What I am saying here goes with the theme of this blog: how to get the Democrats back into power and keep them there. You are trying to get a majority vote. How do you go about it?
The race-gender diagram by the way is one where the whites in America have already become a minority, which will be a few swift decades from now, already true in places like Texas and California, not to say in all the big cities. And there is a major omission here: class.
And I am not really talking protest politics. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were masters of protest politics. I am more interested in power politics. That is why I like to read up on presidents and prime ministers. And I also think one thing that really holds progressives down is the crowd has almost an aversion to power. They just want to be able to protest forever. I find that self-defeating. Protest is all good, but ultimately it has to lead to power. The actual good is done with power.
The race-gender equation is simplistic. It does not quite work that way. We need to be looking at the progressive-conservative divide instead. The spectrum concept could be applied to more than race and gender, it looks like.
The Spectrum On Gender
The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
You define your segment of the spectrum in a way that you are targeting about 60% of the voters. There is plenty of room for the 9s and 10s, and people at the other end of the spectrum and in the middle have the option to move up. But you don't let the puritst hijack the agenda and pedal you right out of power.
Another thing is political consciousness. Political consciousness is like literacy: it has to be acquired. Most of the political work is to do with helping raise people's political consciousness.
A woman who is a 3 on the gender spectrum is not with us, a woman who is a 6 is with us. The same applies to race and ethnicity. I know too many brown folks who have internalized the racism to think otherwise. A white male who is a 7 on race is with us, a brown guy who is a 4 is not with us.
If you think about it, all those ethnic and cultural boundaries are sexual. I wrote this up on that one: Interracial Connections.
There is right and wrong, desirable and undesirable, and there is social reality. Ethnic demarcations happen to be reality, but they do not have to be negative reality. We progressives are not offended by diversity, we celebrate it.
Assembly Debate And After LinkUp
I got lost again last night. I get lost on local issues despite paying rapt attention. But the event was lively. There was great attendance. There were seven candidates. Some guy Tom showed up. He is apparently running for the Senate against none other than Hillary herself. Betsy Godbaum has described her a stalker. I got a flyer from Tom that claimed he had wrongfully been emailed an invitation to the debate. He was running for the US Senate, not the State Assembly. He had another flyer that claimed Hillary had conspired and rendered him homeless. I guess there were two guys with the same name.
These DFNYC top dogs are fiercely for Norman Siegel, let me tell you. I first saw Siegel on TV. I was curious. Then I met him twice in person. If I could advise him, it would be as follows.
"I have met you in person and I have seen you on TV. If you can show up on TV like I see you in person, you win. When people see you on TV, all they are asking is, do I want this guy in my living room? You come across as too worked up on TV. Relax."
The guy is so pleasant in person. But on TV he gets worked up and comes across as "someone who eats children for breakfast." Okay, I think I just earned a few enemies at DFNYC. But that is not an original phrase. Some voter described James Carville that way in 1992.
Siegel is so qualified and so passionate. But he does have to work on his TV appearance.
Scott Stringer became Manhattan president, his assembly seat got vacated, and so there were seven in the run. The debate was on the Upper West Side, a block from Mridula Koirala's restaurant. Mridula is like the unofficial mayor of Nepalis in New York City. I dropped by to say hello to her. She is a self-described feminist.
I met a guy who is a top guy at Playboy, met him and his wife. I also met Jeremy who I met first on the Ferrer campaign. I like to say I became for Ferrer after I learned Jeremy has been to Nepal.
Merle and Heather hosted the debate.
"Heather makes everything happen," Merle said to me.
"All of you here know Heather Woodfield," she told the crowd. I also have a Nepal connection with Merle. (September 16 Protest Rally)
Hosting the debate was quite a challenge, because speed dating was going on at the same time, same place.
"I am trying to run for office here," one candidate walked over and complained.
"I am still trying to run for office," he walked over two minutes later.
Got to meet the usual suspects at the After MeetUp.
All you have to say is "I want Hillary to be president because she is a woman" and you just sit back and watch some progressive white men react. It is a spectator sport.
Class And Race
If an Asian woman makes a classist comment to you, and you fire back a racist comment, and you are a white male, are you a guilty party? That is an open question.
When I moved into the city six months back, I was delighted I did not need my car no more. I still own it, but it goes mostly unused. Sometimes I like to get in and get lost in the city on purpose.
I love the subway. I love walking the streets. I can walk for hours.
But then here people have the cab, and the train thing.
"I am taking a cab" is supposed to be some kind of a status symbol, like "I have a cellphone" was in the early and mid-90s.
What do you say in response, besides being amused?
"I am taking the train. Some of us are Democrats around here!"
Alisa Roost From Hell
More specifically from Hell's Kitchen. (Does Hell Have A Kitchen?) I am trying to run a pilot project with her. I am more an ideas person. I like to team up with people who are nuts and bolts, not my forte. I am not much of an event planner. (The 90 Minute Experience)
This From Abhishek Mistry's Blog
Abhishek Mistry is one of those really, really, really smart guys. And he has good news: Crazy Howard's Success!
The Democratic National Committee raised more than $51M in 2005, a record for an off-year ... Dean's been kicking ass and taking names. The Democratic party has never raised so much money in an off-year, even when Clinton rented out the Lincoln bedroom (which incidentally Bush does as well now) or when Democrats controlled Congress and took millions in lobbyist money..... this $51 million is clean money from small donors
There are people at DFNYC, of all places, who believe Howard Dean is not running in 2008. Are you nuts! Of course he is running. If not, 2004 was sham, and I know it was not sham, I was part of it.
