Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

I've been thinking... since the Dean campaign there has been a lot 
of talk about the net as an organizing tool, or a political fundraising 
tool.  Do you see state or local candidates using the web effectively yet?
  

    
Not around Indiana, but then the local blogosphere wasn't very noticeable
last campaign cycle. It's hard telling if someone will excite the local
grass roots, such as they are. I'm somewhat encouraged by the fact that
today I was notified by a candidate for Indiana's 4th District that he had
updated his website. Sure enough, it had been upgraded from a miserable one
page affair to a site that looks pretty good upon initial review.

. . .

Hah! Thanks for asking the question Gail. I was verifying the URL to post a
link -- it's <http://www.sandersforcongress.org> but I mistakenly typed in
".com" and I got Sanders' primary challenger Rick Cornstuble on a redirect.

New blog entry coming.
  

    
Heh!
  

    
Now to see if anyone cares. I know other active Democrats and local news
reporters read my site fairly often. But Indiana's 4th District probably
isn't going to be competitive. I expect the Democratic candidate will be a
nearly unfunded sacrificial lamb to Steve Buyer. Maybe a minor scuffle like
this can get Sanders some media attention at the expense of Cornstuble.
Until now, I didn't really have a preference, but with Cornstuble doing
something underhanded, I guess I support the other guy.
  

    
What's the permalink to your explanation of what he did?
  

    
Oops, meant to post that:
<http://www.masson.us/blog/?p=1316>
  

    
> I'm reasonably
> confident that if one party is leaving a vacuum, either the other
> established party or a new party will fill it reasonably quickly. 

I'm not quite to sanguine about someone rushing in to fill a political
vacuum.   For example, the Democrats apparent strategy of trying to be
Republican Lite has created a political hole left-of-center.   Some
of the Canadian and European members of the Politics conf here on the
Well continue to note that our "left-wing" politician would be considered
center to center-right anywhere else in the world.   Yet for nearly 10 
years now no one has been able to claim that territory on the left.

The so-called "screaming lefty" Howard Dean is clearly quite centrist if
you examine his actual voting record.   He was labeled a lefty because
of his opposition to Bush's insane war in Iraq.

The Clintons are hardly rabid leftys.   Their idea of health care reform
amounted to a different scheme for paying off the health insurance companies
than the one we have have now; it wasn't even remotely close to single-payer.
Clinton presided over NAFTA and much of the outsourcing currently plaguing
our economy.   He let Wall Street bond brokers run the Treasury in the person
of Robert Rubin.   The lefty cred he earned with me was the budget balancing 
tax increases he asked for.   THe real courage in the tax battle, however,
came from Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky when she cast the deciding vote for 
the tax bill, and it cost her her seat in Congress.

Yet Dean and the Clintons are The Powers That Be in the Democratic Party.

I think maybe the real problem here is that there really *isn't* a "left"
in the US anymore.   No party will rush in to fill a void so shallow.
  

    
It is possible my faith is misplaced, but I guess I'll wait and see. I tend
to think the impetus for the budget balancing in the 90s came in significant
part from Perot and his Reform Party. If he hadn't made such a ruckus about
the deficit -- in a way that resonated with the public to judge from his 20%
showing -- I don't know that President Clinton would have gotten his tax
plan passed.

But, as you mentioned, he was not a particularly good friend to ordinary
workers. I don't think that has been especially clear until lately. For
now, it is common enemy time on the left. I don't think anyone is yet
ready to splinter off and give control to the current batch of
Republicans. But, if the DLC runs another lackluster effort in '06 and '08
that brings no results, I think we'll see a populist movement either
within or outside of the Democratic Party. If the Democrats are successful 
in the upcoming cycles but don't do anything to hold ordinary workers, I 
think their successes will be short lived. 

Even if I'm right, however, I'd certainly agree that this movement occurs 
so slowly that there is a great deal of pain in the interim as the 
public's needs go unmet.
  

    
Hi, Doug. I'm a northern Indiana ex-pat (born in Gary, raised in
Merrillville, college at Purdue) and it is nice to see your blog and
your presence here on the WELL.

I echo your comments about Indiana being a split state. The northwest
counties that are on central time along with Chicago tend towards
Chicago-sentiment politics (at least back when I lived in the region 6
years ago). Downstate Indiana is similar to downstate Illinois in the
way it will vte Republican. The obvious difference is population
balance; NW IN has nothing at all analagous to the Chicago Democratic
base.

I also think one problem Indiana Dems have had in getting strength
downstate is that the Lake County Dems have more in common with Chicago
and NW IN voters get far more information about Chicago & Illinois
politics than downstate Indiana. Has the net started to change that
trend or do you think it can?
  

    
A little help please?  What's "region 6" and where is Lake County?

[As an aside : how's the first workday on DST going for Hoosiers?]
  

    <scribbled by pjm Mon 3 Apr 06 16:05>
  

    
http://www.in.gov/dor/reference/misc/county-tax.html
  

    
http://www.eciwib.org/plan.htm

"Indiana Region 6 is made up of Blacford, Delaware, Grant, Henry, Jay,
Madison and Randolph counties."
  

    
I was living in "the region" 6 years ago; not living in region 6. By
region I meant the Chicagoland region, not The Region which is
shorthand for the Calumet Region in Lake County. Lake County, Indiana
is the northwestern most county in the state.
  

    
Also, I live in the Bay area these days (and I work 3 floors above the
Well offices).
  

    
Funny quirk that there actually is a Region 6!
  

    
Hehe. Yeah, "the Region" is barely considered to be part of Indiana where
I grew up. It's just part of Chicago that happens to be across the state
line. And even when I was working for the legislature, the sense I got was
that, in return for being given a pile of money and being left alone, the
legislators in the Region would cast their votes for the pet issues of
their fellow Democrats. 

I haven't really gotten the sense of folks from northwestern Indiana 
participating in the Indiana blogosphere. The strongest presence for some 
odd reason seems to be from Fort Wayne. The web is lousy with Fort Wayne 
blogs. Indianapolis has its fair share of contributors, just by virtue of 
its population I suspect. Evansville makes itself felt somewhat as well. 
Other than that, the state seems mostly dark to me. That's mostly blog 
authors and frequent commenters to my blog forming my opinion. I couldn't 
say where the readership comes from particularly. And, like I've mentioned 
before, the Indiana blogosphere has grown by leaps and bounds over the 
past year. Who knows what the next year or two might hold. 
  

    
I'm digressing here a bit, but every so often I'm reminded of what a
gifted crowd hangs out at the Well. In the past couple of weeks, that's
happened twice in the context of my Indiana related blog activities. Last
week, a commenter to my blog lectured me (mildly) on Godwin's Law. It was
all I could do to say something like "Godwin's Law? Let me tell you
something. I know Mike Godwin and you sir, are no Mike Godwin." But, I
didn't because a) I don't know <mnemonic> all that well, and b) it wasn't
particularly relevant to the point at hand. Then this evening, one of the
Indiana gay issues blog posted a John Carroll column.
<http://www.bilerico.com/2006/04/001201.php> It was a bit disorienting. I
see <jrc> on the Well so much, my first unprocessed thought was that he
had posted something. Then the absence of typos brought me to my senses
and I realized it wasn't well denizen <jrc> but rather renowned columnist
John Carroll.

Bringing it around a bit to this topic, reading and writing on the Well
has been excellent training for blogging. Many of the political, economic,
and philosopical ideas I write about have been honed to one degree or
another from discussions here.
  

    
Further odd Well connections:

In an different Well conf mention is made of the Kinsey Institute's
upcoming photo exhibit "Expressive Bodies: Contemporary Art Photography 
from The Kinsey Institute".   I'm always sort of mildly surprised when 
I'm reminded that the Kinsey Institute is located at Indiana Univ in
Indianapolis.  

It's really temptingly easy for those of us on the coasts to dismiss 
the states in the interior of the country as filled with Mrs Grundy's
or various Bible thumpers, forgetting that the "liberal Left Coast"
is really just a thin strip along the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Chicago has been mentioned as a powerful Big City force in Indiana.
How powerful an effect does Indianapolis (or Fort Wayne or Evansville)
have on the culture of the state?   Is the cultural divide between
(for example) Indianapolis and downstate sharper than the divide 
between ohhh ... Seattle and Spokane?
  

    
It's actually the main Bloomington branch of Indiana University that is home
to the Kinsey Institute. And, frankly, I'm surprised as well. But I suppose
it's something of the luck of place, time, and person - with more emphasis
on the time and person for the success of Kinsey. I have a hard time
believing that Kinsey would be as successful these days.

I don't know enough about Seattle and Spokane to compare, but to me there
seem to be three principle parts of Indiana: Indianapolis, the Region, and
everywhere else. Indianapolis exerts a huge force cultural and otherwise
on the state. The Region seems to be more successful in escaping Indy's
gravitational pull due to its own significant population (Gary, East
Chicago, Hammond, Michigan City, Merrillville, Valparaiso, Munster,
Highland, Schererville, and Dyer) and its proximity to Chicago. 

The rest of the state tends to be more rural in nature and subject to 
Indianapolis's influence, but somewhat resentful and resistant to that 
influence. The citizens in Indianapolis tend to forget that the rest of 
the state exists. (Of course I'm generalizing horribly, but that's the 
sense I've gotten from living in various parts of the state.)
  

    
I think it is the proximity to Chicago that makes the difference, primarily.
Growing up I knew more about Chicago politics and Illinois politics thanks
to the TV news coverage coming out of the city. These days I know of Pete
Visclosky and Chet Dobis primarily because my mom still lives in the state
and has no qualms about pestering her elected representatives on issues
important to her.

At its heart Indiana political geography is similar to Illinois's with the
exception that Chicago comprises nearly half of its state's population while
Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties (the three counties that touch Lake
Michigan) account for only about 12-15% of Indiana's population.  I think
... well, I'll be honest; I don't know where other Democratic enclaves in
the state are. I was surprised that Bayh got elected governor when he did.
  

    
At some point, I really have to do a red/blue map to see exactly where the
parties fit geographically into the state.

I know the Region and South Bend have a lot of Democrats. I presume without
being able to name any specifically that a number of Democrats come from
Indianapolis. I know Evansville is home to more than a couple. But currently
there is a 52-48 split in the Indiana House and up until the 2004 election,
the Democrats had controlled the House since '96. So it's not just Evan
Bayh.
  

    
Wow, I had no idea the lege was split that closely. I'd be curious to
see how each district voted for both its state rep and for President in
2004. 
  

    
Seattle vs Spokane ...

Seattle is not quite as liberal as San Francisco, but you can
thank Seattle and King County for the fact that Washington has
two Democratic women as US Senators and a Democratic woman 
governor.  Think nice, liberal city with lotsa coffee and rain.

Spokane is essentially Idaho.
  

    
FWIW, John Kerry got about 39% of the vote in Indiana. For some reason,
Hoosiers are not willing to entertain seriously the idea of voting for a
Democratic President. And yet at the state level, the Democrats controlled
the Governor's office from '88 to '04 and (as I mentioned) the House from
'96 to '04. Evan Bayh has comfortably won two elections to the Senate.

Granted, Indiana Democrats are probably quite a bit more conservative than
New England or west coast Democrats, but still, the state isn't as much of a
GOP lock as outsiders probably think.