Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
You could blend the two procedures if you could capture a smaller,
progressive state, such as Vermont or maybe Oregon, winning the governor's
spot (choice 2) co-ordinated with a couple of members of the state congress
to get hooks in both the legislative and executive sides.  There was some
crazy talk that this might actually happen under Ventura in Minnesota,
until it became clear that he wasn't really interested in reforming as much
as just shaking things up.
  

    
Blending is a good idea.

Farai, to what extent to you think we could divorce politics - and 
activism - form the perception that you have to have a lot of money to 
make anything happen? I've heard a lot of great ideas that went nowhere 
because somebody piped up and said "Okay, but how are we going to raise 
money?" I've seen others that worked because the attitude was just do it, 
you'll find money if and when you need it.

But the mindset that you have to have money to make things happen is far 
more pervasive than the can-do-regardless attitude.
  

    
I'm actually working on a project right now that looks at different
models of citizen engagement, some of them totally (almost) free;
others high-budget (like lobbying), and many somewhere in-between. My
hope is to compile a set of "best practices" for several forms of
citizen engagement, so people actually have a sense of how to make
change. For example, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland
has some money--mainly grant money--but they leverage it in interesting
ways, gathering students and taking them to speak at government forums
and meetings; and running their own record label to do alternative
messaging. They're making very strategic use of the resources they
have, and in the end, their best asset is the fact that they can
convince high school students to go speak--sometimes in poetry/rhyme
form--about education and prison policy to elected officials.
  

    
One of the disturbing things about this election is the sense that the
country split into teams - red vs. blue - Fox vs. NY times.   There's
a great cartoon in the NY'er this week where 2 people are commenting
that they should make the ELECTION best of seven, not just the World
Series.    Do you expect there to be an ongoing rise in citizen
political engagement in the blue states, or will the groundswell of
political energy dissipate because of the election results?
  

    

Any thoughts about why missing voters didn't show up?

Youth didn't turn up.  GOTV seemed to work more effectively among
republicans than dems in many places.  Despite blogging, cultural
outreach, and all kinds of hard work. Anybody know why people sat it
out even when they'd registered? 
  

    
I have no evidence for this, but I wonder if some people got
over-confident.  I can imagine being an 18-year-old surrounded by other
people who hate Bush, and being sure that they will all vote for
Kerry.  The free-rider problem, I think.
  

    
Youth *did* turn up, in largest numbers since 1968, largest percentage
since 1972. It's only the *percentage* of youth voters that didn't
rise, as turnout increased among other demographics as well:

http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/view/67033
  

    
Yes.  They won the GOTV fight, a lot of it church congregation by church
congregation, but we got out a huge amount of vote too.  This was no
landslide.
  

    

Our next interview has moved into the center ring, but there's no reason why
this one has to end.  Please continue!

And thank you, all, for being here.
  

    
Would the Red turnout have been dominant if it weren't for the gay
marriage issue?  
  

    
Yes, thanks all....  Meanwhile I'll keep talking as long as there's a
conversation.

And no, sadly, there wouldn't have been the massive turnout of
evangelicals if the (totally specious) gay marriage issue hadn't taken
center stage.

It's also true that youth turnout was up, but all turnout was up so
youth didn't stand out.

I can't wait to see a full accounting of voting demographics,
especially how poor whites and young Americans of color voted. (Among
the least likely to vote).

Also-will the two parties tell new voters to go fuck themselves, or
will they start listening to their demands?
  

    
>Also-will the two parties tell new voters to go fuck themselves, or
>will they start listening to their demands?

That you have to ask sorta answers your question.
  

    
Not entirely. I think whether the two parties listen to new voters
depends:

1) on how much advocacy groups--whether they are christian-right for
the Repubz or moveon-style organizations for the Dems--can find
leverage post-election and voices willing to listen
2) how much the Democratic party feels this loss was a referendum on
their leadership; and whether and how that leadership changes; I'm
hearing rumors that McAuliffe is out, as he should be, and that some of
the people from MoveOn could take key positions in the party but none
of that's confirmed.
  

    
As a longtime activist for the Democrats who later became a Libertarian,
I opine that you don't know your Democratic Party. The Party has zero
interest in listening to the voters for two reasons:

        1) They attract activists that the Party believes are left
        of the mainstream, and since the Reagan era, the Party has
        been dedicated to moving to the right.

        2) The Party is in the hands of its aging and weakening
        major constituencies, esp. the unions.
  

    
That's your opinion, and I'm not saying I disagree on the surface. I
know a lot of folks in the Democratic party, too, and have become
increasingly disgusted w/ the lack of vision. I don't think the labor
unions actually have that much power left in the party. I think the
McAuliffe corporate democrats are still holding sway, which was more
palatable during the Clinton era because he had charisma, but in the
absence of a charismatic leader the party seems divorced (is divorced)
from any kind of working-class constituency. And it's not going to win
Southern whites back. And it hasn't come to grips with that yet.
  

    
The circular firing squad is working on a local level, too, if the
email I'm seeing from Idaho Democrats about state and county efforts is
indicative.
  

    
The Dems really haven't learned their lesson yet. Not that I've seen. I think
they may go the way of the Whigs eventually. They almost learned when they
made the conservative Nancy Pelosi, who passes in the party for a "leftist",
leader of the House Dems, but they're starting to backslide into me-tooism.

My favorite backslide was Kerry in the first debate: "I, too, will hunt
terrorists down and kill them!" he shouted. Metoo metoo metoo, the
mantra of the Democrats since Ronald Reagan.

Off. Off with them. Off into the ashheap of history.
  

    
Well, Bush had some pretty good me-tooisms himself, as I recall.
  

    
Yeah, but he has the excuse of being not renowned for original
thought.

The Dems, on the other hand, had a war hero genius-IQ handsome and
rich candidate with a handsome, genius-IQ and rich vice presidential
candidate to run against a knuckleheaded, cocaine-addled
draft-dodger/deserter and the biggest crook who ever stained the vice
presidency of the United States.

And they lost on the grounds that the latter Prez candidate was wiser
and more patriotic!

That took some doing! Only the Democrats could accomplish that!
  

    
I never heard anybody call Bush "wiser" than anybody. If you're going
to make a point, Jack, you're going to have to play a little fairer
than that.
  

    
Well, wiser about the course of the nation. "Wise" is not an American word,
except in "wise guy", anyway, it's English.
  

    
Jax, do you have young children?

My daughter watches My Little Pony at her dad's house, and
such-and-such a pony is identified as "The wisest pony in the land," so
all the little kids talk about 'wise.'
  

    
Ah, it's creeping back into the language. Glad to hear it.

Children that age? Not for a while. Grandchild that age, but
she, like my children did, is growing up TV-less.
  

    
Am I the only one who feels we're drifting off topic?
  

    
well, the topic is officially done, so we could kill it, or drift, or
return to center.