Vol.
5 No. 13
October 2007
Uncommon
Denominator
The
Newsletter of the Commonweal Institute
http://www.commonwealinstitute.org
"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of
social transition
was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the
good people."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
_____
CONTENTS
From the Executive Director:
Message from Barry Kendall
Talking Points: Reaching Young Adults
Wit and Wisdom: Reaganomics Finally Trickles
Down to Area Man
From the Blogs: “Why Democracy?”
Quoted!: Rudy’s Dream
Check It Out: DOUBLETHINK, a tale of
conservative dystopia
Happenings 1: Commonweal Institute at
YearlyKos Convention
Happenings 2: Welcome Party for New
Executive Director
Endorsement: Robert Reich
Get Involved: Spread the word; become a
contributor
_____
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Welcome back to Uncommon Denominator!
Commonweal Institute’s famed newsletter has been on hiatus for a couple of
months as I got settled in. Now we are back, though, with all the great
content you’re used to: intelligent commentary on the progressive
perspective, hot topics from the blogosphere, smart reviews of new books and
other media, plus all the news from Commonweal – and this month, there’s a lot!
I am also pleased to announce that you will soon benefit
from an important upgrade in our services. Commonweal Institute is
partnering with three technical service providers – Network for Good,
Salesforce, and Vertical Response – to build an integrated system for managing
our relationships with you, our members, supporters, and friends! For us,
this means we’re going to have a much easier time keeping in touch with
you. For you, it means you will be able to customize your profile with
us, and receive exactly those communications you most want and need. Are
you…
- an individual interested in advice on how to advocate
for progressive causes?
- a representative of an organization that wants to
partner with us?
- a member of the press looking for great spokespeople
and compelling stories about progressive politics?
Whatever your areas of interest, with our new system we’ll
be able to tailor our offerings to your needs. Look for more information
in your inbox soon. Meanwhile, enjoy this edition of Uncommon
Denominator!
_____
TALKING POINTS: Reaching Young Adults
By Melissa Leavitt, Ph.D.
There are a few things about today’s young adults—those
eighteen or nineteen-year-olds who are just beginning to decide what civic
participation will mean to them—that the progressive movement needs to
understand. Young people today don’t trust the government, but they’re certainly
not rebels. They believe in the value of volunteer work and community
service, but they shy away from the idea of social change. And I believe
it’s essential for us to understand this rather peculiar point of view if we
are going to marshal young people’s immense talent, intelligence, and energy,
for the progressive causes of social justice, community development, and
environmental stewardship.
Admittedly, I’m using generalizations here, and I’m basing
my assessment of this generation on anecdotal evidence. I teach freshman
and sophomores at Stanford University. My students are ambitious and
disciplined; they’re willing to work very hard as long as they can see a
tangible outcome. They expect to earn a great deal of money some day, and
they’re already deciding how to use it, and how to wield the clout that is sure
to come with it. One day, during a class in which we were discussing
issues relating to labor and the workplace, we got on the subject of charity
and welfare. My students started talking about the kinds of financial
contributions they would be one day willing to make to help support the poor
and disenfranchised. By and large, no one thought in terms of
taxes. No one said that they would be willing to trust the government to
use their money for any social programs intended to improve the lives of the
underprivileged. Yet most of my students said that they planned to give
generously to a church or local organization that worked toward the same
purpose. In fact, they seemed to understand this as their duty.
Welfare has come down to them as a dirty word. Yet
they invoked it often in our discussion, if only to explain what they didn’t
mean. “Not welfare, exactly, but something else.” What is that
something else? They haven’t figured that out yet. When one of my
students used the term “welfare queen,” I seemed to be the only one in the room
who didn’t wince. To be fair, the student who said it did so in the
context of his research paper on the shortcomings of mid-1990s welfare
“reform.” But is it any wonder that this generation associates the notion
of “reform” with the attenuation of services and programs that foster the
wellbeing of the people?
Most of my students seem to have a strong church
affiliation. This isn’t something that’s unique to them: a recent study
by the Higher Education Research Institute reports that 79 percent of college
students surveyed believe in God, and 81 percent attend religious services.
Given these statistics, it perhaps stands to reason that young people today
trust faith-based organizations to do what the government can’t. But it
still seems strange to me that these young people have come of age in an era
when faith and the government have been more closely linked than in any other era
in recent memory, and they still can’t see the role that the government could
play either in their own lives, or the lives of those less fortunate.
They certainly can’t see any role for the government in the causes they care
about. But they see a role for themselves there, and that’s what is at
once so promising, and so frustrating about young people today. Let me
rephrase that: it’s what is so frustrating about the way our government has
squandered young people’s desire to improve the world they live in.
I sometimes teach service learning courses, which means that
students in my class fulfill one of the course requirements by working with a
community organization. For example, they could put together a brochure
designed to advertise the organization’s services to the local community, or
write a grant letter for the purpose of generating funding. Community
service is not a new experience for them. In fact, today’s college
students have an impressive record of service. Skeptics will say that
they’ve only engaged in community service because it was a requirement for high
school graduation, or it improved their chances of college admission.
This hardly matters. What matters is that today’s young adults see
service as a core element of their own coming of age.
Each time I’ve taught service learning classes, I’ve been
delighted and gratified at the commitment my students show to the causes I
associate with the progressive movement. My students have worked for
organizations that advocate for workplace justice; that promote environmental
justice; that make participation in the democratic process available and
accessible to everyone. But they get a little nervous when they realize
that this work means challenging the status quo. I once assigned students to
work for a campus-based organization that had been in conflict with university
administration. Even though these students supported the organization’s
cause, their commitment to its goals stopped short opposing the authority of
their university. Initially, their skittishness seemed a bit
discouraging, and surprising. But perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised
me—after all, the revolution that shaped their youth was the so-called
Republican Revolution of 1994. Ultimately, rather than dismiss their reaction
as one of complacency, I believe we should take stock of this point of view and
decide how it can best be put in the service of the progressive causes to which
we have committed ourselves. And we should do what we can to reclaim the
term “revolution,” in the minds of our young people and the mouths of the
media, for the notion of civic-minded reform.
One of the best ways that progressives can involve young
people in our cause is to help them understand service not as a private agenda
or insular activity, but as a practice of civic participation. These
young people have grown up with a sense of duty to share their considerable
resources—intellectual, social, and financial—with those less fortunate than
themselves. Yet at the crucial moment when they are deciding how this
duty should shape their adult lives, they fail to see how a political movement
could work toward the same ends. The government that relies upon
faith-based organizations to carry out the work of compassion has made young
people lose their faith in the government. But they still have a profound
and mature understanding of the value of consensus, of coalition, of working
together rather than working at odds with one another.
Young people today are in a rather odd position. They
value guidance and authority and leadership, but that they don’t see a lot of
value in their own leaders; they value service and community improvement, but
they haven’t quite gotten used to connecting their own service with the process
of social change. What we have is a generation that is profoundly
committed to the principles of civic participation, but that doesn’t quite
realize it. Progressives must mobilize young people’s determination and
sense of duty by putting their impulses toward service, community involvement,
and cooperation on the path toward our common purpose.
_____
WIT AND WISDOM
>From The Onion, October 13, 2007 | Issue 43•41:
Reaganomics Finally Trickles Down To Area Man
HAZELWOOD, MO—Twenty-six years after Ronald Reagan first set his controversial
fiscal policies into motion, the deceased president's massive tax cuts for the
ultrarich at last trickled all the way down to deliver their bounty, in the
form of a $10 bonus, to Hazelwood, MO car-wash attendant Frank Kellener.
The late President Ronald Reagan (L) clearly had people like present-day car
wash attendant Frank Kellener (R)
in mind when articulating his "trickle-down" economic theory in the
early 1980s.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/reaganomics_finally_trickles_down
_____
FROM THE BLOGS: Why Democracy?
By Commonweal Institute Fellow Mary
Ratcliff
Winston Churchill declared that Democracy is the worst form
of government except for all the others. In the United States, we pride
ourselves on being the oldest constitutional democracy, yet many people believe
we need to limit our democracy, especially during perilous times. Many people
in the US find they are frustrated with democracy and think that things would
be better if we just let a few smart people make the decisions. Besides we are
all too busy and too cynical to get involved.
Today the war on terrorism has created a situation where
many important decisions are being made unilaterally and without consultation
with even our elected representatives or our allies, much less checking in with
ordinary Americans. The fear of terrorism has encouraged people to blindly
support the President because they believe he must know more about what is
going on and so can make the right decisions for us. Many people are looking
for a strong leader who boldly makes decisions even if these decisions go
against the will of the majority of people. Many people define this as
leadership.
Yet, is it true that a few smart people or one strong leader
will do a better job than groups that make decisions democratically? Should we
entrust our future to a small group who will make the most important decisions
for us? Decisions such as whether we will go to war or not, or how our economy
is run? The answer is no. And here is why that is.
Read the rest of Mary Ratcliff’s blog entry at
http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/CIBlog/2007/09/why_democracy.html
____
QUOTED!
We all have dreams, sometimes recurring ones. During a
speech in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Rudy Giuliani said he’s had this one five
times:
“Nicolas Sarkozy the President of France is one an airplane.
He is flying from France to the United States over the Atlantic Ocean. He is
halfway to the United States. Another plane is going in the other direction.
From the United States to France. It almost hits his plane. They almost crash.
They get so close...The two planes gets so close...that you can see inside the
window of one plane to the other.
“Sarkozy looks in the window of the other plane and the three people
there…going from the United States to France...are waving at him...they are
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.”
_____
Check It Out: DOUBLETHINK, by J.E. Schwartz
http://www.amazon.com/Doublethink-Unintended-Consequences-J-E-Schwartz/dp/0977891100/
Review by Commonweal Institute Fellow Mary Ratcliff
Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if the
conservative agenda were fully adopted?
In my mind, it would be a world profoundly different from
the one in which most Americans have been raised. It would be a world
shaped by low taxes for the wealthy and low services for everyone else.
One where the very wealthy gate off their communities and where they take
ownership of what were once public places, because they deserve to have these
spaces free from the rabble.
A world where corporations maximize profits by outsourcing
every job that isn't nailed down. One where those who were suspected of
having even an innocent connection to someone accused of being a terrorist
could lose everything: their homes, their friends and their financial accounts
which under conservative rules could be confiscated by the government without
any recourse.
A world where, when someone gets sick who is poor, she would
be tossed out onto the street because if you can't afford to pay, then you have
no right to sponge off others.
And to crown the nightmare, imagine a world where John Yoo,
Alberto Gonzales, and Kenneth Starr were asked to join Roberts and Alito on the
Supreme Court to watch over your rights in a time of perpetual war.
Such is the world you find in "DoubleThink: A Tale of
Unintended Consequences", a work of fiction set in the San Francisco Bay
area in 2012.
Yet this book does not leave one depressed, because it asks
that if one were to live in a world such as this, how could one find
meaning? Fortunately this question is answered in a very satisfying way.
A short, but incredibly readable tale, this book stays with
you long after you put it down.
It is a perfect gift for a friend or family member who has
been a life-time Republican and has not yet understood where the conservative
path is taking our country. Reading this book could be just the ticket
for helping them see the errors of their ways.
(Full Disclosure: Judith Schwartz has served on
Commonweal Institute’s Board of Directors. We are most partial to her
work. Besides, it’s a rip-roaring good read.)
Check it out.
_____
HAPPENINGS 1:
Commonweal Institute at YearlyKos Convention
The second annual YearlyKos Convention brought hundreds of
progressive bloggers, activists, organizations, and candidates to Chicago for
four heady days of discussion and debate about the new progressive
movement. The Commonweal Institute had a strong intellectual presence at
this year’s convention, and helped sponsor the convention as an exhibitor, with
a table in the exhibit hall that highlighted Commonweal Institute’s Fellows,
research publications and activities.
Commonweal Fellow David C. Johnson participated in
five panels. He hosted two panels on funding the progressive movement
titled Connecting Major Donors to the Netroots and Creating a Culture
of Grassroots Giving. Dave’s opening remarks from the “Connecting”
panel can be seen in the Commonweal Institute blog post "Comments At YearlyKos
Session: Connecting Major Donors to the Netroots" at http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/CIBlog/2007/08/comments_at_yearlykos_session.html,
and a photograph of the session can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/futuremajority/986436414/.
We will soon have a video of the event available online.
Dave also participated in the panels Smoking Politics,
which discussed the history of tobacco industry involvement in the conservative
movement, leading to today’s election-time front-group smear campaigns; Think
Tank Resources for Bloggers, which discussed the role of think tanks, and
the research and other information that think tanks make available to assist
bloggers; and Reaching the Public, led by Commonweal Institute’s Bill
Scher.
The YearlyKos program described Scher’s Reaching the
Public panel this way: “Politicians respond to demand—that’s their
job. Conservatives built a ‘persuasion machine’ to create a demand for
conservative candidates and policies. It worked—and could work again
unless progressives start reaching out to the public as well. How can
progressives create widespread understanding of progressive values and build
public DEMAND for progressive candidates and policies?” Bill also
participated in the panel Faith or No: Building Secular-Religious Coalitions,
which asked, “How can religious and secular progressive bloggers work and play
together productively? Find out through examinations of the current religious
and political climate, practical tips on working across the divide, and a
how-to guide on starting flamewars.”
Commonweal Institute Fellow Chris Bowers also
participated in the Connecting Major Donors to the Netroots panel, and
his remarks can be seen in his OpenLeft diary "The Case For Blogosphere
Funding" at http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=541.
Chris also participated in the panels The Data Spillover and Rise of
Political Technology, “Over the last two election cycles, the way that
political data gets collected, analyzed, and utilized has radically changed.
Rather than relying solely on intuition and tradition, organizations have
started relying on math and data geeks to move into the 21st century”; Where
Do We Go from Here?: Progressive Strategies and the Overton Window: “Despite
recent electoral victories and copious GOP scandals, progressives find
themselves rhetorically outflanked and outgunned on many major issues from
terrorism to domestic spending. While the progressive grassroots and the
Netroots have been effective in shedding light on some of these iniquities and
in assisting Democratic leaders to communicate progressive messages more
effectively to the public, these successes have nevertheless often paled in
comparison to the efficacy of the conservative message machine”; Introducing
JONI, “This event introduces JONI—The Journal of Netroots Ideas— an online
and print publication-in-progress brought to you by BloggerPower.org, the folks
responsible for theYearlyKos Convention”; Evolution & Integration of the
Blogosphere, “The panel will explore the issues surrounding the increasing
professionalization of the blogosphere”; and Public Opinion Matters: Iraq
and the 2008 Campaign, “The panel will offer expert analysis on how public
opinion relates to the two biggest issues of mid and late 2007: the upcoming
2008 Presidential campaign and the September fight over Iraq war funding.”
Commonweal Institute Senior Fellow Patrick O’Heffernan
participated in the panel Creating a Culture of Grassroots Giving.
Commonweal Institute Fellow Mary Ratcliff also attended YearlyKos, and
wrote a short post at Pacific Views, "Commonweal Institute At Yearly
Kos," which you can read at http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/002943.html.
Commonweal Institute’s Executive Director Barry Kendall was rumored to
be there as well, working the crowd and meeting his new political colleagues
from across the country.
Commonweal Institute Senior Fellow Patrick O’Heffernan, Fellow Dave Johnson,
and supporter Sam Perry at YearlyKos in Chicago
_____
HAPPENINGS
2: Welcome Party
On Sunday, July 22nd, over 100 guests welcomed Barry Kendall
to the Commonweal Institute and celebrated his appointment to the position of
Executive Director. The party, which took place at the home of Commonweal
Institute President Kate Forrest, featured food, wine, entertainment, and
animated conversation. http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/WelcomeParty.html
The centerpiece of the party was Barry's speech, in which he
introduced himself to the crowd and outlined a bold vision for a cohesive
progressive movement. Drawing from his graduate studies at Stanford, he
discussed lessons that progressives can learn from the nineteenth century
evangelical movement. One of these was the importance of singing from the same
songbook—a strategy that American Methodists effectively used to spread their
message centuries ago. He demonstrated the difference with some audience
participation. First, he instructed members of the audience each to sing their
favorite song, resulting in a muddled cacophony resembling the current state of
most progressive communications. Then, he led the audience in a unified chorus
of "America the Beautiful." The contrast was startling (check
out our website for video!). The lesson was simple but essential: our message
can be heard all the way to Washington, but, as Barry reminded us, "we
have to shout it out in one voice, telling one story, singing one song."
We'd like to thank everyone who made the party such a
success. Gourmet food was provided by Mirit Cohen and a team of talented
chefs from Google. Wine was donated by our fellows, particularly Mike
Pogue, who went the extra mile to get everyone liquored up. Bill Hoeft,
Maria Simon, Elizabeth Lasensky, Kris Bobier, Tom Coates, Ian Finseth,
Stephanie Hawkins, and Bob Walker all volunteered their time. Thank you
to Al Mite Te Dollar, the Billionaire Magician, who made his way through the
crowd, entertaining us all with a mix of magic, facts, and sardonic humor about
the current administration's policies; in private life, Al is known as Thomas
Atwood, one of Commonweal’s supporters. Thank you also to Sudeep Johnson
and Troupe Zambelita for dazzling us with their blend of traditional dance and
modern music. Finally, thank you to everyone who attended. If you
couldn't make it to this one, we hope to see you at a future event!
_____
ENDORSEMENT
“America needs a true marketplace of ideas, not a one-sided monologue by the
right. At a time when airwaves and emails are filled with conservative
voices, the Commonweal Institute is more important than ever.” -- Robert B.
Reich, Professor of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley;
former U.S. Secretary of Labor; co-founder of The American Prospect magazine
and author of Super-Capitalism
GET INVOLVED
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© 2007 The
Commonweal Institute
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