Comments on: Blue America: The Next Generation

By: Rayne

Rayne — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:38:45 +0000

EW — too funny, that, my fan base consists of old men the same age as my dad, after they’ve had a few beers under their belts.

Heh.

But it does say something about the need for us to take up the spear; one of those guys Marcy met is the father of a high-school classmate. He’s retired now, and it won’t be long from now that he’s retired from politics, too. It’s now our turn to be the standard bearers, to wear the mantle.

And sporkovat, that means it’s our opportunity to change the Democratic Party, return it to its progressive roots after the last 30 years of assault by movement conservatism.

Ideally, Democrat = Progressive. I don’t mistake for a second that this is an ideal, because the trials and tribulations we’ve faced locally since 2003 have been due entirely to an inequality in this equation.

It’s not change for change’s sake; it’s change for the sake of the future.

By: emptywheel

emptywheel — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:08:40 +0000

Great post about my friend Rayne.

I did a book-signing in Lansing once. There were a couple of 60+ year old guys who had driven down from Rayne’s neighborhood. I asked if they knew her. And they raved and raved and raved.

It was pretty cool to hear about how much of an impact she has made.

By: punaise

punaise — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:23:49 +0000

you got it!

By: egregious

egregious — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:57:03 +0000

Much appreciated, sporkovat. You raise a valid point about this assumption. My own read is that we all need to give a great shove in the same direction for a few more months, and hopefully after that we can all go back to cheerfully disagreeing about practically everything.

By: sporkovat

sporkovat — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:25:45 +0000

thanks e – I know I started a bit outside the scope of yr post, but the frame I mentioned is one that is often un-addressed, assumed.

By: egregious

egregious — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:05:01 +0000

After re-reading the post, I’m pretty sure I am not claiming that Democrats are the source of all good and light.

By: sporkovat

sporkovat — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:02:58 +0000

my main point had to do with the assumption that:

Democrat = Progressive and Progressive = Democrat.

or is this about involvement for its own sake, or is it as a means to progressive change?

By: egregious

egregious — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:58:36 +0000

Well I appreciate your contribution to our discussion of how we can get people more involved in local politics.

By: sporkovat

sporkovat — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:56:43 +0000

Whenever a preexisting and preselected narrative assumes primary importance in this way, the longer one clings to the preferred story, the stupider one becomes. This is why the truth or falsity of the stories we tell is so critical, and why our methodology matters so much. If a story that is central to our view of ourselves fails to comport with the facts, and if we refuse to give up or even question the story, this necessitates that we block ourselves off from more and more information that might “undermine” that story, to use Brownback’s terminology. Rather than eagerly seeking out further facts and trying to find out if a given story remains accurate or needs to be significantly revised (and sometimes even jettisoned altogether), we will lower our heads, narrow the scope of our inquiry, and progressively restrict the kind of data we permit ourselves to examine and even acknowledge. As time goes on, our intellectual curiosity steadily decreases. We won’t want certain facts and information, because we might have to wonder whether particular cherished beliefs are correct.

from Arthur Silbur at powerofnarrative blogspot.

By: egregious

egregious — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:48:50 +0000

I think part of the reason the R party has gone so far off the deep end is that we dont have very many footsoldiers, which is what I’m trying to address in this post.

Don’t like what’s out there? Let’s go do something about it.