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Every political party wants its followers to stick with them and not their opponents. So it’s natural that a party will seek to discredit a leader from its opposition. But today’s Republican Party went beyond the usual discrediting, and has sought to outright demonize Barack Obama.
Here’s my interpretation of why that is. It has three steps.
First, the Republican world constitutes a hierarchical society.
This article appeared this past weekend in the Northern Virginia Daily and, in a shorter version, in Staunton’s Virginia News Leader.
What are we to believe about the size of government and the level of government spending?
Republicans say that the U.S. government has become way too big and that Americans are grossly overtaxed. Is that true?
In the United States, the rate of taxation is lower, and the size of government in relation to the size of the economy is smaller, than in just about every other nation like ours—rich, free, capitalistic, democratic societies.
Here’s another of the foundation stones that will prove indispensable for building the “house” that that’s coming—the new integrative vision that I promised at the outset (in ”Swinging for the Fences: Please Join Me in this Bold New Effort”) — another of the major forces at work in human cultures: the transmission through the generations of the culture’s basic patterns.
For better and for worse.
Our biological inheritance is transmitted through time by the passing of DNA from generation to generation. The transmission of our cultural heritage employs different means –which we will have important occasion to discuss—but with much the same effect: while there is change, what is most striking is the continuity.
Here’s another systemic force that can subvert the ability of a society to achieve the kind of future that they want. In this case, the dynamic is one growing out of the relationship between different components of the society’s population, different subcultures that together comprise the overall culture.
It’s the process of POLARIZATION, a process by which the interaction between different points of view leads to an increasing division between those points of view. It is “systemic” in that the positions adopted by each side cannot be understood without reference to those adopted by the other side. It is destructive not only because it tends to increase the level of conflict in a society, but also to increase the level of folly.
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As the gun lobby says, only a small percentage of the gun deaths in America are inflicted by semi-automatic weapons. But the importance of fighting to ban these weapons goes beyond the number of lives that can be saved.
Theologians say the most dangerous heresies are those that take a sacred text and distort it by making it absolute. Such absolutes are dangerous because achieving the good always requires balancing competing values.
Last week I submitted this piece to the Washington Post articulating the strategy I think President Obama should use in dealing with the problem of the debt-ceiling and the Republicans. In the days since, it has become clear that — although the President has made many of the same rhetorical points that I recommended — will not be taking the approach I proposed. Overtaken by events, this piece will therefor not be appearing in the Post.
But I’d like to share it here with you anyway. Time will tell how well the President’s decision on strategy works out.
Even when we’re done with the “fiscal cliff,’’ it looks like we’ll be compelled, early in the new year, to face another totally unnecessary, Congress-made crisis– over the debt ceiling.
In a news conference on December 13, House Speaker John Boehner insisted that the Republicans in Congress would insist on holding onto their ability to compel the U.S. to default on its credit, saying that Congress would never give up its “power of the purse.”
But the legitimate congressional powers of the purse are about spending, and this has nothing to do with that. The debt ceiling isn’t about spending. The money has already been spent. This is about paying one’s bills.
The previous installment, “The Uncracked Nut,” talked about the conservatives in our District who simply ignored my message. Here the issue is the press, who didn’t take my claims seriously enough to ask, “Are they true?”
I have said that our campaign for Congress achieved its goals with the like-minded people of the Sixth District.
But I identified two parts of the body politic where our campaign failed to help the truth defeat the lie.
We did not reach or move the un-like-minded part of the electorate. This was discussed in the previous installment, “The Uncracked Nut.” Now it’s time to discuss the second disappointment: the failure of the press to deal seriously with my message.
This continues the discussion of the question: what is the best way to build upon what our candidacy achieved in order to have an impact to turn around America’s destructive political dynamic?
While our returns on Election Night were “respectable,” one thing is clear: we did not make any significant inroads into the conservative part of the electorate.
In Virginia’s 6th District, that’s a requirement for victory. But even in the broader American context, even where there are seats that can be won with only Democratic/liberal voters, getting through to those who have been supporting this Republican Party is still important: America cannot be healthy so long as nearly half our citizens are in the grip of lies that separate them from reality and that feed their hatreds and fears.
I said in the previous installment that we should be asking how, starting from where we are now with what we were able to achieve with my campaign for Congress, we can “have the greatest possible positive impact on the political crisis that besets our country.”
So let’s look at how that crisis should be perceived, and what our campaign did and did not achieve related to it.
The most obvious part of the crisis is that “a sick and broken” spirit has taken over one of our two major political parties and has been wielding great power in ways that are “more dishonest and more destructive than anything ever seen before at center stage of American politics.”
In the aftermath of the election on November 6th, many dozens of people have written or phoned me to encourage me to run again in 2014. I am honored and fortified by that encouragement, and by all the laudatory words that accompanied it.
I’m also open to the possibility. But I’m not yet prepared to make a decision one way or the other. To my mind, the more useful question is not, at this point, “Should I run again in 2014?” but rather a question that’s prior, and more fundamental: “What is the best way for me –and all of us together—to build upon what we’ve already accomplished in order to have the greatest possible positive impact on the political crisis that besets our country?”
It appeared at one time that this piece would be published in a national forum during the last two weeks of the campaign. That did not happen. Nonetheless, even though Mr. Romney has likely by now been consigned to history, this piece has elements that lead me to share it here now.
Many in the Republican base have complained that the erstwhile Massachusetts moderate, Mitt Romney, is not a fitting standard bearer for today’s Republican Party. But there’s a fundamental way that Romney is a perfect reflection of his party: Neither is honest with the American people.
This week provided an interesting glimpse into the political right’s pathological dishonesty (and Rachel Maddow did an excellent job of calling attention to it). It turns out that the liars are prone to lying to themselves.
Hence the striking footage of Karl Rove, on Fox News, doubting the statisticians’ determination that President Obama had won Ohio. Hence the apparent surprise of the Romneyites that the election went the way the polls said it would, rather than conforming to what they had convinced themselves was the truth of the matter.
Below is the concession speech by Dr. Andy Schmookler, Democratic candidate for Virginia’s congressional sixth district:
I’d like first to congratulate my opponent in this race, Bob Goodlatte, on winning his 11th term in Congress.
Next I would like to extend to all the many people who have helped our campaign a most heartfelt thanks. For April and me, campaigning around this District has been a most rich and rewarding experience. Mostly because of the many wonderful people we have met. I won’t start trying to name names, because there are so many who deserve mention. But please know you are, and will remain, in our hearts.
In the debates with my opponent, Bob Goodlatte, I made this key point:
“Never in our history has there been a political party so dishonest with the American people as what the once respectable Republican Party has become. Bob Goodlatte is a part of this problem because he so consistently promotes this dishonest party line.”
The debates provided a host of examples of falsehoods, distortions, and hypocrisies—on fracking, on Obamacare, on job-creation, on balancing the budget.
But I want to focus on a particular statement that Mr. Goodlatte made in at least two of our debates because this statement is especially important and especially revealing of the moral bankruptcy of today’s national Republicans.
I see the battle in our politics today as not at the usual political level of liberal versus conservative, but at a deeper moral and spiritual level.
Never in American history has a political party been so dishonest with the American people as today’s national Republican Party. This dishonesty is poisoning our politics and disabling us from navigating into a successful future.
My opponent Bob Goodlatte, who consistently backs this dishonest party line, is a part of the problem. One example of this is his major campaign theme that we Americans need him and his party to protect us from some threat from “big government.” This argument obscures the truth.
This piece was published in the Washington Post on October 12, 2012. It can be found online on the WashPost site at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-far-right-has-skewed-our-political-debate/2012/10/11/1b25e374-081c-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html
Too often I hear that American politics has become polarized between the extreme left and extreme right. To those expressing this notion, I say: Get real.
Nothing in America’s main political battles today warrants being called “extreme left.” It’s clear that all of the extremism is on one side.
Put another way: On issue after issue on the playing field of politics, the Democrats are backed against their own end zone.
These questions were posed to both Bob Goodlatte and me, and both sets of answers were published on September 23 in the Roanoke Times at www.roanoke.com/editorial/counterpoint/wb/314390.
1. What changes do you favor to make Medicare sustainable, or what alternative program would you support instead of the entitlement program?
“Throw ourselves into the battle.“ That is what I said here, once before, is required of us. But for many of us, fighting does not come naturally. Nor is it an appealing way to spend our energies.
In large measure, that is to our credit. We are capable of living richer, fuller lives than those who are dedicated purely to battle and to the struggle for power.
But history does not always give people the choices they would prefer. That is true for us in America today. We are in the position that I explored years ago in the book I consider the most important thing I’ve written, The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution.
Bob Goodlatte’s campaign manager has accused me of waging a campaign of “class warfare.” This tired old accusation provides a clear view of the moral bankruptcy of the politics practiced by Bob Goodlatte and the gang that’s hijacked the once-great Republican Party.
Yes, there’s class warfare going on in America. And billionaire Warren Buffett hit the nail on the head when he said not long ago, “There’s class warfare, all right. But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
“I am proud to stand as an ally to organized labor,” says Schmookler. “America is strongest when it has a vibrant middle class. Organized labor played a big role in achieving that in the America I grew up in by creating a better balance of power between giant corporations and the Americans who work for them. The America I believe in is not one where the middle class is being hollowed out in order to give still more to those who have the most. And that kind of Reverse Robin Hood policy is what my opponent, the 20-year incumbent Bob Goodlatte, has consistently voted for.”
The AFL-CIO sent me a candidate’s questionnaire some weeks ago, and along with my responses to their questions I sent the following statement.
Yesterday, I was notified that I have received the endorsement of the Virginia AFL-CIO. Here are some reasons why I’m gratified to have earned that support.
I would like to make an overall comment of why I am strongly committed to strengthening labor in today’s America.
Chris Graham wrote –on his Augusta Free Press site– a piece that emphasized what an “uphill fight” my campaign is, going up against an incumbent with a lot more money in his campaign war chest. http://augustafreepress.com/2012/07/25/chris-graham-uphill-battle-for-andy-schmookler/
I responded with this:
You raise the good question, “How can Andy Schmookler win when his opponent has access to so much more money than he has?” The question could be rephrased, “How can People Power defeat the Money Power in America today?”
Here’s another very vital part of our campaign strategy from here to election day. This one depends on the support of those who care about our campaign. So please help us succeed. You can help by coming to these events, and you can help even more by bringing others with you.
The idea is described in the following message, which –adapted for the specific areas– I sent to all the Democratic committee chairs in the 6th District.
Dear [Chair],
I’m writing to share with you an important piece of my strategy for beating Bob Goodlatte, and to ask for your help in making that strategic piece work.
Mr. Goodlatte, I saw that you voted against the measure to fund transportation. Why?
Surely you know that our roads and bridges and other infrastructure are in bad shape.
You must know that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave America’s infrastructure a grade of D not long ago. Here in Virginia, our Department of Transportation lists 1,764 Virginia bridges as “structurally deficient” and 3,226 Virginia bridges as “functionally obsolete.”
So why did you vote to block this important bill that can help us address such pressing needs? Do you care about the condition of the roads our children’s school buses are driving on?
Politicians and political parties have their own interests at stake in elections, but the genuine and legitimate purpose of elections is to serve the interests of the voters. In this election for Virginia’s 6th District seat in Congress, the voters will have a stark choice–for the incumbent Bob Goodlatte and I are on opposite sides of a battle more profound than any this country has faced for at least a century and a half, if not ever. It is therefore in the interest of the voters for them to be able to see as clearly as possible what choices they will have in November as to who will represent them in Congress.
Last week I was interviewed on our regional NPR station, WMRA, out of Harrisonburg, Virginia. I commend it to your attention.
I particularly commend the closing couple of moments. Previously in the interview, I had talked about the meaning of “patriotism,” defining it as the willingness to sacrifice one’s own comfort and interest for the good of one’s country, when one’s country needs it. That definition brings into focus how UNpatriotic today’s Republican Party is, with its repeated sacrifice of the good of the nation for partisan advantage.
That’s from something I got in the email. Here’s my commentary.
I do respect professionals, and for the most part, in a great many things, having learned the territory and practiced the skills confers real superiority on the professionals. I don’t want an amateur doing heart surgery on me, or even building my house.
But there are times when the professional is caught up in something it takes an amateur to overcome. Sometimes it’s a matter of not being too wedded to the conventional wisdom, so that an upstart “amateur” like Bill Gates somehow takes over an important industry from a giant like IBM, who’d been in the business for generations.
[There is one major truth --one of historical importance, as I see it-- that is the impetus behind my campaign. In the course of this campaign, I have articulated it in various ways. See for example "The Stakes Could Not Be Higher" here at http://andyschmooklerforcongress.com/a-battle-for-americas-soul/.
The following is a new, concise statement. It was written for presentation as a speech delivered --without text or notes in hand-- to the Roanoke Valley Democratic Women's annual fundraiser on April 26.]
It seems the press can hardly write an article about our campaign without using words like “underdog” and “uphill” and “solidly Republican.” The conventional wisdom is that a Democrat can’t win here in Virginia’s 6th District.
Running for public office for the first time is certainly challenging. But the experience has already also bestowed considerable blessings on me.
One of these blessings has been a healing of a wound I suffered in recent years in my connection with humanity.
I was brought up to have a love for humanity and, more than that, to place a very high value on that love.
It was my mother especially who conveyed this value. She felt strongly that one could find fine human qualities in people of all kind, that what was most to be cherished in human beings is a beauty of soul that can be found in people of all colors and classes and religions and nationalities.
I know that many people in our 6th District consistently vote Republican. It’s a matter of party loyalty. I myself regard loyalty as a great virtue. I am loyal to my friends, and I am faithful to my wife, and I still root for the teams from where I lived as a boy.
There’s probably a good reason why politicians generally stick with simple messages about the immediate issues found on the surface of things. Most everyone encourages me to do that more.
But I am convinced that we will meet the profound challenge of our present crisis only to the extent that we grasp a reality that’s neither simple nor superficial.
So as the non-politician candidate, I am going to speak about the force that gives rise to much of what we see on the surface of contemporary events, and that can be seen only by putting the pieces together and seeing things whole.
REDEEMED BY SACRIFICE: ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’
There is, perhaps, no single movie that is more beloved for the Christmas season than “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Frank Capra’s great film from 1946.
At the heart of this film is the life of George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, who has had dreams of one kind of life but who has felt compelled, by a sense of duty, to keep choosing a different path altogether. His longing for travel and adventure must continually go frustrated because, at each crucial juncture, his family or his town need for him to stay and serve.
This is the second in a series of pieces on imaginative works that have become deeply woven into how Christmas is celebrated in American culture. These pieces connect with Christmas, and they connect with the moral heart of America. And moreover, the issues they raise are central to the crisis that we Americans now face in the political realm, and that are at the heart of my campaign for Congress.
A POOR SHEPHERD BOY AS MUCH AS A KING: ‘AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS’
INTRODUCTION
Holidays offer us a chance to put our usual pursuits aside. But often, also, holidays provide a light to illuminate the meaning of our usual pursuits. So it is with this Christmas season and with our efforts to meet the challenge of the present crisis in America.
Over the generations, the holiday of Christmas has become deeply woven into American culture, expressing both the nature of our country and its ideals. Aside from the commercialization of the holiday, which of course reflects an important part of what America is about, there are also the deep moral values that gain expression in America during the Christmas season.
The title here pretty much says it all.
Some people have said to me that they don’t go to the campaign Facebook page because they assume that they would not get onto it because they don’t “do” Facebook.
But the campaign Facebook page is of a different sort from the kind where people “friend” each other: the campaign page is a “fan” page, open to everyone. Instead of “friending,” interested people can “like” the page.
I commend that page to your attention. We’re having some fun there.
It can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Schmookler-for-Congress/229965547024132 .
Who will be the Republican nominee for president in 2012?
The Democratic National Committee seems to think it knows: it’s already running ads against Mitt Romney.
But the Republican base is conspicuously not flocking to Romney’s banner. As is often observed, Romney consistently polls at around a quarter of the Republican electorate. He is a front-runner without a band-wagon.
The Republican base, having turned from one un-Romney candidate to another, has now alighted on Newt Gingrich. Will the “Not Romney” crowd stick with Newt?
WHY OUR BEATING BOB GOODLATTE COULD HAVE A VERY BIG IMPACT
I am running as a Democrat to take the 6th District congressional seat away from the Republican, Bob Goodlatte. With this campaign, we have an opportunity to achieve something of real importance, something that reverberates far beyond the 6th District.
Sure, it’s an uphill fight. Sure, our incumbent Republican opponent will far outspend us. Sure, this is the most difficult district in Virginia in which to beat a Republican.
All the better! The more surprising our victory, the more powerful the blow we will strike by winning this race!
This week’s elections brought generally good news to progressives and Democrats, and bad news to Republicans, but our Virginia was an exception to the larger trend: the Republicans now control both legislative houses in our state, as well as the governorship. I see the significance of both the national results, and of the Virginia results, in terms of Republican overreach.
Elsewhere, as has been widely observed, the electorate rejected the extreme policies of today’s Republican Party:
| Here’s why genuine conservatives should repudiate the Virginia Republican Party as led by Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Cuccinelli.
True conservatives don’t want government power being used against the free exercise of legal rights. But that’s what these Virginia Republicans have shown they are willing to do. A congressional panel headed by a Republican found no basis for Cuccinelli’s allegations of fraud against a respected climate scientist, Professor Michael Mann, formerly of the University of Virginia. Yet Attorney General Cuccinelli used subpoena power to harass and intimidate Mann and, by extension, to create obstacles to the free inquiry of other professional scientists. That is not the American way. True conservatism takes a principled stand against such abuses. It does not applaud them. Whatever one thinks of the concerns being raised by climate scientists, no real conservative should ever countenance the use of state power to intimidate and hobble people whose participation in the marketplace of ideas runs contrary to the interests that certain office holders wish to serve. Nor should one’s opinion about the right to abortion affect one’s judgment on another abuse of state power. With Governor McDonnell’s support, the Virginia Board of Health instituted regulations that clearly had no purpose other than to impose such heavy financial burdens on abortion clinics that they would be compelled to close their doors, and thus prevent American citizens from exercising a right that has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. |
Recently I was asked to write a short statement explaining why I’m running and what my candidacy is about. Here’s what I said.
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I’m running for Congress in the 6th District in Virginia. I’ve never run for elective office before. I wouldn’t be a candidate now if I didn’t think that our country is in one of the most serious crises in U.S. history.
A destructive political force, consistently using deception, has arisen on the American political right and is systematically degrading the democratic structures and norms that are our American birthright.
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