Tag Archives: Recent American Politics

US in the Middle East / Middle East in the US

U.S. roots of U.N. scandal

November 2004

Another scandal? We have heard about so many powerful people abusing their positions to gain still more power that many suffer from scandal fatigue. But we ignore these all-too-frequent events at our peril: they raise our taxes, erode confidence in our institutions, reduce our security—and even cause bloodshed.

Peter Brown’s column “Why does U. N. get free ride in scandal?” last Friday was a welcome assault on that jaded indifference toward scandal. It sheds light on an alleged skimming of billions of dollars by Saddam Hussein and U. N. officials from the organization’s Oil for Food Program during the 12 years before the Iraqi dictator was overthrown in 2003.

If true, this is outrageous. And while we learn about the scandal, we also need to understand its contexts.

To learn a little more about the 2004 scandal, read the rest of this piece here!

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Campaign 2004

GOP convention grazed issues

September 2004

The word on the street is that the Republican convention was one for the moderates. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says calmly: That’s simply what the Republican Party is.

But if that were the whole story, where were Colin Powell, James Baker and other luminaries of moderation in the party?

Before we Americans get too excited about what we saw about President George W. Bush as presented in New York, we ought to get clear not only on what we’ve seen, but also about what we have not seen.

What else happened at the GOP Convention? Read more here.

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Popular Thinking in Political Life

Why do we bother voting at all?

October 2003

Citizens receive mixed message about voting. The civic message is about the special right to have a voice about public decisions. The more subtle message whispers, Why bother? The most powerful seem to have their way. The sway of power and money in elections only works if we let them. Each individual vote may not count for much, but if voters make their own choices, rather than letting political handlers trip wire them into serving the interests of the powerful. Add those choices up, and then your vote counts.

What is so important about our civic duty? Read on here.  

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US in the Middle East / Middle East in the US

International politics down the street

May 2003

This is a story of grave international policy questions and clashing worldviews as they played out on a side street in the small town of DeLand where I live.

The story starts with my own skepticism last fall about the policy for invasion of Iraq. While recognizing that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, I suspected war would make matters worse.

My whole family agreed, so we decided to make our small voices heard: We put up a yard sign in January that said “War is Not the Answer.”

For more on the politics right down the street, click here!

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US in the Middle East / Middle East in the US

More Than Two Choices in the War on Terror

First published in the DeLand Beacon newspaper in central Florida, November 6, 2001

We are moving beyond shock and into a period of forceful action in response to the horrible terrorism of Sept. 11 and subsequent acts of bioterrorism.  Most Americans feel an urgency to do the right thing.

We keep hearing that there are only two choices: side with terrorists or with a policy of military retaliation.  Is our imagination limited to that stark contrast?  If we keep talking war and making war, that will encourage terrorist responses. But if we treat this as a campaign of intelligence operations to identify and arrest the leaders, of activities to reduce our military footprint and foster good will, and of publicity to discredit terrorist actions in embarrassing and lurid detail, we have a better chance of stopping the support for terrorism before it is fanned into murderous passion.  Read whole essay here….

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Popular Culture and Cultural Politics

Chocolat: A gentle endorsement of change

June 2001

It is easy to view Lasse Hallstrom’s movie Chocolat as a light and tasty treat. It is a fanciful story about a 1959 traditional French village transformed by the opening of “Chocolaterie Maya.”

Well, it is simple—like a fairy tale. Taken for what it is, a morality tale with social types standing in for contemporary social issues, it is a charming fable with and easy-to-taste moral about the forces of modernization and the liberalization of tradition as the best response.

…read more by clicking here!

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Campaign 2000

The personal is now political; let’s decide if it’s presidential

November 2000

“The Personal is Political” was a slogan that emerged from the cultural changes of the 1960s. It summarized the demand to take the realms of private life seriously as matters of political concern. In place of the traditional separation of public and private, the blurring of these spheres of life was at the root of many of the liberal and liberating movements of that era. The phrase first emerged from women’s liberation. While the old school maintained that the private sphere of women’s lives—including choices about work, marriage and children—was not even grist for public talk, the new consciousness found political consequences shot through all these decisions.

If you would like to read more of this piece, click here. 

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Campaign 2000

VP candidates set the tone;Bush, Gore should listen to Dad and Uncle Joe

October 2000

Watching the vice-presidential debates brought, the embarrassing  suggestion that maybe Richard Cheney and Joseph Lieberman have more presidential timber than the tops of their tickets. Maybe this election has kangaroo pairs, as an old saying goes, with the back legs stronger than the front.

Most observers were surprised when the two men around the table with Bernard Shaw acted so civil and even friendly with each other. They broke the pattern of vice-presidential contenders venting the campaign’s aggressions.

Cheney and Lieberman talked out the issues, framed their disagreements succinctly, and even seemed to enjoy each other. Central casting could not have picked better characters than Cheney as a dad and Lieberman as a kindly uncle.

George W. Bush and Al Gore have displayed very little of these dignities in their campaigning, especially in the first debate.

More on the Vice Presidential candidates can be found here.

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1990s Politics

Hail to the (new) Chief

January 1993

It was a quirky election season. Three candidates jockied in a race designed for two.

The incumbent was a Republican, representing the moderate wing of his party. He had tried gamely to continue the legacy of his more charismatic predecessor, but he was generating more jokes than admiration. His chief rival was a Democrat from the South, a sitting governor with no experience in Washington, but with big promises to bring change and reform. While the message appealed, the messenger tended to bore, because his very academic abilities were long on information but short on dramatic style.

The third candidate did have charisma. He was an energetic outsider, a well-known character of almost folk dimensions and appeal, who excited the American people more than either of the other two, but who scared many because of his extreme proposals and his erratic personality.

The winner, of course, was Woodrow Wilson. In a close race, he defeated Republican President William Howard Taft and third-party candidate Theodore Roosevelt. The year was 1912, but the dynamics of the race and the personalities could well fit our own recent quirky season of presidential campaigning.

History never does repeat itself, but it can help explain puzzles of the present and even suggest what to expect in the future.

Read the rest of this story here.

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Popular Culture and Cultural Politics

The Polarization of America: The Decline of Mass Culture

Pop culture is forever, but mass culture is only a few hundred years old and showing its age. Popular culture is just a big, loose term for things popular beyond the tastes and standards of small groups of elites. It’s always been around. Mass culture, however, requires mass communication across long distances.

Read on here!

 

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