The Meek Are Getting Ready!

Years ago when I saw this image, I liked it so much that I bought the t-shirt. Then I heard Holly Near sing the song.


This new version demonstrates why the white male patriarchy is lashing out in its death throes.

I WILL NOT let McConnell win this one!!!

From E.J. Dionne:

In “The Cynic,” a new biography of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, New Republic writer Alec MacGillis cites former GOP senator Bob Bennett recalling McConnell’s comments to his party colleagues at a winter retreat in 2009, at the dawn of Obama’s presidency:

“Mitch said, ‘We have a new president with an approval rating in the 70 percent area. We do not take him on frontally. We find issues where we can win, and we begin to take him down, one issue at a time. We create an inventory of losses, so it’s Obama lost on this, Obama lost on that. And we wait for the time when the image has been damaged to the point where we can take him on.’ ”

MacGillis aptly summarized the approach: “In other words, wait out Americans’ hopefulness in a dire moment for the country until it curdles to disillusionment.” This is the central cause of the dysfunction that leaves voters so disheartened. It should be rebuked rather than vindicated at the polls.

Republicans keep trying to deny that this has been their strategy from the beginning. But there you have it...a Republican Senator who was on the scene when McConnell spelled it all out.

Contrary to what any ideologue from the right or the left has to say, the fact that McConnell's strategy has been fairly effective in inducing cynicism over hope is NOT a failing that we can pin on President Obama. The American people have no one else to blame for that...its on us.

All along, President Obama's message has been the same:

The folks on the other side, they’re counting on you being cynical. They’re figuring you won’t think you can make a difference.” The alternative? “Don’t be cynical. Be hopeful. . . . Cynicism is a choice. And hope is a better choice.

There are a lot of issues on which I disagree with Senator McConnell. But none more than this one: He is NOT going to get me to chose cynicism!!!!!

Had enough? VOTE!

Ferguson, MO - VOTE on Nov 4th, 2014 from MENTALiTY on Vimeo.

The stories we tell: pre-midterm edition

As I've been saying lately, I'm pretty fascinated by the way we create meaning from events by the stories we tell ourselves about those events. So I'd like to take a look at two stories prognosticators are already telling us about what will be "historical" in this election.

First of all, there is Stu Rothenberger - who says that Obama's midterm loss record could make history.

President Barack Obama is about to do what no president has done in the past 50 years: Have two horrible, terrible, awful midterm elections in a row.

In fact, Obama is likely to have the worst midterm numbers of any two-term president going back to Democrat Harry S. Truman.

Notice how this story affirms the Republican narrative that midterms are a reflection on the current president rather than Tip O'Neill's suggestion that "all politics is local."

When it comes to control of the Senate, Speaker O'Neill would have noticed that in this particular midterm, Democrats went into it with the deck stacked against them based on the fact that many of the races involved Democratic incumbents or open seats in solid red states. The "local" nature of this election has always favored Republicans. Hence, initially most pundits predicted a Republican wave.

In light of that, here's the story Sam Wang is telling about the historical nature of this election: In state races, as much suspense as 2006 and 2010 combined.

 

State-level elections in 2014 have the largest number of close races in the last 10 years. This chart shows the number of gubernatorial and Senate races that have been won by three percentage points or less in midterm and Presidential-year elections since 2004. For 2014, the bars indicate races where polling margins are as small. There are 11 close gubernatorial races and 7 close Senate races, totaling 18 in all. This is equal to the last two midterm years, 2006 and 2010, combined.

In other words, an election that favored a Republican wave has turned into the closest election in recent history.

And so - before any ballot is cast - its clear that the meaning of this midterm depends on the story you tell about it. Does it, as Rothernberg suggests, reflect on President Obama's failed leadership?

...is the president at least partially to blame because he failed to show leadership on key issues and never successfully moved to the political center?

Or does it show that - even in a year when the deck is stacked in favor of Republicans - the best they can do is come up with a tie?

It all depends on the story you tell.

Something to ponder...

Anger and Empathy

My first professional job out of college was as a counselor in a residential treatment program for chemically dependent adolescents. One young man I remember told some pretty horrific stories of physical abuse by his mother. When she came in for family counseling, it was my task to do the initial interview. Having heard her son's stories, I went into it loaded for bear.

But something unexpected happened. She cried while telling me stories of her own abuse as a child that made her son's pale in comparison. I was still very clear with her about the fact that she could NEVER cause her son harm again, but my anger had dissipated. We became partners in working together to end the cycle of abuse that had been passed down from one generation to the next.

This is one of the reasons I eventually decided to become a family counselor...I learned that people's behavior is most often best understood in context.

By the time I retired as a family counselor, I noticed that I very rarely got angry. While I was comfortable holding people accountable for their behavior, being willing to see things from their perspective aroused a kind of "there but for the grace of god go I" response. It becomes hard to judge someone once you've heard their story.

That's what empathy does.

I say all that because - while I know that President Obama's personality naturally leads him to remain calm - that reaction is bolstered by the fact that his mother was so successful in teaching him to be empathic. He would have been a great family counselor because he always wants to hear everyone's side of the story - even those we tend to blame and label as "the problem."

In this politically polarized climate we live in - our reaction most often is to point at something awful the "other side" did and fuel our anger. There are times when that is warranted. But when it becomes the only way we ever relate to those we disagree with, we lose our empathy, fail to hear each other's stories, and simply demonize our opponents.

I don't know about you, but that pretty much sums up what I think is wrong with our politics today.

"We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes"

Over the years I've developed a couple of traditions here at this blog. One of them is to post an excerpt from a wonderful article written by Madman in the Marketplace back in 2006 on Dia de los Muertos (celebrated today and tomorrow). So once again, here it is:

Today, in the spirit of Dia De Los Muertos, lets celebrate instead those who've fought dark times before, survived dark times before, PREVAILED in times that were much like what we face now.

I don't mean just the leaders, not just Elizabeth Cady Stanton, more than Joe Hill, not just Chief Joseph, not merely Martin Luther King Jr. or William Lloyd Garrison or Cesar Chavez. The authoritarians are the ones who have no choice but to elevate "great men" for them to FOLLOW...Our luminaries are only representatives of vast numbers of people most of us might never know by name, unless they were the grandfather who told you stories of old strikes, of meals of crusty toast with chipped beef gravy on top while sitting at his knee. Perhaps another who sat at an old formica kitchen table with tales of the struggle against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the mission schools, or stories related at family get-togethers of sitting at the back of the bus, grandmothers who remembered having no opportunity to pursue their own dreams because of their gender. Maybe your forebearers told stories of shame and having to hide who they loved, or the pressure to hide the fruits of having loved, of being spirited away to give birth in shame.

THIS Dia De Los Muertos, remember their struggles, but remember their COMMUNITY. Remember that unlike the right, unlike the worshippers of division and death, we can look back with joy and fondness at people who sang and danced and loved and communed DESPITE their struggles, despite the exploitation, the hatred, the discrimination and fear. They formed communities, they formed unions, they formed sewing circles and barn raisings and volunteer organizations. They rallied with their neighbors, mended fences, found common ground with NEW neighbors different from themselves. It's easy to remember the nativists, the klansmen, the misogynists and gay bashers and jingoists and bundists ... but also remember that there were ALWAYS good people opposing them, forging bonds, talking and working together to build a brighter, broader, more inclusive future. While there were slavers, there were abolitionists. When other men jeered and sniped, remember there were women who reminded others that a woman was every bit the equal of a man and should have a voice, and there were sons who listened to them.

Celebrate the artists, the writers, the musicians and performers who forged bonds between different groups of people, who showed us all that it's okay to be different, that different can be wonderful and exciting. Remember that every time that culture tried to expand our ties, broaden our conversations, help us see the world anew, the authoritarian minded tried to silence them, ban them, attack them, but over time the artists prevailed. From the churches and the juke joints, the beer halls and the smokey bars, from the salons to the corner table at the Algonquin, from coffee houses to underground clubs ... we can remember fondly those who found beauty and strength in the everyday and in the sublime and IN EACH OTHER. THIS Dia De Los Muertos, read their words, sing their songs, dance to their tunes, enjoy their paintings and sculptures and their videos. Remember that no matter how loudly, how violently, how insistently those afraid of openness and sharing and difference and change tried to stop it, the songs got sung, the rugs got cut, the words got read.

I can think of no better person to celebrate on this Dia de los Muertos than Ella Baker. Like our current President, she exhibited a "shocking, almost certifiable faith in humanity."

Some of her wisdom has been captured by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Its all SOOO incredibly timely!