellisor for the upset. And what an upset it would be. This district has had a Republican Congressman for 41 years running.
Here’s some copy from the candidate’s web site, indicating where his head (and his heart) is:
(I will) work to heal the wounds and reverse the damage to our society caused by President Bush’s flagrant political move to single out a decidedly small segment of our society and make them the scapegoats for what the Christian Right calls our moral decline.
While I’d like to know more about the man, the above sentiment pretty much sums it up for me. He has my vote. But clearly, he needs another 90,000 people in this district to vote for him, if we’re going to bring a more populist vision to Washington, DC.
[UPDATE] 137,849 people live in Beaufort County, SC. During the 2004 election, 52,696 Beaufort County residents voted for or against Joe Wilson. 36,903 for and 14,597 against. Another 1196 voted for a third party candidate. Clearly, a lot of people are not engaged in the electoral process. Peaceful change means bringing more people into the process.
Click here for a mail-in voter registration application. For new registrations, attach a photocopy of a valid I.D. Then mail to: Voter Registration, P.O. Drawer 1228, Beaufort, SC 29901.
by David Burn | Sep 7, 2006 | Politics
Mexico is grappling with the same electoral issues the U.S. faced in 2000 and 2004. Claims of a stolen election were squashed Tuesday by a Mexican tribunal who named conservative Felipe Calderon president after two months of speculation and unrest.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the battle for Mexico is far from over.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is continuing his quest for revolution and promises to set up a shadow government aimed at toppling Calderon.
Lopez Obrador’s tactics–which include plopping tent cities, full of his supporters, in the middle of Mexico City’s clogged thoroughfares–have won him at least as many enemies as friends. As long as the tenacious former mayor of Mexico City is around, many Mexicans are convinced, Calderon is virtually ensured of a messy, miserable term.
Somehow, I can’t imagine Al Gore doing the same in the streets of Washington, DC. Not that Gore isn’t man enough, rather the disparity between our rich and our poor, while disgraceful, is not nearly as dramatic as the gulph that exists in Mexico.
Lopez Obrador, nicknamed El Peje after a gar-like fish found in his native Tabasco state, is unapologetic, saying Mexico needs “a radical transformation.”
Most Mexicans live in extreme poverty despite the country’s immense natural resources, he told his followers this week. And it’s urgent that they establish a “new republic,” he said.
by David Burn | Sep 1, 2006 | Politics
“Let no one deny we are patriots. We love our country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we are distressed at what our President, his administration, and our Congress are doing to, and in the name of, our great nation. Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.” -Rocky Anderson
What does it mean when President Bush faces a “Rocky” reception in Salt Lake City, home to more Republicans per capita than any other major US city?
Salt Lake Mayor, Rocky Anderson at anti-Bush rally yesterday
It means a number of things. One thing it means is Salt Lake is more diverse than people give it credit for. The other thing it means is the emperor wears no clothes.
Salt Lake uber blogger, Blurbomat, says of the day, “The local GOP tried a phone jamming campaign to ‘send a message’ that Mr. Anderson didn’t speak for the state. For the record, he represented my feelings perfectly.”
by David Burn | Aug 12, 2006 | Literature, Politics
Gore Vidal, 80, author of Myra Breckinridge, The City and the Pillar, Julian, Lincoln and Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia is also the grandson of a U.S. Senator and the son of an aviation pioneer who served in the Roosevelt administration. It must be hard for men of conscience in the American ruling class to find words to describe our present situation, but if anyone is up to the task, it’s Vidal.
“The election was stolen in both 2000 and 2004, because of electronic voting machinery which can be easily fixed. We’ve had two illegitimate elections in a row …
“Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror, but that is a metaphor, though I doubt if he knows what that means. It’s like having a war on dandruff, it’s endless and pointless. We are in a dictatorship that has been totally militarised, everyone is spied on by the government itself. All three arms of the government are in the hands of this junta.
“Whatever you are,” he goes on, “they say you are the reverse. The men behind the war in Iraq are cowards who did not fight in Vietnam – but they spent millions of dollars proving that John Kerry, who was a genuine war hero whatever you think of his politics, was a coward.
“This is what happens when you have control of the media, and I have never known the media more vicious, stupid and corrupt than they are now.
by David Burn | Jul 8, 2006 | Politics
David Choquehuanca is Bolivia’s Foreign Minister. He is also an Aymara Indian, like Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales.
In yesterday’s paper, The Wall Street Journal examined the movements underfoot in Bolivia today.
Many Aymara intellectuals say they want to re-create in the 21st century the values of the communal Eden they believe existed before the conquest, a place without poverty or oppression.
I think the word “intellectuals” is wrong in this context. These people have a knowledge not learned in books.
Mr. Choquehuanca says he doesn’t turn to Western books for advice–indeed, he boasts of not having read a book of any kind in years because he doesn’t want to cloud his mind with European concepts. “We have been in the hands of people who have read books, and look what a mess the Earth is in,” he says. Far better to tap into the knowledge of Aymara elders. “When I say we have to read the wrinkles in our grandfathers’ brows, it’s to recover the wisdom that our grandfather’s still have,” he says.
Speaking to Indian Country Today last January, Choquehuanca further elaborates Bolivia’s indigenous ethic.
For 500 years we had ceased existing; we no longer were. We want to exist, to be, again. For 500 years we have lived in darkness, we have put up with exclusion, we have put up with humiliation, our natural resources have been plundered and we have just stood there watching. So after these 500 years, we said enough: We are human beings, we have rights, we have our territory, we have a culture, we have begun once again to value ourselves.
This is inspiring stuff for humanists to contemplate. Europeans have long thought they won in the Americas. But Europeans have not the patience of Indian people. Indians are still fighting, not with weapons, with better ideas and more generous spirits.
