tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post112586839926474364..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Hope from Despair?Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-1125884760160589972005-09-04T18:46:00.000-07:002005-09-04T18:46:00.000-07:00I grow increasingly convinced that leadership is t...I grow increasingly convinced that leadership is the key.<BR/><BR/>My pride in America was demolished in 2004 because Bush did win the election. He used opposition to gay rights as a wedge, and absurdly smeared Kerry during the campaign, but Americans fell for it. As Janeane Garofolo once said, "being Republican is a character flaw," and 50+% of Americans suffer from it.<BR/><BR/>So, while I'm politically active, and I work to strengthen democracy in the country, I'm forced to wonder what the average American would do with the vote if they exercised it. Probably not a lot of good. Americans are too lazy to pay attention to what's going on in the world, and half of those who do pay attention get it wrong.<BR/><BR/>As with a financial market, you need the right constraints and oversight to keep a democracy healthy. I think this concept is well beyond the comprehension of the average voter, let alone the average citizen.<BR/><BR/>Elect the right Democrat, and you'll build a strong public education system, create effective government institutions, and once again make government a trustworthy ally for consumers. This won't happen just by getting more people to vote, or by fixing tax systems or anything else. We simply have to elect great leaders. <BR/><BR/>I'm not really saying anything deep here. It's just that I always used to think of our democratic institutions as being self-correcting. Now, I'm not so sure. It seems as though our country depends on its leadership for its health and safety, and that no amount of bureaucracy or paper pushing is a substitute for a good chief executive.Doctor Logichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03182745193512661770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-1125876374741508702005-09-04T16:26:00.000-07:002005-09-04T16:26:00.000-07:00While I agree that the world's democracies need to...While I agree that the world's democracies need to sanction the US, there must be a role for US progressives to play, too, besides just working ourselves to the bone to win fixed Senate and House races in 2006 (not that we shouldn't do that too!).<BR/><BR/>My thought: people of the left need to reclaim the apparatuses of local and state govenment. The urban archipelago has to declare its independence from the rightists at the federal center. Whether this is couched in the radical language of secession, or the mainstream language of a renewal of federalism, it needs to happen.<BR/><BR/>I think the example of subnationalisms in the EU is instructive here for analysis of US federalism in a world federalist context. To wit: It's easier for the Scotlands and Catalonias, or the Vermonts and Austins, to achieve autonomy within their nations when those nations are part of a stronger EU or UN. Nation states are the locus of militarism, corporate welfare, and petro-addiction in our time. So they should be attacked from above and below. From above by robust demands for mulitlateralist institutions like the ICC and ILO, and from below by populist, rowdy localisms that refuse to let the turkeys in DC take our laws away. Or at least, that's how it looks from Portland, OR.<BR/><BR/>I could go on all day about how the EU and South America (led by Lula's Brazil) need to trade around the US, and how Canada ought to join the EU, etc, but I fear I'd bore you to tears.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16967233497214731240noreply@blogger.com