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Anti-Intellectual Populism Killed the Republican Party
Conservative columnist David Brooks for the NYTimes:
"Modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals. Richard Weaver wrote a book called, 'Ideas Have Consequences.' Russell Kirk placed Edmund Burke in an American context. William F. Buckley [pictured above] famously said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. But he didn’t believe those were the only two options. His entire life was a celebration of urbane values, sophistication and the rigorous and constant application of intellect.
Driven by a need to engage elite opinion, conservatives tried to build an intellectual counterestablishment with think tanks and magazines. They disdained the ideas of the liberal professoriate, but they did not disdain the idea of a cultivated mind...
But over the past few decades, the Republican Party has driven away people who live in cities, in highly educated regions and on the coasts. This expulsion has had many causes. But the big one is this: Republican political tacticians decided to mobilize their coalition with a form of social class warfare...
What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole. The liberals had coastal condescension, so the conservatives developed their own anti-elitism, with mirror-image categories and mirror-image resentments, but with the same corrosive effect...
The political effects of this trend have been obvious. Republicans have alienated the highly educated regions — Silicon Valley, northern Virginia, the suburbs outside of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham. The West Coast and the Northeast are mostly gone.
The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.
Conservatives are as rare in elite universities and the mainstream media as they were 30 years ago. The smartest young Americans are now educated in an overwhelmingly liberal environment.
This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare clichés took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopolitans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking 'eastern elites.' (Mitt Romney!) John McCain picked Sarah Palin.
Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the 'normal Joe Sixpack American' and the coastal elite.
She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all — men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch.
And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away."
Read the full column here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/opinion/10brooks.html... Conservative columnist David Brooks for the NYTimes: ... more -
Palin Supports the Alaska Independence Group
Governor Palin addresses the Alaska Independence Group.
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McCain to Supporters: "My Fellow Prisoners"
John McCain, speaking today to a crowd of supporters: "Across this country, this is the agenda i have set before my fellow prisoners and the same standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent." It's, uh... it's a weird, weird slip. At least it's better than "my friends." Does this mean we all get kinky gay bondage now? John McCain, speaking today to a crowd of supporters: "Across this country, this is the agenda i have set before my fellow prison... more
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Coming Soon: A Sarah Palin Porno
It was only a matter of time. Last night, someone sent us an ad from Craigslist L.A., supposedly placed by porn producers searching for a Sarah Palin lookalike for an upcoming skin flick. It's since been removed (perhaps they were able to cast Eva Angelina?), but here is the original text for your edification. It was only a matter of time. Last night, someone sent us an ad from Craigslist L.A., supposedly placed by porn producers searching fo... more
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How Sarah Palin embodies the Christian right archetype of the Sexy Puritan
Caribou hunting aside, Sarah Palin represents the state-of-the-art version of a particular type of woman—let's call her the Sexy Puritan—that's become a familiar and potent figure in the culture war in recent years. Caribou hunting aside, Sarah Palin represents the state-of-the-art version of a particular type of woman—let's call her the Sexy ... more
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Pics of Biggest Rally in AK history... anti-Palin
[The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Homemade signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women--or men. [The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Homemad... more
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The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub
Seven days in the life of the late, great John McCain in 2000 from the late, great David Foster Wallace for Rolling Stone.
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Palin's Email Hacked?
A hacker group allegedly gained access to Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail and the screenshots are revealing. A hacker group allegedly gained access to Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail and the screenshots are rev... more
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Conservative political forum sells 'Obama Waffles' with racial stereotyp...
Washington DC - Activists at a conservative political forum Saturday were snapping up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.
The product, Obama Waffles, was meant as political satire, said Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, two writers from Franklin, Tenn., who created the mix. They sold it for $10 a box from a rented booth at the Values Voter Summit sponsored by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council.
Republican Party stalwarts Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were among speakers at the forum, which officials said drew 2,100 activists from 44 states.
While Obama Waffles takes aim at Obama's...
(Read the Rest at Link...)
THIS IS BLATANT RACIST B.S. ! Washington DC - Activists at a conservative political forum Saturday were snapping up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic preside... more -
Palin billed taxpayers for travel, stayed at home
A new political crisis has erupted around Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin after evidence she billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home emerged.
The Alaska governor charged the state a 'per diem' allowance that added up to $16,951 (£9,611) for the 312 nights during her first 19 months in office, claimed the Washington Post.
The allowance is intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while travelling on state business.
The accusations came as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told voters not to be fooled by his Republican rival John McCain, saying: 'I am the real agent of change.'
Polls this week have put Mr McCain ahead of Mr Obama.
She also charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions, the newspaper claimed, citing her travel documents as evidence.
Her husband, Todd, was accused of billing the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he made on official business for his wife.
Ms Palin was permitted to bill the state for the expenses because her official 'duty station' is in Alaska's capital city of Juneau, some 600 miles away, the Post's analysis of her travel documents showed.
Her three daughters and husband reportedly charged the state $43,490 (£24,659) to travel, with most of those trips being between their home of Wasilla and Juneau. In total, Ms Palin's travel expenses reached some $93,000. The controversial governor, who was plucked from obscurity to become a political superstar in just weeks as John McCain's vice presidential running mate, makes $125,000 (£70,900) per year.
In the past, per diem expenses by Alaskan state officials have forced resignations amid political scandal.
Remembering the resignation of one such official, Tony Knowles, Democratic Alaskan governor from 1994 to 2000, told the Post: 'It was quite the little scandal.
'I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam - you pay yourself to live at home.'
He also said he could 'count on one hand' the number of times his children had accompanied him on official business, adding: 'There is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state.' A new political crisis has erupted around Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin after evidence she billed taxpayers for 3... more -
In a More Diverse America, a Mostly White Convention
St. Paul, Minnesota - Organizers conceived of this convention as a means to inspire, but some African American Republicans have found the Xcel Energy Center depressing this week. Everywhere they look, they see evidence of what they consider one of their party's biggest shortcomings.
As the country rapidly diversifies, Republicans are presenting a convention that is almost entirely white.
Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern -- a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.
"It's hard to look around and not get frustrated," said Michael S. Steele, a black Republican and former lieutenant governor of Maryland. "You almost have to think, 'Wait. How did it come to this?' "
Republicans spent much of the past decade working to improve their minority outreach, particularly to blacks and Hispanics. But a number of setbacks, including an anti-Republican national mood, anger over the response to Hurricane Katrina and the Democratic nomination of Sen. Barack Obama, have largely negated their efforts, several Republicans said.
One week after Democrats nominated the nation's first black presidential candidate on the eve of the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Republicans have only one African American -- Steele -- scheduled to speak during prime time at their convention. The united, diverse coalition that Republicans once envisioned instead looks uniform.
Continues.. St. Paul, Minnesota - Organizers conceived of this convention as a means to inspire, but some African American Republicans have found ... more -
The Grand Old Bait and Switch
From Clarence Thomas to Sarah Palin, nobody plays cynical identity politics like the GOP.
John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee has re-inserted the "woman" question into the presidential debate.
By choosing the second white female vice presidential candidate, McCain is trying to fashion himself, Sarah Palin, and, by extension, the entire Republican Party as more committed feminists than the Democrats.
But what is being called a "maverick" decision by McCain, is in fact just another version of the old Republican game of bait and switch with identity politics. Starting with George H. W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, the GOP has been trying to convince Americans that any "woman," "African American" or "candidate of color" will do. And while the argument can be made that any diversity is better than no diversity, this Republican version is especially egregious because it often appoints minority candidates who vote against public legislation that insure that other members of their group have the same opportunities, choices and paths to success as they did. In effect, diversity, which dismantles affirmative action programs and women's reproductive rights, is the worse form of political fraud.
In 1991, when Thomas succeeded Thurgood Marshall, the Republicans created a new playbook for identity politics. Instead of re-creating an all-white Supreme Court, President George H. W. Bush maintained symbolic racial diversity while also appointing a judge who would vote against long-term diversity measures such as racial preference and affirmative action programs.
Even more cleverly, he nominated a significantly inexperienced African-American candidate whose presence reiterates the anti-affirmative rhetoric of unqualified minorities unfairly taking the jobs of more competent whites. With Thomas, the Republicans not only overlooked the exceptional and better qualified African-American men and women who did exist (and therefore could reinforce the benefits and necessity of affirmative action), but they appointed him with the intent of destroying that racial equity policies for which Marshall has so valiantly fought.
Unfortunately, because McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a stand-in for Hillary Clinton may help galvanize those McCain-weary, anti-choice, evangelical members of the Republican Party, it is even more important that we do not misread his decision as "maverick," "fresh" and anti-Bush.
***Read More*** From Clarence Thomas to Sarah Palin, nobody plays cynical identity politics like the GOP. ... more -
Journalist Amy Goodman, arrested at an anti-RNC protest, tells her story
Amy Goodman, the host of the popular radio and television program "Democracy Now!" was at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul on Monday, interviewing members of the Alaska delegation, when her phone rang with alarming news.
“I got a call that two of our producers had been bloodied by the police,” Goodman said. “I did not stop running until I got to where they were.”
The producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, had been reporting on the protest targeting the Republican convention that was unfolding several blocks away. Most of the estimated 10,000 people in the march were peaceful. But, according to police, a group of about 200 had fractured off and were breaking windows, slashing tires and harassing delegates.
Police arrested 286 people, according to the Associated Press. Kouddous and Salazar were among them. Matt Rourke, a photographer with the Associated Press, was also arrested.
News gathering is a constitutionally protected activity in the United States. But although Kouddous, Salazar and Rourke were wearing credentials that identified them as members of the press, they were held on riot charges. Salazar suffered a bloody nose after being dragged, face-down on the ground, according a statement released by "Democracy Now!"
When Goodman arrived at the scene 20 minutes later, she asked the riot police if she could see her producers, who were being held in police vehicles. “I just said, 'I want to talk to a commander,' ” said Goodman, who had her own press badge slung around her neck. “They didn’t skip a beat; they just started arresting me.”
The scene was captured on video -- a clip that was one the most-viewed videos on YouTube.com on Tuesday. In it, Goodman is seen pleading with the police while her arms are twisted behind her back and into plastic handcuffs.
All four journalists were released hours after being arrested. Goodman was officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer.
"Democracy Now!" plans to continue its coverage of the protests and the police presence, which Goodman described as "overly aggressive."
"I was very angry. This was a violation of my rights," Goodman said. "But
it’s so much bigger than us. When the press is shut down, it's closing the eyes and ears of a critical watchdog in a democratic society." Amy Goodman, the host of the popular radio and television program "Democracy Now!" was at the Republican National Convention... more -
McCain Strategist Blasts Media
Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life.
In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.
Arguing that the media queries are being fueled by "every rumor and smear" posted on left-wing Web sites, Schmidt said mainstream journalists are giving "closer scrutiny" to McCain's little-known running mate than to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin. Obama campaign officials have complained to news organizations that their man has been subjected to considerably more investigative reporting than McCain has, but they have done so in more low-key fashion.
By contrast, Schmidt spoke on the record in denouncing as "an absolute work of fiction" a New York Times account of the process by which the McCain campaign vetted Palin. He also charged that Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman was predicting that the governor might have to step down as McCain's vice presidential choice.
Fineman said that he has "never, ever said that," and that he has pointed out positive aspects of Palin's candidacy. "They decided a long time ago that they were going to work the refs," he said. Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov... more -
Aides say team interviewed Palin late in the process
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Palin was one of two finalists in the vice presidential sweepstakes who were interviewed last week by former White House counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., just days before McCain introduced her to the nation as his choice. The other finalist was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. One of the officials said Culvahouse was chasing down last-minute information about Pawlenty at the request of the campaign as late as last Thursday, the day McCain offered the job to Palin and she accepted.
The new details of the selection process provide a fuller picture of how and when McCain made his decision. Despite the late interview of the little-known Palin, senior McCain advisers said Tuesday night that she was chosen only after a lengthy and deliberative process that included the same background investigation given to others on McCain's shortlist and considerable debate among the candidate's inner circle about all his choices.
McCain did not speak face to face with Palin until Thursday morning, at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz. He also talked to her by telephone the previous Sunday. McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose.
***Read More*** Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice pr... more -
$10 million dollar woman: Palin a hit with GOP donors
The McCain campaign raised more than $10 million in the two and a half days after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was named as the vice presidential running mate, bringing the total raised in the month of August to more than $47 million, campaign officials tell ABC News.
The final, official figures are expected to be reported in the next few days, but the amount appears to be a record for the McCain campaign, almost twice as much as it has raised in any other single month.
"We're still counting," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers. The McCain campaign raised more than $10 million in the two and a half days after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was named as the vice pr... more -
The lesson of Bristol Palin
Bristol Palin's pregnancy may be the ultimate teachable moment. It just might not be the lesson that John McCain intended.
My first thought on hearing the news was: What was Sarah Palin thinking? Assuming, as the campaign says, that she knew about her 17-year-old's pregnancy and informed McCain in advance, how could she expose her daughter to the inevitable spotlight that Palin's vice presidential nomination would bring?
The unwed mother -- or at least, the not-yet-wed mother -- has become a more common (this is bad) and less shameful (this is good) phenomenon in 21st-century America. It's the unusual celebrity (the Hollywood type, not the Obama type) who bothers to get hitched before getting pregnant. The baby bump has become a badge of honor, not a scarlet letter.
Yet no one feels good about a pregnant 17-year-old, whether it's Bristol Palin or Jamie Lynn Spears. As Sarah and Todd Palin put it with decided understatement yesterday, this will "make her grow up faster than we had ever planned."
And it will be that much more difficult in the media glare. "We ask the media to respect our daughter and (the father) Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the Palins said in their statement.
As a parent, I sympathize. But as a parent in the media, I also know that the Palins assumed this risk. Anyone who watched coverage of the Bush twins' barroom exploits knew that the avert-your-eyes stance toward candidates' children has its limits.
It's naive to imagine, in the anything-goes Internet era, that Palin's daughter's pregnancy would go unremarked upon. It's also mistaken, I think, to expect it. Like it or not, Bristol Palin's pregnancy is intertwined with an important public policy debate about which the two parties differ and on which Sarah Palin has been outspoken.
Which brings me to the teachable moment: What should teenagers be taught about sexual activity and contraception? By whom? What access should they have to condoms or other forms of birth control? Specifically, is abstinence-only education enough?
The 2008 Republican Party platform acknowledges that "each year, more than 3 million American teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases, causing emotional harm and serious health consequences, even death." It expresses support for "efforts to educate teens and parents about the health risks associated with early sexual activity and provide the tools needed to help teens make healthy choices." Bristol Palin's pregnancy may be the ultimate teachable moment. It just might not be the lesson that John McCain intended. ... more -
Shortened RNC opened with Cindy McCain, Laura Bush due to Gustav
Mere hours after Hurricane Gustav came ashore, the two women expressed sympathy and support for Louisianans bracing themselves for Gustav.
"America stands with you during this trying time," Cindy McCain, wife of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, said.
John McCain Sunday asked Republican party officials to curtail the activities at the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, out of concern for the victims of the storms and asked delegates to "put aside our political hats and put on our American hats" and help those hurt by the storm.
McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis emphasized Monday that all political activity will be suspended for the time being.
"We hope to regain our schedule at some point," Davis said. Mere hours after Hurricane Gustav came ashore, the two women expressed sympathy and support for Louisianans bracing themselves for Gus... more -
Palin's Daughter 17 & Pregnant
"Bristol Palin, 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior McCain aide confirms."
Ain't that an interesting turn events, uh? How Jamie-Lynn Spears of her. "Bristol Palin, 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior McCain aid... more -
Wal-Mart: Political bully
Wal-Mart is one of the world's top 20 economic entities. For years, the retail giant has been plagued by bad press. Now it has to fend off a Wall Street Journal report that it's been politically bullying its employees. ANP headed over to a Wal-Mart in Virginia to ask shoppers what they think. Wal-Mart is one of the world's top 20 economic entities. For years, the retail giant has been plagued by bad press. Now it has to... more
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