Political Theatre category archive

One of the most successful attempts to replace history with fiction was the creation of the legend of the Old South, the South of Gone with the Wind: Elegant, stately plantation homes; gracious, hospitable planters; legions of contented darkies singing happily as they labored, before returning to their shacks for the night.

It was a great flack job that enabled the South and Southerners, indeed, the entire country, to look away, look away, look away from the reality of exploitation, brutality, theft of labor, and rape hidden in the back yards of those picturesque estates and, later, remain blind to Jim Crow, which was little more than an attempt of recreate chattel slavery in disguise.

On a smaller scale, we can follow a similar effort right now, as the contemporary Republican Party, its dupes, fellow travelers, and symps attempt to purge the memory of George the Worst, so that voters will forget what governance by that party actually looks like.

In the Roanoke Times, Jason Husser argues eloquently the importance of remembering the past, the real past, not the one we wish had happened. A nugget.

Memory is recognition and recognition is power. “Memory has fueled merciless, violent strife, and it has been at the core of reconciliation and reconstruction,” writes William James Booth, a political theorist at Vanderbilt University and a personal mentor of mine. “It has been used to justify great crimes, and yet it is central to the pursuit of justice.”

Forgetting the bad parts of our past is appealing. Those who caution against “unburying a hatchet” are selling snake oil. Whatever short-term therapeutic value found in blocking a negative event from our minds is overwhelmingly outweighed by the long-term harm of losing the memory of public atrocity.

Read the whole thing.

Michelle Bachmann plans her next speech.

Image via Comically Vintage.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Alfie Kohn contests the claims that our schools are failing. He argues that, in many cases, the claims are little more sales pitches for educational snake-oil.

A couple of nuggets:

The assertion that our students compare unfavorably to those in other countries has long been heard from politicians and corporate executives whose goal is to justify various “get tough” reforms: high-stakes testing, a nationalized curriculum (see under: Common Core “State” Standards), more homework, a longer school day or year, and so on.

And later on, discussing science scores:

But even with older students, there may be less to the bad news than meets the eye. As an article in Scientific American noted a few years back, most countries’ science scores were actually pretty similar.[2] That’s worth keeping in mind whenever a new batch of numbers is released. If there’s little (or even no) statistically significant difference among, say, the nations placing third through tenth, it would be irresponsible to cite those rankings as if they were meaningful.

Follow the link for some facts, with citations.

Addendum:

And be sure to see the George Smith’s comment, below.

As the punditocracy’s current fad seems to be calling for “leadership” from President Obama (witness this drivel from Maureen Dowd, who is always willing to sacrifice sense to achieve sarcasm), as if he can somehow sprinkle pixie dust over Congress to turn it into a sensible body determined to make proper decisions, it is well to remember this gem, buried in a longer column by Joshua Green concerning gun control.

Most Americans mistakenly believe that politics really works the way it does on The West Wing, where an impassioned speech by President Bartlett can rouse the country and bend the opposition. In the real world, things work differently.

As long as we the people continue to people the legislatures with fools and tools, we will be ruled by fools and tools.

More and more, Republicans seem to basing their playbook on stuff the Onion wouldn’t print.

Dick Polman summarizes the week in wingnut whackjobbery. A nugget:

Last, but surely not least, a new national poll reports this fascinating finding: Forty-four percent of Republicans – yes, folks, 44 percent – believe that “in the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.”

Hey, no wonder they said no to expanded background checks.

Better yet, before they sign up that sister-free Kentucky tyke and mount the barricades, perhaps they’d prefer to self-deport.

Battling the poors and the olds.

Larry Flynt endorses Appalachian Trail hiker Mark Sanford for Congress as “America’s great sex pioneer.” (Video at the link.)

I have nothing to add to this.

PoliticalProf explains how to gin up a crisis.

Just read it.

Like me, Chris Satullo has given up on television news.

I find it annoying, as it rachets between fiction and foolishness.

He is fed up:

In one way, and probably in no other, it occurs to me that I’m like the Millenial generation to which my kids belong: I get my main sense of what the news networks are up to by watching Jon Stewart eviscerate them every weeknight on “The Daily Show.”

Stewart and his staff are brilliant media critics, but I assumed they were giving me a satirically skewed view of how inane cable news has become.

Now, after Boston and West, Texas, and other recent horrors, I regret to report that things on cable have become almost as bad as Stewart says they are.

Read the rest.

Rachel Maddow explains how George the Worst plans to cruise into history.

Scott Herhold explores how politicians’ scandals have become transient and passing things

In recent times, however, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Like Freddy Krueger, politicians have been returning to the arena only a year or two after their fall.

Consider Anthony Weiner, who has announced his interest in running for New York mayor less than two years after an errant tweet showing his underpants led to his resignation from Congress.

Or take Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor of “Appalachian Trail” fame, who is now running for Congress in a campaign being undermined by his ex-wife.

I think he’s got something.

Since making a grainy out-of-focus sex tape seems to be the door to celebrity and to success in “reality” television world, I can’t say this trend is surprising. Also, not long ago, politicians’ private shenanigans were generally kept out of the news, unless the pol managed to go out of the way to put himself there. Anyone who remembers the passing of Nelson Rockefeller remembers those days.

What does appall is that many of the scandalous were caught doing those very things which they oppose in their campaigns, especially those on the “family values” side of the aisle.

That the public accepts them back into the political arena rewards them for their hypocrisy.

Part one:

Choose your own ending:

Via Rawstory.

Fun and games in Virginia’s 85th House of Delegates district.

At this point, there seems to be little to the charges that can’t be explained by Photoshop, but lies speed around the world etc.:

Taylor is calling on Byler to withdraw from the race, says he’s exploring civil litigation for damage to his reputation, and has contacted law enforcement seeking an investigation into possible wrongdoing.

The sordid affair, and the resulting digital whodunit over the veracity of Facebook messages, leave voters with plenty to ponder ahead of the June 11 GOP primary to nominate a candidate for an office that pays $17,640 annually.

While much of this story remains murky, at its core, it’s an example of what political combatants are willing to do to potentially harm to a foe.

At issue are screen shots of alleged 2012 Facebook exchanges between Taylor and a 21-year-old Newport News woman in which an intimate rendezvous and marijuana use are discussed.

Me, I wouldn’t vote for either of them anyway, so I can sit back and enjoy the show.

Eric Garland muses on what would the news look like if U. S. media covered domestic news the way they cover foreign news.

A snippet:

Yet another massacre has occurred in the historically war-torn region of the Southern United States – and so soon after the religious festival of Easter.

Brian McConkey, 27, a Christian fundamentalist militiaman living in the formerly occupied territory of Alabama, gunned down three men from an opposing tribe in the village square near Montgomery, the capitol, over a discussion that may have involved the rituals of the local football cult.

Please, oh please, do read the rest.

Via TWIB.

The Booman offers a taxonomy of the crazy.

Poor Mark Sanford.

He couldn’t even scrounge up a chair.

The Booman reminds us that the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq rages on; follow the link:

As George W. Bush prepares to open his 9/11-themed presidential library tomorrow, we should all pause to realize that the hell he unleashed on Iraq has not abated.

Image via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Via Raw Story.

Much absolutely hysterically wrong wrongness about Miranda warnings has filled the news and the blogosphere since the suspect in the Boston bombings was apprehended.

David Harris, University of Pittsburgh law professor, cuts through the crap on Miranda warnings.

Let’s start with a clear understanding of the Miranda warnings. Failing to give Miranda warnings does not interfere with the power of the police to make an arrest. Not giving the warnings does not affect the ability of the prosecution to try a suspect. In fact, not reading a suspect his Miranda warnings does not even violate the person’s rights.

The Supreme Court ruling in the Miranda case is actually quite specific: Warnings are required only if the police question a suspect while he is in custody and the district attorney wants to use the answers to prove guilt. That’s all.

If you have been caught up in the miasma of Miranda meanderings, you really need to read the whole thing.