November 16, 2008
"Reasonable women rarely make history." -- A bumper sticker seen around town
If there is one lesson that the Republicans can learn from the Democratic rout, it is that there are no small victories.
Democrats understand that every inch of territory counts. Like General Patton, when it comes to ground, they "aren't holding anything." Putting aside the fact that the Democratic Party is now more wealthy (not just as wealthy) and powerful than the Republicans, Dems are a bottom-up party come election time.
The little-noticed death this week of a gay, black, HIV positive Democratic former member of the New York City Council argues for that. Phillip Reed was a college drop-out, Vietnam War conscientious objector, and, for ten years, an Otis Elevator salesman. (In keeping with the graying lady's obituary policy, the gay, HIV postive Mr. Reed did not die from AIDS. No one does in North America, at least not in Manhattan's media circle.)
Mr. Reed represented the Upper West Side and a mostly Latino neighborhood in the Bronx. He, to his credit, worked for more resources for the asthma epidemic in the poor part of his district and for low-income housing. The Times is silent on his successes there. Try finding "low-income" housing in New York. In 18 years, I moved at least seven times in search of low income housing. My income remained low.
But, Mayor Bloomberg did reverse a Mayor Giuliani decision, fought by Mr. Reed, to move the Museum of the City of New York (novelist Louis Auchincloss was once president) to the beautiful and restored Tweed Courthouse on the same grounds as the renovated and re-landscaped City Hall. (You may have seen interiors of the Tweed Courthouse on "Law and Order.") The museum remains in East Harlem, mostly unvisited I suspect, since it is not on a main tourist route as it might have been. ("Might have been" -- from the seal of the City of New York.)
Councilman Reed instantly brought to mind Governor Sarah Palin. Gov. Palin is also a bottom-up, grass-roots politician. Hockey mom. President of the PTA. Member of the Wassila city council. Mayor of Wassila. And, ultimately, candidate for Vice President of the United States of America. Great story of democratic politics. Wrong cause (good schools). Wrong party. Wrong religion. Wrong values. Even the wrong sex, if you've seen the "Sarah Palin is a C--T t-shirts (part of an innovative and flawless campaign). And as we'll see, Wrong Class.
Mr. Reed remained a hero of the Democratic Party, despite once selling elevator service contracts. Far too many Republicans and conservatives gave Gov. Palin the shiv. I grew up in a blue collar Democratic suburb of Detroit and I have only voted Republican for over a decade. I entertained no night-night tales about the party. I always assumed about Republicans, as I did about colleagues as an editor in New York, that snobbery is not far below the studied casualness and slouchwear of the upper middle classes. The throttle-up class bigotry of progressives (let's call liberals what they want; they control the ball now) and conservatives surprised even me. When USA Today referred to Gov. Palin's speaking style as "folksy," as they did this weekend, they didn't mean it in a good way. That is folk music, bluegrass, delta blues, $1000 dollar Kentucky quilts -- the folk culture of the Upper East Side and Grosse Point. (And let's mention again WSJ's down market dig "Sarah's Excellent Adventure.") She is folks. Unlike Councilman Reed, she did earn a college degree. But I suspect she attended her first Manhattan co-op dinner party with a view of Central Park only as a VP candidate. Not as city councilman from Manhattan's notoriously progressive upper west side.
Too many Republicans were as queasy about a Vice President Palin as the Democrats. But for different reasons. The Nation may have called her "trailer trash," but the WSJ referred to her followers as "braying about abortion." That's braying with a "b." Don't get me started on praying. It is no secret that Republicans have given up on school choice for the working poor and working class. And Sen. McCain was the exception among these Republicans with two boys serving in uniform. For her class, Gov. Palin much less so. She was after, the poorest of the four candidates by at least two zeros. Her husband may have belonged to a union -- Pres. Reagan was the first occupant of the White House to be president of a union -- but it was not as left-wing, pro-choice, or lawyer-dominated as, say, the SEIU, the UAW, AFSCME. (I suppose you could say the same thing about the Actors Guild, subsituting agents for lawyers.) Then there's all that stuff about a fishing business. Sweet honey-dew melons in the morning! The guns should have been ok after Democratic Governor Ann Richards of Texas made sure studio-quality photos of her hunting were available and distributed to the media. But, but but...
I was reminded of the class insecurity of a couple of Kingswood girls I knew in publishing. Insecurity exacerbated by my unexplainable presence in midtown Manhattan. Hyacinth Bucket was not more anxious -- or snooty -- preparing one of her famous candle-light suppers.
Republicans are more sqeamish about corruption (and immorality). Progressives would have never vilified Sen. Stevens -- no matter how justified -- as conservatives have done. Because, as with a city councilman in New York, there are no small victories. Even if the cost of victory is poor schools, lousy bus service, crummy public hospitals, corrupt cops, and lazy judges. As was mentioned this morning on Fox, President-elect Obama didn't become president-elect by challenging the mess at Chicago's city hall. They could have added, and city halls across the north and northeast. As for corrupt union halls, that's like wringing ones hands because too many bishops in the Church of England don't believe in the Divinity of Christ...
Michigan shrugged off the passing of Prop 2 -- constitutionalizing embryonic stem cell research. The media sold the proposal with only slightly less vigor than they sold the Obama brand. No mention of the Church's legitimate moral concerns. On the contrary, the Church was condemned for supporting "lies and distortions." Wrong decade. Wrong story. But the usual reliable complicity in preserving the status quo. Prop 2 demonstrated that there are no small victories. Just as the Democratic Party is fighting for every last vote for what is literally a joke of a candidate, Al Franken in Minnesota.
It won't matter whether Senator-elect Franken is incompetent or out of his depth on Capitol Hill. Just as it didn't matter whether Councilman Reed built any "low-income" housing. For the record, there is low-income housing, you just pay half your salary for it. Your income is insured to be low by reason of the progressive campaign to maintain rent control -- remember that word, control and the erection of only luxury housing in the last half-century.
The schools will be no better on January 20, 2012, than they are now. The function of the schools is not to teach children how to read, write, balance quadratic equations or make distinctions (without which, there is little thought). The nature of progressivism is the nature of sovietism, maoism, and hitlerism. Control. Of Everything. Down the the last comma on the last ungrammatical and incoherent homework assignment or judicial decision. TARP HERE WE COME.
President-elect Obama won the "youth vote" and now owes union schools as much or more than the UAW executives with their begging bowls. One hates to use the term brainwashed. But talking to the young about politics, or almost anything, is like trying to de-program a cult member (a 1970s skill that should be revived). The schools have done their job. Re-define marriage. Vilify Christianity. Look down your nose at men and women in uniform ("suckers"). Throw out complicated and nuanced history for Chomksy and Zinn's photoshoped narratives. And always Diversity. Diversity. Diversity. Never has a campaign depended so greatly on de-credentializing the skill of making distinctions.
Sen. McCain thinks he is being reasonable. It looks a lot like surrender to the new Democratic majority of all of Washington. Reasonableness is not how President-elect Obama "made history." And, unlike President Bush, Democrats know that the permanent government will only disobey their directives because of incompetence, laziness, or union work rules, not because they aren't at heart, Progressives.
Sam Macomb
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