Monday, April 19, 2004

Posted here Monday, April 19, 2004 at 9:12:32 PM     Thinking about Republicans and Democrats.. I have spent some time researching this issue, with workshops and interviews, the last six months. Here are some ideas.   First, it is easy to find that core values are remarkably similar: desire for a good life, friends, viable income to support a family, and a place in community.   Second, the progressives are afraid of big business/military, the traditionalists are afraid of big government and local interference. They both dislike bigness, projected on to the other, cancel each other out, and bigness wins.   Third, the progressives are afraid to empathize with the right, even to enter into a  reasonable compassionate discussion of "what is on the mind of the (voter) republicans. The reason for this is, the discovery of common values would be hard to handle emotionally because progressives have aligned themselves with a desire for heavy handed solutions, techno market solutions, and contempt - and with big bureaucracy solutions, more than fits their own desire, and they don't want to feel the contradiction. In the same way most conservatives are against budget deficits, patriot act surveillance, and intervention in international affairs, but the contradiction with their official party is too painful to face.   The result is, there is underlying common interest in avoiding the worst of bigness and alienation is obscured by ideology and projection that is not deeply believed in but motivated by fear of facing contradictions, having to think, having to give up being so angry.   ********

Posted here Monday, April 19, 2004 at 12:31:44 PM     The fate of Powell is the intrigue story. And desperate situation for everyone in Iraq ways heavily. But the whole situation is brining out a level of subtlety rarely seen in public events an their reporting. From today's http://www.tnr.com/blog/iraqd HOW MANY PRESIDENTS MUST GET DISSED: For a lesson in how diplomats deliver a severe verbal shanking, check out yesterday's New York Times story about the U.N.'s newly central role in Iraq: "There is a mixture of vindication on the one hand and great apprehension on the other," said Edward Mortimer, a senior aide to Secretary General Kofi Annan. Mr. Mortimer contrasted the recent calls for assistance from President Bush with the disparagement he said the United Nations had become used to from the administration. "It's quite nice when you've been generally dissed about your irrelevancy and then suddenly have people coming on bended knee and saying, 'We need you to come back,' " he said. "On the other hand, it's quite unnerving to feel you're being projected into a very violent and volatile situation where you might be regarded as an agent or faithful servant of a power that has incurred great hostility." Playing on Mortimer's iPod during his interview was Ice-T's classic 1988 track, "Personal": You diss, I diss, this is creates an equal/ You reply to my diss, this is called a sequel/ I reply to your diss, this is called a battle/ Not intelligent, not very adult/ So I don't battle, I just put heads out/ A straight line is always the direct route/ I write lyrics clear, to leave no doubt/ Don't even have to say who I'm speakin' about ********