(cuz it's always midnight somewhere... :D - promoted by poligirl)
Welcome to the Midnight Oil. This diary is open for discussion from a few minutes after midnight through a few minute before (maybe two days later, maybe three). The intro remains the same, but the body is always changing.
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Populist movements don't build themselves, they grow from a process of people learning how to support a series of populist campaigns in a populist way, rather than as passive consumers of corporate political marketing campaigns.
It doesn't matter what the "horse race" outcome of the campaign is, if we fight the campaign. Fighting it, we learn how to fight. Learning how to fight political battles, we become citizens again. Becoming citizens again, we reclaim the Republic that lies dormant beneath the bread and circuses of modern American society.
Be excellent to each other ... that part is like your everydaily PB Diary!
Don't worry about "jumping the tip jar" ... just go ahead and post
I come by to add "Spreading Fires" all week long, so the diary is "live" all week long ... so use the "permalink" to bookmark the tagpage for after it drops off the recent diary list
Open Thread rules apply to the comments ... follow the topic of the comment you are answering, a main comment can be on anything of interest to the patrons of the Midnight Oil Bar
Progressive Solidarity ... its a core concept for building a progressive change coalition. It is, indeed, a core concept for Progressive Populism itself. It says, "You got such a great idea for fixing things? Don't just put it out there and then blame people for not 'getting it'. Go out an earn their attention by finding out what they say they need and working for it."
Its not exclusionary. If someone is willing to step forward on an important issue ... even someone who is not going to be a partner in the change coalition ... even a moderate conservative like Colin Powell who was and continues to be wrong on one of the central foreign policy decisions in our nation in our time ... accept it.
But right now we're also facing a very daunting period. And I think the number one issue the president's going to have to deal with is the economy. That's what the American people are worried about. And, frankly, it's not just an American problem, it's an international problem. We can see how all of these economies are now linked in this globalized system. And I think that'll be number one. The president will also have to make decisions quickly as to how to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan. And also I think the president has to reach out to the world and show that there is a new president, a new administration that is looking forward to working with our friends and allies. And in my judgment, also willing to talk to people who we have not been willing to talk to before. Because this is a time for outreach.
... I have no doubt that the economic solutions he would most prefer and those that I would most prefer will not be the same solutions ... I have not doubt that the foreign policy stance he would most prefer and the one that I would most prefer will not be the same stance ... I have not doubt that the terms on which he would wish to "work with our allies" would not be the same as the terms that I would favor.
Colin Powell is, after all, a "moderate Republican" in a time when being a "moderate Democrat" would be considered a center-right political position in most of the industrial world. We almost certainly have different views on how things should be done.
However, when it comes to defending the small-r "republican" ideals upon which our government was founded ... there we have a substantial basis for common ground. When later in in the same interview, Colin Powell says:
I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
... well, the only difference in our position is that he is calling out the Know-Nothings in his own party, because opposition to Know-Nothingism trascends partisan politics.
As does sacrifice in defense of the nation, even when the current political authorities are pursuing a wrong-headed, foredoomed policy of overseas military adventurism:
I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.
Progressive Solidarity
The life of Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan was sacrificed in defense of the principle that, no matter how wrong-headed the policies of the civilian leadership, the armed forces do not make policy. That is every bit as much a cornerstone of the liberty of a Free People in a Free Republic as Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Arbitrary Detention or Freedom of Assembly. He died in defense of our freedoms, even though fighting in a war that should never have been fought.
And it is necessary and urgent to speak out against the Know-Nothingism that would make Kareem RS Khan Un-American because of the religious symbol on his tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery.
But it is not sufficient.
We must do more than speak out against and fight the Know-Nothings. We must also develop and advance a program of change that can channel populist rage against the actual sources of the manifold outrages visited upon ordinary working families in this country.
And, while the alluring prospect of a victory by Senator Obama seems more and more likely, we must not forget that electing a moderate Democrat as President is not the end of the struggle. In quite a number of ways, it is simply one more beginning.
And so, the Midnight Oil keeps burning ...
Midnight Oil - My Country (live) ...
Was it the time of year, that makes a state of fear
Methods were the motives for the action
...
Now who can stop the hail
When human senses fail
...
Did I hear you say
My country right or wrong
My country oh so strong
My country going wrong
My country right or wrong
I hear you say the truth must take a beating
The flag a camouflage for your deceiving
...
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Its not exclusionary. If someone is willing to step forward on an important issue ... even someone who is not going to be a partner in the change coalition ... even a moderate conservative like Colin Powell who was and continues to be wrong on one of the central foreign policy decisions in our nation in our time ... accept it.
