A critical observation in the coming elections

[nadinbrzezinski]

In the last two days I started one and I participated in one. Both were hot bottom issues for a certain group of the population but the parallels were stunning

One was on gaming... and whether we should have any kind of rating system or not, and how guilty parents are when they buy M rated games for little Aliza (true story, my brother, both GTA for her very mature daughter), The other was about guns and the culture and their almost knee jerk reaction (just like gamers) to the idea of licensing or any other regulation.

Now as I woke up this morning I may have had an epiphany, or you may already know it, but these two groups see politics through the lense of how this will affect me.

Now two disclaimers are needed, I do own a gun (two in fact) so licensing will directly affect me, and I work in the industry, (Paper and pencil side of it), and have to comply with certain community standards in order to sell

But enough about me... what did these two threads teach me?

All sense of community is completely gone. American society (or the microcosm I got to see here) is truly dysfunctional, and folks are truly unable to think beyond individual effects. This sense of anomie is a classic in society under stress. And it is even worst in the country side (Been readying Frank's what is the matter whit Kansas) and the posts in the gun thread were a classic of that book. We had democrats railing against gun grabbers (who incidentally were democrats,) and also repeating memes that were astounding and when called to the carpet it was amazing. These democrats will vote for the real gun grabbers any day of the week, since they are convinced I want to take their guns away, just as many of the kids who play games will vote for a republican since I will take their games away.

There are plenty of other single issue voters out there... and the problem before us, since our Presidents are not elected directly, is can we afford to basically ignore a group that mark my words, will find another reason not to vote for our candidates. (Guns, god and Gays comes to mind) But also the more profound question is are we still a nation? Nations usually share common interests, but from participating especially in the gun thread, am afraid we no longer do. There is that feeling of balkanization in the air, and can we fix it? Or should we let the country take its natural course and have whole regions go their own way as independent nations?

It also plays well into the objectives of a plutocracy that loves to keep a population divided... and at this point I am not going to make many distinctions between parties, since both parties have members and even groups that are committed to keeping wealth on one end and poverty and division on the other (And frank even makes this point about the DLC, ok, so we are not imagining things)

So from a political perspective how do you reintroduce a sense of community, where your rural gun owner will not feel under assault every time a politician opens his or her mouth, or a gamer, or insert TRIBE here.

[MissMarple]

1. It's as if the value of community, of creating healthy communities needs to be taught.

Oops, I needed to fix a link.

Basically, however, almost people hear is the quasi libertarian, neo conservative drivel that continues to separate and isolate us. I was reading a bit of George Lakoff yesterday at Rockridge Institute. I was googling "radical conservatism" and came across it. Progressive liberals need to get more focused on spreading this idea of community and the roles that government must play in our civic lives in creating viable and productive citizens. Neocons and fundamentalist demagogues have tapped into a very real need that people have, the need to feel connected and the need to feel relevant, the desire for a wholesome society. We need, however, a government that actually reflects the positive, constructive values that we all share, well, that most of us share. We must focus on our clarifying shared values before we define the accompanying issues.

The facility that "conservatives" have to move from moral rationales to libertarian, survivalist rationales is breath taking in its absurdity. They do not want reality, they want a stylized fantasy that simply will never exist. Meanwhile we are all pretty much screwed by the power brokers who take advantage of their naivete.

www.rockridgeinstitute.org and http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/03/12/thinking-points-discussion-of-chapter-1-winning-and-losing

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Well I struck a conversation wiht my cobler

he is from mexico (just like me) and he blames Mexico for not giving him oportunities and politics

So he said he looks at the person,

I explained to him how Republcians to the core hate his (and my type) and how they will tell him what he wants to hear to get his vote

And that HE SHOULD start paying attetnion.

He wasn't too happy once I explained why his previous congress critter, an uptanding citizen after all, is in the clink, and the voting record of his present one

Somehow none of that was told to him in the literature

It was amusing

But a good example of how they do it

Oh and edited to add that little tidbit

Damn I need to go reread Lakoff and probably volunteer to transate the damn site to Spanish