Who Is the Party of the MOTR?

It appears from the conversations and so on that I've had with people who attended the Democratic and Republican Party district conventions that some didn't feel very well respected. Been there, done that. Political parties by their natures are fairly incestuous and are not really looking for new ideas, but rather new ways to sell the ideas they already have.

Let's talk about you and me. Most people are not party joiners, though we tend to affiliate to one or the other of the D or R parties at least once every few years. Every election we are told is decided by the "middle." And for this reason I would argue it is this way because the middle doesn't have a party of our own; hence the other two prevail.

Anyone who has tried to join one of these parties soon comes to realize that it is hard to accomplish substantial movement. Why? Because the parties' hierarchy know what has worked for them and, frankly, both major parties are arch conservatives when it comes to moving away from their sacred cows.

So why not just join an established third party? Once again, the doctrine is drawn. As John Mellencamp, Malcolm X, and Alexander Hamilton all sort of said, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." All parties stand for something, but none stand for what most people think is right. Hence we are a nation of flip-floppers who go back and forth generally between D's and R's.

Early in our nation's heritage, choosing between two was quite a step up from Monarchy. However, I think that many people agree that neither party really represents what main street or the mainstream think. In fact each party claims to feel our pain, but in reality, they are counting up our votes.

So why not join the Tea Party? Well, who is the Tea Party and do they represent mainstream values? According to the Tea Part Patriots' website they stand for:


Fiscal Responsibility: Fiscal Responsibility by government honors and respects the freedom of the individual to spend the money that is the fruit of their own labor. A constitutionally limited government, designed to protect the blessings of liberty, must be fiscally responsible or it must subject its citizenry to high levels of taxation that unjustly restrict the liberty our Constitution was designed to protect. Such runaway deficit spending as we now see in Washington D.C. compels us to take action as the increasing national debt is a grave threat to our national sovereignty and the personal and economic liberty of future generations.

Constitutionally Limited Government: We, the members of The Tea Party Patriots, are inspired by our founding documents and regard the Constitution of the United States to be the supreme law of the land. We believe that it is possible to know the original intent of the government our founders set forth, and stand in support of that intent. Like the founders, we support states' rights for those powers not expressly stated in the Constitution. As the government is of the people, by the people and for the people, in all other matters we support the personal liberty of the individual, within the rule of law.

Free Markets: A free market is the economic consequence of personal liberty. The founders believed that personal and economic freedom were indivisible, as do we. Our current government's interference distorts the free market and inhibits the pursuit of individual and economic liberty. Therefore, we support a return to the free market principles on which this nation was founded and oppose government intervention into the operations of private business.

Up to point number three, I could get behind those principles. In fact, taken with point number two, we really can't have a free market. Why, because the Constitution tells us we need taxes and those taxes are haggled over by those whom we elect. A so-called free market can't exist as long as we ask people to pony up money to have a government do things for us.

So, no Tea Party for me, and I doubt for many folks who are happy to have trash pickups, clean water, aid to families with dependent children, social security, etc. Also for those who aren't willing to lose arms and legs working in uncontrolled manufacturing plants and don't pay a living wage.

So what would the Middle of the Road Party look like? Beats the heck out of me. We haven't had our convention, chosen our leaders, or created our platform. There is not a party and so the climb is long and the odds are against us.

If I were to venture a guess, the MOTR party would place the future of kids at the forefront. It would tend to be hopeful, but cautious in what this country does both here and abroad. It would insist that rules were enforced, but the rules were fair in the first place. It would be a party that celebrates pragmatism--where some change would come fast and others a little at a time. It would not seek to win by putting the other parties down, but to win by articulating the things that people believe are in the best interest of the country, even if they aren't always in the immediate best interest to themselves. Yes, it would uphold the Constitution. And, of course, it would be fiscally responsible.

I also believe it would be hard to build. It would ask people to disengage from the politics they understand to be how things are done and engage in conversations with people in a way that doesn't make me right and you wrong. It would put us in a whole new place. It would be a bold venture to be sure.

The Political Landscape: A Receding Hairline?

While glancing at the mirror the other day, I had the feeling that my hairline and the current state of American politics have a lot in common: hairy on both sides and empty down the middle. Yeah!--Huh? Follow along.

The real Left and real Right are angry and looking for leadership to help them coallesce. In the meantime, like my hair, they fire shots across the bow of each other. The central point of agreement is that it is all Obama's fault--either for not using taxes for the right things or for taxing them at all. In both cases, they are missing the point--left/right division doesn't get anything done, the Middle does. However when it comes to nominating politicians, the Left and Right know that's where they have a significant say and are actively pushing from the grassroots (or the hairline, if you will).

The Middle knows that there is something going on but, with trying to hang on to the job, the marriage, and taking the kids to assorted activities, who has time to pay a whole lot of attention? What they are paying attention to is the feeling that their lives may change--or not, depending on what happens in 2010--for reasons they don't quite get yet. They don't know for instance whether Obama is a "Radical Socialist" or if Republicans are the "Party of No," but they do worry whether they will be okay and their kids will be okay. The Tea Party Nation doesn't speak to them, but neither does Noam Chomsky.

Typically during the election cycle, the Middle does what I used to do with my hair, push it to the right or left for maximum coverage. I wonder if a real Independent Movement would be to go after the Middle, find out what it cares about and form a party around it? A real populist movement, not one formed by anger on the edges, but based on practical politics--a chicken in every pot sort of stuff. If this movement should happen, I wish it more success than my hair. But, I do know that my right and left hair-mispheres will not be coming together anytime soon.

Bawking at Mid-Term Caucuses

While a relative handful of people turned out for area Iowa Republican and Democratic mid-term caucuses, many stayed home. I was among them. In the past, I waded into the Democratic Party's caucus mechanism only to become frustrated by the work as it moved away from the county and on to the district level. For instance in working on the platform committee, I watched as agendas to remove women's right to choose were attacked by more conservative members of the party. I saw union influences that pushed their agendas. In fairness, I was a party newbie and didn't really understand the not so unsubtle nuances that play out by the true believers.

However, while I did not caucus, I do understand why the faithful do. When the party is not moving in the direction you's hope they might or when new issues present themselves, it is good that there are people who will act as the canary in the coal mine and raise the issues by presenting petitions that often lead to planks in the party platform.

I applaud those who work at that level of politics and wished that more would do the same. Admittedly my stomach for it has been weakened by my experience and has strengthened my resolve to work at the local level to improve conditions. However jaded I have become, I believe that young adults should particularly dive in deep in party politics. The decisions that are made today will affect more people tomorrow than today because it takes a long time for change to be effected.

I Have a Dream: The Party Is Over

In my years being involved in the political process, I believed that party membership had it's privileges. However today, I am convinced that while I can and will support individual candidates for public office, my days of valuing party membership are nearing their end. And this is why.

As any reader of this blog knows, I am a populist progressive. I believe that both parties are in dire need of embracing their grassroots and moving their agendas forward in a way that benefits people. As Paul Wellstone, the late FDL Senator from Minneaota said, "Politics isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives." Clearly this is not the environment that we are in today.

I believe that the far Right has recognized this and it's Tea Party is a movement that feeds off the frustration that people have in mistrusting the government. Troubling is that the feeding of mistrust has burned from raw emotion and does not rely on much fact.

The far Left, on the other hand, is reeling in bitterness over helping to elect a President and Congress that may only slightly better than its predecessor on important issues. The left is not short on emotion either, but does value good information to make decisions from.

In following the debate on health care reform, it has become imminently clear that a world-class health care program for those without access will not happen and it is not because of demand or good information, it is because of ham-fisted politics. As long as those interests who fund campaigns and write legislation continue to hold sway, it does not matter which party is in power.

On this, the eve of Martin Luther King's birthday, I have a new dream. I dream of a multiparty democracy where no two parties can accomplish their will without collaboration from a third and/or fourth party. Said differently, it is in the national interest of this country to end our dependency on the two party system.

I have a dream that our children and grandchildren will support candidates from the Green Party and Socialist Party, as others support Natural Law or Libertarian candidates. I may not be there to see it with you, but I'd look forward to the seeds being sown in my lifetime.

I have a dream that a Green President will have to negotiate with a Republican/Libertarian majority House, and a Democratic/Socialist majority Senate.

My guess is it will create a challenging environment to get the People's business done, but I also believe that better legislation will come out of it. I also believe that people who have a genuine commitment to public service will step up and true progress can be made.

I look forward when the character of one's soul holds more sway than the letter on the person's voter's registration card. If we can arrive at a place where we can deal with our problems in ways that benefit people, we will be, in the word's of the spiritual, "Free at last, free at last..."

Obama Hits A Home Run

It is hard not to praise Barack Obama for his press conference last night, particularly when you compare him to his immediate predecessor. The difference in the level of candor he showed in addressing his presidency's first 100 days were markedly different than President Bush. In discussing the state of the economy, his views on abortion, whether "enhanced interrogation techniques" qualified as torture, concerns about the Taliban in Pakistan and on and on, Obama spoke openly and directly.

When a NY Times' journalist asked him to address the things that surprised him, troubled him, enchanted him, and humbled him, President Obama carefully wrote the request down and thoughtfully addressed each point.

Surprised: Obama professed surprise, and not a little dismay, by "the number of critical issues that appear to be coming to a head all at the same time." Most presidents he said deal with 2 or 3 things and his administration was dealing with 7 or 8 things.

Troubled: Obama said he was "sobered by,"The fact that change in Washington comes slow. That there is still a certain quotient of political posturing and bickering that takes place even when we're in the middle of really big crises." He added, "I would like to think that everybody would say, you know what, let's take a timeout on some of the political games, focus our attention for at least this year, and then we can start running for something next year. And that hasn't happened as much as I would have liked."

Enchanted: He and the press corp laughed at the word choice, but said he was "profoundly impressed and grateful" when he thought of his interactions with the men and women wearing the military uniform of this country from the "top brass to the lowliest private."

Humbled: He said his sense of imposed humility comes from the fact that the presidency, in all its glory, is only "part of a much broader tapestry" in a nation with many different centers of power. "And so I can't just press a button and suddenly have the bankers do exactly what I want, or, you know, turn on a switch and suddenly, you know, Congress falls in line."

For his critics who say that he wants the government to interfere with business he made the point around the government's current role with the automakers that he hoped to help them be competitive and said he really didn't want to be in that position for long because "I've got two wars I've got to run already." He went on to say that the government shouldn't micro-manage these companies it essentially owned, pointing out that he himself is not an auto engineer.

Finally, in summarizing he said "the ship of state is an ocean liner; it's not a speedboat." That he would work as hard in the next hundred days and all the hundreds of days to follow to put the country back on course.

Day of the Dead

From Bloomberg News

Republican presidential candidate John McCain goes into the campaign's final weekend a bigger underdog than any victorious candidate in a modern election.

With four days until Election Day, national polls show his Democratic rival Barack Obama leading by an average of 6 percentage points, and battleground polls show Obama ahead in more than enough states to win the decisive 270 Electoral College votes.

``This election is cooked and done, it's in the warming tray,'' said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

McCain ``is as desperate as a candidate can be,'' said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington. ``Less than five days to go and McCain's trailing in half a dozen states of which he can't afford to lose any: Nevada, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina.''

Illinois Senator Obama yesterday highlighted new government figures showing the sharpest contraction of the economy since 2001, a harbinger of what could be the worst recession since 1981-82. Arizona Senator McCain, meanwhile, was mum on the latest economic news showing the gross domestic product shrank at a 0.3 percent pace from July to September.

Those latest figures, Sabato said, are ``the final nail in McCain's coffin.''

Being that is Halloween, I imagine the McCain/Palin ticket is counting on rising from the dead.

For a different view, check out the Moderate Voice blog.

Ennui the People

With the exhaustion that the brutality national politics produce, I think a group of call center workers in Indiana (a great story at Talking Points Memo), who reportedly chose to walk off the job rather than make incendiary phone calls, have the right idea. If politicians won't knock off the negativism, it's up to us to say "enough is enough" where lowest-common-denominator campaigning is concerned. We deserve politics that respect our higher natures than use fear tactics to scare up the vote.

This election has seen a record amount of fund-raising, not a small portion of which has been used to stoke the fires of damnation for both John McCain and Barack
Obama. Character assassination is a pointless exercise and tells us very little that we can use to make an informed vote.

I wonder what would happen if, at political rallies, the crowd walked away when politicians "go negative" against their opponents or swore off television stations that run ads by political action committees?

Way to go you Hoosier call center workers, Missouri may be the "Show Me" state, but you led us all by setting a good example.

The New Populist Uprising

David Sirota has a new book out called "The Uprising" which spells out the new battleground in our country between grassroots movements from the right and left. Both of which are vital to the Democrats and Republicans, The conservative right has championed low taxes, anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-immigration, and pro-gun agendas with great success. Perhaps John McCain's struggle for the White House can be seen best through the filter of having to appease the right and, at the same time, attract those moderates and independents who are skeptical of those extreme views. Similarly for Barack Obama, he has to contend with the left grassroots who want nationalized health care, equal rights for gays, anti-globalization policies, labor protection, pro-choice, pro-feminist, anti-poverty agendas. His success can be seen as a "perfect storm" between an economy that is in the tank and those moderates and independents who are now hurting.

But the new uprising comes from an electorate that believes its views are ignored by the very people they elect to represent them. The main parties understand that the key to their survival is by a)gerrymandering voting districts and b) also gerrymandering the electoral process to their favor. The hubbub about ACORN and voter suppression is largely about who acquires and maintains power. The vote matters to the parties, but does it make for a robust democracy for the rest of us?

I think that at the root of all populism is the desire to feel like we have some control over how our lives go. When the government reaches too deeply in our pockets, we feel some of our independence taken away; and similarly when our government doesn't do enough to help us take care of ourselves when things are going poorly, we feel disrespected. The natural pull of democracy is a disequilibrium between the power the government thinks it needs and the power we are willing to give it.

In the times we live in, it is hard to know how things are really going because of all the external information we receive. And I am not arguing that information is not good for us to have, it just makes our own situation harder to bear. Because we live in a consumer driven society, we are filled with ideas that having more stuff is a good thing--in fact, we think the lives that people lived in earlier years are quaint and small. Probably we would not be in the jam we are economically if we weren't sold on the credit-driven American Dream.

And yet to hold the sway we do in the world, our government and its corporate partners want to grow our economy and this creates dependencies between us and nations that could be a threat to us. As we grow, so does the rest of the world.

For those of us living on Main Street, we don't see the connection between the interdependent nature of national interests and our own lives as easily. People tend to be much more parochial, focused on their lives and taking care of their families. When things are thrust upon us suddenly, we feel resentful.

This is why I think that invoking fear is such a powerful tool in getting people on your side. If you don't have a job, its because of fill-in-the-blank. If only there weren't so many fill-in-the-blanks, we would be safer. Since the dawn of time, we have always been cautious of people who are different from us and, yet, in times of danger, we band together because of our basic humanity.

Wrapping this up, it is when we rise together, that we are at our best as a nation and a people. If this time we are in teaches us nothing, it will help us to decide if our government is responsive enough or if we need to break up the monopoly. It is my hope that we rise together from the middle.

Palin: Won't Label Herself or Those Who Bomb Abortion Clinics

In a joint interview with John McCain, Sarah Palin refused to call abortion clinic bombers "terrorists". "I don't know if you're going to use the word 'terrorist' there," she said. She also said she wouldn't label herself a "Feminist"--although she is a member of Feminists For Life of America.

Here is that portion of the interview.



Palin and McCain continue to try to make a connection between Barack Obama and the Bill Ayers of the 1960's (when Obama was an 8 year old). Is Bill Ayers more "unrepentant" than groups and individuals who target, send threats to, and at times bomb health clinics?

According to the 2005 National Clinic Violence Survey:

Almost one in five clinics throughout the country is still being targeted with the most severe forms of anti-abortion violence. Severe violence includes blockades, invasions, arsons, bombings, chemical attacks, stalking, gunfire, physical assaults, and threats of death, bomb, or arson.

A researcher at the University of Indiana in 2006 found eighty-seven percent of U.S. counties, representing more than one-third of the female population aged 15-44, have no abortion providers, and 31 percent of the nation's metropolitan areas do not have a provider.

If Palin is suggesting that domestic terrorists are "better" if they target these clinics, that would truly be elitist.

Rove-Worthy: Unstable Supporter May Cost McCain Pennsylvania

CNN was abuzz early this morning with the story of Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old from College Station who was a phone bank volunteer for the McCain/Palin ticket in Pennsylvania who made a police report following what she claimed was a robbery and assault by a 6'4" black man near an ATM who carved the letter "b" into her face because he didn't like her McCain bumper sticker on her car.

Well, it's a hoax.

Todd has confessed to making up the story and will be charged with making a false report to police, according to the Associated Press.

Police later said details of Todd's story kept changing, prompting police to give her a polygraph test, the results of which were not released.

Other inconsistencies in the woman's story included the orientation of the "B" scratched onto her cheek (backwards, as if self-inflicted) and the absence of video surveillance or bank records backing up her claims.

Bail was set at $50,000 Friday night for Todd who was described as "very cordial, polite, cooperating."

"It's just a lot of wasted man hours," Pittsburgh Assistant Police Chief Maurita Bryant said at a news conference.

According to the AP

Dressed in an orange hooded sweat shirt, Todd left police headquarters in handcuffs late Friday and did not respond to questions from reporters. The mark on her face was faded and her left eye was slightly blackened when she arrived in district court.

Todd was awaiting arraignment Friday on the misdemeanor false-report charge, which is punishable by up to two years in prison. She will be housed in a mental health unit at the county jail for her safety and because of "her not insignificant mental health issues," prosecutor Mark Tranquilli said.

Down and Down We Go

As the Chinese proverb goes "May you live in interesting times"--and oh boy, are we. The stock market continues its "correction" to the lowest level since July, 2003 and us folks on Main Street are worried about our last words being "Would you like fries with that." And how far down could we go? Who really knows, but if countries are going bankrupt ("Halló, Góðan daginn"...to the folks in Iceland), it isn't good.

But with less than 30 days to the election, imagine what will happen if the dive stops? If you are John McCain's camp you are going to spin the "recovery" as your guy was right and "that one" (aka, Barack Obama) was wrong. And my friends, stranger things have happened.

On the other hand, whoever ends up being president, they'll have quite a cleanup on aisle America to contend with.

Interesting days indeed.

Overcoming The Cult(ure) of Personality

A favorite group of mine in the 80's was Living Colour and their song "Cult of Personality" had these lyrics:

"Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I've been everything you want to be
I'm the cult of personality."

This election is shaping up into a clash of American cultures and this does not bode well for what we end up with after the election.

On the one hand we have John McCain who represents the old guard Republican of strong military/small government and his running mate who represents the new guard which is more fundamentalist and libertarian. In the Democrats' corner, there is Barack Obama who represents a shifting Democratic party who holds fast to core democratic values like strengthening the economy through jobs with decent wages and benefits, but also recognizes the need to reach across the divide and address issues that all Americans value, including health care, aid for children, and education that has both accountability and quality for all schools. Joe Biden represents older guard Democrats who believe that America's greatness comes from using our power in the world in cooperation with other countries.

If this contest comes down to young versus old or soccer moms versus NASCAR dads or black versus white, we all lose. Elections should not be personal popularity contests. They should be about three basic things:

1) Leadership ability/experience: communication ability, negotiation ability, judgment, and charisma (which I define as: does the candidate inspire confidence and earn your respect/trust)
2) Plans: their "Contact with America" about what they will attempt to accomplish in their term as president and how they will pay for what they bite off.
3) Support team: who will help them accomplish their objectives.

As we all decide who to vote for, pay attention to these three items. The mass media doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time presenting information about them, but magazines, small press, and some web journalists do.

As a consumer society, we are used to choosing "sizzle" over "steak" and the same ad people that sell beer often sell our presidential candidates to us. Unfortunately, while we may be seduced into buying a beer that tastes like the back end of a skunk, it is not life altering. Who we choose to vote for, unfortunately, may well be. We must look past the "Country First" and "Change" brands and look at what we are really being sold. Too often, it is a bill of goods.

Ann Wright Ironic Arrest in Congress

This is well worth viewing. Ann Wright is a career army officer and diplomat who quit her job in 2003 and has been a constant critic of the war. Incidentally she was bailed out by the Congressman who the misunderstanding was with.

Ailes, Be Seeing You--Dems Moving On

CNN reports "a Nevada Democratic presidential debate that was to have been co-hosted by Fox News Network was canceled by organizers, in part because of a joke by Fox Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes about presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama.

Democrats canceled the debate Friday. They said a comment by Ailes during a Thursday night speech to a group of radio and television news directors indicated the network was biased against their party.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards dropped out of the debate Thursday, citing, in part, Fox's participation.

(Gark insertion "Apparently as an attempt to make another funny") Fox News Vice President David Rhodes responded to the debate cancellation with a written statement saying MoveOn.org owns the Democratic Party."

Military Can't Fix Iraq Alone

According to CNN --"The new commander of U.S. troops in Iraq has warned that military force alone will not be enough to quell the country's violent insurgency.
Speaking publicly Thursday for the first time since taking charge in Baghdad last month, General David Petraeus said military action was necessary to improve security in Iraq but "not sufficient" to end violence altogether.
"There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq," Petraeus told a press conference, adding that political negotiations were crucial to forging any lasting peace."

Politics and Why the War Will Continue

...until after November 4, 2008. This is the reason that the Senate will not pass binding or even non-binding legislation to protest (or, for golly sakes, end) the war. This is the reason that John, Dennis, Tom, Christopher, Joe, Mike, Hillary, and Obama are laying out withdrawal plans that seem more like an office pool than policy decision. This is the reason that we can expect more soldiers and innocent civilians to die.

The point is, our government can decide to stop the war today, but won't.

The outcome of the war is already in the can--we removed Saddam and have left the Middle East in turmoil--mission fr**kin' accomplished. We have solidified our economy by making work for thousands of military hardware companies to come up with new ideas how to fight wars with fewer soldiers-- Call up the Robo-militia. We have lined the pockets of mercenaries of all kinds. What we haven't done is to make the US any safer despite the "Homeland Security Rainbow of Risk" color scheme.

What hasn't been decided is who our next President will be, hence Iraq is a ping-pong ball which will be swatted around until we have a new (and, dare I say it, improved) President.

May the best Weasel win.