Dadaism: The Answer to Republicanism
Jean Arp, where are you when we need you most?
Joe the plumber shows up again this week. But he's still a star in conservative circles -- and still saying some odd, hostile things. At an event Thursday for the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity (one of the lead organizations behind the Tax Day Tea Parties), Wurzelbacher suggested Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) should be lynched.
"I'm here for one reason and one reason only: It's 'I love America,'" Wurzelbacher told the crowd. "Mainstream media wants to paint us as a bunch of extremists, right? We're in search of liberty and our freedoms. What's so extreme about that?" [...]
"Let me give you another extremist view, 'In God We Trust,'" he said to wild applause. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/26/joe-the-plumber-suggests_n_221631.html
Michelle Bachmann now has won her own comic book. She will never shut up. She insists she will refuse to fill out a census form for 2010. Paraphrasing Nixon I guess she actually said "I'm not a kook" She went on an on about how the Census is run by the likes of Acorn.
On Fox News this morning, Bachmann repeated her determination to break the law. She also suggested that the Obama administration could use the Census data for nefarious purposes -- including the imprisonment of Americans in concentration camps:
BACHMANN: If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I'm not saying that's what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/25/bachmann-fox-census/
On Saturday, Pat
Buchanan hosted a conference
to discuss how Republicans can regain a majority in America. During one discussion, panelists suggested
supporting English-only initiatives as a prime way of attracting "working class
white Democrats." The discussion ridiculed Judge Sotomayor for the fact that
she studied
children's classics to improve her grammar while attending college. The
panelists also suggested that, without English as the official language,
President Obama would force Americans to speak Spanish. http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/22/misspelled-english-buchanan/
s. The word conference was spelled "Conferenece." View it here:
Media Matters has rush blaming Obama for the Sanford affair. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906260037
MM also has Beck demonstrating that cap and trade is like a
watermelon, green on the outside and red on the inside and therefore a
communist plot. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906260032
But that was not good enough so:
MM included Beck's rant on "some" cap and trade supporters: "dumbest people" to walk Earth, "greedy," "wicked," "treasonous" http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906260020
Oh and as far as Savage, just follow Bill Bowman, he has that under control here at TPM and on his own web site. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/wfb812/
Oh and the guy who burned down the barn, killed the neighbor's dog and ran over the sheriff, Stratofrog has w all documented without any help from me. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/stratofrog/2009/06/widdledub-engages-in-thinkery.php
Keith O had it in for some state senator all week who was giving speeches about how important it was to refrain from giving free lunches to poor kids during the summer because hunger could be a great inspiration to change your station in life.
DADAISM
According to Wiki:
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922.[1] The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature--poetry, art manifestoes, art theory--theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.
At the first public soiree at the cabaret on July 14, 1916, Ball recited the first manifesto (see text). Tzara, in 1918, wrote a Dada manifesto considered one of the most important of the Dada writings. Other manifestos followed.
Marcel Janco recalled,
We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the "tabula rasa". At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order.
Jean Arp was one of those courageous leaders of this movement. He told a story about his experience with the draft for WW1:
Arp later told the story of how, when he was notified to report to the German embassy, he avoided being drafted into the army: he took the paperwork he had been given and, in the first blank, wrote the date. He then wrote the date in every other space as well, then drew a line beneath them and carefully added them up. He then took off all his clothes and went to hand in his paperwork. He was told to go home.
I related another story about Arp and a publisher. I cannot confirm it right now but the story goes that he was supposed to write a book. So in order to comply with the contract he wrote two hundred and some pages. Each page ended with a period. He then SHUFFLED the pages like a deck of cards and handed the tome in to the publisher.
Now, what has all this to do with the cost of gasoline and health care in this country?
Well first, Main Stream Media would have you think that the repubs are in 'DISARRAY'. That they need to find a SPOKESMAN for their party. (I love this, spokesman, what a bunch of idiots)
That somehow something has changed.
I watched the 'SPOKESPEOPLE' for the repubs give out the same Dadaistic crap for eight goddamnable years. (blesses himself) Nothing has changed. They just are not in power anymore. They never once came out and spoke any truth. They never once came out and communicated logical reasons for their actions. They even lied about what their actions were most of the time.
There are weapons of mass destruction.
No there are not.
Just wait, we have not found them yet.
It has been two years and there are no weapons of mass destruction.
Yeah but there is a definite connection between Saddam and 1) the Taliban or 2) Terrorists or 3) Al Qaida or 4) totalitarian communists.
There was a nuclear arms program in Iraq.
No there was not.
We know that there was a link between Iraq and obtaining nuclear 1) bombs or 2) a missile deliver system or 3) aluminum tubes for...4) enriched uranium cheerios.........
No there was not, ever.
Well we wished to make America safe for Democracy.
Cheney, w, rummy, condi, rove, ....just take your pick. They all once did or still do make these claims.
Regulation is strangling this country and loosening regulation will help with the economy and....
Lack of regulation is killing this country you doofus or doofuses or...
We had full employment and good numbers for 46 months or 48 months or whatever.
What about the rest of the term, what about the last year of your administration? What about the worst economy in 75 - 80 years? What about the mire you left all of us in as far as wars in the Middle East? What about........
You see, this is all a waste of time and energy. At least when the third grader says my dog ate my homework, I mean, he could be right. Make a call, does the kid have a dog and does the dog like to eat paper? I dunno.
We, the left, the Dems, the Progressives, the Educated.....we are doing this all wrong. We are responding incorrectly to this drivel. We cannot change the arena for discussion. MSM will continue to let cheney or w or rove or whoever get on tv and say this drivel. They are interested in ratings and money and advertisers who are all repubs anyway.
So we need an Arp out there or a Janco or even a Quinn to respond properly. For me the Q & A might go like this:
Cheney: We have not had any further attacks on this country since 9/11 because of policies we instituted in our administration...blah blah blah blah
Arp: Mr. Dick sir, you and yours have made the Muslim terrorists stronger and stronger and I would personally like to thank you for that since it means that my company, MISSILES GALORE will make more money than any two third world countries now in existence. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Bachmann: This country is drifting, nay falling into communism faster and faster every day. The government has too much power over individual lives....blah blah blah
Janco: I really wish to thank you, whatever the fu.. your name is for giving our side the opportunity to confront this woman about certain statements she has made recently. But my God, here she is filling her pants again and I told you before michelle, my belle, you have to put the depends on first and then your pants suit. My god, the smell in here.
Beck: Family values are the values that make families and families that make the values that we value at all times and if the homos have their way with themselves and then, naturally with me because I will be defenseless......
Quinn: thank you for that mr. glenn and just for this purpose I have brought along a recording from Queen (my favorite cut used in Highlander) and here it is (pulls out a miniature recorder) and now let us all sing along:
Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye everybody - I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooo - (anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning - very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro - magnifico
But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go - will you let me go
Bismillah! No - we will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let me go
Will not let you go - let me go (never)
Never let you go - let me go
Never let me go - ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no -
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
for me
for me
Rush: I really believe that the sins of the republicans of late are directly tied to the realization that the socialist dems have taken over the government in a bloodless coupe and that THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO RETAIN POWER and that they will stop at nothing to level the playing field and redistribute wealth.....
Dickon: If I had a hammer (and a sickle) I'd hammer in the morning (an sickle too) I'd hammer in the evening all over this land. I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warnin', I'd hammer out the love between my brother and my sister (and be sickling too) all over this land.
Rummy: We now know some things we did not know but at the same time we still do not know what we did not know, at least to some extent...........
Dester: We do know that you do not know the difference between making war profitable and making hundreds of millions of dollars on drug stocks......have you taken your meds today? I mean seriously, a man of your age and with obvious behavioral issues should be under the care and guidance of a group of mental health care providers.....
Palin: You know we do not even have taxes in Alaska. I was just reading one of those New York Elite papers and it was sayin that only through more taxes can you be happy. Well I disagree with that, I mean less taxes is better and no taxes is even better. You know someone said that everytime you lower taxes the government makes more money. Think of how much money this country would have if we just ended all federal taxes forever. You betcha
Little Eva: Well Mrs. Governess, Do you not see, Everybody's doin a brand new dance. I know you will like it if you give it a chance. Do the locomotion with me-- come on baby jump up, jump back well I think you have the knack. Move around the floor in a locomotion. Do it holding hands if you do get the notion. It even makes you happy when you're feelin blue. Oooh you're lookin good.
DD, I'd say "You can't make this stuff up." except that you do. And Bachmann, Coleman/Qumby, Cheney, and the others give us a never-ending supply of starting points. You just seem to do a bit better with them than most of us.
So when is someone going to come from the wings, chanting and singing "Hello, Dali!"?
June 27, 2009 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dali was of the Dadaists but not of them.
To understand Dadaism one must understand dub-ya dub-ya I. It was the first war in which industrial machines were utilized to kill people on a massive scale. No more "wait to shoot until you see the whites of their eyes crap" it was wholesale slaughter on a mass scale that had been unknown.
The Dadaists rejected this, they rejected nationalism, and although we can all look back with fondness and amusement at their artistic contributions, they weren't exactly honored in their lifetimes. To those sensitive souls then, it was anarchy and they tried to deal with their despair in whichever ways (often comical) that they could. Poverty in Germany was a direct result of WWI and led to WWII.
Oh the shark has
pretty teeth dear
and he shows them
pearly white
Did Dadaism help civilize the world? Perhaps. Did it help people to deal with the mass insanity of wealth and power trumping common sense. Possibly.
To call out republican insanity using the principles of Dadaism isn't a bad idea. But it isn't just republicans, it's the corporate beasts that feed them that must be addressed.
Those are formidable indeed, as were the forces against the Dadaists. That sanity prevailed took more then their ridicule to address. The shockwaves that occurred and led to repressive reactions from communism to fascism to great depressions took a toll on the majority of people in the world. It was a few generations of misery before the people stood up finally and said "Enough!"
Are we that generation? I would like to hope so. I'm fairly certain the Dadaists hoped they were, too.
But, they weren't.
June 27, 2009 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well we shall see Bwak. We shall see.
I mean tens of millions went to the polls in 2004 and gave the world's dumbest leader their vote. ha
June 27, 2009 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, we are a instant gratification society, so maybe we will be the generation to kick some serious corporate ass.
I really don't know.
Perhaps our children's children will consider TPMers as Dadaists.
Or perhaps we'll step up and fight. I do hope so Dickon.
June 27, 2009 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are right about WW I being the first war in Europe to involve the industrial might of the nations involved to kill each other, but it was not the first war at that level of technology with large numbers going into the machine. That "honor" goes to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
The big distinction is that since the Russo-Japanese War did not involve European nations it had relatively little cultural effect on Europe. The key to the effects of WW I was to combine the new industrial war with mass conscription as well as nationalization of the nation's industrial might to create total involvement of the entire societies involved in the manner that Napoleon had pioneered. But Napoleon had not had the technology.
European wars had been fought for hundreds of years by professional armies with relatively little involvement by the populations of the various nations. WW I made it clear that was no longer possible.
It fascinates me that we live in a world today that was formed largely as a result of WW I and its final resolution.
June 28, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I stand enlightened. Thank you.
June 28, 2009 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holy Smokes Bwak (blessing everyone and everything) this is most excellent.
Now I don't know much about the Dadaiists, but what I "gather" is that they were kind of a cultural anarchist movement. That seems far different than what the noobocons are after - which is distraction while they steal the store.
June 28, 2009 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I really studied them from an art history viewpoint, which required that we also study their society.
Obviously, there are large holes in my understanding (see Richards excellent comment above), but I did try to understand their world, and for me, it was not a pretty endeavor. So much misery, and for what? So the rich and powerful could settle some petty scores.
Sounds familiar, don't it.
But thanks Rowan, as always.
=D
June 28, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and yes to your query, they didn't consider themselves artists as much as anti-artists. They had lost faith in society and felt it needed to be broken and started again. It took on political tones mostly in Germany, but the anarchy component was there.
They did influence a lot of artists in that they offered new and different ways of seeing. That may be their finest contribution.
Thinking outside the "box" for sure. This trend continued through surrealism which many of them moved on to.
June 28, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
And thank you, Bwak, for the enlightenment. I know literally nothing about Dadaism and very little about art history. I know more now.
This has been a fascinating thread. I appreciate hearing that I have been able to present something useful, but you have really been going to town here.
June 28, 2009 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hello Dali. hahahahaha
It makes no sense anymore Grouch. What they talk about on Cable and seventy per cent of the crap on hte web news
At least Media Matters and TPM and some others just say
hey this is crap.
hahaha
June 27, 2009 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. All flowers aren't saints.
2. We don't know when the dogs arrived. Bark! Bark bark!
3. Our ancestors brains were set afire, and began to click.
We talk politics with conviction. Though our museums hold not one single stone tool, nothing in the way of grave-goods, not a leaf nor a page from behind the unfound door of the future, nonetheless, we talk with conviction.
And we don't even know when the first dogs arrived. Bark bark!
On the other side of the floor, we see monsters. We know their names. Beyond absurdity, men who can, do, and will commit terrible acts. Of this, I have no doubt.
But they can't be beaten by shoving darkness through bigger meat-grinders, by pushing imagination's face under a faster-flowing tap, or by trading in laughter for last year's resentments.
My strategy? 1st, let's figure out when the dogs arrived. Once we know that, the mist will lift. 2nd, don't trust every flower you see. They're like gold coins. Bite 'em to test if they're true. 3rd, Cliiiiiick. Clik clik. Wink.
June 28, 2009 12:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for that. LWOL.
June 28, 2009 2:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
OT, piggy. I tried to read your pickle blog and for some reason I could only get the first 3 paragraphs and a couple of sentences of the 4th. There was no way to comment nor to rec, which I would have done had I been able. The right side of the page is blank - totally white. No avatar or profile info at all. Other blogs appear to be fine, so I don't think it's my computer.
June 28, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dada eat pig blog.
June 28, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't have the problem, and there are several rec's and comments. That's weird. Hope you get it fixed; it is yet another jewel.
June 28, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess it's my computer. Or Quinn's right. I heard Arlo sing today on the radio, which brought to mind the time I heard him sing at the first annual Woody Guthrie hootenanny in Okemah, OK. He said his pickle song was being studied in music schools.
June 28, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Thanks for that. I am such a doof! I didn't get the "pickle" thing until this very second! (slaps self on forhead)
June 28, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the other side of the floor, we see monsters. We know their names. Beyond absurdity, men who can, do, and will commit terrible acts. Of this, I have no doubt."
I am watching Stephanpoopolous right now because monkey face gregory is talking with Lindsey Graham speaking total nonsense.
His wife actually stated that she does not like sex and puts stephan...into a room with porn so he can relieve himself and not bother her.
Peggy noonanopoulous is tweeking her nose and speaking of how mean the media has been to adulterers who are in prayer groups sponsoring legislation to put gay people in jail.
WEll, a lot of people at TPM say...do not watch tv anymore. its a waste of time.
YES, A LOT OF FLOWERS ARE NOT SAINTS. HA!!!
June 28, 2009 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Peggy Noonan speaks like a little child. What she says is devoid of thought. How did she get where she is?
Oh. And as to all flowers not being trustworthy -- to us crossword addicts, a flower can be a pretty thing, a river, or even a volcano!
June 28, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pat Buchanan with Peter Brimelow of 'White Nationalist'? I'm amazed any of these guys can get a job working at a 7/11 let alone become a national spundit or gad forbid, an elected official.
June 28, 2009 2:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
MSNBC is so whacko
Why do they let a nazi sympathizer get air time? Just read his books. Hitler was a hero.
Memos with the n word in them.
oblah di oblah da
June 28, 2009 8:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
G.W. Bush is Ubu Roi!
June 28, 2009 3:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I liked the pig at 5:35 into the video.
June 28, 2009 4:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Miguel, catch this:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/dr_goldstein/2009/06/top-10-sarah-palin-jokes.php
June 28, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Slap stick. Why is it so funny when the mrs hits her beau over the head with a stick?
Fence posts are toucher than they used to be.
I love cartoons.
Life is confusing, do you no think Don?
June 28, 2009 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thought this posted this morning but was being "held for approval" (found thru the "back" tabs). Guess it didn't pass muster. Anyway reposting attempt (one link removed):
It does seem absurd at times. That was just the beginning of a long film based on first of three plays daddy dadaist Alfred Jarry wrote: Ubu Roi, translated "King Turd." (The filmmaker here, Jan Lenica, made great Polish movie and theater posters in the ‘50s, ‘60s, etc.). If you haven’t read it, it really plays like a cartoon. It’s surreal and dark but also funny and satirical. Pere Ubu’s a smelly, cowardly, selfish buffoon. It’s a parody of the ugly ruling class in the guise of juvenile humor like a kid’s puppet show (caused a riot when first shown in late 1800’s and was banned after that). There are wars and absurd intrigues but it all reminds me, not so much of Bush himself, but a sort of amalgam of BushCheneyRoveRummy and their greedy adventures.
June 29, 2009 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh the three link thingy rule. Just break them into two comments. I never have that many links in comments. ha
At any rate, I shall give your links a go.
THanks.
June 29, 2009 1:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have heard of op art, pop art...but Arp Art. hahahahahaha. This is great. hahahah
June 29, 2009 1:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Awareness is our greatest agent for change.
If we want things to get better,
WE have to be better.
If we want life to be great,
WE have to be great.
WE can't leave it to some other guy, some other time, some other place.
Time to step up:)
Ho Mitakuye Oyasin!
June 28, 2009 4:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
I fall into a type of despair....These people are given air time Sync and none of them EVER make any sense. Ever!!
Huffpo and Daily Beast will even pretend that 'they' might have something to say.
I would be interested in a real debate with Baucus and Boxell and Feingold and Kennedy talking about issues related to health care. I would be happy to see them screaming at each other. And then shake hands after the presentation.
But Imhofe has nothing of value to add nor his companion from Oklahoma.
But what is is, and what is not is not.
So the fight must continue, i suppose with the sane against the insane.
June 28, 2009 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is a saying that what we focus on expands DD.
I have no idea where the idea originated but basically you focus on a perspective and the mind starts finding 'evidence' to back it up. I know, I have gotten the same way over stuff going on with Fox 'News' and how it is so widely publicly more available than other news sources.
I am just in the frame of mind right now that I would rather take action and find and create solutions than focus on the problem. I want to see 'evidence' of more that is hopeful and solutions to our challenges.
So, how can we fight back and resolve some of these problems,DD? I know I am working on some ideas:)
June 28, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
This needs to be a blog all by itself. This is exactly what I've been trying to get at, but with a lot more clarity and brevity than I will ever be able to manage.
June 28, 2009 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republican Highjinks I hadn't heard about???
Hello, Dali-ance, well hello, Dali-ance
Its so nice to see your stance where it belongs??
Sorry for that, I'm taking a correspondence course from Berlitz School of Snarkology and this was my assignment for the week.
June 28, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahhahahaha. No, his junior senator idiot coburn.
I am now laughing so hard, I laugh harder when there is a delay in my thinking, when I do not get the joke right away.
June 28, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh well, one could hope.
June 28, 2009 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still using the exception to prove the rule, Dick.
I have yet to meet a single republican that is like the ones that freak you out so badly. I know dozens in my own life that wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with these people. I think the internet is distorting your sense of what being a republican actually means, no matter how that has been perverted these last few decades.
I would also point out that being a democrat, while much better on paper, has hardly been any more effective but for isolated incidents and legislation.
June 28, 2009 8:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Jason, every one of the fascists nazis I have listed in the post is getting paid by the RNC or their largest contributors to spew out this crap, these lies, this hate.........
Go ahead. Give me something.
June 28, 2009 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am not disputing that current "leadership" of the republican party are clearly lunatics. You are right on in that estimation. These people need to go away.
I think where you miss an opportunity is to call on grassroots republicans to defend the crazy rather than assuming they already do. This may repulse them every bit as much as it does us - in fact I know more than a few republicans who question these people's credentials as being authentically conservative or merely exploitative of their current position - but through disinterest or misunderstanding find no reason to condemn the crazy or use the crazy as a reason to make different decisions at the ballot box. Many may not even show up early enough to make difference, the Achilles Heel of both parties.
The latter is especially important because as long as the only people that show up for primaries are the lunatic fringe, we will never make changes shouting critiques from the sidelines during the general.
I guess for me, your gift of writing and ability to communicate certain essential truths is lessened by ending the critique at condemnation without offering the virtue of redemption. I think you could tie core liberal beliefs into a refutation of this sect of "republicanism" by way of the early practitioners of the political ideal - guys like Lincoln and Roosevelt and Eisenhower. Those republicans are more liberal than Bill Clinton ever was and could probide a great object lessons for a GOP that has lost its GDM.
I think it is incumbent upon the critic to not only describe what ails us, but to also provide a vision of what could be. By stopping short, the invective becomes to raison d'être for the essay rather than the fire to inspire sparks of change.
I believe Thomas Paine was our greatest political commentator for one simple reason - not only was he articulate and passionate at describing a wrong, he also went to great lengths to describe the more perfect union that all humans seek when they form societies. I think many bloggers miss that essential truth of early political commentary in America. It's not enough to just critique, or else it leaves the criticism too diffuse with no logical conclusional. That an extremist ideology currently runs the RNC is not in dispute, but that the 50 million or so people who identify as republican or center-right agree with those ideas is certainly subject to debate.
In fact, I suspect that many people who consider themselves republican know less about what they "their party" is spouting than you do.
I think you know enough history and have enough empathy to describe an authentically conservative road that republicans could take in the future, always understanding that change in politics doesn't happen overnight. Hell, change in individual people takes many years, so something as complex as a national political party might be the work of a decade rather than a fortnight. It will take inhuman patience and persistence on all of our parts to get the ship of state turned toward a new destination.
Stretch those chops, Double D. Inspiring people to change by way of the written word is a noble calling and one that is sorely needed in our McInfo world.
June 28, 2009 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just lost my first reply to your second comment. Ha. God must be mad at me.
CNN Sunday News has just spent half an hour in a discussion about what a waste of time it was to air three days of coverage on the death of Michael Jackson. What a waste of time.
MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD,and now for the news:
No repub stands up and says:
backhmann and pretend plumbers and rush, and sean and savage and....are not decent people and should not be listened to.
Oh we get our friend who ran McCain's campaign until Obama was nominated severely attacking these people, but
then I find a 2005 essay from him about the miracle of w and why he is a repub...
Lincoln Chaffe, Snow and a few others will express sanity on any one issue.
One thing I will say. w makes Nixon look pretty good. A lot of fine legislation from that administration, for sure. Civil rights, a decent tax code (a least compared to what it is today), decent regs on capitalism,....
I SEE NOTHING FROM THE RIGHT AT THIS POINT IN TIME.
Next year's elections will be interesting to watch. If the republicans make decent gains, there is no hope for this nation.
If the republicans are slapped down again, maybe a new party will arise. I do not believe we are having a decent debate between parties at this point in time.
NONE AT ALL.
June 28, 2009 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am speaking more about a conversation at the grassroots rather than the one found on high.
We can't use the idiots we see on television as representative of anything but our national lunacy and willingness to tune in to the Two Minutes of Hate, whatever our individual susceptibility to its wiles might be or who is doing the hating. Assuming that rank and file republicans follow their "leaders" in lock-step seems the same logical fallacy that says all democrats agree with everything that comes out of the democratic party. Clearly the latter is false, so perhaps the former is an illusion as well.
We all know that the truth lies somewhere in the logical middle. That place where most people point and say, "Common sense will dictate...." I have had very rational conversations with Americans of every political stripe and they rarely resemble the polemic vitriol that comes out of the Corporate Media or our Corporate Congress. Here is a blog I did about one back during the primary elections. I have had many eye-opening experiences this last year and half or so that convinces me that reality is so much more profound than the lies we have been told to believe.
If we use the national parties and their partisan rhetoric as the baseline for our grassroots narrative, we have already lost. The only place I have seen normal, everyday people use that kind of language and framing is on sites like this one, on both the left and right. This is the American irony (one of many) that makes me most sad. We have this wonderful new medium to create and foster deeper understanding of each other and we use it to continue to same partisan bullshit that has kept us divided as a nation for at least the last 40 years.
I hope this hasn't become a high-jacking as that wasn't my intention.
June 28, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Forgot the link to the blog mentioned above.
June 28, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jason,
You don't live in Texas, obviously. Those crazies are thick on the ground here. Not in my neighborhood, though. They live in the gated communities up north of Fort Worth.
Apparently it takes money to be really crazy.
June 28, 2009 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I imagine the crazies are both thick and thin, depending on your zip code, but I still say they represent the minority of the republican party despite their volume.
June 29, 2009 6:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps, but together with the right wing evangelicals they dominate Texas politics and have done since 1994 when they elected George W. Bush governor.
Because of the caucus system of electing representatives to the County and State Party conventions, they dominate the Republican Party here completely. The tradition in the South and Texas that I am aware of personally is that the state is politically dominated by a few very wealthy families. Those families range from conservative to ultra-conservative. Those families by their donations determine which churches are successful, so we get evangelical Churches who support views of the wealthy families.
To take over the Republican Party, the churches only had to send about five or so individuals to each of the Precinct caucuses to elect themselves and those they approve of to the next higher caucus. No other organization motivates people to go sit down and do such arcane administrative bullshit. The elected representatives then write the State Party platform, and set the Party rules state that every Republican candidate is committed to support the platform. It's a truly extremist document. A lot of moral opponents of these people simply won't sign it.
Those who don't support the platform get no funds to run with and no one on the ground to help run. They normally don't even get the nomination. They are rejected by the Republican Party and on their own. I am unaware of anyone in Texas who has been elected as a Republican in the last 15 years who was not an evangelical conservative approved candidate.
The conservative wealthy families (whose focus is preserving their family wealth and power)is essentially the same group of conservatives who have dominated Texas Politics since Reconstruction ended. They became Republican to vote for Reagan. Before that they dominated the Democratic Party, but the Civil Rights era changed that. First they supported Strom Thurmond for President (1948), then George Wallace (1968), then Nixon (1968 and 1972), and the final break to become the current Republican Party here was when Reagan was elected in 1980.
To put a face on it, Truman, then LBJ and Martin Luther King together created the modern Texas Republican Party. And in the Southern states the parties are all dominated by a few very wealthy families in each state.
It really doesn't matter much what the rest of the Republicans support. They don't act in an organized manner to control the political party and they don't have big money. They are merely along for the with the extremists in the driver's seat.
June 30, 2009 2:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hear you on the situation you find on the ground, but since that could be created it can be uncreated.
There is still only an average turnout of 16% for primaries and caucuses, so the potential for substantive and seemingly overnight change is certainly there. The unfortunate fact is that to create a sustainable society over the next few decades we are going to need the half of the country that identifies as conservative in some way, shape or form.
StillIdealistic used to be a born-again Christian Texas republican, still is the former, though she is now a democrat. Change is already happening at the republican grassroots level, it's just too low to the ground to see it. I think encouraging it to grow, for democrats, is simply a matter of getting out of the way and chilling out on the rhetoric a bit.
June 30, 2009 6:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Da Da Da (or 50% more silliness)
June 28, 2009 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is frickin great Bwak. I hereby render unto you the Dayly Music Award of the Day for this here TPMCafe site, given to all of you from all of me.
hahahahaha
I just bookmarked it. I forgot about this song. It must be decades....
June 28, 2009 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
(shuffles feet)
awwww, thanks Dickon, I figgered this blog wouldn't be complete without this Trio bit.
=D
June 28, 2009 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh Bwak, I just found this and thought you might like it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPG9GcykPIY
June 28, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yez, indeed. DaDaists doing Dada is wonderful.
=D
Thank you.
June 28, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The link below sums up, to me, Dadaism or as it henceforth be known, Dadayism forevermore...
"Everybody can Dada" —Dada-Fair, Berlin, poster, 1919
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/images/artwork/202-182-cities.jpg
June 28, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Steve remember that documentary a few years ago where they 'proved' that Mona Lisa was a self portrait of Divinci in drag?
June 28, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do. Does this mean we are engaged?
June 28, 2009 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I think the whole American conservative movement package makes sense when you look at the pieces it is assembled out of. Look at the current Republican party and consider the purposes the groups making it up and methods they have to use to achieve them.
The Republicans have been taken over the proto-fascists who misname themselves conservatives. In fact, what they spout has nothing to do with classic conservatism.
The impulse that drives them is primarily anti-modernism. The constant changes in art and social rules that have dominated the twentieth century drives them literally nuts, and so they want to retreat back into a fictional Golden Age of America where they understood their own position and that of everyone around them. That world was stable - and the American white middle class dominated it. To deal with the uncontrolled changes in society they focus on enemies, both external and internal to the nation. Their anti-modernism was clearly stated by William F. Buckley (the father of modern conservatism) in the National Review when he wrote of the mission of the magazine "It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."
That anti-modernist impulse has been a major unifying factor between the religious fundamentalists, the descendants of the John Birch Society, and the Neocons. They want control of the government because they think that the government can put a stop to the changes. But as they focus on external and internal enemies they eschew logic and rationality.
The modern conservatives see science, logic and rationality as being the core supports of the modern, changing society they fear and reject. Instead of the rational approaches they resort to much the same set of basic philosophies as has every twentieth extreme right-wing movement. Those philosophies are based largely in a belief that action based on gut-feel is more important than study, scientific processes and logic. George W. spoke directly to them when he bragged that he made decisions base on his gut and once made, did not later revisit and question the decisions.
Because they are focused on enemies, not problems clearly solvable through study, scientific processes and logic, together with the fact that they set decisive action based on gut-level decision-making far above the logic and study that has been characteristic of modernism, they are free to spout whatever doctrines they think that the public will buy. They are also free to abandon those doctrines in a heartbeat to replace them with something else. But that's also the major reason for their attack on science and the Universities. They offer an alternative to the "Pointy-headed Perfessers" in George Wallace's terms.
Since they base their political power on a top-down propaganda-based pseudo-populism, their one limitation on which doctrine they will publicly spout has been the rapidity with which their base can be reeducated. It is this need to rapidly reeducate their base that is the basis for the many "conservative" think tanks and institutes, and for the massive propaganda media operation they operate. The think tanks provide the propaganda and the media distributes it. The purpose is to reeducate the public and garner their support. This willingness to quickly adopt and change supposed core doctrines has been a key characteristic of the right-wing pseudo-populist movements that have so often led to fascist governments in the twentieth century. Notice, though, that since they are a top-down movement driven by big conservative money, they are congenitally incapable of using modern networking methods to organize. They also reject modernism, except to the extent they can use it to win elections and wars.
The reeducation of the public is the key to their political power. Reeducating the public with the small government anti-regulation themes is what they are after in order to take back the reins of power they need to suppress their internal enemies and attack their foreign ones. (That reeducation is demonstrated by Grover Norquist and Ron Paul.) Their enemies are fictions of their imagination, rarely based on anything close to fact since gathering and analyzing facts is one of the core characteristics of the modernism which they view as their enemy. They have, by the way, labeled modernism as "Liberals." That personalizes their enemy and makes it acceptable to attack them, once they have been declared as liberals, i.e. modernists.
The craziness we see so much in the media recently has the purpose of getting others who hate modernism to join them. That is another important method of creating their top-down fake right-wing populism. The political populism works as long as the existing government fails to meet the challenges of much of the population, something that has pretty clearly been true since Vietnam. Once they got enough people in the camp to suggest they conservatism was a growing movement, they emphasized the bandwagon effect to encourage others to join. That's the basis of their fiction that they were going to get a 50-year political lock on American power.
The craziness itself is simply identity politics. Michelle Bachman is shouting out to others who feel as she does and who want the changes to stop. And it's true. Liberalism and the Democratic Party, even the American Constitutional democratic republic under the rule of law have not stopped the changes or made them easier to swallow. In fact American government really has ossified since the 50's and made few big changes to protect the public. As in California, the separation of powers prevents any government from making radical changes as the 7 decade fight to get universal health care so aptly demonstrated.
So the conservatives are looking for a "strong man," a magic leader who can come in, bang heads together, and tell everyone to sit down and work out the problems. McCain was speaking to them also. The conservatives don't care how it is done, and the old rules have failed to stop the changes. They are impatient. Bring on the decisive leader. Cheney and Rumsfeld are examples of such leaders.
I can't be sure I am right on all of this but this is an outline of my understanding of the political attraction and methods of modern conservatism. I think most of the recent craziness we have seen since Reagan was elected can be explained in this framework. Nixon was a reaction to the Vietnam war, the Civil Rights movement, the Pill, Rock and Roll, drugs, and most recently to loss of income and the clear drop in the wealth and expectations of the middle class.
I started to provide a short comment and this overlong rant resulted. It's a first draft, so forgive the grammatical and spelling errors. I've tried to catch them. It's also only a rough narrative of what I think the narrative structure of the conservative Republican movement is and where it came from. You'll notice I do not offer any remedies, but I think a more clear understanding of them is essential first.
June 28, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The modern conservatives see science, logic and rationality as being the core supports of the modern, changing society they fear and reject. Instead of the rational approaches they resort to much the same set of basic philosophies as has every twentieth extreme right-wing movement."
Never apologize for presenting a cogent argument/comment. This is really good Richard.
More than once I opined that if people were rioting outside George Will's office; crying for food for their children, old George would recite some tripe from the Federalist Papers # 23 and 34. ha
I could weave this comment (although you would do a much better job) into a synopsis of our health care system and why we will never see real change! ha!
The dems are at least having an argument and attempting to weave together some 'plan' while the repubs just throw up their hands and yell socialism. THEY LOST THE COMMUNIST ARGUMENT TWO DECADES AGO. So they use the term socialist instead as if it means ANYTHING.
This is such a fine essay--not a real rant in my book.
Thank you much for this. Think about just turning it into a blog...Hell it would fit into just about any pending issue we face as a nation today.
June 28, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rightwinger extremist politicks need to be researched,
exposed and scorned -with or without humor. Your writing
is full of logic, love and insight and it comes through.
Thanks for writing all the dada Day.
When I read your posts, I feel like
WE are all on the road to saner times.
And the wingers certainly speak for themselves
providing much grist for our political grinders.
If Nazis and hungry kids are their heroes,
it must be told, and denounced.
Thanks for revealing them with such skill
and talent and passion. Fabian Forte!
June 28, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok Strato, thanks for the words of encouragement. BLOGGERS OF THE WORLD UNITE. You only risk carpal tunnel syndrome. Ha!!!
June 28, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Carpal tunnel - the cost of carpe diem?
June 28, 2009 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you want to read an outstanding study of the right-wing extremist politics, then David Niewert has just published The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right. I am still digesting it, and much of what I wrote above is my interpretation of what Niewert wrote.
What David suggests is that Hate talk radio caused the relatively mainstream conservative movement to adopt the themes and language of the right-wing extremists. This seems to have happened particularly since 1990.
Reagan and his crew were rather far out on the mainstream rightwing side, but they were still arguably mainstream Americans. It was like the distinction between the conservative Republicans and the John Birch Society and the other radical militant right wing gangs. Hate talk radio changed that. Hate talk radio exists because of the extremism of its statements and its ability to attract audiences of right-wingers. The power of that hate talk put out daily on the radio has essentially driven the moderate (still conservative) Republicans from their party.
The question has to be what made hate talk radio so powerful. I haven't seen this part written, but my interpretation is that the power of the hate talk radio aimed at individual candidates made or broke many of them, with the more extreme of them winning. It was also a self-reinforcing force that attracted advertisers, who then expanded the hate radio. The themes from hate talk radio at also allowed the more extremist right wing politicians to collect more money to run on, as their fundraisers adapted those extremist themes. That's a powerful collection of political forces. Then as the movement expanded they were aided by a bandwagon effect which augmented the movement until it took over the Republican party. The South was already there because that was where the wealthy conservative families who have always dominated the South were, so all they had to do was to expand the movement into a few more non-Southern areas.
Then the fear engendered by 9/11 added to the constellation of forces unleashed by Hate Talk Radio. They were not in the majority, but in 2000 the conservative Supreme Court handed the Presidential election to George Bush, which under Rove's artful hand added to the ability to swing elections their way. At the national level, that basically took us as a nation to the failed Katrina response, when the wheels started to come off.
The focus all along has to be on the public response to individuals and events. The events set the milestones I use to analyze and describe, but the key is the public response. We have only hints of what that is. Polls tell us only what people say as interpreted by pollsters. It is only after they begin to act collectively that we really can recognize both the true response and the intensity. The public was going with the winners who were gaining power, until they began to realize that the Emperor had no clothes on. That revelation has spread slowly, unfortunately. The 2006 and 2008 actions were the confirming actions. Only once we see the confirming actions can we look back and see which events probably indicated a change in direction of real public attitudes.
I started out to briefly provide a synopsis "The Eliminationists" but I wound up haring off on my own speculations regarding what it means. His book has very much clarified my understanding of the core elements of the current American political situation. I cannot more strongly recommend it.
June 30, 2009 1:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, and thank you for saying it out loud as well.
Your thoughts on this contribute immensely.
I just found the author’s blog site too (Orcinus)
from the other link you gave.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/04/far-rights-first-100-days-shifting-into.html
Also here is the 9 page pdf document
from Homeland Security:
Rightwing Extremism: Current
Economic and Political Climate Fueling
Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf
June 30, 2009 3:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Would Surrealism, which grew out of the Dada movement, be more in line with today's gop? Andre Breton, their leader said "...long live the social revolution, and it alone!", which sounds a lot like the joe wurzelbacher's "one reason and one reason only" not to mention the single minded ideology that puts Party before country. Never mind that the earlier movement's ideologies ran toward communism and anarchism. The point is they are both extremes with no room for deviation.
Take a look at Max Ernst's Elephant Celebes and tell me it's not the nightmare the gop has turned into.
BTW - I'm perfectly happy if Bachmaniac convinces her followers not to respond to the census. One of the things the census *is* used for is to gerrymand and assign Congressional districts. The fewer wingnuts on record, the fewer reps they will have,hopefully.
June 28, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh I dont know. William the Bastard's first order after he conquered England was to complete a census.
Great book on this. Domesday Chronicals or some such.
It was pronounced Doomsday. Ha!
Now if we could get a significant amount of repubs who refuse to respond, we might be better off.
June 28, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
William had to do a fast census. He was taking over a country that was strange to him, and as a feudal king he had to know immediately what his military resources were.
That was very important as he allocated various fiefs to his Barons and other war chiefs. They expected rewards for being on the winning side so each had to have enough to be militarily useful to William in his wars on the continent, yet could not have so much in tightly knit compact units that they easily became major threats to the throne of William itself. He also had to break up the domains of potential enemies. Hell of a power balancing act.
Essentially the Domesday book was an example of critical military intelligence.
Seems like a fascinating period covering of the administration and politics of a takeover to me. Obama faces a similar problem as he brings in the new administration, but these days the data needed is about the structures of government rather than the geography of an agricultural nation.
June 28, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aargh. I realise this is probably a losing fight, but you are quoting Wikipedia.
A wiki is a particular type of software that allows users to create and edit web pages, usually collaboratively.
These are all different wiki implementations, and each of those may be used by tens, hundreds or thousands of sites for their own wiki.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, in wiki-form. Geepers :P
Although, I suppose, this is all very apropos dadaism.
June 28, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not Jean, slightly more diabolic.
June 28, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yez.
=D
Decidedly Dada Disposition.
Yez.
June 28, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great Link Karl. Mystical. Oh, if you get a chance check out Bwak's video.
Sorry about this Wiki nonsense. I think you have corrected me on this before.....
June 28, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here’s da manifesto:
http://www.freemedialibrary.com/index.php/Dada_Manifesto_(1918,_Tristan_Tzara)
June 28, 2009 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ideal, ideal, ideal,
Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge,
Boomboom, boomboom, boomboom
June 28, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love that line Bwak, Boomboom, boomboom, boomboom. ;-)
Another Tzara grand summary statement:
"We are. We argue, we dispute, we get excited.
The rest is sauce."
June 28, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bwak provides most excellent extra sauce.
June 28, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ack!
My goose is cooked!!
June 28, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
And exciting!
voila da goose!
I love it also.
June 28, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like us, they lived in interesting and transitory times.
I think there's a lesson in there, but at this moment, I seem to be wallowing in the sauce that is not the sauce.
I'm glad you got the reference, and I should have attributed it, but I was reciting from memory and didn't remember it was Tzara.
=D
I loved all their writings.
June 28, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"DADA - this is a word that throws up ideas so that they can be shot down; every bourgeois is a little playwright, who invents different subjects and who, instead of situating suitable characters on the level of his own intelligence, like chrysalises on chairs, tries to find causes or objects (according to whichever psychoanalytic method he practices) to give weight to his plot, a talking and self-defining story."
Hey Strato...pretty good stuff!!!
June 28, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny too:
“By giving art the impetus of supreme simplicity - novelty -
we are being human and true in relation to
innocent pleasures; impulsive and vibrant in
order to crucify boredom.”
a dada womanifesto
June 28, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
YoMama can be found hypnotically swaying to the Dadaishmaelianistic stylings of my alabaster demon of the deep, which is a far far better thing than the AyHabituated Albatross on a String you use as a medallion; so whine not, miscreant twit.
June 28, 2009 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink