Obama's New Era of Responsibility

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Tuesday January 20, 2009 · 4:36 PM PST

2009/01/20 · 16:36

This diary is an attempted articulation of some thoughts that have been on my mind in some form or other for a couple of years now, and began to be solidified in the context that I refer to them here during the heat of the election cycle. Today I am more full of questions than answers, and am thoughtful of the necessity of failure to achieve success. It strikes me that there has been a fundamental shift in American politics at the level of each citizen. This is partly due to demographics, as Teixiera and Judis have done such an excellent job of outlining, but it is also a change in each one of us, a change that Barack Obama spoke of today as "the new era of responsibility." I felt Kos did an excellent job of summarizing the attitude that now dominates our political discourse in his post on patriotism today.

Our version of patriotism is a celebration of what makes our nation great. It's the diversity, our people, our communities. Rather than confrontational, it's communitarian.

cwech

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Monday October 06, 2008 · 11:32 PM PDT

2008/10/06 · 23:32

John McCain this morning suspended his campaign for the second time announcing that he is "desperately needed in Greenland to help solve Global Warming."

Senator McCain canceled all his public appearances for Wednesday and will fly out to Greenland to broker and agreement between the warming atmosphere and the receding glaciers, and called on Obama to do the same. "My friends, the situation is too dire for us to have another debate, now is the time for action, and I urge Barack Obama to join me in suspending the campaign in order to convince the glaciers to stop melting."

cwech

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Friday December 29, 2006 · 12:06 AM PST

2006/12/29 · 00:06

The following is a paper that I wrote in a Politics and Religion course, it examines how Al Gore has effectively used a vice and virtue frame in "An Inconvenient Truth" and how this rhetoric has succeeded in the past and is the best approach to framing of the global warming debate. The paper was built upon James Morone's "Hellfire Nation," in which it is argued the rhetoric of vice and virture has been a recurring successful theme in American history. Victorians succeeded in using vice and virtue to pass prohibition while a social gospel was used to advance the New Deal and Civil Rights. In the following I argued that Al Gore and other environmentalists have brought the social gospel back into American public debate as they argue for agressive reforms to combat global warming.

cwech

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Monday November 13, 2006 · 12:09 AM PST

2006/11/13 · 00:09

I thought I would way in on what priorities the Democrats should take to their new majority status in Congress. With control of both Houses of Congress, and an overwhelming victory in the recent midterm elections, the Democratic agenda in this Congress between 2006 and 2008 will be a crucial time for retaining our majority and hopefully picking up the White House in 2008. If the American people having given us this opportunity trust us to govern the revolution that was the 2006 election can truly become a point when American politics change for the better and a lot of good can be done. Read More

Tidal Wave '06: The Donkey Kicks Back!-AKA my predictions for House and Senate

cwech

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Sunday November 05, 2006 · 11:38 PM PST

2006/11/05 · 23:38

These are my predictions for the House and the Senate this year. I have payed a lot of attention to Larry Sabato's breakdown for a while as well as Cook Political Report. They are my two primary tools for this prediction in addition to much help from Electoral-vote.com. As you can tell from my title, I'm predicting a major tidal wave this year. Look below the fold to see the picks. Read More

Its the Middle Class Stupid

cwech

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Wednesday August 30, 2006 · 11:12 PM PDT

2006/08/30 · 23:12

It was apparent looking at the national exit polling after the 2004 disaster that there was something to be said of the role of economics in the election. There was a clear correlation between support for Bush and family income which had most middle class voters supporting Bush. One could argue that the bigger the tax cut the stronger the support for Bush, and that this dynamic made the difference in the election much more than the culture wars or national security. The argument is there, up front in the exit polling, and that is precisely the argument that Anne Kim, Adam Solomon, and Jim Kessler make in the Democratic Strategist.

At Third Way, we not only believe the what's-the-matter-with-Kansas analysis is wrong, but that it represents a dangerous red herring for Democrats. In a report we co-authored called The Politics of Opportunity, we isolated five areas of disconnect between how Democrats talk about the middle class and view the economy and how the middle class view their own economic situation and that of America.

cwech

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Wednesday July 26, 2006 · 8:02 PM PDT

2006/07/26 · 20:02

Kos ran an excellent story on the front page today about Democratic prospects in the deep red of the Country, particularly in Idaho. His optimism revolved arround Bill Sali's atrocious fundraising and lack of respect within the Idaho political establishment. I believe that under the right conditions this seat could be in play, but it will not be, because the Idaho Democratic Party is in dissarray, below is my story of how I tried to help out in the ID-01 this summer, but was unable to thanks to an unresponsive local party. Read More

Why Stop at Flag Burning?

cwech

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Friday June 09, 2006 · 11:34 PM PDT

2006/06/09 · 23:34

The three items on the Republican Senate agenda this week were gay marriage, estate tax repeal, and flag burning. Two of these have now failed and we are waiting on the constitutional amendment to ban the burning of the American flag. Before the Senate votes on flag burning, Senator Frist should withdraw the constitutional amendment and rewrite it to make it more expansive and more in line with the conservative GOP agenda. Read More

Pinning Down the Identity Gap

cwech

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Sunday June 04, 2006 · 12:58 AM PDT

2006/06/04 · 00:58

Not long ago, Ruy Teixiera claimed that there existed a "identity gap" in which people do not understand what the Democratic Party stands for. The argument is made repeatedly, there is either the perception or the fact that people do not know what Democrats stand for. This is quite odd since Democrats all over the nation repeat over and over again what their positions are. People claimed not to know where Senator Kerry stood in the 2004 election, but Senator Kerry made his positions generally very clear, repeating them over and over again. But too many people seem to just not get it. Why? I seek to answer that question below. Read More

Legal Dodgeball-Jose Padilla

cwech

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Saturday December 17, 2005 · 8:46 AM PST

2005/12/17 · 08:46

SCOTUSblog has a recent post about the government's brief urging the High Court not to hear the Padilla case. However, the legal maneuvering by the Bush Administration should give the Court little choice, there is a consistent pattern at work here of changinging one key cercumstance and dodging the Supreme Court preventing a definitive ruling on this important matter. We need a precedent, the Bush Administration cannot be allowed to ontinue this Court dodging. Read More

Padilla Still An Enemy Combatant

cwech

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Sunday December 04, 2005 · 11:02 AM PST

2005/12/04 · 11:02

As we all know, Padilla was charged with "provided material support to terrorists" last week. But it turns out, SCOTUSBlog reports, that Padilla is still an emeny combatant. Cute legal trick, charge him so everyone thinks that they've decided to allow him due process. But it turns out that they now claim that they can charge him with a crime, but continue to hold him as an enemy combatant so that it doesn't matter if they win their case against him or not. Read More

How Democrats Can Defeat Alito

cwech

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Wednesday November 02, 2005 · 2:29 PM PST

2005/11/02 · 14:29

I'll begin by stating the obvious, a filibuster will be necessary here. Armando posted earlier the Gallup poll about the Alito nomination, which has some pretty promising numbers within it. However, in order to take advantage of those numbers Democrats must establish a clear coherent reason that the public can easily wrap their hands arround and understand as to why we would oppose this nomination. Alito's opposition to Roe would be a reasonable such argument, but convincing the public that it is true may prove to be a difficult task. Whatever we do Democrats cannot continue to do what we've already begun. We cannot continue to assert that he's a "extremist" or that he's "out of the mainstream." That sounds like what it is (be it true or not) a talking point. Anybody can recognize this, and the lack of subtlety or coherent definition will make it very difficult to convince the public that Alito is in fact "out of the mainstream. A better, more coherent explanation is needed to support a necessary Democratic filibuster. Read More

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Obama's New Era of Responsibility

McCain Suspends Campaign on Eve of Second Debate

Reframing Environmentalism: Al Gore's Fight Against Global Warming

The Democratic Agenda: Restoring Goodwill in the United States Congress

Tidal Wave '06: The Donkey Kicks Back!-AKA my predictions for House and Senate

Its the Middle Class Stupid

Why Sali Will Win the ID-01

Why Stop at Flag Burning?

Pinning Down the Identity Gap

Legal Dodgeball-Jose Padilla

Padilla Still An Enemy Combatant

How Democrats Can Defeat Alito