Progressivism

Catch the Red Bat: How Democrats Will Win

December 6, 2004 - 2:33pm
Tonight, I wandered through many progressive news outlits, blogs, and campaign websites looking for answers on how we can win... and I have a confession: I'm on the verge of losing my mind. Over here, I read another de-construction of Lakoff's "nurturing" theme, and over there I read another call to "brand" our political cause; however, I'll be frank about my opinion: Lakoff, Brand Democrat, and all other efforts to repackage our message will lose. Now, my reader might be wondering, "what evidence do you have to say that?" Good question reader, let me explain:

George Lakoff has given us a much needed gift. During the fall of late 2003, he introduced many of us to the concept of cognitive frames; he educated us on how Republican think tanks had used framing to capture the congress in 94, and eventually the White House in 00' and 04'. However, there are two pink elephants in regards to Lakoff's theory:

  1. While he cracked the code to the Republican "strict father" frame, his "nurturant family" frame lacks vitality and substance. For a cognitive linguist, one would have expected a better word for our frame than "nurture" -- a positivelty pink word that evokes images of lactating nipples, infants, and pregnant women. Don't misread that criticism, I'm simply saying that an overtly femine frame is disagreeable considering we need male votes as well as female votes.
  2. The strict father frame developed by Republican think tanks took decades to pull off. They started with Reagan (about two years before I was born), and now, 24 years later, it is giving the Republicans their full returns. First off, we don't have 24 years to allow our seeds to grow in the public mind. Second off, the idea of crafting unified messages arose in an era of TV-age politics. Our success, if it is ever possible, is not going to come through televised sound bytes. We need to be thinking ahead of the Republicans: let them have there talk radio, and fox news. Let's get to work on using the next generation of communcation tools (hey guess what: we're using the prototypes of those tools right now)

Now in regards to "branding democrats". For Christ's sake: first off, 'Democrat' is a brand that is associated with losing. Second off, lets stop look at voters as consumers, or demographs. There is no lower form of looking at human beings than as mere demographs of religion, sex, race, age, and income. Perhaps we might begin by respecting our voters as being something more than empty consumer vessals; mere brains that deserve a good washing by method of incessent televised advertising. So, I have a frame, its simple, its too the point, and it will work.

The Progressive Blog Alliance Mission Statement

December 1, 2004 - 2:28pm

The PBA is an emergent, self-organized network of independent activists, journalists, and writers. We do not exclusively identify ourselves with a single nation, but rather our world society as a whole. We recognize that on a fundamental level, we are all one.

We demand our members to show complete intolerance for oppression, bigotry, ignorance, violence, corruption, and exploitation. We may choose to deny membership to individuals who support certain politicians; for example, George W. Bush. However, we will never require our members to subscribe to any list of creeds, tenets, or dogmas. We are not a political cult. Progressive libertarians are just as welcome as progressive socialists.

We do not represent any particular ideology. By "ideology" we firstly mean political opinions which are based upon the assumptions and biases of philosophers living between the 17th and 19th century; and in turn using their antiquanted manifestos and treatises as the lenses through which one judges the world. But secondly -- and this is far more important -- we mean those systems of thought which squelch one's individuality; while at the same time shrinking one's possible range of thought. The majority of ideologies were designed to turn followers into unthinking, obedient drones, all of whom quack the same slogans. The PBA is bound by its common principles, not its ideological labels.

Bringing Light to a World in Darkness

November 3, 2004 - 3:33pm
There is no political movement whose goals are more admirable, necessary, or virtuous than that of the Progressives. We fight the forces of war, ignorance, and greed with all of our hearts; many of us even understand that the survival of civilization, and perhaps humanity itself, may rest upon our shoulders during the next 100 years. And for better or worse, it will be up to us: we who, against all odds, are willing to fight for a better world. Unlike the generations before us, we will not allow ourselves to be content in handing our children a world shaped by ignorance and collective irresponsibility. Most every progressive understands this, on one level or another -- though most fail to remind each other of it often enough.

The life of a progressive is mostly one of suffering. The reason being that our minds are cursed with an unrelenting conflict between outer realities and our own inner ideals. Everyday, we endure wars between our limitless imaginations ,and our knowledge and acceptance of a tragedy which surrounds all of us; some call it "the real world". It is a ghastly affliction. But it happens to be who we are.
Most of us have tried, at one time or another, to run from our powerful spirits and minds. We've tried alcohol, drugs, sex, and a few have even resorted to suicide. Tragically, it's no suprise that such a dark world compells the brightest of its spirits to surrender and willingly extinguish their flames.

A lot has been said about bloggers, and the blogosphere; some call it a fad, others call it a revolution -- I think both positions start from the wrong place. A blogger is nothing more than a person who writes their thoughts for others to read. Period. To speak of bloggers or blogs as a whole is as foolish as speaking of books and authors as a whole.

A Call To Arms

October 5, 2004 - 4:53pm

Magnificent isn’t it? Over to the bottom left we have a blogroll with a picture of armed ruffians sitting atop a dead elephant. At this point in time, our less than two week old alliance finds itself at cross roads. Our first option, is to do what all alliances have traditionally done: watch the roll grow – like a plant – until it becomes a massive bean stock of discombobulated links. Give it a little time, and we’ll probably grow tired of it wasting the space it requires on our template. The alliances members will slowly begin to erase their blogrolls out of complete lack of interest. Eventually, the Progressive blog Alliance -- like the Liberal coalition, and its even lamer liberal webring compatriots – will wither into yet another wasteland that falls under our philosophy's name.

Another option is to only admit bloggers that meet certain standards of “reputation”, who are “sufficiently progressive”. I violently oppose that option. For one, such a system unnecessarily encourages factions and disagreements among us. Furthermore, as we our a politically charged outfit, we’d be required to agree on the meaning of political terminology. And how is that supposed to happen? Am I supposed to send out an e-mail asking you to anonymously answer the question: “what is a progressive”? If I did, most of you would probably just wonder what I hoped to gain from assigning the alliance an essay question.

Remember, we are progressives and leftists! We must remain forward thinking, open-minded, and – above all – willing to fight in the interests of the underdogs. It often amazes me that someone can feel so strongly about creating a just, equal, and free society, yet act as stingy as a freakin’ hard-core libertarian when it comes to giving someone a link. We must differentiate ourselves from the snobby attitudes of the liberal coalition (who, I suppose deamed me unfit to join their ranks), and alliance of free blogs. Both of those organizations maintain a perpetual attitude of, “this blogger isn’t established enough”, or “what sort of link/traffic benefits can I expect by allowing them to join the alliance?”

I on the otherhand, believe there is a greater reward in giving someone who shares our world view a helping hand as they climb up the slippery and overcrowded ladder of the blogosphere. I would gain more satisfaction from that, than winning additional rounds of blogosphere link-realpolitik . I say let members join with 0 links from 0 sources. Perhaps our support might encourage them! Perhaps they might have something to say if they thought people were listening. If you doubt my optimism, take a look at the first post that you ever wrote. Furthermore, think of the long term benefits of presenting ourselves in such stark contrast to the rest of the sphere? Remember, our philosophy requires our actions to be consistant with our words.

So I’ve gone ahead and made a few decisions.

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