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Why the Supreme Court Matters, and Why Moderates Should Worry About McCain
The next President will appoint at least two, and probably three, Supreme Court Justices. It’s sad to say, but Justices Stevens is growing old, and Justice Souter wants out. I’ll miss you both.
If John McCain appoints their replacements, it will be the end of Roe v. Wade at the least, and the end of the Constitution as a document of social justice, at most.
Activist Judges, Indeed
Last week’s Boston Legal Episode (“The Court Supreme”) was, setting aside the unrealistic elements of the argument scene and an odd sub-plot, a politically important and largely accurate look at the Supreme Court’s more recent jurisprudence. In it, Alan Shore (fictional attorney extraordinaire) excoriates the Court, to its face, for selling out to conservative political interests and ransacking the past fifty years of precedent, while all the while pretending to be non-biased, apolitical, and steady-state.
Right on. While the rest of the nation cheers, as perhaps his only successes, Bush’s decisions to appoint the handsome, accomplished, and well-spoken Chief Justice John Roberts, and the allegedly non-controversial Justice Samuel Alito, the legal academy has spent the past year wringing its hands in fury at the outright politicization of the body, behind a smoke-screen of nonpartisanship. And it could not be more important for the public to hear this point made publicly, and made well, as there is no question in my mind that a McCain Administration would only continue this descent.
Thank you, Alan Shore. I’ll explain, below the line. Continue reading
Suppression Ads
Before going into this idea in much depth, I’d like to reassert my firm belief that attack ads, and the Bush-era divisiveness that underlies them, are bad for America. We need to move past them, and past the spirit that they embody. But the Republicans show no sign of playing clean, and it would be foolish to claim the moral high ground, while in the process squandering a golden opportunity to retake America. We need to play dirty, and here’s one idea how. The goal is to right-wing Republican voters to stay home.
How to Run an Attack Ad, Without Really Trying
We have a lot to learn about how to run a dirty but effective campaign. Here’s catch-up lesson #1.
North Carolina Republicans recently managed to push a shameful (albeit effective) attack ad, harping on Barack Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright in an attempt to scare white voters away from the Democratic party. And yet, John McCain managed to come off smelling like a daisy. How did he do it? By putting mental distance between him and the ad. The lesson is clear: label your opponent, but make sure it doesn’t look like you did it. Continue reading
Talking Points – Eight More Years!!
One thing I didn’t understand about the 2000 election – among a million other things – was how Al Gore’s campaign never managed to say the one thing that should have persuaded the most voters, namely: “what part of eight years of peace and prosperity didn’t you like?” Arguably, he wanted to stay away from invoking the unsavory elements of Bill Clinton’s reign, but this was potentially a fatal miscalculation. Ahhh, anyways, hindsight is 20/20.
Moving on. Why isn’t the picture to the right in every single general election centered ad run by the Democratic party? George W. Bush has the highest disapproval rating in the history of the Gallup poll. And he and John McCain agree on a lot of the issues. After all, McCain is running on a platform that supports a war opposed by a supermajority of Americans, a war started by Bush. The ads write themselves: “George Bush got us into this war, and John McCain will keep us there.”
McCain currently describes himself as a maverick, potentially distancing him from Bush, but it’s our fault if we let him keep that label. It seems almost too obvious to point this out, but the Democrats need to do a better job equating John McCain with George W. Bush. If the nomination battle isn’t over yet, perhaps, at least, the Democrats could start a coordinated spin effort.
To Arms, Citizens!
Among other things, the failure of Democratic & progressive politicians in recent years to command a majority of Americans may be due to a serious overreach of the previous generations. Modern Americans owe many of our most treasured political victories to earlier generations of liberals, who secured victories including equal rights for women, equal rights for all races, the near-end of subjective morality as a guide for federal legislation, and more. But it’s possible that we went too far, and now we’re paying for the consequences. Whatever the cause, the thesis of Hannah Rosin’s fascinating book (pictured to the left) is that America is about to face – or, is facing – a backlash from zealous, committed, and politically active fundamentalist Christian culture warriors. This, in itself, isn’t shocking, but her in-depth study of this influential & growing subculture is fascinating.
More important than her description of the subculture, though, is the lesson that we as progressives ought to draw from the book. While fundamentalist Christian children are training for the next political fight, going into politics or seeking out politically influential legal careers, they’re being met by a dearth of progressive political resistance, a fractured Democratic party, and in general, a new generation of progressives who take our past victories for granted, ignoring that their ideals may soon be under greater attack than ever.
Read the book. Understand the new face of Christian culture warriors, be alarmed, and resolve to fight back. Given the failures of the Bush years, it’s our turn to shine again, if we’re willing to seize it. We can’t afford to let American values like rationalism, equal justice, and social progress slip away any further.
The Master’s Voice
Normally, when Karl Rove speaks, I cover my ears. After all, to paraphrase Futurama, he’s the father of all lies, and the uncle of all untruths. But progressives like myself need to recognize two things – first, we’re bad at spin, and second, Karl Rove invented spin. So I hope Barack Obama takes this message of his to heart. It’s absolutely right on target.
Expelled Expelled
If you’ve been following the movie Expelled, you’ll know what I think of it. Well, we may not need to worry about it any more. Premise Media, the company which produced Expelled, is being sued by Yoko Ono for appropriating her husband’s song, Imagine. I heard about this a while ago – it started when the Huffington Post, concluding that the use must have been authorized, blasted Ono for supporting Ben Stein’s pseudoscience documentary. This (erroneous) post drew her ire, and ultimately led to her filing this lawsuit to preserve her from being publicly identified with the film.
Now, lawsuits happen, and their mere filing is no guarantee of the filing party’s victory, especially in a copyright case where the infringing use constitutes only ten seconds or so. But a recent e-mail I received from Stein (I signed up for his newsletter for precisely this reason) seemed almost plaintive in urging me to see the movie, and see it now.
If you haven’t done so already, PLEASE SEE EXPELLED NOW; its future relies on you. Without strong support from leaders like you, EXPELLED could get tossed from the theaters. PLEASE get out to SEE EXPELLED THIS WEEK. Ben is risking his career by taking on the world’s leading atheists, and he can’t do it alone – he needs your support.
Apparently Stein is running scared. So let’s accept his challenge: go see Expelled while you still can, but theater-hop to avoid paying him. Or, donate the price of the ticket to the National Center for Science Education.
Hillary Clinton, Rational Actor
A recent article, published on Slate, poses an interesting question – what if we take Hillary Clinton’s “I won’t quit” assertion at face value?
It’s not a pretty picture. Let’s assume that Hillary Clinton will not – no matter what – quit the race. And further assume that she cannot make up for Obama’s delegate lead, as in fact the polls and her delegate numbers suggest.
Now break down the potential alternatives, given that Hillary won’t quit but can’t win. Either Obama quits, reaping (most likely, as the Slate author argues) a firestorm of resentment, propelling McCain to the presidency in 2008, or the nomination goes to the convention. Now let’s look to the convention, and the time in between then and now.
Each additional contested primary has long since stopped giving us new information. Either Obama retains his lead, or Hillary edges him out by a minuscule margin, or she wins a state she was slated to win all along. Given the late hour of the contest, neither candidate is able to “deliver a knockout blow”; the vote tells America nothing. And, unfortunately, the transaction cost for learning this additional nothing is increasing with every contest. Although McCain is shut out of the 24-hour news cycle, media coverage of Obama and Clinton long stopped being positive. Negative sells.
So we’re left with either Obama quitting, giving an illegitimate win to Clinton, or Obama winning at the convention. Between these two choices, I say, “No.” A deal must be struck, and it must be struck now. Talk to your local Democratic leaders. Call headquarters and complain. But we can’t let this go on.
Let this be your last battlefield
Apparently, science has become the newest battleground in the culture wars, with Jonathan David Carson of “The American Thinker” trying his absolute hardest to link “liberals” to unscientific science and the suppression of religion. I post this “article” not only out of amusement, but as an example of how selected “American thinkers” engage in the irrational vilification of science as nothing more than the tool of undefined “liberals.” Read, be puzzled, and return.
