Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters -the black protesters - spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn't like were enforced by the government? Would these protester - these black protesters with guns - be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that's what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation's capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country's political leaders if the need arose.
Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionist mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.
Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: "He's a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun." Because that's what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.(*edit* But Kanye saying George Bush Doesn't like black people required an apology? -_- c'mon son)
In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?
To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark "other" does so, however, it isn't viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic.
Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and "American-ness" of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.
This is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The MO House of Representatives Does It Again
Thanks to Rep. Mike Colona (one of the few progressives in the Missouri Statehouse) for this information:
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted 92-60 to overturn a state minimum wage law approved by 76 percent of Missouri voters in 2006. Democrats unanimously opposed reversing the will of voters, while all but nine Republicans supported doing so.
Under the voter-approved law, the state's minimum wage is adjusted annually to adjust for inflation. For the first couple years after the law's passage, it meant that the state minimum was higher than the federal minimum. Because the federal minimum supersedes the state wage if it is higher, Missouri again began following the federal wage in July 2009 when it increased to $7.25 an hour, where it remains today.
HB 61 would prohibit the state minimum wage from ever exceeding the federal minimum. The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration.
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted 92-60 to overturn a state minimum wage law approved by 76 percent of Missouri voters in 2006. Democrats unanimously opposed reversing the will of voters, while all but nine Republicans supported doing so.
Under the voter-approved law, the state's minimum wage is adjusted annually to adjust for inflation. For the first couple years after the law's passage, it meant that the state minimum was higher than the federal minimum. Because the federal minimum supersedes the state wage if it is higher, Missouri again began following the federal wage in July 2009 when it increased to $7.25 an hour, where it remains today.
HB 61 would prohibit the state minimum wage from ever exceeding the federal minimum. The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Florida Cuts Off Its Nose To Spite Its Face...
Thanks to Governor Rick Scott, Florida might soon miss out on one of the first forward-looking initiatives to come out of DC in years: modern, progressive, sustainable transportation.
Desperate Times, Drastic Measures
Desperate Times, Drastic Measures
While I don't endorse this strategy, it is heartening to see a parent that cares about this problem. Now if only the school district and local education and counseling professionals could help provide the parenting strategies that she needs in this case.
While I don't endorse this strategy, it is heartening to see a parent that cares about this problem. Now if only the school district and local education and counseling professionals could help provide the parenting strategies that she needs in this case.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Young Voter Turnout Dropped 60 Percent from 2008 to 2010, and Democrats Took the Hit
Young Voter Turnout Dropped 60 Percent from 2008 to 2010, and Democrats Took the Hit
John Nichols for The Nation
November 16, 2010
Everyone knows that young voters were less enthused about the 2010 mid-term elections than they were about the 2008 presidential election, when their votes powered Barack Obama to a landslide victory and gave Democrats big boosts in congressional contests. But detailed studies of the election reveal that the decline in voting by Americans aged 18 to 29 was actually more serious than initially imagined.
In 2008, polls showed that young people were overwhelmingly supportive of Obama and the Democrats. And they turned out in droves. According to the research group Circle: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which tracks civic engagement among young voters, 51 percent of 18 to 19 year olds voted that year.
In 2010, polls showed that young people were still supportive of Obama and the Democrats. But only 20.9 percent of them bothered to vote.
Circle director Peter Levine said that: “For liberal students, this election felt, at best, as a defensive move, protecting a Congress they don’t like that much."
That cost Democrats Senate and House seats across the country. And the down-ballot losses were even more significant, as close contests for legislative and local races tipped to the Republicans after young people failed to show.
The Circle study suggests that turnout among young voters in 2010 was down almost 10 percent from the last mid-term election year, 2006, when Obama was not even on the ballot.
Those numbers are significantly worse than initial exit polling suggested.
And the picture on ground is even darker.
In Champaign County, Illinois, home to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the ten precincts identified by local election officials as "entirely campus" turned out 7,535 votes in 2008. This year, according to a survey by the Politico, the figure fell to 2,615. That's represent's a 65 percent drop in turnout in precincts were young voters make up most of the electorate.
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk easily won Champaign County, as he did a number of other parts of the state where campus turnout collapsed. Overall, in Illinois, 54 percent of voters over 30 cast ballots November 2, while just 23 percent of voters under 30 did so. That's no small matter when we recall that Kirk won by just 65,000 votes statewide.
John Nichols
Bernie Sanders and the Progressive Plan to Balance Budgets, Defeat Deficits and Avert Austerity (Government, Politics)
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is ready to fight for a progressive alternative to proposals to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden says: “Virtually everything that drove college kids to turn out for Obama kind of got ignored."
Democrats simply did not get campus voters excited enough to go to the polls -- even for a young Democratic Senate candidate with close ties to Obama, Alexi Giannoulias. The situation was similar across the country, and a Politico review of races across the country suggests it cost the party House seats in New York, Ohio, Virginia and other states.
What's the problem?
1. Getting young voters to the polls is about more than the candidate. Some of the youngest and most tech-savvy Democratic contenders in 2010 lost. And that's a fact that President Obama ought to note as he prepares for a difficult 2012 reelection campaign. While Obama was on the winning side of the enthusiasm gap in 2008, he may not be there in 2010.
2. Democrats have not done enough for young people. While there have been some important initiatives with regard to student loans, and while the federal stimulus bill did a lot to keep colleges open and affordable, there was never a sense that 18 to 29 year olds were a central -- or even prominent -- concern of the Obama administration or the aging Democratic leadership in the House and Senate.
3. Even where Democrats did deliver -- as on the student loan front -- they did a lousy job of communicating about their accomplishments. Imagine Democrats failing to remind seniors of their work to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and you get the picture. Democrats also failed to develop a youth agenda that would have made a case to young people for getting to the polls and giving Obama's party the majorities it needed to advance meaningful legislation.
4. There are still problems with access to the polls for young people, especially those living in campus settings where local officials are frequently accused of erecting barriers to young voters. Champaign County's Shelden, a Republican, was accused of setting up an early-voting center in an area taht was hard for students to reach. That was a common complaint around the country, and it is easier to blame physical and technical factors. But there is scant evidence that Democrats made themselves champions of youth voting. And if the Democrats won't fight for the right of young people to vote, they should not expect much in the way of 18-to-29-yeat-old turnout.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, that is precisely the vote they needed in 2010.
It is, as well, precisely the vote Barack Obama will need in 2012.
Neither the president, nor his party, can ignore the stark data from 2010 if they plan to compete in 2012.
“Since 2004, young voters have been one of the strongest Democratic constituencies,” explains CIRCLE director Levine, who says that: “Democrats need to engage them better than they did in 2010..."
Right now, young people still lean Democratic. But Republicans, Levine says, have an opening to "make inroads in a generation that continues to prefer Democrats" -- especially if Democrats continue to neglect them.
John Nichols
November 16, 2010
John Nichols for The Nation
November 16, 2010
Everyone knows that young voters were less enthused about the 2010 mid-term elections than they were about the 2008 presidential election, when their votes powered Barack Obama to a landslide victory and gave Democrats big boosts in congressional contests. But detailed studies of the election reveal that the decline in voting by Americans aged 18 to 29 was actually more serious than initially imagined.
In 2008, polls showed that young people were overwhelmingly supportive of Obama and the Democrats. And they turned out in droves. According to the research group Circle: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which tracks civic engagement among young voters, 51 percent of 18 to 19 year olds voted that year.
In 2010, polls showed that young people were still supportive of Obama and the Democrats. But only 20.9 percent of them bothered to vote.
Circle director Peter Levine said that: “For liberal students, this election felt, at best, as a defensive move, protecting a Congress they don’t like that much."
That cost Democrats Senate and House seats across the country. And the down-ballot losses were even more significant, as close contests for legislative and local races tipped to the Republicans after young people failed to show.
The Circle study suggests that turnout among young voters in 2010 was down almost 10 percent from the last mid-term election year, 2006, when Obama was not even on the ballot.
Those numbers are significantly worse than initial exit polling suggested.
And the picture on ground is even darker.
In Champaign County, Illinois, home to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the ten precincts identified by local election officials as "entirely campus" turned out 7,535 votes in 2008. This year, according to a survey by the Politico, the figure fell to 2,615. That's represent's a 65 percent drop in turnout in precincts were young voters make up most of the electorate.
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk easily won Champaign County, as he did a number of other parts of the state where campus turnout collapsed. Overall, in Illinois, 54 percent of voters over 30 cast ballots November 2, while just 23 percent of voters under 30 did so. That's no small matter when we recall that Kirk won by just 65,000 votes statewide.
John Nichols
Bernie Sanders and the Progressive Plan to Balance Budgets, Defeat Deficits and Avert Austerity (Government, Politics)
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is ready to fight for a progressive alternative to proposals to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden says: “Virtually everything that drove college kids to turn out for Obama kind of got ignored."
Democrats simply did not get campus voters excited enough to go to the polls -- even for a young Democratic Senate candidate with close ties to Obama, Alexi Giannoulias. The situation was similar across the country, and a Politico review of races across the country suggests it cost the party House seats in New York, Ohio, Virginia and other states.
What's the problem?
1. Getting young voters to the polls is about more than the candidate. Some of the youngest and most tech-savvy Democratic contenders in 2010 lost. And that's a fact that President Obama ought to note as he prepares for a difficult 2012 reelection campaign. While Obama was on the winning side of the enthusiasm gap in 2008, he may not be there in 2010.
2. Democrats have not done enough for young people. While there have been some important initiatives with regard to student loans, and while the federal stimulus bill did a lot to keep colleges open and affordable, there was never a sense that 18 to 29 year olds were a central -- or even prominent -- concern of the Obama administration or the aging Democratic leadership in the House and Senate.
3. Even where Democrats did deliver -- as on the student loan front -- they did a lousy job of communicating about their accomplishments. Imagine Democrats failing to remind seniors of their work to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and you get the picture. Democrats also failed to develop a youth agenda that would have made a case to young people for getting to the polls and giving Obama's party the majorities it needed to advance meaningful legislation.
4. There are still problems with access to the polls for young people, especially those living in campus settings where local officials are frequently accused of erecting barriers to young voters. Champaign County's Shelden, a Republican, was accused of setting up an early-voting center in an area taht was hard for students to reach. That was a common complaint around the country, and it is easier to blame physical and technical factors. But there is scant evidence that Democrats made themselves champions of youth voting. And if the Democrats won't fight for the right of young people to vote, they should not expect much in the way of 18-to-29-yeat-old turnout.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, that is precisely the vote they needed in 2010.
It is, as well, precisely the vote Barack Obama will need in 2012.
Neither the president, nor his party, can ignore the stark data from 2010 if they plan to compete in 2012.
“Since 2004, young voters have been one of the strongest Democratic constituencies,” explains CIRCLE director Levine, who says that: “Democrats need to engage them better than they did in 2010..."
Right now, young people still lean Democratic. But Republicans, Levine says, have an opening to "make inroads in a generation that continues to prefer Democrats" -- especially if Democrats continue to neglect them.
John Nichols
November 16, 2010
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