Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Alternet really is beneath you J.S. It must have taken you all of five minutes to get Hollander's number.

It's really more of a place for amature ointment flys and wrench monkeys like myself. Useful for perusing the DNC talking points and sparring with democrat andriods.

but watch out below: he adds now in full pratfall that the pro-union roll back is "...second only... to addressing the pernicious role of campaign cash in American politics..." Ahh, the nuclear option for special interest politics -- do that and then the rest is history.... even the unions.

Please 'splain. Do you have a beef with full (and voluntary) public financing of elections (aka, "clean elections")? If so, please elaborate.

Patrick Meighan
Venice, CA

More dim (hopefully not dimbulb) observations on the strange world of liberal blogs (and the comments sections of liberal media sites such as AlterNet) – or, if you prefer, ruminations on the theme of “the kids are not all right,” from a pre-“Generation Y” old fogy (37 years and counting – but aren’t we all counting).

It seems that the echo chamber at these blogs and sites is full of voices of young ‘uns who have to come to political consciousness (if it can be called that) in the age of George W. Bush.

Both the predominant rhetorical style and the implicit worldview are dead giveaways. As a package, the results are distressing enough to prompt a Frankfurt School partisan such as myself to suggest turning out the lights.

Your typical entry is sub-literate (redolent of communication skills honed through countless hours of text messaging), shot through with "transgressive" catch phrases (pick your favorite snarky nickname for the Commander-in-Chief), indulgent of conspiratorial fantasies (with Karl Rove as puppetmaster), mercilessly pillorying of the “enemy” – in the end, all in the service of defending the honor of the likes of Russ Feingold, who would have the US withdraw from Iraq in the name of more effectively prosecuting the (sic) war on terror. In other words, the package is eminently anti-bourgeois in form and utterly bourgeois in substance, the mirror image of Fox Network’s right-wing populist universe.

JSP’s comments (in a different context) on the cultish propensities of today’s pwogs seem to resonate, in a way I have yet to figure.

What proto-fascist personality type hath post-modern capitalism wrought?

PM:

this is perhaps too late a reply

sorry i missed your comment
earlier

my beef is not with state funding
i'm all for it

i'm certain however it will change nothing substantive ...
by itself

that be my beef

silver bullet dreams
never turn up my amp

notions of socialization of campaign funding
strikes me
as the sort of minimalist
tmidity
no matter how
shrewdly precise
no matter how smartly aimed
at the point of class power balance

system change cometh not
so easy

recall the use of the a bomb in the george pal
version of well's war of the worlds

the infernal martian machines advancing
with that keening sound they have

then
kaboom the big one hits em

theres smoke or dust or mist
or whatever
to make a total obscurity and silence
a seconds
relief

and then out of the obscurity of tumbling whiteness...the martian
machines keening
recommences

Clean Money is looming on Oregon's Ballot for Fall. I'm actually all in favor of it, and I can tell you for sure that plenty of rank-and-file Union members probably are, too. (I was AFSCME for almost six years.) It's not the rank-and-file who determine the stances Unions take on these matters, however. The higher-ups act to protect their franchise, even when it puts them odds with their own members' wishes and frequently alienates them from non-Union folks who (often rightfully) don't see them as having an interest in the community's common good. The media, which is generally anti-labor even in a supposed pwog stronghold like Portland, makes a lot of hay out of this, which only makes the problem worse.

I agree with jsp that without other election components in desperate need of reform (such as the iron grip of a few monied men on all local media, including most of the pitiful "alternative" offerings,) the folks who could do the most good with Clean Money will continue to face ridiculously uphill battles year after year-- even in non-partisan races.

jsp,

I can sympathize with your hard-earned pessimism that Clean Elections can truly stop the Martian machines. But I know of few Clean Money advocates who are not also in favor of additional electoral reforms. It is possible to work for IRV, and Proportional Representation, and mandatory airtime for qualified candidates, and to also be active in third-party organizing, at the same time that one is working for full public financing of elections. None of the above needs preclude any of the others.

And, naiive though it may seem, I have to believe that those machines are somehow stoppable. I got no choice but to believe it. I'm the father of an almost-brand-new baby girl, so if I *don't* believe it, I gotta start getting real guilty about bringing her around.

Patrick Meighan
Venice, CA

pm
"None of the above needs preclude any of the others"

i agree completely
u are without illusions
so
go for it !!!!!

we will stop the martians
attack em on all fronts