Progressive globalization

It's nearly the end of another long weekend -- at least for some of you. Me, there are no holidays in the news biz. I'm lucky to have weekends off from the daily grind of the newsroom. So I'll be heading back there tomorrow, where the latest installment of We Love the Troops Day will finally be winding down.

Now don't get me wrong. I certainly support our troops -- where they serve honorably, ethically and morally, as I suspect most are.

But there are, as we've been told, a few "bad apples" in the bunch who stink up the place and cast a really bad pall on everybody else. And that goes for some of the lower ranked troops they command as well.

Ha. You thought I was talking about the non-coms, didncha? I certainly coulda been. We've seen plenty of Article 31 hearings and courts martial -- some of which actually ended in convictions but most of which let the accused off with little more than a slap on the wrist, if anything -- and even a murder trial for a former soldier now convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi teenaged girl and killing most of her family.

But nah. I'm much more concerned about the guys who give the orders, who set the tone for the troops who fight and work under them. No, I'm not letting the little guys off either -- a soldier has a duty to question illegal orders. But the real culprits, the ones who never seem to suffer the consequences of their actions, are the officers. The high ranking officers, and their civilian masters.

Take Abu Ghraib, for example. And handful of bad apple soldiers were convicted, and a couple of officers got minor disciplinary actions. Except for the general in command of Abu Ghraib at the time, one Janis Karpinski. You will notice that she is not the typical male general. However, a typical male general -- Geoff Miller, who set the tone at Guantanamo before coming to Abu Ghraib -- was working the interrogations at the notorious prison. But it was Karpinski who got busted.

Miller? The guy who trained soldiers in torture techniques retired a major general. To be fair, Congress delayed his retirement because they thought he wasn't completely truthful with them about torture, but they eventually relented. If GW were still president, he'd probably get a Medal of Freedom. As it was, he did get a Distinguished Service Medal.

Karpinski was forced to retire as a colonel although she told the truth. How convenient to have a woman scapegoat available.

And the civilians. Well, we already know that not even Barack Obama is gonna hold their feet to the fire. He's letting the Dick and Liz show set the tone, and it's working like a charm. Americans are absolutely convinced now that torture is a pretty bad thing, but it's necessary to keep America safe from the evil Muslims. I mean terrorists.

Meanwhile, our friendly neighborhood Congressional Democrats are busy doing what they do best -- fuck up the best chance of having an actual liberal government with liberal policies and liberal outcomes that serve the greater good rather than do good for the greater wealth of this country.

And the Republicans. Oh my god, the Republicans. They seem to get more out of sync with the universe every day, while my colleagues fall all over themselves to make sure their every utterance is broadcast to the world as if it were the words of someone who actually understands the world, you know, like, Gandhi or somebody.

And yet ... and yet ... for all the surface sameness we're seeing these first few months of the Obama presidency -- and there is quite a bit -- there's quite a bit different as well. Hell, just having a Democrat in office makes it quite a bit different from the last eight years. And really, do you think Darth Cheney would have come out from whatever dark hole he lives in and put himself all over our televisions if he weren't worried that Obama was gonna fuck up everything he worked so hard for? Hell no, he wouldn't.

But the biggest difference isn't playing out on television. It's not even on the radio or in the newspapers. You see a little of it at some of the Big Blogs, but those places are so infected with the virus of popularity now that they, too, have lost touch with the common ground.

But places like this, well, this is the common ground. I've spent the last several days preparing for A World of Progress' upcoming redesign (oops, Publisher Lady, was I not sposed to mention that yet?), and as part of that I've actually had a look at just about every post on the site, from calls to action to personal stories to hints on making a compost pile to political rants.

And in each and every post I found the same thing -- a yearning to learn, to improve, to help others along this long and difficult path. To progress beyond both the petty and the personal and to redefine the way we look at globalization, heretofore viewed as some nefarious plot for the wealthy to secure their hold on us by both the right and the left.

But that's just the obvious part, carried out by obvious people in pursuit of their obvious enrichment. The real acts of globalization are taking place right here, where an American man living in Mumbai reads a post by a journalist in one of the media capitals of the United States and wants to publish it in an online magazine he writes for published by a woman in the Appalachian Mountains.

That worked out pretty well, so soon the journalist is fully on board, along with an historian with degrees in U.S. and Middle Eastern history, a lesbian on the West Coast, an environmentalist in Texas and a whole bunch of contributors who make A World of Progress one of the most exciting spots on this thing we call Internet.

I knew that, but going through the whole history of the place really made it very, very clear. And I'm not just saying that to curry favor with the boss. The puppy, well, that's another matter altogether.

I like it here so much, in fact, that I'll soon be shutting down my other blogs and posting exclusively here. OK, I'm already posting exclusively here, but soon I'll shut down the other blogs.

But my point, and I do have one, is that it is our leaders who set the tone, who make it clear what's acceptable and not acceptable, who point out the direction we underlings -- no matter how much peer level we actually have -- should be moving.

That's certainly true at dank Iraqi prisons where generals teach torture and walk away with their rank intact. And it's true in places like this where the right people come together at the right time to create something unique and powerful.

Either way, the troops get the message and respond accordingly. The difference plays out across the globe, for better or worse.

But here, unlike at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and who knows how many secret facilities around the world, the good guys win. And when we do, the world benefits.



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Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

Meghan McCain keeps trying to convince America that there is such a thing as a "progressive Republican." Here she is, speaking to the Log Cabin Republicans, that sad group of misguided (mostly) gay men who actually think the Republicans may some day give a shit about them:

(1) Most of our nation wants our nation to succeed; (2) most people are ready to move on to the future, not live in the past; and (3) most of the old school Republicans are scared shitless of that future.

You know the old problem. Political discussion just breaks down into bickering and fighting instead of solving. And Republicans have a tendency to get way too hung up on words. I'm not just talking about the occasional profanity. When someone says they 'hope the President succeeds' they say it with the hope that the country gets better, the economy improves and people can feel safe, confident and free to live their lives as they choose. And may I add in full equality with each other. I believe most people get that, and more people are getting it everyday.

I believe most of our nation wants our nation to succeed. I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes. There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we're seeing a war brewing in the Republican party. But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past. I believe most people are ready to move on to that future.

We know a party that was thriving at one point on a few singular issues cannot see long term success. Even worse, we've seen how it has contributed to some serious problems in our nation and world. Let me blunt, you can't assume you're electing the right leaders to handle all the problems facing our nation when you make your choice based on one issue. More and more people are finally getting that.

Simply embracing technology isn't going to fix our problem either. Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn't going to miraculously make people think we're cool again. Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don't divide our nation further WILL. That's why some in our party are scared. They sense the world around them is changing and they are unable to take the risk to jump free of what's keeping our party down.

What I am talking about tonight is what it means to be a new, progressive Republican. Now some will say I can't do that. If you aren't this and that, then you're clearly a 'Republican in Name Only.' Also affectionately known as a RINO. Suggesting the notion that one can be faithful to the original core values of the GOP while open to the realities of our changing world has really hit a chord with people. And it seems to be the next, natural stage of the journey I've been traveling.

It would be easy to say my generation views politics very differently from others. Maybe we're more progressive, socially liberal or just hate arguing in lieu of actually solving the problems at hand. But what I've learned though my experiences is that these feelings are not contained to one age group. They're the growing beliefs and desires of people of all ages, races, genders, faiths, persuasions and political parties. ...

I am concerned about the environment. I love to wear black. I think government is best when it stays out of people's lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And yes, I am a Republican.

No, Meghan, you're not. You don't seem to realize that the core values of the GOP have changed -- they're no longer whatever you think they are, and where you got that idea, since you're a mere 24 years old, I have no idea.

Maybe you got it because your father used to actually sound a little more like you do now. But that was before he decided he wanted to be president and realized that he had to win the GOP base to even get the nomination. That meant that all those "progressive" ideas he once held went out the window.

The core values of today's Republicans can be summed up this way: We're right and you're wrong, so whatever you want to do we'll oppose.

Well, that's the legislative values of the Grand Obstructionist Party. Republicans, Meghan, are concerned about the environment just so long as business doesn't have to do anything to protect it. They think you look good in black, especially something low cut., after all, black is slimming. They think government should stay out of people's lives and business as much as possible, but not if you're gay or liberal or they think you might be sympathetic to terrorists, and by terrorists, they mean Muslims. They think punk rock is the devil's music, and tattoos defile your body. They agree with you on the strong national defense, but government should be accountable and efficient only if the Democrats are in charge. And yes, everybody has lots of gay friends, except maybe the Christian extremists, but that still doesn't mean they should have the same rights as everybody else.

Meghan McCain's Republican Party is something else entirely. And it doesn't exist. It probably should, and maybe someday it will. Or maybe people like Meghan McCain and those poor deluded Log Cabin Republicans should opt for an entirely new party. One that doesn't have all the exceptions Republicans have for their "core values."

Leave the GOP to the extremists. They already think it's theirs -- make it official. Take Michael Steele and the Maine senators, that guy Schmidt who ran John McCain's campaign, maybe Arlen Specter and start a party that isn't based on fear. It'll be a lot easier on them. Just imagine -- they won't have to twist themselves into such pretzilian logic-shapes that they're no longer recognizable as human just to somehow align their human-like ideas with their decidedly inhumane party's ideas. They'll probably sleep easier, too, knowing they no longer belong to the party that sullied the name of this great country with torture.

Meghan McCain is very much right when she said that most people in this country want the nation to succeed and are ready to move out of the past into the future. And that the old school Republicans are scared shitless.

Problem is, the old school Republicans own the party. They're not going to change, and it's going to be too long (Eric Cantor, Rick Perry, Jim Thune, Norm Coleman, etc.) before they're gone.

So my advice to Meghan McCain and anyone who thinks even remotely like her: Cut your losses now and get out before you become embittered old fools who wasted years trying to change the unchangeable. Start new.

Because frankly, if we had another political party, one that didn't tie itself down with more and more outlandish attempts to stay in power -- and more and more outmoded ideas about society -- then we could really have a debate about how to proceed.

But in order to do that, we need to start with some common ground -- and that would be the recovery and success of this country, not the failure of one party so the other can regain power.

Meghan McCain has the right idea, but she's looking in the wrong direction to get it done. There's not one single "progressive Republican" in the House of Representatives, and maybe three in the Senate. There's not many in state legislatures, state governors' mansions or local governments. That's because they keep running as Republicans and losing.

There's an old saying about not changing horses in midstream. Meghan, you've been left on the opposite bank.

Find a new horse. Then, if you think the old guard is scared shitless now, wait till they realize what happened while they were stirring up their hateful, bigoted, paronoid base and find out just how small it really is.

News Writer
AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press!

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Budgeting a progressive future

Terence Heath, who blogs at his own Republic of T and at the Campaign for America's Future, announced Tuesday that he and Sara Robinson, who blogs at the Campaign for America's Future and sometimes at Orcinus, are launching a series at CAF "about the progressive values at the core of the president's budget, how to talk about it importance, and what progressives can do to pass the first truly progressive budget we've seen in decades."

That's exciting as hell. But that was at the end of the column. What Terence said before he got to that part was what really got to me.

Terence reminded me that we Americans -- most of us anyway -- don't really know what something truly progressive and new can look like. "The real transformation hasn't happened yet," he wrote.

People don’t yet have a tangible vision of something better than the past eight years or the current crisis. They have hope, but hope wears thin if people have nothing that they can see with their own eyes, hold in their hands, or experience in their own lives as evidence of the possibility of something better.

Quoting from "Ending Slavery" by Kevin Bales (about modern slavery), Terence wrote that

It was only when people began to have a vision of something better that they would rush toward change. He noted how it was only after reforms occurred or economic prosperity arrived that popular revolt began.

And in that passage, Bales was paraphrasing the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville -- author of "Democracy in America -- from a letter he wrote in 1853.

It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.

That is just about where we are now, as Terence put it, "the anteroom of that transformational moment."

People are waking up, seeing what's been done to us for the last 30 years -- and particularly the last 8 -- and starting to grumble. Some of us are much more clear about what we're grumbling about, and some of us are just plain misguided about what we're grumbling about. But discontent is fast becoming the order of the day.

Now we need a direction, and the impetus to move in that direction. The president's budget may be just the ticket -- and you know the Republicans and the Blue Dawgs are gonna be fighting tooth and nail to limit what this budget can do. They've already started.

As Terence points out, this budget sings a new tune about America and its people. It's about an America whose people rely on one another, who work together, who cooperate -- who aren't out to see "what's in it for me." It is, he wrote, "a progressive budget that has at its core the understanding that government can and should have an important role in finding ways out of the current crisis and in reviving the economy."

More than that, it's a budget that recognizes that — rather than the 'You're on your own,' everyone-for-themselves conservative policy of the past 30 years — recovering from this crisis, reviving the economy, and thriving as families, communities, and as a nation means recognizing that we have some degree of responsibility to and for one another, because our faces are undeniably tied together.

That, itself, would be transformational. But first we have to offer more than more than a vision of something better. We have to make the beginnings of that vision, and the progressive values it embodies, felt in the lives of more Americans.

Now is our time to deliver. If we can turn progressive values into policies that make a real impact in the lives of every day people — whether it's jobs, health care, etc. — the transformation the country needs, and that the world needs us to make, will almost take care of itself.

This budget has its shortcomings. It can't possibly be all things to all people. But it is a world away from the policies of the past. We could do far worse than to pass it -- and frankly, letting it fail isn't an option. Not if we really, truly want to see the change many of us have been seeking.

It will happen, of course -- the transformation. As I've said before, it's just a question of whether we want to do it now, the hard way, or later -- maybe another generation later -- the excruciating painful way. As usual, the Republicans are looking at it through their own myopic lenses. What we're bequeathing to our children and grandchildren is not mountains of debt but a society that takes its strength from its people rather than the size of a handful of people's portfolios.

Either way, the time is right. It won't be easy. And it will likely be terrifying -- great change, real transformation always is. But the old ways have finally failed. They're on life support. They can continue that way for a while yet. But the end will come.

I'd rather pull the plug now and start the heavy lifting of change.

News Writer
AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press Blog

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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