James Fallows has a short piece in Atlantic Monthly. I want to quote a bit of it for everyone, and then ask your thoughts:
What I’ve learned from China, so far, is that instead of girding to defend the American idea against some new foreign challenge, we should take the opportunity to shore it up, in three ways.
The first way is ensuring a particular kind of openness, which at all times has been the essence of America. The country needs to keep making room for its own people, while also continuing to make room for people from outside. It’s not easy to achieve both goals, since in the short run, they conflict. The Americans most likely to be muscled aside by hungry outside talent are those with the odds against them in other ways. That’s a reality. Rather than ignore the tension or use it as an excuse to close the borders, we have to find a way to reduce it. Otherwise, we cut off one of the two strengths (the other being military power) that no other country can possibly match….
Second is being idealistic but not consistent—or not foolishly consistent, as one of this magazine’s founders put it 150 years ago. The United States can’t and shouldn’t be a status quo power….Globalization has had a large Americanizing component—that’s part of the complaint against it. While any sensible person wants to learn as much from other cultures as possible, Americans are bound to think that we have something to tell others about individual potential, about the idea of equality, about respect for civil liberties. The rest of the world understands this, which is why our recent infringements on our own civil liberties are so damaging to our image worldwide.
But retaining that idea doesn’t mean believing two apparently consistent corollaries: that everyone else actually does want to be like us, and that it is within our power to force or entice them to. Believing this makes us believe that other countries—Japan a generation ago, China today—are just about to become America-like, and that if they resist, they can be forced to comply. (To say nothing of Iraq.) Speak for our values, yes, and clearly. Be deluded about them, no.
Finally, we should display the confidence, good humor, and thick-skinnedness befitting a country of our stature….
Foreign examples are useful spurs to internal action. Sputnik served that purpose 50 years ago, and Japan’s industrial successes led to valuable changes in American corporate and fiscal practices nearly a generation ago. A look at China can help America address its main shortcomings—reckless fiscal and foreign policies, delay in moving away from dependence on oil—and perhaps also suggest ways the nations can work together on challenges, mainly environmental, that threaten them and others.
But let’s not panic. Let’s show the patient confidence—Lincoln, Marshall, Eisenhower—that is part of the American idea. Let’s not look for slights or imagined insults to react to. Among our worst enemies at the moment is our own hair-trigger mentality about foreign challenge, and the enemies that outlook generates. Our idea is strong. We should act as if we know that.
It seems to me that Fallows is saying we need an idealistic view of who we ought to be as a nation, but a realistic eye toward how we go about achieving those aims. And to get there, we need some real, honest leadership. That is up to all of us, I suppose, but how we get there is a big bunch of questions. Especially given the petulant vortex of inertia, inanity and ineptitude that is the Bush White House.
What should we be asking for from our government? Where does our responsibility start, and where does it end in ensuring good governance by and for the people? It seems to me that there are an awful lot of mistakes that have been made in our nation’s history (and are still being made), but it is in the picking ourselves up and striving toward “a more perfect union” that we come closest to achieving who we ought to be. But how we get to that “more perfect union” is an awfully wide field for debate these days, isn’t it? At least, we ought to be talking about bettering ourselves and our nation instead of nitpicking ourselves to death over gossip and innuendo. And we should especially be asking these questions before the 2008 election, oughtn’t we?
Which renders the whole “everyone does it” dismissive tone or slavish devotion to false equivalence and lying gasbags from the Heathers (and the wannabes) when our nation’s “leaders” fall far, far short of the mark all the more disgusting.
(Photo of school children in San Francisco in 1942 by Dorothea Lange via PingNews.)
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Zed?
let ‘em have it ….
Zed?
So frustrated in Louisiana today. We couldn’t force a run off for Bobby Jindal because the “cool kids” voted for the guy with the best PR machine.
I just hope he is a better Governor than he was a congressman.
Christy’s on fire and making up for lost time!
Since the Senate is so fond of these stupid sense of the Senate resolutions, like condeming MoveOn for genuine free speech.
What about a sense of the Senate that the president does not have the right to ignore our laws and his signing statements don’t change the fact that he is breaking the law.
I mean if they can condemn MoveOn for free speech, maybe condeming the government for breaking the law?
Ya think?
I know I’ve said this before but will say it again:
Jimmy Carter as president tried to force us to live up to our professed ideals as a nation.
Reagan made folks feel that their prejudices and hates were acceptable, especially because what Carter was asking of people was extremely difficult.
Little Boots is the result of these differences. And we, as a nation, will be paying the price for decades to come.
{{{{{CHS}}}}}
Oh, excellent, Christy. I particularly love this:
I have become so freaking cynical lately. I really need this kind of shot in the arm. Thank you Christy. And Happy Birthday.
carolyn at 9 — We all need it every once in a while. :)
MsAnnaNOLA @ 6
But, but, but, that would take Constitutional Democrats to stand up and fulfill their oath of office.
What’s going to happen with Jindal’s Congressional seat?
My grandmother came from Russia
A satchel on her knee,
My grandfather had his father’s cap
He brought from Italy.
They’d heard about a country
Where life might let them win,
They paid the fare to America
And there they melted in.
But most Americans don’t seem to believe this anymore, and I think we are the worse for it.
All I think we ought to be as a nation is one that stands up for the values we claim to believe in.
There are some things that are not negotiable, some basic principles.
And they put those principles down on paper and called it the Constitution, and it’s been helping us run our country ever since then. The first part of the Constitution is called the preamble and tells what those founding fathers set out to do.
We the people,
In order to form a more perfect union,
Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
Provide for the common defense,
Promote the general welfare and
Secure the blessings of liberty
To ourselves and our posterity
Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Now if someone will just let the government in on the secret.
I’ve been thinking that having teach-ins about the constitution (at libraries, college campuses, churches) might be a good thing.
Laura at 13 — I was contemplating a way to kick start some letters to the editor to local newspapers on the Constitution and the importance of the rule of law. And wondering if that would be useful or not in terms of stimulating thought and debate…
Is there a Constitution Day?
MsAnnaNOLA @ 4
The election result seems to be good news/bad news. LA elected a non-Euro-American, former Hindu, named Piyush Jindal; the bad news is that he is a reactionary. Is that 2 forward and 1 back or 1 forward and 2 back?
Prairie Sunshine @ 15
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, Constitution Week, 2007
Prairie at 11 — On the one hand, on individual issues, I’m supremely disappointed on a number of individual actions that have or have not occurred lately on issues and particular legislative efforts. But that’s looking at everything on the micro level.
When you take a step back and look at things from the macro level, you can see how much more slowly the erosion is now occurring compared to the GOP halcyon days of rubber stampitude from a couple of years ago — and how far things might have gone were it not for the slowdown.
I’m not happy with where things are, there is a lot of work to be done. But I’m also not entirely despondent when I think about where things were going…and the fact that a whole lot of questions are being asked that would have otherwise never seen the light of day. And that is something…
I have a recurring fantasy of Bush, Cheney, Et al strapped to chairs and forced to watch Schoolhouse Rock until they finally “get it”.
But I’m afraid they do get it, they just don’t buy it, and they just don’t care.
Before responding, I have to just say that I love when I go to a link from here to Wolcott, he links to orcinus who links to atrios, who links right back to FDL.
a mobius strip of information.
msannaNOLA @ 6:
“What about a sense of the Senate that the president does not have the right to ignore our laws and his signing statements don’t change the fact that he is breaking the law.”
Amen to that. It’s fun to watch the R’s heads explode. Not a chance in hell, though, given the dem leadership.
zen at 20 — Oh, that is funny!
I have the sense that a lot of folks don’t really know what the constitution is. That listening to someone talk about it–someone who really loves it talk about it, not in a lecture=y or preachy way–would excite folks.
I do a lot of psychological assessments of folks. For a very long time I’ve been worried about this country for one particular reason: on one IQ test I’ve used for going on 20 years, there’s this question: “why is freedom of speech important for a democracy?” And for all those years I’ve heard kids in juvenile hall and other places ask me: what’s a democracy? Now, granted, these may often be kids who aren’t the best students…but somehow, in my gut, I get the feeling that the foundation of it all has been missing for a long time. I see this even in my teenager and her friends, now.
It’s as though the rule of law is no longer core for many of us….much less something we’re educated about.
oh….mah….gawd…[video on think progress]
why the HELL are the morons that are wrong EVERY time the open their mouths getting ANY air time?
there are actually people that defer to this idiot’s “military knowledge”
Christy Hardin Smith @ 18
Like minds, Christy!
I think the signing statements lawbreaking would be a wonderful resolution, by the way.
zennurse @ 20
And I like that when I go to NoQuarter to check in for the day, I see a zennurse post and think: say! I’ve seen that name before!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 18
there was an increase in the minimum wage. doubt that would have happened in a republican congress.
Christy,
This question is an essential one but I think Mr. Fellows is, as usual thinking in his grand way.
However, we are a country that is distracted by online poker, prescription medicines, Paris Hilton, Pedophiles, instant messaging and “gotcha” journalism.
On one television channel, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are the two most hated men in America.
College educated people casually state that George Bush knew the Towers were going to be blown up or that they knew beforehand that planes were to strike. Conspiracy theories abound and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
“Bill Maher is one of the only truth-tellers”
“Bill Maher is a Zionist propagandist for the man”
We are a fractured country and we need to start focusing on the facts with leaders that will be honest with us.
Friday night at CBS’ Television City, Bill Maher’s show was being taped live and an incident occured with (apparently 9/11 truthers)people in the audience yelling out during the panel discuussion.
The subsequent discussions about this incident truly exemplify exactly how fractured and polarized we Americans are.
JT
The whole show is here
October 21st, 2007 at 9:20 am
Smgumby at #12 says:
I doubt that it’s an intended “common, shared value” that the fundies have been advising their membership to have more babies, lest they become a minority. They think the minorities are outproducing them, and that is an apparent threat to their survival. I say, let’s hope they’re right.
Greetings Christy and fellow firepups.
I hope your break refreshed you had a happy birthday.
Off to spend fall break at a refurbished CCC cabin at Iowa’s first state park(Backbone)
I welcome my 53rd year on Tuesday doing what I can for my kids who will have a better world because of fellow citizens like yourself.
To a rebirth of our Constitution. Jim C
perris @ 24
Once I was sure my head wasn’t really going to explode I complained about the same thing at the end of the last thread. The new topic really kinda grabbed me and I forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me, now I’m worried about my head exploding again.
Hear, hear Jim C. and
Happy Birthday.
Gracious this lake ABOUNDS with Librans!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 10
On that note, here’s a song for Dick Cheney and Company.
And in the dept. of nothing new under the sun, the historian’s column in today’s Fargo Forum recounts an early-day coup by Republicans to buy up the medium of a populist advocate.
As Biden noted on today’s Snuffy show, the real issue is abuse of power…by the powerful on the powerless.
Or as Dubya’s favorite philosopher said, whatsoever you do unto the least of my brethren, you do unto me….
how’s that workin’ with Rethug “values”? lust for power and corporate greed trump all
Smgumby @ 19
So you’re advising a life sentence for both?
Laura Doty @ 32
Thanks much. We Librans are special don’t you think?
The first thought I have is that our national mind and conscience needs to find some humility and self-awareness. This Republican-controlled 6-7 years have, I feel, turned us into the nation that swaggers and spits, the superpower-and-don’t-you-f’ing-forget-it, do as we say, not as we do, international a**holes with guns and nuclear arms. As an American, I feel suspect, hated and ashamed because of this and while I don’t think we need to have our hat in our hands as we try to reconnect with the world post-Bush, I do think we need to make it clear we are willing to listen rather than scream.
I hope that makes sense.
Laura Doty @ 32
The nurses at work brought me in a birthday cake last night. I won’t describe the cake’s decorations, nurses are a crude bunch. Librans, apparently, are pretty special, as we know the place to be at the lake on Sunday morning!
zen at 37 — I do think it is certainly worth saying over and over again that our domestic and foreign policy shouldn’t be run by a bunch of people who think that “yee haw” is a thoughtful means of charging forward, or that fear is an effective decisionmaking prod. I do miss the days of feeling like the nation’s leadership were adults — but then I wonder if that was all just myth, and if things have always been this way and we just didn’t see it properly?
zen, thank you for that. I first realized things were going off the rails when we proclaimed we weren’t going to abide by the Geneva Conventions anymore.
Laura Doty @ 26
what a sweet thing to say, thank you, Laura.
Laura Doty @ 23
What Laura said.
And there are ways. How we begin. Richard Dreyfuss showed us in , of all places, Maher.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 39
As idealistic as it might seem, I don’t think it was a myth, just like I don’t think the Bill of Rights is a myth. It, and the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were all born of idealism that we could really be a nation of power with a sense of decency and introspection, of laws and of justice.
Laura Doty @ 23
Do you think this is a function or a failing of the school system? I know I was taught all about Democracy and our national history in school. If not, why would the younger generation be so oblivious?
On the other hand, I also think that the schools have a lot of problems that seriously need solving if we are to keep our position as a world power.
Sometime last week I saw a website constructed by a teacher with all sorts of information on it, statistics of our standing in the world. It was an eye opener, but unfortunately, I can’t find the link. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that India and China are moving up, yet we are barely keeping up the pace with them. I think their educational standards are better, and we are losing the competitive race.
Newtonusr @ 42: WOW! That’s exactly what I’m talking about. He put it so eloquently. YES!
Smgumby @ 38
Wow. Somehow I thought that was going to come out “as we know enough to be at the lake on Sunday morning!”
If I have gotten this incoherent it is time to go to bed. Goodnight all.
Laura Doty @ 45
Imagine that – He’s studying the teaching of civics at Oxford.
“And there are ways. How we begin. Richard Dreyfuss showed us in , of all places, Maher.“
Thank you so much for this link, I am sending it to my children. This is wonderful, succinct and incredibly clear.
I do wonder what is being taught in terms of government and civics these days. I know it is still on the curriculum, but with everything being geared toward test-taking as opposed to independent thought, I wonder how it is being taught. When I was at my high school reunion this summer, I ran into my old high school government teacher — who is still teaching the subject at my old high school. We got into a discussion about the Bush Administration, he’s a life-long Republican and highly disgusted at where things are, but we didn’t get a chance to talk about how things are being taught these days.
Wish I’d thought to catch up a bit on that. Any government teachers in the audience want to weigh in? I know when I was a kid, I was the unusual one who wanted to discuss the ins and outs of this sort of thing and most of the rest of my class thought it was deadly dull. I suspect that is still sort of the same.
I think this is a larger question than what schools decide to teach. It has to do with the place CIVICS (and civility and civilians, even) has in our culture. Take the League of Women Voters. Who do you know that belongs to it? For years, that was the institution that sponsored debates and forums in my county. Their members were at every polling station on election day. Not any more. Civic responsibility just isn’t part of our consciousness. I think in some ways we are more aware of our sense of community with one another…but this doesn’t carry over to our sense of being citizens in a democracy.
Personally, I think things changed radically after Watergate. Folks who were itty-bitty then, and since then, don’t know what it was like to grow up believing in the principles of government.
It’s my sense that we need together to separate out those principles from the agents of government who may or may not do a good job. It’s OUR job to notice the difference and make the changes. And if we don’t, we’ll be exploited (or worse).
Prairie Sunshine @ 15
sept 17
Christy Hardin Smith @ 14
The latest poll on readership of newspapers was around 11% of the population. I know that is a big thing with many of the local political groups to have “letters to the editor” parties [ours does] but what kind of penetration do you get with a stat of 11%?
Laura at 50 — Mr. ReddHedd and I were talking about this yesterday driving home. Right now, there is such a level of disgust and apathy and “no matter what I do, it doesn’t matter, so I’m not going to bother” voting or otherwise from so many people. I’ve been mulling some way to spark interest in involvement and civic activity again…but how? If anyone has ideas on this, I would love to hear them.
We try to do that every week here in one way or another. But there is such a broader need for it across the political spectrum…and how to reach out and do that is a whole set of questions that desperately need to be asked and worked on across the country. The big question, though, is how?
http://www.usc.edu/schools/col…..ution.html
that’s a link to an interesting discussion by a Constitutional scholar–heads the american political science association law and courts section. he spoke on Constitution Day–9/17/07.
War on Terror or War on the Constitution.
in the end, Prof. Gillman says we get the enforcement of the Constitution that we deserve. That the Congress and the Supreme Court eventually reflect the politics of the day, albeit with some lag time.
OT:
DFA is doing a pulse poll on the presidential race. Al Gore is leading with 31.21%, with John Edwards at 22.41%, Obama at 17.04%, Dennis Kucinich 14.17%, and (this one’s for you OKK) Hillary Clinton 6.01%. Gore wasn’t really on the ballot, so people had to vote for “other” and specify his name. It’s not too late to vote.
newtonusr @ 42
That was freakin wonderful! I had opened the link when I first saw it, but I had not viewed it. I figured I would take a look before I went to bed. Once I started I had to watch every second. That page is going on my favorites for further discussions.
Thank you so much. And now MTP is on, I certainly HAVE to see Colbert, so I’m not getting to bed after all it seems.
DEAR selise.
OT: I see your instructions are now posted on previous thread.
MUCH THANKS! You are so kind!
That should do it, I think. Even tho the little Ipod gadgets are still a mystery to me, hubby probably will know how to follow you and, if not, certainly our more thoroughly-wired sonny will on his next visit.
Sorry for interruption here & delay getting back to you – we’re juggling today tw’ stripping & re-waxing around combo of toobz and newly painted walls, including working around our cats’ “schedule” of activities, egad! Simply didn’t have access to ‘puter for a moment there, but floor’s cleaner thereabouts, and nothing shorted out. *g*
I’m looking fwd to catching up to all these fabulous posts when everything’s all back in place & fully operational here. awhile off, i fear…
katymine at 52 — Well, you take that 11 percent. And you send them to work or to the old men get coffee group at the local McDonalds or what have you. And they talk with their friends and colleagues. Or send a copy of their letter out via e-mail. And then it goes from there. And it impacts local and national talk radio and Congressional staffers reading the letters and then talking about them. And so on…it’s not a solution, but it’s a start. And it’s not just preaching to people who already know what you are talking about on a blog. We have to find a way to reach off the screen to others who aren’t already thinking about it. I’m just brainstorming as to how.
Christy at 53, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve heard it here, and in my own home (each time I come back from a demonstration, my kid sighs and rolls her eyes!).
This is what I’m thinking, and why I think the lake is special. We are like super connectors in a web (thinking of the 6 degrees of separation idea). So what to do? Start in our own communities, but let each other know and reach out together. I’ve been sitting here while we’ve been talking thinking about all the people I know to call and ask to help set up a teach in/public discourse night on civics/constitution. Maybe at the main library or the community college or something spot. Get some lawyers and judges and non partisan civic leadery folk there. Get some college students, some history teachers to bring in their high school students. Some ministers. Just to talk about things like freedom of speech, the power of the vote, the right to disagree. the power of civil discourse.
I think we have to model inspiration. We can help people name what they do want, rather than stay focused on what we and they DON’T want (too much attention to the latter becomes so incredibly disheartening).
Christy Hardin Smith @ 39
That is my thought too. I long for the adults to be in charge again, then wonder, as you have stated, has there been a time when adults were in charge, or is this the way it’s always been and I just haven’t seen it. I do hope that is not the case. And I continue to long for the day when the adults will be in charge.
Then, as zennurse @ 43 points out, if you read the constitution and the bill of rights, you can see that yes, at one time there were adults in charge. Inspiring words.
Lindy @ 56
hey that was fun to vote and play with the graphics too.
chalk up another kuchinich vote for 1st place.
Molly Ivans had some really great come backs when she heard others say “I’m not interested in politics”… She would start asking questions….
Do you care about the speed limit on the street you live on?
Do you care about the amount you paid for your last speeding ticket?
Do you care about how much it costs for garbage/water/sewer?
All of it are politics…. people do not seem to have that connection that the everyday things that touch their lives….. that intersection that should have a stop light instead of a sign, that road with huge potholes, or if your town puts up holiday decorations is all politics.
America is where it is in large part because of investing in education, particularly the GI bill, and in scientific R&D, much of which was done by the military. Globalization has a HUGE US component, and the US has been driving globalization forces in the UN then using the IMF, and the World Bank.
Capitalism without democracy is gangsterism.
Of the world’s 100 largest economic entities, 51 are corporations, and only 49 are countries.
The US needs to protect itself from the profoundly antidemocratic effects of government by corporations. Many countries in the developing world have experienced this, to their sorrow. Due to Bush/Cheney, the US is now in grave danger on this front.
Part of being democratic is listening to people and attempting to respect their wishes on how their resources should be used. The developed world needs to listen more and preach less to the developing world.
I teach American issues rather than politics. Allows one to focus on policy as opposed to fair and balanced. Most of my students find a lot of common values and positions and somehow discover that they really are progressives. *g
Every once in a while I will take on a winger and watch their head explode but it really is too easy.
I will meditate on this subject while on break and share my perceptions when I get home.
I celebrate 30 years of Social Studies licensure this fall. I hope(know) that I have made a difference.
Have a great day!
CHS upstairs, with something new.
“The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street’s favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.”
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/20…..rys-money/
Christy Hardin Smith @ 49
Um, do you know that it is still being taught? When they say schools now are teaching to the test”, they are being pretty serious. Entire subjects are being skipped. It’s much more important to teach the things that bring in the funding. My sister is a teacher and my mother works in the school system. I will see if they can tell me (for my area anyway), but I’m pretty sure I heard civics has been cut in several places.
Any teachers at the lake? Anyone who knows the curriculum?
BTW, I should have noted that the link for part two is just below part one. I almost missed it myself…
Dreyfuss, on Maher, on civics instruction.
Part 1
Part 2
Jim C, I look forward to hearing your meditations! Hope you have a lovely break.
heh.
follow hillary’s money.
“be the first one on your block
to have your boy come home in a box”
“and it’s one, two, three
what are we fighting for?”
“dont’ ask me I don’t give a damn
next stop is tehran”
katymine @ 52
I don’t have the link, but I recently read that P of the American adults are functionally illiterate. The benchmark was being able to read, understand and answer questions about a “feature” type piece in a Time or NYT type publication. No snark intended, I think Bush falls into this group.
Yes, I think this is part of the dumbing down of our educational system. Kids in junior high and high school cannot find Peru on a world map. They cannot speak knowledgeably about events in the 20th century. Last year, in our (well funded) school district,they fired the 7th grade social studies teacher due to budget constraints – so, no world history.
I tutor high school students in several subjects, and I do quite a bit of math. The district recently purchased new Algebra II texts that were available for my use. I took a look: evidently Algebra II students need bright primary colors, unusual fonts and graphics, and color photographs every few pages of teens doing math and using math related skills. I decided to stick with the 30 year old duct taped books.
And BTW, I don’t think this is any accident. Education is the foundation of a functioning democracy. An informed and alert populace is much more difficult to manipulate.
The critical piece I see missing in the teaching of Civics, is the role of taxes. Taxes provide governments the money to accomplish all the things that citizens want and expect. One of the great corporate Republican triumphs has been to convince people that taxes are wrong. Nobody likes to pay taxes. But it is critically important to understand what they are. I see repeated over and over on TV some person in the street interview, or email quoted, that says some version of: the people should pay less and the government should pay more. It repeatedly demonstrates a true failure of understanding.
What I keep hoping for is that we, as the lake, can push the ball forward in a big and sustained and coordinated way. We’re good a short things (phone calls for a day or two, letters on urgent matters). Can we do something bigger? What do you all think?
Christy Hardin Smith @ 59
This is what I want to hear…. our district dem group have “write letters to the editor” parties but I keep asking… with readership running really low, what else are you going to do to catapult the information. We now have a e-newsletter that goes out with those letters that can be forwarded.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 53
Got me.
But, I do know that if we would just win one of our battles, I’d feel better. True, Abu’s gone, Rumsfeld’s gone, Rove’s pretending that he’s gone. And there are signs of some improvements. But the news out there is still so very, very bad that the most committed activist has to be getting discouraged.
We also need to believe that we’ve got someone in Washington fighting for us. We’re getting disappointed there, too. But in the last 2 weeks we were all excited about the ‘good’ FISA bill being constructed and spirits were high…..then shot down. We were excited about Dodd’s hold……shot down. Now, were encouraged by the potential filibuster. So far, 3 Senators have joined him yet we’re hopeful for more support. We’re grasping at straws here. I don’t think it will take much for us to feel hopeful again. And a victory 0r two will bring back our spirit.
Laura Doty @ 75
Laura, that is the question that has been hanging in the air(waves) for some time.
I am curious to see if there will be consideration of some answers.
David I keep raising this question and wondering if there will ever be much conversation about it! I seem to have a knack for bringing it up at the ends of threads.
Am getting the sense that it’s just not something that calls to many folks.
Ann in AZ at #44:
On the other hand, I also think that the schools have a lot of problems that seriously need solving if we are to keep our position as a world power.
Sometime last week I saw a website constructed by a teacher with all sorts of information on it, statistics of our standing in the world. It was an eye opener, but unfortunately, I can’t find the link. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that India and China are moving up, yet we are barely keeping up the pace with them. I think their educational standards are better, and we are losing the competitive race.
I knew if I searched hard enough I could find that site I mentioned. I say you guys should take a look at this video. It’s short, well done, and quite an eye opener without any type of preachiness. Laura Doty, you (and Christy) especially would like it, I think.
Laura — It definitely calls to me. I’ve been trying to find some ways to continue this sort of reach out. The letter writing and LTE and contact informational pieces that I’ve done recently are ways to build some of those skills. But what we do with them over the long term is the big question…and one I’ve yet to answer for myself.
Laura, I know, and also end up at the end of the thread quite often. However, there seemed to be interest in what Dreyfuss was saying. So perhaps, just perhaps, some here might yet become interested. I do appreciate your continuing efforts to engage this larger discussion, which is why I’ve been trying to encourage some discussion of just ‘what’ the ‘progressive vision’ actually is. Everybody. I’m certain, has ideas about what ‘it’ is, but were we to share these IDEAS broadly, we might be amazed at how many people in this country would agree.
newtonusr @ 69
Totally missed it! Thanks again!
Christy,
Just a thought. Might you consider inviting Laura to do a post about these broader, long-term, issues, in hopes of stimulating more discussion? It is apparent to me that Laura has devoted considerable thought and effort to this question. She is also very interested in how ‘group consciousness’ occurs and flourishes. Her training, expertise and inclination to observe these ‘phenomena’ would suggest that she might also be encouraged to do a post regarding this reality as well.
twolf1 @ 17
The Constitution – use it or lose it.
I think, however difficult it is for Americans to swallow, it would be salutary for Americans to realize that every great power falls. I teach community college English, and in a critical thinking class I teach I was saddened to discover that not one of my students knew what a writ of habeas corpus is, let alone how far back into the roots of our political culture this basic right of British common law goes.
Most of my students are struggling to get by from day to day, juggling the cost of living, school, job, and whatever else is on their personal plates. They pass standardized testing, but one in 30 has any real idea of what is going on in their nation; they are profoundly disconnected. A couple years ago I taught a class in critical thinking in which we examined the whole nine yards of the creationism, intelligent design, evolution controversy. We covered creation myths, Plato’s philosophy, social darwinism, and actual evolution theory. Not one had come into the class with any concept that evolution was anything other than one contending description somewhat lower down the food chain from creationism.
What James Fallows presumes is a Platonic elite as an American electorate. Such is hardly the case. Class, education–these are symptoms of a problem that have taken a rather mediocre man of limited skill and vision and allowed him to become the most powerful individual in the entire world.
A world in which manners, as our Democratic Speaker noted to Congressman Stark, is more important than calling scoundrels out at their game. The problems we face go deeper than how we spin America to ourselves or the world. S-chip, the Iraq war, the direction of our nation, it will take more heavy lifting than it seems to me reasonable to expect to lift ourselves out of the hole we’re dug into.
I’m an American who left the USA and moved to Canada right after Nixon resigned. It was the best move I’ve ever made. Why is it that I feel that way? Because the USA started to, in the 1970s, and has since, lost its way. It breaks my heart. Canadians have such a more compassionate society, with better safety nets. I’m now in a wheelchair, and if I still lived in the USA I’d surely be dead.
Look in the mirror and try to sluff off the dreck. Not everyone in the world wants to be like you, and many abhor the thought. I’m among them, even though I grew up with Davy Crockett and Jimmy Stewart.
Jim Clausen @ 36
Yes we are. It’s all about the wanting fairness and harmony methinks.
He’s speaking up for globalization as well. There’s a thorn in that rose.
Anyone would think you did not have a long history of buttfucking the rest of us! One war on the right side and that’s carte blanche for the millions your policies have sent to an early grave.
Your “values”? The heedless pursuit of the dollar and disdain for the rest of the world. We know who you are. It’s you who doesn’t have a clue.
Mabel’s Wig Shack @ 67
Hillary is winning the Republican primary!
crossedcrocodiles @ 74
Maybe what we should put up is a webpage showing federal government programs and their spending and graphs showing government revenues flowing in or debt building up.
Seeing it all graphically could be very educational and perhaps enlightening!