Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
You know about hte article a few months back noting how red states get
money from the system and blue states pay into it?
  

    
Yes... I write a bit about it in the book. Here's another snip:

=====

The best way to tell a Red state from a Blue state is not its location
in the country but how much federal tax residents pay versus how much
they get back from the federal government. People in the Red states
tend to believe in smaller government; people in the Blue states tend
to support (prudent) government spending. You would think, then, that
Red Staters are pissed because they pay more than their share of taxes
to the federal government. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Blue
Staters pay more taxes to the federal government than their states get
back in return. As one person on the conservative Free Republic website
put it, decrying the Blue States, “We have those who work vs lazy
slobs. We have morality vs immmorality. Representative republic vs
tyrantical communism.” Given that the Red Staters are sucking up
federal dollars, who exactly is immoral?
        Rural farm subsidies and pork barrel public work projects give the
Red States a distinct fiscal advantage. But the myth that the Blue
States are “takers” and the Red States are “givers” is one of the most
pernicious and persistent in politics. By playing the “taker” card,
conservative politicians have been able to cut back on popular programs
including preschoolers’ Head Start. The programs that serve Red
Staters are rarely subjected to such scrutiny. The Blue States either
have a bad political strategy or extremely bad P.R.
        Or perhaps it’s that the Blue Staters are perceived as “other,” and
the Red Staters are perceived as “we.”  Blue States are more urban and
have a higher concentration of immigrants and people of color. Red
States tend to be more rural, more white, and less first-generation
immigrant. The fight over Red and Blue states, in this sense, is not
just about taxes or ideology. It’s about who is perceived as a “real”
American. 
        A 2004 O’Leary/Zogby poll on American values described the Red and
Blue State divide this way: “the Blue States have fewer Republicans,
55-69 year olds (the most conservative age cohort), rural dwellers,
conservatives, Born-Again Christians, daily or weekly attendees at a
place of worship, local sports fans, gun owners, investors, military
veterans, and married voters. All of these differences portend a harder
sell for Republican candidates. On the other hand, the Red States,
have fewer younger voters, single voters, college graduates, liberals,
Catholics and Jews, union members, and non-prayers. In short, the two
regions think and vote differently because they are different.” 
  

    
>Republicans, 55-69 year olds (the most conservative age cohort),
>rural dwellers, conservatives, Born-Again Christians, daily or weekly
>attendees at a place of worship, local sports fans, gun owners,
>investors, military veterans, and married voters. 

You just described my neighbors. :-)
  

    
I wouldn't fit those colors too tightly to those states: e.g. Texas may be 
leaning toward Kerry, something none of us thought possible a month ago. 
  

    
do tell more <jonl>....

sharon, are people worked up about the election; or don't talk
politics (for fear of aggravating each other, or because most agree on
all the issue)?
  

    
It doesn't come up much, actually. Everyone knows I'm a Democrat and
people think it's cute. In the Grange, for example, there's one other
Democrat and he and I chat occasionally but otherwise we don't talk
politics per se much. 

The thing is, here in particular, it's true what they say 'all
politics is local politics.' There's a lot more focus on races like the
legislature and the sheriff and so on, because they actually affect
our lives, show up to debates, etc. I mean, I'm probably going to vote
for the Republican for sheriff because, for one thing, he showed up to
an event and I got a chance to meet him and hear from him, and I was
impressed by what I heard. 

Of course, I also hang out with a bunch of Democrats, and we're
certainly worked up and talk about it a lot. But day to day, no. The
one time I can remember something political coming up and it being a
big deal to people was when we were talking about the ninth circuit's
decision to remove 'under God' from the Pledge, and people were
horrified that I agreed.

On the other hand, I talked to a reporter today who said he'd talked
to a 55-year-old woman who was voting for the first time in her life,
and she was weeping as she told him about it. 

I drive around with Kerry and Dean bumper stickers, and I have a Kerry
sign in my window, and I've never once been harassed. When I worked
the Democrat booth at the state fair, we had about three people, in two
hours, walk by and say something nasty to us in passing, but in large
part people were polite, even Republicans (including our senator Mike
Crapo, who introduced himself to everyone in the booth and shook
hands).

I did doorknocking two weeks ago for the county commissioner, and I
had some people tell me they only voted Republican, and others tell me
they only voted Democrat, but everyone was polite about it.

Maybe it's because we don't have much in the way of rallies. Kerry
only comes here for vacation. Bush hasn't been here. There isn't
anything to stir up the populace. Or maybe it's the 'armed society is a
polite society' -- Idaho has one of the highest ratios of gun
ownership and concealed carries of any state. :-)

Plus, it's hunting season. :-)

The paper runs a hell of a lot of letters to the editor, though.
  

    
Sounds very calm compared to a lot of other places I've been, where
people are wound tight and not very nice when talking to each other.

By the way, I'll be doing a reading at Cody's on Telegraph, Berkeley,
at 7pm tonight. It's a Saturday. It's Halloween weekend. I don't expect
much of a crowd, but that often makes for a good discussion. And then
I'm going to go out and party... where's my costume????
  

    
Farai, I'm just catching up here, and flogging to finish the book this
weekend. What a marvelous thing you've done with it! 

I'm going to go back a bit here, and ask about the comments on P.
Diddy's Vote or Die initiative. I notice that none of the people you
cite mentioned the war as a literal "vote or die" issue, and yet it
seems likely that, once again,  minority and poor kids will end up
overrepresented in the military in that event- without even talking
about the  disenfranchisement that leads to military enlistments  in an
all-volunteer environment. Is it your sense that this message is
getting across?  

Another interesting observation I made, after talking recently with a
handful of my former students, all in their twenties now, is that while
none of them seemed to have much awareness of what's going on in Iraq,
every one of them had something to say on the subject of  how black
folks got screwed in Florida last time around.   The unfortunate
outcome seems to be that they feel more hopeless, not more determined
to make their votes count. 
  

    
> By the way, I'll be doing a reading at Cody's on Telegraph, Berkeley,
>  at 7pm tonight. It's a Saturday. It's Halloween weekend. I don't expect
>  much of a crowd,

got there...Cody's didn't have anyone scheduled, the room was empty...
  

    
Well, I owe you a beer.

Turns out that the scheduled event wasn't... scheduled.

Here's what I think happened: my publisher told me about the event; I
said, "it's a Saturday of Halloween, who's gonna come?" He said, "folks
will." But then they decided not to. But nobody told me.

It's only one of the humiliations of being a mid-list author... I did
show up, and they were like, um, what????

So, here's a for-real reading, followed by a for-real party... Please
come to either or both, and I will grab you a brew:

Wednesday Nov. 3 (this wed.)

7pm reading
North Beach branch, San Francisco Public Library
(http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/branches/northbeach.htm) 
2000 Mason St.


Followed by Post-Election Party 
(starts at 8:30pm)
DragonBar
473 Broadway Street
San Francisco, CA. 94117
415.834.9383
  

    

Re: Vote or Die and military... yes. Rock the Vote is making hay about
the draft issue, which has gotten some attention in debates and
through media.

A statement from them:

http://www.rockthevote.com/draft/

And a statement from my friend Susan, who has her own ideas about the
election:

"The Green Bay Packers beat the Washington Redskins at the Redskins
last home
game before the election. As history goes, this mean that John Kerry
(the
challenger, i.e. The Packers) will win the presidential election--If
the
Redskins (the incumbent) had won, we would have 4 more years of W.
Here's
the creepy part of the game. The Redskins lost due to a questionable
call
that resulted in a touchdown being reversed--in other words, they lost
due
to controversy........eeeeeerrrrrie!

Happy Halloween!"
  

    
Farai, I caught the video of your recent DC (?) talk on C-SPAN 2 on
Saturday.  I thought you were a really impressive (and persuasive)
speaker, and it was a great alternative to the poll coverage and
bickering on the news channels all weekend.  The crowd at Cody's don't
know what they missed.
 
  

    
Hah! Thanks... Yes, that was from the DC date of my book tour a week
or so ago. Bookstore events are weird because generally it's a fairly
small crowd, but a small crowd of smart people, and when there are
cameras you have to play to the cameras and the crowd.

I got a super-nice email from one viewer... I think in a way I am "off
message" because instead of talking as much about Kerry v. Bush, I am
speaking, in this book, about systemic reform to our voting system.
With this book, we're actually going to put out a new edition after the
election with an analysis of the 2004 elex. So I think in January or
so, when that book/edition comes out, it'll get a lot of traction.
  

    

Have you enjoyed working with this publisher?
  

    
In the end, yes. It's my third book; first time with an indy
publisher. Some things (like doing the cover art) were a huge pain in
the ass; and I got paid nearly nothing; but my books tend to have a
long academic afterlife so I know (or think) the checks will keep
coming in.

Doing a book with an indy publisher, in this case Soft Skull Press
(http://www.softskull.com), was the only way for me to get this out in
time for the election. I woke up one day, was like: hmm, it's almost
election time. Better do a book. Big publishers take at least a year to
turn around a book, unless it's some celebrity one-off.

And Soft Skull does a lot of great books, mix of nonfiction and
fiction weighted towards the latter. Based in Brooklyn, as is Akashic
Books, another fine indy imprint that does a mix, but weighted towards
fiction.
  

    

I think they publish some great things - I was at a book event for one of
their books recently and sadly the actual books didn't make it there in time
for the event.
  

    
I am voting this time.  I used to be a very regular voter, and I was
raised that way, but drifted.  I am not concerned or worried or
energized.  I am just voting because it is my right to do so, and it is
an important right to exercise.  Ultimately, it does not matter much
who is President.  Voting matters most in local elections.  National
elections are pre-determined by conflict resolutions far away from the
polling booths. Bush was chosen president sometime during the Clinton
administration.  Gore caved on election night because he long ago knew
that he was not supposed to win. 

The reason I was raised to vote is that in 1948 everyone thought Dewey
was going to win.  When Truman got elected, we learned our lesson, or
so I was told as a child.

Our guest wrote: "I had a great time giving a talk in my hometown of
Baltimore. I made a half-joking suggestion: half of African-Americans
should register as republicans then, in the primaries, vote for the
least radical-right Republican candidate then, vote for the best of the
candidates--dollars to donuts the Democrat, but you never know--in the
general election ..."

Would you suggest that half the Hmoung in Chicago should register as
Democrats and vote for conservatives?  How about the Ukrainians in
Cleveland, how should they vote? This parceling of people into ethnic
blocs is racist thinking.  If suggested by a conservative, it would be
identified as as such, and rightfully so. 

Never seeing individuals but only perceiving blocs of races, classes,
incomes, houses, cars, occupations, politcal parties, etc., is a deep
epistimological problem.  When conservative do it, they are excoriated
for sticking people in boxes with labels, and the criticism is valid. 
However, if you preface your mental shortcuts with a nod to the Green
Party, you can be excused almost anything.
  

    

Looks like you'll be at the north beach library zimby -

3 NOVEMBER, WEDNESDAY
*Trust:  Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters - Award winning journalist
Farai Chideya will read and discuss her new book. Trust argues that American
political culture now lacks the moral, legal and psychological framework for
debating complex issues in a pluralistic society where each issue consists
only of two opposing angles. The book concludes with an offer to rid
ourselves of such black and white thinking with a hope that we can build a
democracy that reflects our lives.
North Beach Branch Library, 7:00 p.m.
2000 Mason Street (at Columbus)



Could be a victory party!
  

    
I hope so, Debbie.

And <mercury>, I wrote the thing abt blacks registering republican.
Yes, identifying people by racial blocs is reductionist in some
ways--but race (as class; as regionality; gender; and age) can be
useful in describing how and why people vote and don't vote.

Basically, African-Americans vote 80 to 90 plus percent for the
Democratic presidential candidate, meaning there's little contest for
the black vote between the two parties. There are a few, very vocal,
black Republicans. Younger African-Americans are fed up with being, as
they see it, taken for granted by the Democratic party; but the
Republican voter suppression and record on economic and civil liberties
issues keeps most young African-Americans from even thinking about
voting Republican.

It's a catch-22 that no one's figured out yet. I was saying, only half
in jest, that black folks should register Republican to vote in the
primaries where they could have more impact.
  

    
Headline in last week's _The Onion_: "Republicans urge minorities
to get out and vote Nov. 3" :-)
  

    
hah! 

Sadly, there are so many dirty tricks going on it's crazy. One of them
was a person who went through a Latino neighborhood taking "votes"...
and saying "you voted with me; you don't have to go on Tuesday."

Admittedly, no one should be fooled by this, but there are a lot of
people who have an almost total ignorance of the system. 
  

    
By the way, today, wearing another one of my hats, I am conducting a
big fat Blog experiment. Please participate!

This email just went out to a mix of political observers, writers,
artists, etc:

Greetings:

One of the clear winners in this election--the only clear winner, for
now--is technology. Election 2004 saw the rise of the blogger; the
increasing use of email organizing for voter registration, education
and mobilization; and the proliferation of animation, graphics, and
humor distributed online.

Now it's your chance to have your say.

PopandPolitics.com has launched a live, interactive, real-time forum
for telling the story of election 2004.

Check it out here:                      http://pandpelex.blogspot.com/


The whole point is your participation. You can email in your personal
story or observations from going to the polls; mobilizing voters; or
monitoring the election. (And if you're one of those people with a
web-enabled PDA, you can do it from anywhere.)

Some of you may have received invitations to join the blog via
Blogger... email is easier! But the email-to-blog function was down,
now fixed just in time for the big day.

===========

Here's How You Email-to-Blog:

email the blog at:            popandpolitics.vote@blogger.com

your header will be the header for the post

your email  body text will be the text of the post

It's that simple!

==========

some notes:
1) we want to know who you are!  the technology isn't going to
automatically ID you. So at the bottom of your email give us an ID,
like:

Farai Chideya, Berkeley, California
or
Farai, Berkeley, California
or
A California Voter Hoping for the Best

2) if you have an automatically-generated ID tag or other gunk at the
bottom of your email, you can delete that stuff, or put

#end

at the end of your text, so the other material doesn't post

3) this experiment is only as good as the folks participating, so
please lay off the ad-hominem attacks, profanity, blah blah blah. we're
all grown-ups. (well, actually, it would be cool if kids posted
too....)

4) you can also comment on other people's posts. just go to the site
(http://pandpelex.blogspot.com/) and look at the bottom of the posts.
You'll see how many comments each item has, and by clicking on the
comment line, you can make a comment yourself. making a comment keeps
similar thoughts together in a flow, rather than scattering them
throughout the blog.

5) feel free to distribute this email widely. we want to hear from
people around the country--especially in battleground states--and
around the world.

Be well,
Farai, Jean, and PopandPolitics.com
http://www.PopandPolitics.com
  

    
Good luck with your blog experiment, Farai. In a way, that sort of feeds
into the kinds of questions that I've been pondering, since your blog
experiment is sort of a voting process. As you wrote, "Now it's your chance 
to have your say."

It seems a given that blogs are a powerful tool of expression. What other
models for voting and democracy exist in the United States? What strong 
models exist outside the US? Which models work the best, and how can we
take them from theory into practice?
  

    
Well, the blog experiment is going well in general, but the
email-to-blog function is sucking bigtime today. Still, we've got some
great firsthand  accounts: http://pandpelex.blogspot.com.

Thanks Cynthia... I do think the issue, at least after November 2, is
systemic change and not just "regime change." "Regime
change"--successful or no--leaves the system intact. And it's our very
system that is discouraging voters.

Think about the neighborhood you live in. Suppose you said, "I want to
invent a system where we've got a 50-50 split in neighborhood
leadership. We'll call half of you Team Blue, and the other half Team
Red. You're supposed to work together, but really you'll hate each
other. And if you don't join one of the teams, you have no
decisionmaking power." People would scratch their heads and say, "Why?"
Why would you have a system like that?

Well, now we need to ask why we have this system. The answer isn't
"well, this is just the way it is.".... there have been more successful
third parties, and the two major parties have squashed them (see
below.) In my little example, you wouldn't just get a Team Blue and a
Team Red. You'd have plenty of people who wanted to be on Team Purple
or Team Orange, and were pissed off they couldn't create their own
teams. If you insisted on having just Team Blue and Red, many of those
people would then probably sulk away

In its election-day missive, MoveOn has this to say about one of the
US systems that works, fusion voting (which I cover extensively in the
book... including how most states banned fusion voting a century ago to
block third party involvement):

"P.S. When you vote here in New York, you’ll see John Kerry and John
Edwards’ names on the ballot twice. First, they’ll be listed on the
Democratic Party line. Then, on Row E, they’ll be listed on the Working
Families Party line.


Here’s what the Working Families Party is about: The Working Families
Party is New York's only progressive third party. It's not a "spoiler"
party; it rejects what Ralph Nader is doing. What the WFP usually does
is to "cross-endorse" good Democrats, and then work to hold those
Democrats accountable on progressive issues like health care, jobs, the
Iraq debacle and the environment. For example, the WFP recently led
the successful fight to raise the minimum wage for New Yorkers.


Under New York's unique system of "fusion" voting, more than one party
can nominate the same candidate for office. The votes on each party
line are tallied separately, but then added together to determine who
wins. That means that unlike voters in other states, voters for New
York effectively get two votes for President - one for the candidate
and one for the party. This year, John Kerry is the candidate of both
the Democratic and Working Families parties. So Kerry supporters can
vote for him on either line.


In other words, a Kerry vote on the WFP line *counts just the same* as
a Kerry vote on the Democratic line – you’re not taking any votes away
from Kerry by voting on Row E.


To learn more about New York's Working Families Party, visit:
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/";
  

    
I was just browsing through an inkwell topic about a great book I've
read (and had the author on the radio): "Is that a Politician in Your
Pocket?" by Micah Sifry and Nancy Watzman.

Sifry said in Inkwell: "The basic idea is this: we need a paradigm
shift in how we approach
campaign finance reform. Instead of focusing most of our energy on
trying to regulate how private money gets raised and spent (a process
that can never be perfected, and perhaps shouldn't be), we should
think
about how to free candidates from their dependence on private money in
the first place."

I'd argue there's a similar dynamic with the two-party system, 

We need to re-think our relationship to the two party system that runs
nearly all of America. Instead of thinking "this is just the way it
is," or talking about running third-party candidates, we need to
dismantle the system from within until it screams for mercy and begs
for third-party participation. 

Unfortunately, I can only come up with two ways that's likely to
happen:

1) a bottom-up takeover, a la the right 30 years ago. school boards,
rent boards, dogcatcher. put people in positions where they affect
day-to-day policy, and funnel those people upward.
2) charismatic leadership. I'm not a big fan of it--it's unreliable.
But politics is a people profession; we need individuals with strong
values and ideas and charisma who will run and fight to win