by David Burn | Nov 6, 2004 | Politics
I have a number of thoughts about this map and the regional and cultural differences we face today. First, blue and red is the new black and white. That is, the populace is much more evenly divided than this map indicates. Blue states have lots of conservative voters and red states have lots of liberal voters, with some exceptions, notably Utah.
Then I consider that our urban centers are overwhelmingly blue, or liberal. The inverse is also true. Rural counties are almost all red, or conservative. It’s interesting to me how the very Americans most likely to face a terrorist attack are anti-Bush. It seems fear sells much better in homogenous environments. City dwellers are not afraid of gays or foreigners because their nicest neighbors are often gay or foreign-born. It’s in the monocultural landscapes where fear thrives.
See this purple map for a more balanced view.
by David Burn | Nov 5, 2004 | Politics
“Over 55 million Americans voted for the candidate dubbed “The #1 Liberal in the Senate.” That’s more than the total number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Gore. Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are looking for a trend it should be this — that so many Americans were, for the first time since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out liberal. The country has always been filled with evangelicals — that is not news. What IS news is that so many people have shifted toward a Massachusetts liberal. In fact, that’s BIG news.” -Michael Moore
by David Burn | Nov 5, 2004 | Politics
courtesy of London Daily Mirror
by David Burn | Nov 4, 2004 | Politics
Pittsburgh newspaper columnist Dimitri Vassilaros recently wrote:
Do not bother to write in a vote for a presidential candidate in Pennsylvania on Nov. 2. The commonwealth’s system of handling such votes is so hideous, it confuses, misleads and disenfranchises voters.
It is so dysfunctional that, for your write-in vote to be counted properly, you must not write-in the name of your candidate.
Scandalous.
To actually vote for Nader, you must write in the names of his 21 electors and spell them correctly, according to the state. If you only write your candidate’s name, you only are voting for one elector. Your vote would be worth 1/21 of one for Bush or Kerry.
The Pennsylvania Department of State oversees elections. It knows it is almost impossible to cast a legitimate presidential write-in vote. But it simply passes the buck to county elections officials who usually are clueless about the write-in rules.
by David Burn | Nov 3, 2004 | Politics
“What we’re seeing, I think, is a huge fundamentalist Christian revival in this country, a religious movement that is now explicitly political as well. It is unsurprising, of course, given the uncertainty of today’s world, the devastating attacks on our country, and the emergence of so many more liberal cultures in urban America. And it is completely legitimate in this country for such views to be represented in public policy, however much I disagree with them. But the intensity of the passion, and the inherently totalist nature of religiously motivated politics means deep social conflict if we are not careful. Our safety valve must be federalism. We have to live and let live. As blue states become more secular, and red states become less so, the only alternative to a national religious war is to allow different states to pursue different options. That goes for things like decriminalization of marijuana, abortion rights, stem cell research and marriage rights. Forcing California and Mississippi into one model is a recipe for disaster. Federalism is now more important than ever. I just hope that Republican federalists understand this. I fear they don’t.” –Andrew Sullivan
by David Burn | Nov 3, 2004 | Politics
Frat Boy Beats Brain
Fear Sells! 58 Million Americans Buy It.
There are so many headlines I could write. I kind of like USA Today’s understated approach.
Here’s the numerical breakdown:
Bush
Republican Party
59,458,641
Kerry
Democrat Party
55,949,384
Nader
Independent
400,688
Badnarik
Libertarian Party
381,538
Peroutka
Constitution Party
130,930
Cobb
Green Party
106,390
Peltier
Peace and Freedom Party
21,616
Brown
Socialist Party USA
10,281
Harris
Socialist Workers Party (alternate)
6,862
Calero
Socialist Workers Party
5,287
Or look at it this way: 115,408,025 for Skull and Bones versus 1,635,592 for the American Free Thinking Society, a.k.a. Voices of Dissent.
3,949,150 Americans voted for someone other than Bush and Gore in November of 2000, making it plain to see just how effective this system is at crushing opposition.
by David Burn | Nov 2, 2004 | Politics
According to the web site, Write In Nader, and Nader’s own web site voters in Illinois are clear to write-in the anti-corporate candidate. But I’m not expecting many write-in votes for Nader to actually be counted, at least not in Cook County.
Chicago Indy Media reported last week that Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo completed 110 different forms in order to be listed as “write-in” candidates in Illinois. But, David Orr’s Cook Country Clerk’s office has said that it did not receive the write-in forms for Nader-Camejo. However these forms were sent by registered mail, and were signed for at 7:40am on Monday morning. Either the Cook County Clerk’s office is hopelessly inept or hopelessly corrupt.
Write-in ballots for candidates who are not listed are merely thrown away.
by David Burn | Oct 20, 2004 | Politics
In the 19th century, American gentlemen, or men of the moneyed class could simply pay their way out of armed service. No back room deals nor late night phone calls needed. At least it was honest then.
Thanks to Syracuse Cultural Workers for the image.
by David Burn | Oct 15, 2004 | Politics
“There’s a great passage of the Bible that says, ‘What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead.’ And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people. That’s why I fight against poverty. That’s why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth. That’s why I fight for equality and justice.” -John Kerry, during Presidential presentation #3, when asked about Catholic bishops who have warned their parishioners that a vote for Kerry would be considered a sin
My favorite rhetorical flourishes from John Kerry during the Presidential presentations came when he quoted passages from The Bible, throwing Dubya well off his mark. This guy is good. He’s not conceding the religious vote, despite the fact that no evangelical Christians will vote for him. There are plenty of mainstream Christians, dissenting Catholics, and people of all faiths (and no faith) who will.
by David Burn | Oct 13, 2004 | Politics
I’m a radical independent. The Democratic Party does not appeal to me. However, some eloquent Dems do. Most notably, Dennis Kucinich and his fellow members of the Progressive Caucus. And I must admit, the more I learn about John Kerry the more I like him. But this scares me. I like him because he’s smart, complicated and a man of character–the very things I’m afraid will keep him from winning the White House.
As a marketing professional, I’m a big believer in the axiom, “Consumers are smarter than you think.” I desperately want to believe this. Mostly, so I can create advertising that I’m proud of, which is no easy task. Yet, there’s plenty of proof that a more effective means of getting one’s message to stick is to make it easy to digest, then repeat it over and over again. The Republicans are masters of this form. They dream up their sound bites–or to borrow Berkeley linguist George Lakoff’s word, frames–then they use their vast treasure chests to pound these lines home. Lines like, “John Kerry is a flip flopper.”
The messages needn’t be true to work. Far from it. They merely need to be memorable and have immense budgets behind them. As I watch our President, and the positive reactions he garners from his supporters, I am often bewildered. I ask myself, what it is about this man that they find appealing? The answer is, despite his first family pedigree, he’s been able to package himself as a regular guy. A church going father and husband who sees issues in black and white. This is the way most Americans see the issues, as well. For most Americans get their information from broadcast media, a black and white medium if there ever was one. People like me like C-Span and newspapers, especially if they’re foreign. But I’m not like most people. I’m an intellectual troublemaker.
A great example of Americans seeing things in black and white is the war on terrorism. The intelligent response to 9/11 is to ask “Why did they do this to us?” But no one is confronting that pertinent question. I’m sure John Kerry has a good answer as to why, but he can’t afford to ask it in public. I can. The terrorists bombed the heart of America’s financial and military infrastructure because they want a future of self-determination. The effects of globalization in the Middle East and American ties to Saudi Arabian oil interests, including our willingness to help defend this resource at all costs led the terrorists to attack. They want a war with us and we were only too ready to deliver it to them.
I hope Kerry does win. But to do so, he needs to dumb it down and quick. I think he’s trying. When he says he will hunt down the terrorists and kill them, he’s attempting to appeal to Joe Sixpack. One of the most important lessons we learned from Vietnam is WIN. The other is control the media. Bush-Cheney are fantastic at the latter, but not so good at the former. I find the kill line reprehensible from such a thoughtful man, but I know he needs it. A better answer, one that would actually make the world safer (not to mention the air cleaner) would be to move hell and high water to develop sustainable energy NOW. There’s a real future in this direction and a ton of profit too, but it would require us to say we were wrong to rely so heavily on oil, and wrong to get into bed with the Saudis.
