Web Letters | The Nation

How to Save the Democratic Party

Yes, Runner is right on one score: the role of government is essential. And now is a moment when it is urgently needed. That means we must reform the political system, yet once again. Ever since the elections of 1896 the progressive mission has been to be the center of coalitions that reform the quasi-democratic American political system that elitist corporate power put in place in that fateful election. (Hat-tip to Larry Goodwyn.) As such it has been and still is the primary countervailing force to that elitist corporate power.

At the same time, that never has been and never will be enough to establish a fundamentally democratic political economics. That is, we must also focus as intently on a long-term strategy of changing the existing game, rather than narrowly focusing on a progressive strategy, which is, in effect, a Sisyphean project. (See Amy Dean’s response.) We did in the ’30s. Came back in the ’60s to do more. Now have to push the stone up from where it was in the ’20s.

Runner’s progressive agenda is basically solid, and some of the additions suggested are good ones. Several of the commentators on her/his article pointed out that it was strategically weak. I agree. The reform approach needs to be thoroughly grounded in grassroots organizing. (See responses by Ellison, Flacks, Lander and Harris. Also Warren’s.)

Voilà! A more radical change-the-game strategy for deep, long-term change also must be thoroughly bottom-up and deeply into race/ethnicity, class, and gender. (See Dean’s and Fletcher’s responses.) The grassroots can be the space where progressive grassroots groups can work with change-the-game groups such as the Occupy and alternative economic movements. There is so much common cause between the two different but reinforcing strategies. W.E.B Du Bois’s “double consciousness.” (Again, Fletcher’s response.) That is, if both can move beyond the usual territorial rivalries and competition for scarce resources.

Here are eight strategic principles for a change-the-game strategy:

1. Change the game, not simply the rules of the game.

2. Reconnect economics and politics all the up and all the way down.

3. Think “movement” all the time.

4. Build regional webs of alternative economic enterprises into reciprocal chains of production-and-consumption that connect producers to retailers to consumers in ongoing communication.

5. Ground this alternative economy in people’s lives through base-community building and local mediating institutions.

6. Link base-communities, their mediating institutions, and second-tier institutions throughout the region to each other.

7. Think in terms of generations, not years, not even decades.

8. Develop grassroots transformative processes that enable people to empower themselves personally and collectively.

'The Limits to Growth': A Book That Launched a Movement

MIT still growing

Christian Parenti’s piece is spot on. However, Parenti should be advised that MIT has not been motionless since publication of Limits. The “Engineering Systems” division, in particular, has been working on approaches that (i) use standard tools like “systems dynamics”, which are more-or-less generic, formal tools, as Parenti points out, but that also (ii) attempt to bring political and economic policy into the engineer’s design philosophy. A recent PhD dissertation focused, for example, on demand-side control of electricity (using so-called “smart metering” technology) in order to reduce, or at least level, demand rather than merely meeting demand requirements. The idea of political neutrality is up for grabs, even among engineers. The situation is, indeed, that desperate.

A Brutal Peace: On the Postwar Expulsions of Germans

Thank you for this thoughtful and well informed review. It is of interest because I spent several years as a correspondent in Prague, and I still follow events there regularly.

I first came across R.M. Douglas and his book in the pages of The Chronicle of Higher Education, back in June:

I was shocked by what I read, for three main reasons:

1. Douglas’s claim that the treatment of the Sudeten Germans was an unreported (or even under-reported) event is simply ludicrous. Even before 1989 it was well covered in history classes, at least in Europe. And as I know because I was there, once Czechoslovakia had a free government, it was a major topic of debate.

2. The article by Douglas does not mention once the fact that President Vaclav Havel went out of his way, very soon after taking power, to make a full public apology for the expulsion—a very unpopular move with his public—on the grounds that it was wrong in principle to impose collective punishment, and had helped to set Czechoslovakia on the slippery slope towards totalitarianism.

3. The comments that appear under Douglas’s article—more than 300 of them—are full of the most foul historical revisionism, on the lines of: ‘this just proves that America is the worst country on earth, and always has been, and by the way the Nazis weren’t as bad as people say.’ I know that below-the-line is different from above-the-line, but I would say that leaving such noxious weeds to grow is very bad for the reputation management of both the Chronicle and of Douglas himself. It begs the question, does he distance himself from that interpretation? Douglas doesn’t go that far, but there is something in his tone and at times odd selection of facts that arguably lends itself to this kind of support.

It’s been bothering me ever since, and I am glad that your review has provided a chance to contribute this comment, in case it helps with discussion of the work, and the issue itself.

Exclusive: More Fossil Fuel Companies Pressure Workers to Vote GOP

You recently published an article containing blatantly false statements about Murray Energy Corporation, and its chief executive officer. We write to you today to set the record straight.

The article wrongly states that “Murray Energy…was caught forcing its workers to stand behind Romney at a political rally.” Murray Energy Corporation never forced its workers to stand behind Governor Romney, nor did our “CEO call out in e-mails employees who did not donate to his list of preferred GOP candidates,” as you also wrote.

Approximately 500 hourly coal miners recently signed a letter to the public rebutting these baseless allegations. They also purchased two full-page newspaper advertisements, with their names listed, which stated:

We as employees understand we have the right to support any candidate we should choose for any office. We would like the public to know we were not forced to attend the Romney Political Rally on 8/14/2012. We chose to be there. We arrived knowing we would not be paid, and we approved of this. If we have donated funds to a political candidate or political action committee, it is because we elected to do so. We are proud to be employed by and associated to Mr. Robert E. Murray. We stand behind you Robert E. Murray and Mitt Romney.

The Nation should be certain of the facts before you so unfairly attack a company and its founder and chief executive officer in such a biased, false and unforgivable manner.

Don't Eliminate the Filibuster, Restore It

Simple

Hopefully the rule changes will include a simple majority to end debate and a simple majority to pass the law after debate is closed.

Totalitarianism, Famine and Us

Inconclusive

After all is said and done, we only know that a famine happened, with mixed reasons. The desire to jack up the possible casualties reflects the politicized nature of these studies. The author also revisits the old trope of Stalin’s “intentional genocide of 3 million Ukrainians.” The figure applied Union-wide, where more than Ukrainians starved. Nor was it “intentional.” Crop failure was instrumental in the '’33 famine.

Israel's War on Gaza

Put yourself in Israel’s place

Are you guys nuts? I want peace in the Middle East and self-governance by Palestinians, but your irrational article never mentions that Hamas and its allies were, before the Israeli escalation, raining rockets on Israeli civilians. Imagine if some nut cases were raining rockets all around the Nation office. I suspect you’d see a reason to take action against the rocketeers.

Israel's War on Gaza

Disproportionate

“But the pattern of Israeli attacks goes beyond the shockingly disproportionate casualties,” writes Phyllis Bennis. Hmm. I am wondering, what would be “proportional casualties”? Maybe Ms. Bennis would feel much better if there were more killed Israelis. Maybe a thousand, or few thousand, or maybe few millions (it was done before). Does she and many others realized that this is why almost every adult Israeli has to serve in the army—to protect their people from disproportional casualties? Or she just hopes that once again Jewish people would submit themselves to a mass annihilation. Has she ever thought why instead of trying to make the lives of Palestinians better, Hamas has spent all its energy building myriad tunnels, smuggling rockets? How many roads and houses could be built in Gaza with all the money spent on arms and propaganda? Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to make people think and understand when they are full of hate.

Obama Won. Now It's Time to Change the System

Our gallant knight

I wonder if people realize the enormous pressure the president has been under since day one. People comment about his graying hair and that he looks much older because of saving the country from a Depression, managing two wars after he was elected, saving the US automobile industry from collapse, and all his battles with Congress; but there is one area of pressure too many people and perhaps almost all white Americans cannot and will never be able to understand. That area is being the first black president in our nations history.

Most decent people wanted the president to succeed, but there are millions who would have been happy if he did not so they could say, “See, they don’t have what it takes” just as they doubted black’s abilities to play baseball, quarterback a professional football team and manage a professional sports team, or be a mayor or Congressman or owner of a large business. Barack Obama has had the eyes of the entire world on him since he was sworn in.

Every nation knows about our country’s racial history and the pressure each day on our president has been enormous. If a Deval Patrick or a Cory Booker, or another black person becomes president some day they will have it much, much easier than President Obama has because of all the expectations and hopes people had for him and because of all the people hoping he would fail. After Arthur Ashe contracted the AIDS virus he was asked, ‘Is this the hardest thing you have ever experienced in your life?… And he replied, ‘No, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with is being a black man in America.”

No amount of economic crisis, no amount of wars our country is involved in, and no natural disaster or terrorist attack that happens can equal the daily pressure our president faces because of our past and current problem with racism. In our nation’s history no other president had his place of birth ever questioned or his ability to command the military questioned, and no other president was ever told to go back to the country he came from.

Barack Obama is our gallant knight. Irregardless of whether you agree with some of his policies, he is doing his best for all Americans every single hour of every single day. The burden he has on him because of the color of his skin will never go away, but he has borne this burden with courage, decency, humanity and strength, more than any person has done before. Others cleared the path he rode to victory, from the Tuskegee Airmen, to Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks and thousands more, but the elegance of our gallant knight, his demeanor, his poise and his inner character should give all of us, black and white, strength, as well as hope that we can some day eliminate all the vestiges of hate towards people of color too many of our citizens must endure every day.

Our gallant knight may be appreciated for all the many accomplishments and wonderful things he has done for our country, but above and beyond all the bills that were signed and above and beyond all the wars that he has ended and conflicts that he has resolved, he has borne the burden of expectations because of his race with incredible grace, dignity, and humanity, and I for one, a white, Jewish American, am thrilled that he is our president and that in my lifetime I had the honor of experiencing this time in our nation’s history.

Killing Hope: Why Israel Targets Sports in Gaza

Slanted reportage

Nice unbiased article. You say the Israelis “promised ‘collective punishment’ ” but attribute the quote to no one in particular. In point of fact, it’s usually a term employed by groups critical of the Israeli blockade and not by Israeli leadership. You also quote Matan Vilnai out of context. What he actually said was, “The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” he said. Not saying that I agree with what he said—and he should not have made reference to bringing a shoah—but the larger point was that Israel would defend itself against escalating terrorism out of Gaza, something that it has every right to do.

But worse, the quote is from 2008, and on top of that Matan Vilnai is not currently, as you report, an Israeli deputy defense minister. While he was in 2008, he is currently the Israeli ambassador to China. And “Gilad Sharon, son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon” is just that, the son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He’s not in the government and is little more than a right-wing mouthpiece unworthy of attention.

You also dismiss, with a wave of the hand, Israel’s statement that it targeted the stadium because it was being used as a missile launching site, as if that’s a mere irrelevancy. Hamas and its affiliates use mosques and schoolyards as launch sites, so why not a football stadium?

The Israeli action is about stamping out terrorism, plain and simple. As the late Golda Meir said in 1957: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” It’s as true a statement today as it was then.