The spectrum concept is a powerful concept, and it can be used to create a near permanent progressive majority. You map the electorate on each issue, 1 to 10. So 5-10 is 60% of the electorate. You are trying to get them to vote for you. One person's map might not agree with that of another. And candidates might differ on exactly what position to take to get all of 5-10 to vote for you.
And you make the 1-4 feel like you have really really heard them. You have listened to them and you have understood what they have to say and why. This makes for a compassionate progressive. You are being respectful of the fact that in a democracy, a voter, no matter how wrong, is still rightly entitled to one vote. All votes are equal. Your ideology does not, should not, determine the weight of a vote.
So mapping is step one. Positioning is step two. What position can someone running for office take to get the 5-10 to vote for them? And it is not like there is only one issue. There are a host of issues. Your positions on one issue might make you lose someone who might agree with you on something else. So you have to account for that. Mapping might be great material for the brains, the intellectuals, the pollsters, the think tank types. But positioning will be best done by the professional politicians, people who go out there and shake hands.
So there is the spectrum. And then there is The Matrix that is an ideal. It will not take shape just like I have outlined. But in a scenario when near everyone is online, The Matrix will come alive. The democracy will become almost direct. I don't think the political offices will go away, there is no replacing humans, but all the offices will become fundamentally transformed.
You introduce democracy into a country with a Big Bang.
Then you introduce the spectrum and The Matrix, if the country is online enough.
Basically what you are doing is you are building political infrastructure. Political, and social, and economic infrastructure. A state, any state, a country, any country, a government, any government, is but a tool to building that political, social, economic infrastructure, the goal always being to benefit the individual.
Money is not everything, money can buy you bed but not sleep, and they say the best things in life are all free, but money just so happens to be a big, big chunk of all policy talk. And so, to keep things simple, I am going to put a dollar figure on every human forehead. That is how much money that person makes in a year.
The progressive goal is to acquire power to build the political, social, economic infrastructure so as to make the dollar figure go up on every forehead.
It is about the individual. It is not about this or that country being a superpower. If all of humanity were engulfed in a one person one vote arrangement, there would be no superpower at all.
So, no, I am not someone plotting to have America replaced by India and China as superpowers. I am a progressive. That is my political religion.
I think the spectrum concept is particularly well suited to handle social issues that have been the trickiest for progressives generally.
I am going to work much more on the Democracy Spreading Mechanism (Spread Democracy). It was forged through work on Nepal's April Revolution 2006, with some collaboration, but it failed me during the Burma protests, primarily because I just did not have the network and the penetration that I had with Nepal. In Nepal's case I had managed to penetrate all the political parties, top human rights NGOs, and diaspora organizations. This Democracy Spreading Mechanism (Spread Democracy) is the weakest link in the chain right now. I think I need to define it more, and add ways to measure readiness level. For example, at what point do you finally call people out into the streets? Too early, and you fail, like in Burma. But then there is also such a thing called too late.
In The News
Obama cannot beat Republican attack machine, says Clinton Guardian Unlimited She presents herself as a battle-hardened veteran, having weathered whole books full of smears, innuendo, half-truths and unfortunate facts. ........ The possible lines of attack against Obama are already being rehearsed on rightwing websites and talkshows. A claim on InsightMag.com - owned by the Unification Church - that he had attended a radical Islamic madrasa as a boy, was repeated on Fox News and other conservative outlets. In fact, the primary school Obama went to for two years when growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, was a state school with a largely secular curriculum. Barack Obama targets southern barbershopsTelegraph.co.uk Clinton, Obama shake up politics of identity Reuters 40 percent of blacks in South Carolina are likely to vote for Clinton ..... Obama scored well among women in Iowa and around 40 percent of blacks in South Carolina are likely to vote for Clinton ...... No black candidate has been elected to the Senate in the U.S. South for over a century, a fact seen as evidence that black candidates are at a disadvantage in a region where the legacy of slavery and racial segregation remains visible. ...... the Democratic race has turned assumptions of the role of race and gender in presidential campaigns on their head and helped energize the voting base .... the Democratic nominee in 2004, John Kerry, won just 30 percent of the white vote in the south Momentum turns toward Obama in SCChicago Sun-Times National polls may show Hillary Clinton slightly ahead of Barack Obama .... In New Hampshire, an Obama win was mistakenly predicted. ..... Obama's heady win in Iowa and his close seconds in New Hampshire and Nevada ...... No one cares about the Rezko issue outside Chicago ..... Young is a "has-been," one of the old guard of civil rights workers whose hard struggles have become just history book anecdotes for the younger African-American generation that has embraced Obama as an icon of change. .... Obama now leads among African Americans in South Carolina by 64 percent to Clinton's 20 percent. Clintons lying about Obama's Reagan remarkBaltimore Sun Bill Clinton raises eyebrows as campaign surrogate for his wife The Canadian Press Obama made it clear he was going to hit back. ..... "This has become a habit and one of the things that we're going to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate." Pitbull Bill - the 'other' Clinton revelling in his return to the frayGuardian Unlimited It has come down to Obama versus Clinton in the key southern state of South Carolina - but the Clinton that Barack Obama is up against is Bill, not Hillary. ....... At Lizard's Thicket diner, beside the Columbia highway yesterday, he let his breakfast of omelette and grits grow cold. He was enjoying taking questions from reporters far too much to care about food. After weeks of Hillary and Barack Obama being top of the news agenda, he was the story. ...... Arguments were inevitable in politics, he said. "This is a contact sport." ...... as he put it, the First Laddie ...... he took time to work the room ..... The Clintons have a reputation in Washington for ruthlessness. Their research team has spent a year digging through Obama's background, examining in detail his upbringing and, more specifically, his voting record while a senator in the Illinois legislature. ....... negative campaigning, no matter how often the public claims to dislike it, is effective ...... Bill Clinton is a brilliant and intelligent politician who makes no chance remarks: it's all deliberately worked out. Obama Offered Dance Test for Clinton The Associated Press Bill gets some shut-eye at MLK day event Boston Herald
There are more than whites and blacks in America, there are also Latinos, there are Asians. But race seems to tango primarily between blacks and whites. I believe race has to be tackled as an issue at the level of the average person, one conversation at a time.
It can start as an in-group thing where blacks are primarily talking among blacks, and whites are primarily talking among whites. It's okay to start that way if only because that is what the living arrangements are for the most part. Blacks live with other blacks. Whites live with other whites.
You bring forth simple questions and you go around and have people answer them. Among a black group, I would pose these questions.
What does race mean to you? How big an impact do you feel race has had in your life? Slavery happened. How do you feel about that? Segregation happened. How do you feel about that? What have been your personal experiences in racism, if any? In what forms does racism exist today? Do you think those can be tackled? How? What constitutes the black identity? How do you fight internalized racism among blacks? How do you take pride in your black identity? Black identity can not be to do with slavery and segregation. Those were aspects of race relations that did not quite work out. Black identity has to be to with music, and culture, and history, and religion, and art, and black heroes and role models, it has to be positive, and it has to be independent of anything to do with white misbehavior in the past or present. So what is that black identity? Tell me.
Don't get me wrong, I am mad as hell at racism, and I have experienced it myself, but it really bothers me to realize so much of the black identity revolves around slavery and segregation. I am not saying don't talk about it, quite the reverse. But I am saying slavery and segregation are not identity. They were diseases. They can't be identity.
So what is that positive black identity? What is it made up of? Swahili? African art and artifacts? I think for a big part Africa is the answer. Blacks in America would do well to learn some Swahili for pride purposes. Not necessarily fluent Swahili, broken Swahili would be just fine. There was Swahili before there was slavery and segregation. Swahili can be identity, slavery and segregation are not identity.
Mind you, I am not saying don't talk about slavery and segregation. Talk to your heart's fill. Talk as much as you want. Just don't talk like they are your identity. Disease can not be identity.
Some people say blacks should adopt Islam. What I say is those blacks who want to convert to Islam should happily do so. If you feel like adopting a religion that is different from that of most white folks will make you feel more whole as a person, heck, it is called religious freedom. It is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. By all means do so. Any religion is fine. If you were to ask for my recommendation, I would say Buddhism. Wink, wink.
Racism hits the family structure hard. There has to be enough grassroots organizing at the community and church levels among blacks that people raise their political consciousness level to say the external reality of racism can not be allowed to affect the internal reality of one's self or the semi-internal reality of one's family.
Racism is still wrong, and it is hurting enough, but you can make it not seep into the walls of your home where no white people are around, it is just you and your family. And that requires conversation, that requires political education.
We don't live in a time when racism is the law. We do live in a time when there is much social segregation. You could say the institutions of power are infected, some more so than others.
But those black people who might ask that the whites cleanse their hearts of racism must exhibit the guts to also cleanse their hearts of internalized racism. And if they can't cleanse their hearts of internalized racism, they must acknowledge it is hard for anybody, black, white or other, to do any kind of cleaning.
Not everything that whites have and blacks don't have can be attributed to racism. Life and the institutions of society and wealth creation are a little more complicated than that. You can argue whites got a headstart because their ancestors owned slaves, and their fathers got to eat lunch at segregated lunch counters, and they got to go to whites only beaches. But at some point you have to get out of memory and walk the current reality. Life is unfair, but you can seek opportunities.
The black schools are not as well funded. On average black children do not get the early childhood education that the average white kids might. The gates to the big seats of learning might favor the whites more than the nonwhites. It is a complex situation. There might be glass walls and ceilings at the workplace. Not there might, there are.
But despite all that there is no denying the importance of knowledge in wealth creation. Whites might have an unfair advantage in accumulating that education, and whites might even have unfair advantages at the workplace. But one of the starting points is strong families and strong communities that make the best of what is already available in terms of opportunity. The beauty of that argument is that strong family, and that strong community will also take the political actions necessary to expand the opportunities. You don't get to say, damn those white people, because of them I don't have a strong family, my community is not that strong, and it is not very well organized politically. All that you got to do on your own, and if you do that, good things start happening.
Grassroots organizing has amazing power.
And the conversation has to expand and move to mixed groups. It could look like this.
Black Person: Slavery happened. My people got wronged. White Person: I could not agree more. Black Person: Segregation happened. My people got wronged. White Person: I agree. Black Person: Slavery and segregation is the reason why I am still lagging behind in life today. White Person 1: It is possible that is true. White Person 2: C'mon, man. Get a life. If carrying the burden of dead white men is hard for you, why do you think it is any easy for me? I don't want to carry it either. Black Person: Racism exists today. White Person: Like how? Black Person: America never had a black president. India has a Muslim president and a Sikh prime minister. An Italian born woman almost became prime minister of India. White Person: Sorry, we are running late. But I am for Barack. Black Person: All institutions of society are infected. White Person: Most of the time most of the people in most of the institutions are doing things that are right and necessary and not racist at all. Don't throw the baby with the bathwater. You are going to have to get more specific than that. Black Person: But racism exists. White Person 1: Yes, it does. White Person 2: No it does not.
I think the idea is to find common ground among blacks and whites that slavery and segregation were wrong. And then disagree on if racism still exists or not and in what form. The disagreement will be of degree, it will not be total one way or the other. The important thing, the most important thing, is that race has to be talked about. It matters less what form that conversation takes than that the conversation takes place in the first place.
If a Barack victory in South Carolina generate a white backlash on February 5, America is a sick country. Give a biracial man a biracial treatment. Barack is America's best hope of moving beyond the old and tired arguments on the issue of race relations.
I think I might go ahead and become a regular. That would be a great way to build back my social muscles. I sorely need that.
The first day Justin Krebs saw me, he saw me do the hot dog thing that you do at Rudy's. If you don't know there is free hot dogs at Rudy's at the center of the known universe: Times Square. Krebs went ahead and ordered pizza for everybody. We had not talked yet.
All these videos down below are my handiwork.
I think I have always liked it so much that Drinking Liberally is so unstructured. I find that appealing. Some of the other organizations are too structured and not online enough for me. I think people don't realize NYC is the progressive capital, and going online is a way to reach out perhaps to small town across the country, for one. But then most folks get involved because to them it is more socializing and less political action. And, as they say, it is a free country.
I have talked about at this blog about how I had to google him and that is how I found out Spitzer is Jewish. He looks like a white guy to me. And his last name is no better.
But then, can you tell the difference between a Pahadi and a Madhesi? Or a Tamil and a Maratha?
Born
Most people are born into a certain religion. Most people are born black or white. What side of the race argument/discussion you are on often depends on that. And so I think it is a big deal that Barack is biracial, like really really big. The voters need to know he was raised by a white mother. That is fundamental to his identity. If voters on February 5 have to vote before knowing he was raised by a mother who happened to be white, Obama 2008 has not done a good job at all. I am dedicating February 5 to Barack's mother.
In The News
Obama, Reagan and the Internet New York Times In 2006, he says, he was the person whom most members of Congress (Democrats, presumably) sought to have come into their districts ...... “’Now, it is blasphemy for Democrats,” Obama pollster Cornell Belcher said of Reagan, “but that hope and optimism that was Ronald Reagan’ allowed him to ‘transcend’ ideological divisions within his own party and the general electorate.” ..... he says that when you discuss war with Baby Boomers, their frame of reference is Vietnam. “My frame of reference is what works” ..... The campaign is now running a biographical spot across the country.
Bill Clinton's use of the word fairytale was a 21st century version of the Willie Horton ad. It was/is racially coded. When you are a nonwhite person trying to climb up the ladders of success, what are you doing? You are trying to be taken seriously.
But Bill Clinton goes ahead and says Barack Obama is a fairytale. Don't take that guy too seriously. He is a fairytale. He is harmless, he is cute, but he is a fairytale.
Slum
The South Side of Chicago where Barack Obama was practicing civil rights law, Hillary went ahead and called it a slum. That is a Willie Horton ad. Who lives in the slums? Black people. Barack is black. He is charming, eloquent, but black.
Hillary's use of the word slum is designed to give her the white vote on February 5.
Barack Has Work Cut Out For Him
A guy who is going to be the first black president of the United States does not have the option to avoid race as a big issue. He has to prove America is ready to elect him, a black man. And he has to prove if America is not fully ready, he will help America become a little bit more ready.
Whereas Bill and Hillary are counting on the fact that deep in its heart, white America is not ready for some black dude to go occupy the ultimate house in the land. All they have to do is use some racial code words - fairytale, slum - and the white sentiment will come gushing to the Clintons. White America will fall head over heels for the Clintons.
Barack has to do a few things.
One, you do not get to avoid this topic. You do not get to pretend as if something other than race is being alluded to.
Two, you have got to point out that the Clintons are misjudging America. This is not the America of the 1960s, or the 1990s. This is a 21st century America that is ready for a biracial president.
Three, you have to hit back and make America more ready to be accepting of its diversity. If America is not fully ready, you work to make it ready. That is where leadership comes in.
It is not a man in love with his wife. It is a man scared of his place is history. Barack is going to be a greater president than Bill Clinton, and Bill Clinton does not like the idea. Otherwise Bill Clinton beats many others. He beats the two Bushes, he beats Jimmy Carter, Ford, Nixon. But if Barack becomes president, Bill Clinton will spend the next 40 years having to know Barack became a greater president than him. That is an idea Bill Clinton is not at peace with. And so he is campaigning with a vengeance. He is swinging any which way he can.
Guess what, I think after Barack's eight years, somewhere along the way, America will see a woman Barack, a woman who rose up politically on her own, and who did for men what Barack is doing for white people. Men are carrying 10,000 years worth of guilt, and they would like some relief. The relief will not come from a woman whose campaign was fully run by her husband. The relief will come from a woman fully in charge. And she will compete not with Bill but with Barack in the greatness ring. So Bill, chill.
Don't Cross The Line
If the Clintons don't stop using the racial code words, Hillary should not be considered for running mate. That is what is at stake. Spitzer might not be a bad running mate to have if you have a serious opponent in a guy called Bloomberg. America has never seen a more serious third party bid for the top job. Bloomberg will not win, but he will do good.
I think I am taking a cue from my Facebook friend Matt Damon and going Hispanic. The racial skin ceiling is proving a little too much for me. The chances of Hillary breaking the glass ceiling are greater than me breaking the skin ceiling, I think. Skin wall, skin ceiling, skin floor. There's skin all over the place.
Carrie was the editor of the college newspaper when I was SGA President. She first published a demonizing, racist article by someone that essentially called me a rapist. That someone succeeded me as SGA President: attacks work. The woman in question was Jewish, summer flame. My introduction to racism in America was a package deal: anti-Semitism was part and parcel of it. A few months later Carrie published an article by a guy who urged all girls who get boinked by me to go public with the information. 10 years later Carrie emailed me out of the blue, her first email to me ever. She was at a Buddhist monastery in Colorado. I was more than welcome to join her, she said. A Russian friend Olesya once called me a "sex bombino." Once in a while she shows up on Yahoo Messenger from Moscow. Political office can do strange and wonderful things to your image. You become vocabulary.
Among many white Kentucky conspiracies, sending me off to New York City might have been one. I am having to start from scratch.
I blogged a paragraph about Good White People Living In The Asian Century. Not long after the Chinese went public with PetroChina, world's first trillion dollar company.
Women are relational. Men are instrumental. That is the hardwiring. That is why women enjoy shopping so much. They are weaving into the social fabric when shopping. Women also thus have a third eye for the social reality, the us and them, the silos. They are aware white guys will love them for sending them out to protect the boundaries, something like that. That is one way to create social space, especially white guys who are not WASP. Romney calling Obama Osama was him trying to figure out how to get into this white thing.
There is a concrete difference between someone who makes 100K and someone who makes 50K. The difference is 50K. That is money. Power works the same way. Having internet access, and not having internet access. If you can smell the contours, power is as concrete as money.
The software loop/bug of an organization that performs a few basic functions: will you join, will you not join, will you come, will you not come, can you come, can you not come.
There's the spider organization and there's the starfish organization. Spider is hierarchy. That's all the big companies in NYC. Starfish is the Al Qaeda, the Wikipedia. The Apache Indians who fought the Spanish for centuries, they were a starfish organization.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez locked himself up for 19 months or so and wrote One Hundred Years Of Solitude. I came to NYC to launch a company but instead found myself giving two years of a zombie existence to Nepal: best work I ever did. There is a social price to be paid for that. I paid. You are socially absent at the time, and you have weak social muscles in the aftermath. You build.
What do you do? Where do you live? Standard questions.
It gets exotic. Like watching a coral reef. Watching the social reality in motion. There's the observation part. There's the analysis part. There's the action and participation part.
There are three obvious Harvard people on the Manhattan political scene. Dave Pollak, Elizabeth Caputo, and Justin Krebs. They all liked me at first sight, before I found out where they went to school. It felt very similar each time. And I am thinking I must be some kind of a good looking guy.
I sometimes wonder about smarts. Are some people biologically smarter, or have they just read more books? How does that work? I mean, I know it is both. But even if everyone had books, are some people still biologically smarter? Am I one? Can you see that on my face? My eyes?
I am long past the age of worrying about who went to college where.
I was the top student at the top school in Nepal, a top country, but that was before the Bahuns and the British got me. Nuru was number two. He went to Harvard.
It is possible Pollak, Caputo, and Krebs mistook me for Harvard people. Caputo's first question was, "Where did you go to school?" But I would like to stick to the good looks theory. Makes me feel better during this oncoming recession.
I will compare my Nepal and Obama work to anything Pollak, Caputo, and Krebs might have done. I am okay in the self esteem department.
Some day I would like to make corporate use of Pollak. McAuliffe did that a lot while working for the party for "free."
There is a reason all the top names in tech are college dropouts. Ellison could not have worked his way up IBM. He was in his 30s when he launched Oracle. One wife of his dumped him for a Harvard MBA. He claims his first wife left him because he did not work at all. His second wife left him because he worked too hard. After his third divorce, he called up his first wife and asked, "How does this work?"
Middle and upper middle income mindsets can not fathom the early stages of big money mindset. Ellison is proof. He went ahead and bought a boat and that sent his first wife into therapy. She decided it was between insanity and divorce.
At some level you could say I am both a high school and a college dropout, mentally, emotionally. After high school I launched a national political party. At Berea, I was still there after year one for the room, the food, the internet access - T1 - and the library. Going to class was a price I was willing to pay.
If you are in the blue zone, the green zone people look exotic, the brown zone people look exotic. But to the brown zone and the green zone people, you look like you are part of some hierarchy, usually one where they are above and you are below.
Spider organization people are kind of like green zone people. They think hierarchy. The culture clash is very real.
My young company is both, spider and starfish. Ultimately when everyone everywhere is online, everyone is potentially an Apache Indian. But the institutions of society, of power and money, will not go away. They will change for the better. They will become more transparent, more agile. But many of their outlines will remain.
If you love New York City like I do, and if your target audience is the Global South, your career goes online.
Giuliani banks on Florida to spring back into race CNN Clinton goes national, Obama looks to lock in South Carolina AFP Daschle: Bill Clinton's comments about Obama are not 'presidential'USA Today going to "truth squad" any and all attacks ..... the "incredible distortions" aimed at Obama by the Clinton campaign ..... "When Senator Clinton says -- or President Clinton says -- that I wasn't opposed to the war from the start or says it's a fairytale that I opposed the war, that is simply not true," Obama said. Clinton keeps up Obama attacks in DCBaltimore Sun another dizzying day of losses in global stock exchanges .... Clinton said Obama “clearly came (to the debate) last night looking for a fight.” ..... she was somehow belittling Obama with “code words” meant to degrade his race ...... Clinton warned that a recession was "inevitable" and said she worried it could be deep and long. ..... her calls for a 30-day moratorium on home foreclosures and a five-year lending rate freeze. Analysis: Hillary, Obama Battle Over Bill CBS News Since Obama's victory in Iowa, the Clintons have responded with a methodically aggressive campaign. With his own campaign now on the defensive, Obama came to Monday's debate determined to confront ....... "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama sarcastically noted during one exchange. ...... Obama has learned how formidable the Clintons' political machine can be, particularly when its future is on the line. The former president has played the lead role in taking the fight to the senator from Illinois. ....... the comments have raised frustrations in the Obama campaign to the boiling point. ..... "I was fighting against those [Republican] ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor . . . in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago." ..... Bill Clinton, who attacked Obama's assertion of consistent opposition to the Iraq war as a "fairy tale." Those words rippled through the African American community as a slight against Obama's candidacy -- drawing warnings from prominent black leaders to the former president to tone down his language. ........ his wife was asked whether he is overshadowing her candidacy and her message. ..... people who believe Clinton has crossed a line a former president should not cross. That debate will continue through the primaries, but on Monday Obama decided he had to push back. Obama ready to rumbleThe Australian Obama has shown everyone he can float like a butterfly. Last night, he started stinging like a bee. ..... Obama has infuriated the Clintons with a run for the presidency that has defied predictions. .... He won the first round, jabbing hard and winning the Iowa caucuses, then had the audacity to goad the Clinton machine with a victory speech so powerful that ...... never rule out a streetwise fighter. A last-minute counterattack had team Clinton win New Hampshire, and then Nevada ....... Bill Clinton, the hitman in the one-two team with his wife, Hillary, has been getting redder and angrier as he pounds away at Obama. ..... Obama's oratorical gift and elegance in the political ring makes it easy to liken him to Ali, whose mouth was a powerful weapon. Obama, like Ali, can be a cocky showman who dares to lead with his chin. Then there's the Clinton Machine, which boasts awesome firepower, like Foreman. .......... He then attacked Clinton as just saying "anything to get elected". ...... "Your husband did," Obama said. She snapped: "I'm here. He's not." Obama retorted: "Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes." ...... Insiders in the Obama camp are still shocked they lost that second round in New Hampshire. ...."Staying on the ropes is the beautiful thing with a heavyweight when you make him shoot his best shot and you know he's not hitting you." How Is Obama Doing?ABC News "Other than not getting much sleep and missing my kids, I'm doing great," Sen. Barack Obama ....... we're running not just against Senator Clinton but also a former President, who gets coverage any time he wants. ..... a former President who is actively campaigning 'Special Report' Panel on Barack Obama Taking on Bill Clinton FOXNews "I have a formidable opponent — actually, I have two," and this whole line about "I'm not just running against Hillary, I'm running against Bill Clinton" ...... Ted Kennedy said "Take it easy." .... Emanuel said "Hey, slow down a little bit President Clinton." ..... It is like a basketball team that you are facing, and they have two great scorers. And you concentrate on one and be pretty good against one, and then the other one — you concentrate on Shaq, and then Kobe Bryant buries three-pointers. .... the Clintons have been effective in their strategy and there is no backlash.
Earlier I showed up for this DL21C debate watch party event. (It Is A RSVP: Here I Come DL21C) It was the same venue as this: Iowa: One And A Half Victory Parties. So I was not so sure. I got there at seven, right on the dot. I felt a little uneasy. I went to the restroom downstairs. When I came back I had to wait only a few seconds. Dan Berger came down the stairs. He was on the phone. He looked like he was uneasy. I just waited, making small talk with the receptionist, this young woman who was encouraging me to go upstairs, "There already are about 15 people up there."
I patiently waited until Berger got off the phone. Then we had the best, shortest, the only non-tense conversation we ever had.
"Can't come upstairs."
"Okay," I said.
We were both totally relaxed. Otherwise every time I have been in his presence for as long as I can remember, the vibe always has been like he wants to blame me for 9/11 or something. Every single time.
I don't know for sure but I am guessing Berger is a Jewish last name. Spitzer is Jewish. There is that er at the end of both names. I am getting better at this.
I felt good about the exchange. No, it is not easier to ask me to leave if the guy is Sicilian rather than Jewish.
I really liked the setting, and finally it was going to be an event where you get to talk instead of just watch.
I am getting a little better with the Jewish angst, I think. Getting a better feel for it.
I am guessing Dan Jacoby, that is also a Jewish name. Met him at DFNYC. I was talking to this European journalist woman and he rudely interrupts to say money can be made by appearing in porn movies. As in, no money brown guy - and this was back, way back - talking to white woman: what is this about? I took offense, and I do want to leave it at that. But now I wonder if that was an expression of the angst. Black people like sex, Jewish people like money, and the rest of us are monks.
There was another incident with Liz of MYD. Here, let me take my bag away from here where you are standing. I am guessing now that was also an expression of the angst. At the time I equated it with Obama complaining "only a few years back people were throwing keys at me in the parking lot."
I don't know for sure but I am guessing Liz is Jewish.
At first you take the incident literally, and you take offense. But over time you step back a little and realize there are a few different things at play. I don't know a whole lot about the Jewish identity, but I know enough to be able to say it is an identity that Jewish people still grapple with.
What is anti-Semitism? When someone comes across someone Jewish, they suddenly react a certain way that end in social exclusion of the said person, almost like a chemical reaction. Is that the mainstream version?
I could talk at great length about the ethnic prejudices inside the mini Nepal in Queens. It is unbelievable. People are 10,000 miles away from home, but it is like if you were to bring along a piece of rock from the moon, that would still be moon rock on earth.
There is a coral reef aspect to this ethnic, racial stuff. It is fascinating to watch it unfold, especially when it is the garden variety, social setting, pretty much harmless kind. You soak it in. So far I have limited myself to experiencing political events. Sorry, not interested in holding an Officer position, or sitting on committee, or anything like that.
DFNYC, MYD, DL21C. They now appear in the rear view window, kind of. Either their organizational structures are too primitive or I am not cut for politics, or whatever. They are designed to make you feel like, okay, so you were part of something like a French Revolution, but in this hierarchy here, who are you? You don't need a place in the hierarchy to experience an event.
I did not move to NYC even for Nepal, or Obama, but to launch a company. Nepal and Obama were distractions. I have absolutely no interest in the local races. As long as the subway keeps running, let me be. My fascination with NYC is that it is the capital city of the world, the Amazon forest of humanity, a feast to the eyes, a feast to the mind.
5.0 with the Manhattan organizations is offensive at two levels: they are not cutting edge group dynamics at all, not enough embracing of 2.0, and they are socially not progressive, it is not exactly post-ISMs variety. Or perhaps my standards are high.
My team member two with my young company Adam is already pissed he thinks I give too much time to politics. Forget these organizations and their events, forget Obama, let's go run with this baby. Give it total attention.
I have resisted getting structured into Obama 2008 in the city. (Barackface: NYC, Obama, Structure, Me) It has been the same resistance with the organizations before that. I function like the Wikipedia was written. There is something to be said of leaderless organizations.
What does your NYC socializing look like when the only work socializing is 2.0 with some techies in Mumbai? That is so much less stress than trying to get the message you are here only to experience an event.
I am getting better by the day with saying hello and making small talk and just plain schmoozing. My baseball is politics, and I watch it best online.
I go to an event like this one looking for some hard core political action: Martha Outed Kenton And Women With Issues. Whereas for most people it is just socializing, politics is just the excuse. And nothing wrong with that, it is a free country. When the event is over, it is over. Don't give me homework.
I am at a point where I am like, so do you still go to Dave Pollak's parties? That will have to be decided one Facebook email at a time. Go with the mood, time permitting. Or what?
Seamless 2.0 and 5.0 and the political organizations in Manhattan: that is a culture clash, a clash of civilizations.
Some of the racial thinking of white folks in Manhattan is like some Hindus I know of in Nepal: they think Christians and white people generally are the fifth caste, somewhere down there. It is a mindset, largely quixotic. The weirdest part is when they will ignore your email. They had a similar theory about email in Kentucky. Are you shy? No, I am online. And I thought it would be quicker.
It is just that all roads lead to Jerusalem, all roads leads to Silicon City.
I was kinda sorta interested in this event. Do I go? Do I not go? To be? To be no be?
Let's seal up the nomination for Barack on February 5. It can be done. I am opposed to the idea of having to keep fighting beyond February 5.
It can be done.
Win big in South Carolina.
Raise a ton of online cash. Issue whips. We have more than half a million donors. Let this become our biggest quarter yet. We have more online donors than all the others, Dem and Repub, running and no longer running, put together. Now is the time to cash it. The hour is at hand.
Do massive phone banking during the week leading to February 5. We got more volunteers than all the other Dem and Repub campaigns, breathing still and deceased, put together. Now is the time to cash on it.
Send volunteers out into the streets and to knock doors during that week like never before. There has to be this feeling that this is it, this is the final push. After that it is over.
Run the Mother ad relentlessly all across the country. I am tempted to say run just that one ad. Pour a ton of money into it.
We will run Michelle Obama ads in 2012 when Barack will seek reelection, but for now mother before wife.
Send Barack to all the big media markets during the final week leading to February 5.
After South Carolina everything he says will be national news. His geographical location will become less relevant.
Pick fights with Bill Clinton, especially on his distortions and lies. He thinks he can spin Barack's anti-war stand out of existence. That is too ambitious a task even for Bill Clinton.
Anti-war was what Dean 2004 was all about. Barack is a Deaniac, the most visible Deaniac.
Let no attack go unanswered. Just don't get mean with the rebuttals, that's all. After all, we are the new kind of politics people.
Attack Hillary on Iraq. She never apologized. How could she not?
Barack Obama is a Deaniac from 2004, so am I, although I did not hear of him until Dean 2004 had boiled over. He was in Illinois, I was next door in Indiana. I was on the road, I was in Illinois all the time.
I was in NYC for a few days when he gave his speech in Boston. I watched one of his debates with Alan Keyes at a truck stop.
Dean 2004 was my initiation into US presidential politics. MeetUps were all the rage. So when I got to meet and know and become friends with the MeetUp CEO Scott, it was a big deal. "It is like going to L.A. and meeting Tom Cruise," I said to him. He is not a very assuming kind of guy, and I think I embarrassed him. But Scott is an Iowa native. We had the dot com bonding, we had the Midwest bonding, curiously. I have been everywhere in Iowa.
When I moved to NYC, the Dean 2004 alum were the first group of people I got to know.
Pound for pound I do think Barack Obama is a superior candidate to Howard Dean. But then Barack stands on Dean's shoulder. Obama 2008 would not have been possible if Dean 2004 had not happened. Dean 2004 laid the ground.
But then also Dean 2004 was a little ahead of its times. Back then there was no Blogger, there was no YouTube. The I Have A Scream fiasco would have never happened in a YouTube era. Dean was trying to shout on top of a shouting crowd. The TV people cut out the crowd and made Dean look ridiculous.
When I left Berea College in summer 2001, I had no plans, but my instincts were stronger than ever. When I moved to NYC, it was with the express intention of launching my company, but I got distracted by Nepal work, best work I ever did.
Like the French Revolution, the work on Nepal is ongoing. The revolution is not over yet. But it takes much less time. If Nepal ends up being a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, it will have become the top democracy on the planet. At that point Nepal's April Revolution joins the league of the top revolutions in world history.
The work is not over, and if Condi creates Palestine this year, she will deserve it more, but other than that I have laid claim to the Nobel. Objectively speaking that is the respect Nepal deserves.
If I could win the Nobel and Barack could win the presidency, that will have been two Deaniacs who went on to do big things.
And I was telling Dean alums in 2005 that some day a few election cycles later some Deaniac is going to be president. I was not thinking Barack because he had made it very clear he was not seeking the presidency or the vice presidency in 2008. And I was not thinking 2008. I was saying Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Reagan in 1980. Dean in 2004, so perhaps some Deaniac in 2012, 2016.
But this is the internet age. Time travels faster. Good ideas travel fast. The grassroots was not going to wait. Howard Dean had the energy, the guts. Barack has the sophistication to take on the establishment without making them feel all queasy.
