Political Theatre category archive
Whistlin’ Dixie 0
Jeffrey (not Jonah) Goldberg analyzes the music from the chorus of Republican racist dog whistles. A nugget:
Mr. Kennedy offers the theory that this campaign’s dog-whistling may be prompted by a realization by right-leaning provocateurs that voters have become inured to charges of racism. I suspect another phenomenon has hastened this realization: A handful of black Republicans have abetted dog-whistling by making their own bombastic statements about the degraded moral health of the black community, the putative foreignness of the Obamas and the Democratic Party’s plantation-like qualities.
Perpetuating (the Notion of) Difference 1
Chauncey Devega, in a typically long post on a different issue, turns the tables with this nugget:
The Future of Black Politics issue (of the Boston Review–ed.) has the following question on its cover: Is Black Politics Good for America? My response to such inquiries has always been, “is white politics good for America?”* As a student of black politics I am always suspicious when “our” concerns are racialized, and those of other folks taken to be “normal” or “mainstream.” That assumption explains so much about the challenges which face black and brown communities in the 21st century. I remain puzzled that it has not been more thoroughly interrogated.
The same could be said about every issue relating to persons marginalized or viewed as “different” from stereotypical white-bread Americans. Such reasoning makes the “out” group, whoever it is, appear more out, more strange, more different, more somehow inhuman. It’s how you turn other persons into a “Them.”
For instance, I give you this article by Dick Polman.
______________________
*Based on the evidence of things seen, no.
Organizing for Americans 2
Everybody Choose Up Sides 0
Hadley Freeman, writing at the Guardian, discusses the politicization of everything. A nugget:
Little Ricky in a Come-Back 2
Then again, you can’t come back if you’ve never been there.
Dick Polman looks at yesterday’s meaningless (that is, no delegates at stake) contests:
Today’s fun trivia question: Which Republican presidential candidate has won the most contests?
Answer: Rick Santorum (4).
Is this an un-Mitt-igated disaster for the Boy from Bain? Follow the link for what comes next.
“Facts Are What People Think” 0
From the artist:
In the Rightwingoverse, doubt must be cast upon facts, science, and basic reality, in order to sustain an otherwise unsustainable ideology.
Click for a larger image.
Question of the Day 0
Karen Heller wants to know
Why are we always fighting about women’s bodies, and never about those of men?
Droning On 0
Might the laws of war (aside: it is to laugh) apply to raining anonymous death from the skies?
A Modest Proposal 0
Eric Zorn, at the Chicago Tribune, considers the kerfuffle over attempts by the Catholic church, its adherents, and the element of the punditocracy that will attack the current Federal administration for any old reason at all to control what goes on between women and their doctors. He offers a bit of perspective:
Instead, Millman suggests in a recent commentary, pretend it’s the Church of Scientology.
And pretend that the flash point of controversy isn’t coverage of contraception, which violates Catholic teachings, but coverage of mental-health services — psychology, psychiatry and mood-stabilizing drugs, all of which violate the teachings of Scientology.
If the Scientologists operated a network of schools and hospitals, would the pundit classes be rushing to the ramparts bellowing about religious liberty in defense of the right of these schools and hospitals to deny mental-health coverage even to employees who don’t belong to their faith?
More likely, Millman suggests, the dispassionate public-policy question would be, “Should it be OK to systematically disadvantage employees of Church of Scientology schools because that church has a weird hang-up about mental-health services?”
Read the rest.
Proselytizing Pupils with Political Prayer 0
Florida is considering a new strategy to enforce prayer in public schools by calling religious messages “inspirational messages.”
At Tampabay dot com, John Romano analyzes the issue, pointing out that prayer is not now banned in public schools. What is banned is agents of the state (teachers and administrators) from organizing or compelling prayers. I recommend his column for setting forth a balanced discussion of the issue.
Near the beginning of it, he gets to the heart of this issue.
Answer 0
Atrios thinks he knows what’s with the skeevy desire of Republican (usually) men to control the sex lives of women to whom they’ve never even been introduced.