Posted by: Jeffrey Leonard
Comment: #2
Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:19 AM
Dear David,
You recently asked for feedback to your column and input via DailyKos. I signed up, but DailyKos has a one week waiting period before a first post. So, I'm putting my comments here.
On the whole, I appreciate what you do; however, what I'd like to see is a more holistic view of the US sociopolitical landscape and how that fits into the “global moment.” I understand this may be beyond your charter, but I feel increasingly frustrated by most of what I read these days. Lots of good specialists, no giant generalist. I'll throw out H. L. Mencken as an example, he may not be the best example, but I think you know what I'm getting at.
Josh Marshall does a good job of covering the minutia of political races, scandals and controversies. Juan Cole covers all things Middle East. Ariana Huffington's site gets into entertainment and politics. I appreciate Media Matters and Eric Alterman for their attention to the MSM. Kevin Drumm, Andrew Sullivan, Greg Palast, Matthew Iglesias, all of these writers and a host of others are the ones I turn to because I know they apply deep analysis, reasoned opinions, and old-fashioned (as well as new-fangled) journalistic research to the compelling topics of the day.
Yet, I still feel there isn't someone out there bringing it all together into one big picture, then, and this is the tough part, providing a path to solving the problems they elucidate. Tom Englehardt comes the closest to what I think more people need to be reading. His experience and ability to uncover new voices (see: Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark) put him at the top of my list of must-reads. His, I'm afraid, is a small audience. I see some progress since I have turned my father (who has never not voted for a Republican) into a loyal TomDispatch reader.
I believe you have the potential to reach that larger audience and only ask that you do more than rake the muck. Mencken was known as the “man of ideas” and while I know his are huge (and most likely uncomfortable) shoes to fill, this country, this world, needs more ideas and the people who can convey them.
Stagnant wages, lost jobs, and inflation have combined with predatory lending to put hundreds of thousands of people at risk of losing their largest investment. The rising costs of healthcare, gasoline, and insurance strain both employees and employers. Malfeasance and the perception of malfeasance have eroded people's faith in the system, and I must admit to feeling, this may not be a bad thing. We have incurred huge debts, nationally and personally – and that debt is held, largely, by foreign governments. We will pay trillions of dollars for the Iraq War and we've further destabilized an already unstable region – with no end in sight. It seems our covert actions and underhanded corporate-fed diplomacy will be haunting us for decades. The environment is under attack by coal and oil dependent industries, many now based in India and China who will attack any US complaints as just another form of our hypocrisy.
This gets very depressing.
I'm not asking for Pollyanna, just try to take the next step. Where does it all lead? I'm a firm believer in the inevitability of success. Despite what I've delineated above, I'm an optimist. The unwritten conclusion of many blog posts and editorials could read, “The problems I've just written about suck, you should be outraged, but there's nothing you can do.” I generalize, of course. However, the malaise and impotence I often allow myself to feel is mirrored in millions of homes today.
I'd like more people to read about The Apollo Project for energy, about the struggles and successes of the rebels in Chiapas, about the efforts of Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty), and about the countless other small attempts to make a difference in a troubling world.
Australian singer/songwriter Paul Kelly has a song called “From Little Things Big Things Grow” about aboriginal land rights. I frequently invoke that song title as a personal mantra, it gives me hope. If you have time check it out, it, and music like it, can do more to explain how I feel than any amount of words I can put down here.
Thank you for your time.
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Posted by: Michael Padnos
Comment: #3
Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:38 PM
If you'd like to see a brilliant and comprehensive analysis of how the US Senate has historically been able to block progressive legislation, check out Vol 2 of Robert Caro's magnificent biography of LBJ. Caro includes in this book a brief history of the Senate, and shows how it ALWAYS was able to block progressive legislation; he then shows how LBJ, by mastering the rules and personalities of the Senate, was able, practically single-handedly, to force the Senate to approve Civil Rights legislation. This book is one of the finest books I have ever read on the subject of Am. politics; and I speak as a person who worked in DC as the lobbyist for the Americans for Democratic Action during the relevant period. I was right on the INSIDE of many of those struggles; and I learrned things from the book that I never knew in real life!
Your stuff is excellent. You should consider writing more about the intrinsic weaknesses of the American system of government, which seems to me --particulalry after reading Caro --to be designed to produce failure and paralysis.
I like your stuff a lot.
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