Well my assistant is finally gone. Which, while unfortunate, means that I'll be back on SG more now, since he's not always looking over my shoulder.
It's been a pretty relaxing two weeks since I last updated. TheFuckOffKid came to visit, which was very nice, it was great to finally meet him after interacting for so long on the site. He seemed to enjoy watching me, waxangel, luna and some other non-SG folks play cards and get progressively more angry with each other last Friday, then come to the Siren music festival the next day to enjoy Coney island splendor and barely be able to hear the headlining bands at the music festival.
Follow a typical week of work and tutoring, and then last weekend, which was full of fun, barbecuing, hanging out with toothpick and SG friends. waxangel's backyard rocks, and he is the grill master.
I've also been reading a lot of books lately, I'm not sure what's spurred this recent increase in literary intake, but i'm not complaining. Although I started Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nationas today, which probably means that I'll be slowing down as I plow through it. Oh well, at least I finally understand what the term "division of labor" means.
The book that got me thinking the most though was What's the Matter with Kansas?, a book that I had been meaning to read for some time but have just now gotten around to looking at. The first few chapters were a major turn off; they gave the distinct impression that Thomas Frank, the author, was one of these liberal pundits who assumes that all of his readers or listeners shares his viewpoints about, well, everything, and anyone who doesn't is crazy. Granted, we all probably think that way about ourselves to some degree, but if you're going to write about the topic I think it's a counterproductive approach. Fortunately this tone dissipates after the first few chapters and what we're left with is an attempt to investigate why the state of Kansas, which traditionally (up until the mid 1980's) had been a bastion of liberalism, has converted so wholeheartedly to the Republican party, to the point where there was very little campaigning there in the 2004 election because the fact that it would go to George W. Bush was a foregone conclusion.
The book is interesting as it uses Kansas as a microcosm for the rest of the country to examine the shift in voter priorities that have undermined the vast changes in the American political lanscape that have occurred over the past decade. I think some of Frank's conclusions are correct, too. He faults the Democratic party for (surprise, surprise) essentially abandoning its position as the party of the working man and becoming the party that will sell its soul to corporations in an attempt to pull away moderate, economically motivated Republican voters, while remaining steadfast on social issues like abortion and affirmative action. This was basically the Bill Clinton strategy in a nutshell. The key point that Frank keeps coming back to over and over again in the book is that in doing this, the Democrats set themselves up for failure, because they removed economics from the table. By adopting an economic position that was mostly indistinguisable from that of the Republican party it removed any possibility of keeping the debates on economic issues, which would appeal to lower income voters, while opening the door for idiotic cultural "wedge issues" like gay marriage and flag desecration constitutional amendments. In doing so they have allowed the GOP to frame the context of all the major political debates, and the GOP has used an incredible marketing team to effectively convince average americans that they are somehow being oppressed by a liberal elite made up of judges, academics and hollywood on these types of issues. The average person sees a snide Jennifer Aniston looking from the cover of People magazine in $500 sunglasses telling them how to live their lives and associates that image with the "liberal elite," and thus the Democratic party, by virtue of the association heard day in and day out from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
The GOP and its associated media outlets accentuate this feeling of persecution by constantly focusing on individual, isolated incidents of overreaction of liberals in places like college campuses, or in judicial verdicts (that inevitably get overturned on appeal) and using them of examples of a liberal elite mad with power, stepping on the common people to advance their liberal agenda. This is done, cleverly enough, couching the entire discussion in terms adopted from previous countercultural and even revolutionary movements, in a continued attempt to help GOP working class people develop what essentially amounts to a class conciousness. Once this happens, any attack on the GOP (even if it's an attack on the economic policies that are in no way improving the lives of most of its members) is seen as a form of class warfare against the GOP rank and file.
There's more to the book, and I recommend reading it (and like I said, holding your nose through the first 2-3 chapters until it gets better.) It's a fairly sad of affairs for the Democratic party, and Frank doesn't let them off the hook once. He gives credit where it's due, and anyone who doesn't believe that the GOP is being run by some very shrewd politicos and marketers is deluding themselves. With any luck the DNC leadership will catch on to this fact (finally, though if the 2004 election is any indication, then probably not) and turn the tables, but that's going to take a long time yet. The worst, unfortunately, is likely still yet to come.
It's been a pretty relaxing two weeks since I last updated. TheFuckOffKid came to visit, which was very nice, it was great to finally meet him after interacting for so long on the site. He seemed to enjoy watching me, waxangel, luna and some other non-SG folks play cards and get progressively more angry with each other last Friday, then come to the Siren music festival the next day to enjoy Coney island splendor and barely be able to hear the headlining bands at the music festival.
Follow a typical week of work and tutoring, and then last weekend, which was full of fun, barbecuing, hanging out with toothpick and SG friends. waxangel's backyard rocks, and he is the grill master.
I've also been reading a lot of books lately, I'm not sure what's spurred this recent increase in literary intake, but i'm not complaining. Although I started Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nationas today, which probably means that I'll be slowing down as I plow through it. Oh well, at least I finally understand what the term "division of labor" means.
The book that got me thinking the most though was What's the Matter with Kansas?, a book that I had been meaning to read for some time but have just now gotten around to looking at. The first few chapters were a major turn off; they gave the distinct impression that Thomas Frank, the author, was one of these liberal pundits who assumes that all of his readers or listeners shares his viewpoints about, well, everything, and anyone who doesn't is crazy. Granted, we all probably think that way about ourselves to some degree, but if you're going to write about the topic I think it's a counterproductive approach. Fortunately this tone dissipates after the first few chapters and what we're left with is an attempt to investigate why the state of Kansas, which traditionally (up until the mid 1980's) had been a bastion of liberalism, has converted so wholeheartedly to the Republican party, to the point where there was very little campaigning there in the 2004 election because the fact that it would go to George W. Bush was a foregone conclusion.
The book is interesting as it uses Kansas as a microcosm for the rest of the country to examine the shift in voter priorities that have undermined the vast changes in the American political lanscape that have occurred over the past decade. I think some of Frank's conclusions are correct, too. He faults the Democratic party for (surprise, surprise) essentially abandoning its position as the party of the working man and becoming the party that will sell its soul to corporations in an attempt to pull away moderate, economically motivated Republican voters, while remaining steadfast on social issues like abortion and affirmative action. This was basically the Bill Clinton strategy in a nutshell. The key point that Frank keeps coming back to over and over again in the book is that in doing this, the Democrats set themselves up for failure, because they removed economics from the table. By adopting an economic position that was mostly indistinguisable from that of the Republican party it removed any possibility of keeping the debates on economic issues, which would appeal to lower income voters, while opening the door for idiotic cultural "wedge issues" like gay marriage and flag desecration constitutional amendments. In doing so they have allowed the GOP to frame the context of all the major political debates, and the GOP has used an incredible marketing team to effectively convince average americans that they are somehow being oppressed by a liberal elite made up of judges, academics and hollywood on these types of issues. The average person sees a snide Jennifer Aniston looking from the cover of People magazine in $500 sunglasses telling them how to live their lives and associates that image with the "liberal elite," and thus the Democratic party, by virtue of the association heard day in and day out from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
The GOP and its associated media outlets accentuate this feeling of persecution by constantly focusing on individual, isolated incidents of overreaction of liberals in places like college campuses, or in judicial verdicts (that inevitably get overturned on appeal) and using them of examples of a liberal elite mad with power, stepping on the common people to advance their liberal agenda. This is done, cleverly enough, couching the entire discussion in terms adopted from previous countercultural and even revolutionary movements, in a continued attempt to help GOP working class people develop what essentially amounts to a class conciousness. Once this happens, any attack on the GOP (even if it's an attack on the economic policies that are in no way improving the lives of most of its members) is seen as a form of class warfare against the GOP rank and file.
There's more to the book, and I recommend reading it (and like I said, holding your nose through the first 2-3 chapters until it gets better.) It's a fairly sad of affairs for the Democratic party, and Frank doesn't let them off the hook once. He gives credit where it's due, and anyone who doesn't believe that the GOP is being run by some very shrewd politicos and marketers is deluding themselves. With any luck the DNC leadership will catch on to this fact (finally, though if the 2004 election is any indication, then probably not) and turn the tables, but that's going to take a long time yet. The worst, unfortunately, is likely still yet to come.
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Well my assistant is finally gone. Which, while unfortunate, means that I'll be back on SG more now, since he's not always looking over my shoulder.
yeah except now its august 9th and no update from my favorite resident 'evil genious'.