We're often having the wrong argument in this cold civil war. The most recent example was the farm bill that came out of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. For the first time in decades, it stripped away food stamps from the legislation. The rationale was to cut federal spending. And yet the bill ended up giving away even more taxpayer dollars to already highly profitable big agribusiness than was proposed by the Senate or the White House. A useful lens for understanding the battles in America might focus on two areas: The bedroom and the commons.
Republicans are obsessed with legislating what happens in the bedroom. Along with their conservative Democrat fellow travelers, they gave us the Defense of Marriage Act and later rode fear of "the gay" to triumph in 2004. Even though the Supreme Court recently struck down DOMA and more Americans are embracing same-sex unions, Republicans keep trying to introduce or defend so-called anti-sodomy laws. One is Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli, who wants to be governor.
The conservative movement is now moving aggressively against abortion in state legislatures, most prominently in Texas and North Carolina. And they are succeeding. No gentle outreach for bipartisanship here: These Republican-controlled statehouses are ramming through draconian legislation, the opposition be damned. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich signed abortion restrictions, placed in a budget bill, surrounded by only men. Kasich is more popular than ever in a state that was once vigorously competitive and he is heavily favored to win re-election.
Polling on abortion is ambivalent. Most Americans probably agree with Bill Clinton that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare." A politically incorrect confession (at least among liberals): I always thought Roe v. Wade was an over-reach, a miscalculation by the left that took an important issue out of the democratic process and revivified the right. But Roe has been the law of the land for 40 years and custom has grown around it. Conservatives today have no respect for custom. But there's more. Behind these red-state anti-abortion bills is an agenda that is anti-birth control, anti-women's health and of course the desire to gut the potent political forces that back choice. As the Washington Post wrote of the Ohio law, "The provisions…will make it more difficult for family planning
groups to receive funding for preventive care; require ultrasounds for
anyone seeking an abortion; and limit abortion providers’ ability to get
transfer agreements with public hospitals."
Republican individualism and the Ayn Rand ideal stop at the bedroom. "Freedom," the favorite trope of the right, doesn't mean the freedom from state interference in a woman's reproductive choices. And don't forget the continued hold of "abstinence education" for young people. Here the control of the party by the Christian fundamentalists becomes most apparent. With anti-gay bigotry losing traction, a legislative agenda aimed at women is the next frontier. It doesn't seem to matter that many Republican lawmakers and entertainers are hardly models of monogamy and fidelity. Nor does the hypocrisy: A rich woman in Texas, Ohio or North Carolina will always be able to get birth control or terminate a pregnancy. Those most hurt are the fading middle class and growing working poor. If these laws hurt people of color, so much the better. If they hurt the white working poor, no price will be exacted at the ballot box. Today, a "moderate Republican" allows the little lady to work outside the home. Not for nothing are the most extreme and backward societies the ones that place strict limits on women's rights.
Once you're born, you're on your own. As Nobel laureate Paul Krugman comments:
Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican Party.
We’ve gone beyond bad economic doctrine. We’ve even gone beyond
selfishness and special interests. At this point we’re talking about a
state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering
on the already miserable.
Nearly 48 million people are receiving food stamps; most of them have jobs and participation levels are very high in red states. This is not surprising given the deindustrialization of the country, the decline of good, secure and full-time employment, and stagnant incomes. But Republicans want to do to food stamps what they desire for every element of our patchwork safety net: Defund, privatize, starve and then drown them in the bathtub. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and disability insurance were painstakingly put in place and strengthened over decades by both parties. A reactionary fringe of the GOP always opposed them; now it is the GOP.
These programs are part of what might be called the commons: The things we do together, the things we do for each other, resulting in a nation that is not only more compassionate, but also stronger in every way. The Republicans are a wrecking crew loose and at war with the commons, opposed to everything from "government schools" to transit, Amtrak, modern infrastructure, city parks and the National Park System, libraries, you name it. Taxes must always be cut. There is no commons in what passes for conservatism. Tribal affiliations will take care of their own in white-right apartheid suburbs and behind the walls of gated properties. Want a library or a museum? Pay for it yourself. The closest thing to a commons for the right is the military, which must always be funded at ever higher levels and never questioned. And highways. Highways are always good.
The American commons is so strong, built up over more than a century — and not just by government action, but by wealthy philanthropists — that tearing it down will take some time. But it is happening. In most cases, it goes on without protest, political price or even a meaningful discussion about the disastrous vandalism taking place. The right could only live its Randian fantasy in a nation with so many complex common things, including subsidies. We're running on fumes. And the way the governance of the republic is set up, legislators and U.S. senators representing a minority of the population in net-taker districts and states can stymie and tear down programs needed in cities and urbanized states. The results of the destruction will be seen in the years ahead.
The bedroom and the commons are battlefields where the right is generally winning, the one exception being gay rights. The big winners are the plutocrats. Rather than engage in productive, competitive economic activity that creates jobs, they engage in what economists call "rent seeking." This is not only tilting public policy to benefit themselves, but also using monopoly and cartel status, even patent law, to gain further riches, stifle competition and destroy jobs.
I'm not sure how this dies out with the white reactionaries. For one thing, the red states have plenty of younger white reactionaries. Also, these conservative-controlled legislatures and the Supreme Court are enshrining reactionary laws that will give the right an advantage for years. I don't know how this ends.
Two cycles ago,
https://www.urbanarchipelago.com/
was posited as a battle plan for the future. The NYT observed in a recent article about the failure of the initial farm bill how the rural districts/states had begun to lose political influence – farm bills used to pass without problems. So is this the beginning of the end for Smalltown America Reverie? I think it will be more protracted, messier, and without a clear winner. Even the urban core of Washington State seems to have difficulties in throwing its political weight around.
Women will lead the revolution.
Men have screwed it up since they invented god.
The American right has succeeded in dividing Americans against each other, all in the name of patriotism but in actuality something closer to nihilism. Its basic message: “you worked hard. Don’t let those n******s take it away from you.” Therefore, people live in dreary suburbs that are both safe and forlorn. The price of security is eternal loneliness.
The messengers, however, are not content to merely rest on their laurels. Therefore, they devise new ways to invigorate the frenzy of victimization that is the emotional basis of the white right. Essentially, every issue and non-issue alike has been weaponized for Total Political War. Not-so-big Gulps in Manhattan. Energy-saving light bulbs. Abortion in every red state, and as always, guns, guns, guns.
The left wants to talk about surveillance, the NSA, drones, fracking, Monsanto, and living wages. The only problem: there’s no one to have this debate with except among themselves. The right has sucked all the oxygen out of the national conversation with their culture war. And until the right comes back to reality, the future is on hold.
See the problem? The left can’t drive the debate because the right really thinks that its Obama’s thuggishness along with liberal depravity that is ruining everything. So we end up with nonsense debates about birth certificates, Bill Ayres, Janet Napolitano’s lesbian ugliness, Michelle’s fascistic Let’s Move campaign, and FEMA trailers.
We’re having a national nervous breakdown and the left is more worried about Obama than about the crazies who have actually kidnapped the nation. In fact, their craziness is exactly the point. Once you’ve sabotaged government, reason, institutional buffers, and continuity, the right has won by default. They figured out all you have to do is monkey-wrench the process with gibberish and scapegoats and you you’ll never have to worry about beating anyone in a real debate again.
I think the way I do because I know we’re just spinning our wheels in these intramural debates involving, maybe, 5% of the population. Until we beat the right where it matters, we’re going to remain paralyzed and ineffectual. More muscular liberals, please.
Republicans have been waging political war for years without regard to Democratic opponents. They are willing to take political risks and potential losses. Ram through highly partisan legislation doesn’t raise a second thought with them. Collateral damage no problem. Harm to citizens, oh well.
Democrats behaved patiently and reasonably toward Republicans hoping for a thaw in relations. Once in a generation opportunities to smash Republican obstructionism were passed upon by Obama even after Democrats lost their filibuster proof Senate.
Smart money is sadly on the Republicans.
Soleri said “More muscular liberals, please.”
Got anyone in mind Soleri. Ready to get off your bicycle and run for office?
Obama spent the day with the Bushes talking about how much more peaceful things are because of Bush 41?
The future:
City States ran by Barons with enforcement of the slaves by the High Sheriffs.
The world of Mad Max comes to mind.
I know phxsunfan terrible movie great looking Mel Gibson.
My vote for best dystopian movie goes to Children of Men, although I wouldn’t quarrel with V for Vendetta or Blade Runner. Michael Caine was fantastic in COM. I’m not too worried about the Mad Max scenario; complete anarchy would be bad for the plutocrats.
Chris, Blade Runner is in my top ten movies, right after the European version of Day of the Jackal and the first released Star Wars in 79. My favorite Caine movies are Half Moon Street and Dressed to Kill. In Half Moon Street the worlds administrative assistant to bankers advises the very caring for the people of the planet Sigourney Weaver that there are only “5000 people in the world” everyone one else is a commodity.
Maybe U can join petro, az rebel and others and I for a oh U R a real person sit down. We could meet at Sierra Bonita and get Larry Debus and Tom Henze to moderate.
Another reason why women need to lead a revolt.
https://www.salon.com/2013/07/16/do_women_lawyers_face_a_glass_ceiling/
Side-note: a reply to Petro in the previous Friday Saloon (about a second, later, less-well known fascist coup in the planning stages in 1939).
Since its slow!
Jon said, “I don’t know how this ends.”
I suggest,
Manunkind can kiss my progress.
No such thing as progress, just reorganization of existing atoms.
But the fact train rolls on!
Man has no permanent answer for “the problem” !!!
The forces of the galaxies hold the cards in this deal.
Just hang around. Industry and agriculture will vanish
and the few that are left on the planet earth will be called “hunter gatherers.”
From a place far far away in another galaxy I offer my ancient wisdom.
This “Front Page” link seems to lead to the wrong article:
Why the mafia is so excited about eco-friendly businesses || Quartz
Here’s a WaPo link to the same story that provides better coverage. Incidentally, the story has less to do with eco-friendly businesses than it does with pervasive Italian graft and corruption in this (and other) economic sectors.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/sting-operations-reveal-mafia-involvement-in-renewable-energy/2013/01/22/67388504-5f39-11e2-9dc9-bca76dd777b8_story_1.html
P.S. Comments about FP links and such shouldn’t be construed as lack of interest in the current thread. I am simply catching up and this is how I do it.
cal, Half Moon Street is one that got by me somehow. They’re not too kind to it over at IMDb, but I like plots like that, and your recommendation pushes me over the edge. Look forward to checking it out.
On an unrelated note, I finally got around to watching the 1988 Japanese animation Grave of the Fireflies and it made me weep.
Side-note: further background on Moseley now provided in the previous Saloon.
Also over at the previous thread, a note about my personal involvement in the resurrection of Jules Archer’s book on “The Plot.”
“After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge’s order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/feds-comply-morning-after-pill-ruling-6C10273858
This is undoubtedly the most practical way to prevent abortions: as noted in the article, it acts only to prevent pregnancy, not to abort pregnancy, and works best within the first 24 hours after intercourse. Whether religious or secular, those concerned about fetal pain should support it.
As for “gay rights”, libertarians (including libertarian Republicans) and liberals ought to be able to agree that what consenting adults do by way of sexual activity in the privacy of their own home is none of the government’s business.
The laws of men are justified to protect society from predation and to protect individuals from unwitting danger (e.g., laws requiring someone who does their own electrical wiring to follow code, have a license if necessary, etc.).
Laws making private licentiousness or perversity a police matter are a slippery slope and civil rights advocates are quite right in objecting to the sodomy laws on this basis.
My comment on the current thread awaits its rescue by Mr. Talton from the spam-trap.
Side-note: Further questions for Petro in the Saloon. (This will be the last intrusion of this sort into the current thread. Further replies should be sought in the Saloon without notice.)
A train for Jon
https://translogic.aolautos.com/2013/07/12/zero-to-4-000-miles-per-hour-in-3-minutes-hyperloop-travel-coul/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl5|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D345267
Looking forward to this week’s Friday Saloon. I have a broadside against the kooks which even soleri should like (absolutely no criticism of Democrats).
Before you leave the Walter Mitty liberals to gorge on Kooks a look at Steve Lemons New Times piece is worth a quick read.
He and I agree he just states it much better.
A sidenote: “Electricity generation produces enough CO2 to cook the planet without needing help from dirty transportation fuel.”
https://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/peak-oil-lives.html
From Noahpinion on the front page above.
“Electricity generation produces enough CO2 to cook the planet without needing help from dirty transportation fuel.”
Thanks for teasing that quote out, cal. People need to wake up.