archives
Why is McCain still pushing the tire-gauge attack, even though Obama's right that inflating our tires properly will prevent the need for offshore drilling? Paul Waldman has a theory:
Though there was no particular evidence that the tire-gauge attack was having an effect, the McCain campaign's glee was evident. Just days before, they had alleged that Obama's criticisms of their tactics constituted "fussiness and hysteria," and now here they were brandishing small, phallic objects bearing their opponent's name.
Meanwhile, McCain himself was sent out to pose in front of working oil rigs, to testify to his thirst for pulling more black gold from the earth. The message couldn't be plainer: See that itty-bitty, little tire gauge? If you vote for Obama, that's how big your penis is. If you vote for McCain, on the other hand, your penis is as big as this rig, thrusting its gigantic shaft in and out of the ground! [...]
At 72, John McCain is himself not exactly a simmering pot of heterosexual energy, causing women to swoon at the first whiff of his man-musk. [...] So something tells me this won't be the last time we'll see the McCain campaign calling Barack Obama "fussy," or sending their candidate out to stand in front of big, manly machines. After all this time, it would be far more surprising if they didn't.
We all know that conservation is for wimps — real men drill.
Zack Exley was an early player in the Dean movement and later went on to work as Director of Online Organizing for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. We'll be talking about what works and what doesn't when it comes to organizing online as well as what are some of the new technologies poised to revolutionize campaigns of the future.
Night School is DFA's interactive online training program. Every month Night School brings top campaign experts right to your home at absolutely no cost to you. Simply visit www.democracyforamerica.com/o
There's still space available for Camp Equality on August 16 in Salt Lake City. This is an exciting opportunity that will prepare you to help make 2008 the Year to Win for GLBT individuals across the country. Register now at www.hrc.org/campequality!
This year, elections will occur for a new president, all U.S. House members, one-third of the U.S. Senate, and thousands of state legislators.
Pluralism is the concept that politics and government are in their essence the result of activities of groups - the maligned "special interests." Nicholas Lemann celebrates the book that defined pluralism, and its relevance here and now:
2008 is the centenary of a curious and mesmerizing book that was long considered the most important study of politics and society ever produced by an American - "The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures" by Arthur Fisher Bentley....Its point can be stated quite simply:All politics and all government are the results of the activities of groups. Any other attempt to explain politics and government is doomed to failure.... Bentley, who seems to have shared the Progressives' goal of using government to curb the power of big business,....believed that [city political machines] had a more accurate understanding of how politics worked than the... liberals did....[He presents] politics as a never-ending, small-bore struggle for advantage among constantly shifting coalitions of interest groups...For Bentley, every political force that matters is an interest group, regardless of whether it cops to the charge.But the really interesting element of Bentley's theory is that it forces us to take a hard look at our Cinderella visions of pure political actors:
Pluralism, in the tradition of Bentley, requires that one see one's own political passions, and those of such unimpeachable actors as winners of the Nobel prize,...as representing something other than the promptings of pure justice....One has to get over the habit of assuming that "interests", and worse, lobbying and corruption, are the province only of one's political opponents,and not one's allies. Pluralism means dialing down the moral stature that we attach to universalist arguments, and dialing up the moral stature of particularism....
Recent comments
2 weeks 6 days ago
2 weeks 6 days ago
3 weeks 5 days ago
3 weeks 6 days ago
3 weeks 6 days ago