David Sirota's been writing some really good stuff lately. Last week it was his 'Barack Obama is the Almighty', which deconstructed the current love-fest on the left with Sen. Barack Obama. Sirota received quite a bit of flack for pointing out that other than the fact that Obama is highly charismatic, there's not really much there in terms of progressiveness to be excited about, and that he hasn't really shown the leadership we're badly needing, while not precluding something happening to change that. Amen to that, brother. As I see it, so far the only plus about Obama is that he's not Hillary or Kerry. Once again, I'm thoroughly depressed about the potential '08 Dem prez candidates. It seems that once again, we're stuck with a 'lesser of two evils' roster, just like every other election I've voted in. And that sucks, big time. But I have also acknowledged that a candidate who would be sensible and progressive enough for my liking wouldn't have a chance of getting elected in this day and age.
Anyways, Sirota nails it again, this time going after the unchallenged free-market fundamentalism that is the current paradigm in this country, and responsible for a lot of the economic disparity nowadays, in his 'Flattening the Great Education Myth and the Free Market Fundamentalists'. There's just too much good stuff in the article to paraphrase here, just check it out for yourself. One of the most telling points is an account of a dialogue between students and a free-market professor, where the students question his premises and he doesn't exactly have any good answers. That's the big problem with all of this; we've just heard so many times that an unfettered free-market, and its 'market-based solutions' are the answer to everything, when often they are part of the problem. And this continues to be accepted as unquestioned truth, regardless of all of the evidence to the contrary. If Sirota is right, maybe that will start changing. Let's hope so.
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FIVE BEFORE CHAOS HAS OFFICIALLY MOVED TO A BIGGER AND BETTER PLACE! PLEASE CLICK THE ABOVE BANNER TO GET THERE, AND DON'T FORGET TO BOOKMARK THE NEW LOCATION. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Sirota's on a roll lately...
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I wonder about this logic, that a sensible and progressive candidate couldn't get elected in this day and age. I mean, it's easy enough to point to Bernie's election to the Senate (OK, from the bubble of Vermont and honestly, not all he's cracked up to be). But, in a GOOD turn-out U.S. elections don't reach near 70%. In France (you know, those guys we hate and make fun of though no one actually has a reason why) they go into a national panic (a la florida 2000) every decade or two when voter turn out dips bellow 90%. They call it a "crisis of democracy".
I'm willing to guess that the 30-50% (or more!!!) of Americans who choose to skip out on voting are't really doing it because their anarchist politics forbid them to vote; rather, they don't see the purpose in voting for the 'lesser of two evils' when they know that whoever is running, whoever is winning, they aren't going to represent anyone except corporate interests and more money for the rich. The system is set-up to do that and it does it well.
I bet if you could run a Bernie Sanders in every part of the country, he'd get eleted in most places. The reason Bernie is a cult figure (and that he's supported by Bush Republicans, moderates, Clinton and liberal Democrats, P/progressives, socialists, and libertarians from the right and left) is because he convinces you (and SEEMS to be honest) that he hates the system as much as the rest of us, and that the real enemy is the elite, rich, corporate assholes.
Here's where the media and the status quo come in effect, because the sense that anyone gets from (even the progressive) media is that the middle ground of this country's politic is much more to the right than it really is; it makes you and me so much more willing to accept and compromise for the most outragious, right-wing, fringe crap. None one really supports the shit these guys pass into law, except the occational "gimme" they toss to the voters. But they get it passed pretending that they are doing us a favor.
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