Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Privatizing the American Public As if there weren't enough bad political news in the air today, this amazing analysis in today's Washington Post makes a number of depressing observations about the transformation of public life in America. Among the choice nuggets: "Increasingly, public officials regard us as "customers" rather than as citizens, and there are crucial differences between the two. Citizens own the government. Customers just receive services from it." "The new channels of access to public decision-makers permit political and economic elites -- with the aid of the lobbyists and lawyers on K Street -- to get what they want from government without the nuisance of mobilizing a constituency of citizens to support them." "One of the undemocratic unmentionables of American politics is that most elected politicians are not eager to see an expansion of the electorate." Strong stuff, and food for thought on a day when many of us are wondering how we can restore some sense of balance to a twisted and increasingly irrational political system. 12:15:51 PM    Emphasize This! []

Crawling from the Wreckage Well, a majority of our fellow citizens have decided they’re content to let Bush run things his own way for a while, and so for the rest of us, being a proud American just became that much harder. But before we pack our bags and head for the border, let’s look at the bright side. The next Senate will not include Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Phil Gramm or Tim Hutchinson. As bad as yesterday was, I don’t think the Republicans elected anyone who could live up to that standard.   On another almost-cheery note, the Democrats had some important lessons pounded into them yesterday that might pay off in two years when it really counts. First, you might as well attack this administration with both barrels. I mean, if you don’t, what? You might lose the election? Democrats who supported the Prez on key issues from the tax cut to the war went down to defeat in greater numbers than the true believers. What did Carnahan’s moderation buy her? Or Cleland’s? Bush was out for Democratic blood and campaigned all the harder against the centrists, so screw him. Why cooperate at all? Republicans are always going to make better Republicans than Democrats will, and on election day, there’s nowhere to hide.   Second lesson is that the D’s had better get their act together in Florida. There’s going to be one more chance to stop Jeb in ’06. This guy is smarter, more resourceful, harder-working and more conservative than his brother, and we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of him as ’08 approaches unless he can be dealt a definitive defeat.   Finally, find out what the new Democratic governors in Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming were drinking and send a case to every other Democrat in the country. Is there a pundit who predicted the D’s would win one of these races, much less all three of them? Special gold star for Brad Henry in Oklahoma, who poured a bucket of shit all over Steve Largent’s new suit and spared the rest of the country this “rising star” of the GOP.   OK, that’s about it for the good news. Book me on the next flight to France. 7:47:20 AM    Emphasize This! []