Luriantics

Using code words in political attacks is how the Republicans get votes from their racist supporters and from their broad middle. In a country that is ostensibly against racism, the code word has become a way to keep racism alive and well on the right.

A few recent examples.

“Community organizer:” It connotes city, urbane, upper-class guilt, and black empowerment. Used to deride Barack Obama, it’s intended to bring up his connection to his ‘community.’ You can connect the dots on that. It also attacks the very idea of racial harmony at the core of Obama’s message by deriding the coalitions of organizers - white, black, latino, asian, Jewish, and all the rest of God’s children.

“Uppity:” Recently used by Georgian Congressman Lynn Westmoreland. He’s sticking to it and thinks it has no racist connotations. As if the image of an uppity black man getting too big for his britches isn’t a serious and dangerous cultural trope in the South.

I’m all for having a debate about how is best equipped to assume the Presidency and for that discussion to get pretty nasty at times. The debate is healthy.

And I see a role for a conservative political party in our society. But what I don’t understand - and won’t tolerate - is why the Republican party continues to offer up old, dark ideas like racism to sway voters. It’s an embarrassment to the American idea.

If the last few days of Veep mania have convinced the American public of anything, it’s that John McCain shoots from the hip.

Now the question is: Will he be seem as a maverick or a flailing nutcase? The more Palin is vetted by the media, the more risky the strategy looks.

Also, I issue a challenge to McCain. Put Palin out there in the public. Let her do interviews. Then, we can figure out if you’re a crazy, old man who was losing an Election and pulled an Alaskan rabbit out of a hat, or if this lady actually has what it takes to appeal to independents - rather than simply throwing gasoline on the simmering 90s culture wars.

I just wrote this piece on Iran over at Zeek. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

I hope I live to see the day when the following double standards are a thing of the past.

• A Republican Presidential candidate has a Dr. Strangelove style freak-out about some small country in Eastern Europe that did something incredibly stupid, was probably egged on by one of his chief foreign policy advisors, and “widens his National Security credibility gap.”
• A Republican Presidential campaign responds to allegations of their candidate cheating during a Presidential forum by hearing the questions beforehand by saying, “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” and, afterwards, the story dies.

What would have happened if a Democratic campaign had done this?

So, I haven’t blogged in a long time. Like an embarrassingly long time. It reached the point that I knew that if I restarted blogging that I’d have to write a post like this - ;).

Here’s the quick update. I’m back from Israel, and living in Brooklyn these days. We’ve adopted a new kitten to play with Ari, and we’re soliciting suggestions for names.

I’m continuing my work with J Street and I encourage you to check out our work over there.

Opening wedding gifts - finally! - has been really fun. And so has cooking with them.

More to come. This time, for real.

Yes, she did. Solid victories in Ohio, Rhode Island, and the Texas Primary. We’ll see later today if she also picked up the caucus in Texas. As a die hard Obama supporter, I am a little worried that he is having trouble closing the deal on Hillary. I’m happy that Wyoming and Mississippi are coming up next before Pennsylvania, because Obama will most likely take both those contests. I think that over the last week or so Hillary’s attacks have really been paying off and I really hope that Obama recognizes that and uses his bully pulpit to draw some contrasts of his own.

I’d like to see a series of ads on the failures of Clinton administration to move beyond politics as usual and something hitting her on her claim that she actually has the experience to run a country. I don’t think having had the experience of the right wing slime machine after you because your husband had a zipper problem qualifies as presidential-quality experience. If anything, it would make you more defensive, more aggressive, and more entrenched in the politics of yesterday. Obama can’t and shouldn’t say that explicitly, but there are other ways of making that point, about her not actually having experience, without it.

Check it out. Tell me what you think!

You might have been wondering why I haven’t written anything about the Democratic presidential nomination contest for the last month or so. Most of my communication about the election has taken place over email, trying to convince voting friends to support Barack. I’ve been neglecting the old blog in the process.

Well, here are my thoughts in a few short sentences.

1. Bill Clinton is a liability to Hillary Clinton, especially when he reminds Democratic primary voters of what the 90s political ugliness really was like. Bill did this perfectly right before the South Carolina primary and it really turned voters off.
2. Barack Obama is sealing the deal, but Clinton is fighting back relatively well. After a stunned silence from Clinton after Super Tuesday, she seems to have gotten her legs back underneath her and attacked Barack on numerous fronts: plagiarizing speeches from Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA), not getting ’specific enough’ in his policy proposals, and refusing to debate her as much as she would like to debate. In terms of the speeches, Hillary Clinton has taken just as many ideas and turns of phrase from Obama during her campaign. In terms of policy proposals, Obama has always had the details on his website. He reserved the speeches for getting people excited. Oddly, that seemed to slip Clinton’s mind. On the debates, there have been 18 debates so far for the Democrats. Obama agreed to 2 more. Clinton wanted 4 more. Sounds like they’ve debated enough to me. This is all class Bill and Hillary Clinton. This ties into my last point about the negative attacks trumped up on lame points. We’ll see soon enough if voters react to Hillary’s attacks as poorly as they reacted to Bill’s.
3. I think Obama is making a mistake about the public financing uproar. If you haven’t been following this, Obama promised at the outset of the campaign that if the Republican nominee wanted to pledge to accept public financing, he would agree to it as well. Since McCain basically won the Republican nomination, he has been hitting Obama on this asking him to pledge to public financing. Obama has not wanted to pledge to that given his ENORMOUS fundraising advantage over John McCain. Also, McCain is attacking Obama now in the hopes that he’ll get to face Hillary instead of Barack. All early match-ups show Obama beating McCain solidly, while Hillary and McCain are tied. I want Barack to say: “No, I will not accept public financing. The public financing system was created before candidates had the ability to raise money from hundreds of thousands of average Americans. It used to be that 50,000 rich Americans would give $1000 each. Now it’s 500,000 average Americans giving $100 each. They have bought a place in the process. They own a little part of this campaign. I do not want to deny that right to the Americans who want to be a part of a new kind of politics. And when I am president, I will work to reform the Public Financing option so that it reflects today’s realities.” Then, he can follow this up with a few profiles of who is giving and why. Be strong on it. Don’t waffle. Just decide.
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It’s a snowy day in Jerusalem and with my morning Chumash class canceled, I’ve been poking around craigslist for apartments in NYC. Sara and I (and Ari) will be moving to New York at the end of May and are looking for advice from friends about where to live in New York. Should we bite the bullet and live in Manhattan? Should we do what everyone else is doing and move to Brooklyn? If Brooklyn, where in Brooklyn?

Readers of this blog, please tell us where you think we should look for an apartment!

P.S. Yes, Daria, I did steal this idea from you. It’s a good one. Can’t you share?

The U.S. Methodist Church has reopened the divestment debate with a discussion about withdrawing Methodist pensions funds from companies that “support the occupation.” Of course, divestment will only lead to a weakened Israeli economy, which accounts for nearly all of the GDP of the Palestinian Territories. A weak Israeli economy means an even weaker Palestinian economy (Israeli trade with the Territories is far outweighed by trade made abroad), which in turn fuels the violence that Arabs perpetrate on Jews, and the Israeli military responds to with large operations. Divestment starts by saying we want to punish Israel for its actions against the Palestinians, and ends up punishing Palestinians more.