Saturday, November 19, 2005

Thanks David For Bringing Me Back To DFNYC

A Piece On DFNYC

I am glad at least someone associated with DFNYC is willing to discuss race as a topic. If you go to three DFNYC events, that is like a total of nine hours out of a month. That is not the major part of a month. So I guess it can be hip hop plus DFNYC plus the city plus Nepal plus other stuff. I guess I will keep my options open about showing up for DFNYC events.

David Michaelson

There is Abhi's Research Advocacy meeting in 10 days, and a LinkUp in 17 days. I guess I will keep my options open. I might or might not show.

Oh, and I just found out, there is some kind of a A five-hour Dance-a-thon benefiting GMHC, Also benefiting Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). Last night I went to Webster Hall, and I could only go on for two hours, maybe a little less than two. Then I kind of just sat and took in the music, for hours.

I mean, I went to the Mixer Thursday evening, and it was great fun. As usual.
  1. The concepts I cultivate at this blog, it is very much work in progress. I feel like I am building a mathematical model. That is the first step. As for the application, I have said it is open source. There is no diktat. It is not like I am going to come up with this grand proposal and hold DFNYC hostage to it.
  2. DFNYC is not a major time commitment.
From: "David Michaelson"
To: paramendra@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: A Piece On DFNYC
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 09:42:34 -0500

Interesting piece. Race is such a major issue in NYC, and not just white vs. minority. Hatian blacks and "Southern" blacks go at it all the time. Various Hispanic groups don't get along. Etc. DFNYC does a lot better than the average NYC progressive group in reaching out to minorities and minority candidates. But race is a big issue for NYC progressives and one that is not often addressed.

My current poliitical group has been focused quite a bit on good candidates of all races: Norm Seigel, Margarita Lopez-Torres, Freddy Ferrer, Chris Owens, Tish James, Norm Titus and Paul Wooten in particular. Only one white in the crowd. I was kind of proud when I realized that our efforts had focused on so many minorities. Often Democratic groups do not focus on this. That is one of my complaints about Independent Neighborhood Democrats. Their slate tends to be pretty white. Hard to fight the local Dem machine when you show a solid white face.

Chris Owens wrote an excellent piece on race in Brooklyn politics. It was part of a private email discussion among political organizers and was in response to something I wrote. It was not intedned for public circulation but he has given us permission to pass it along if we feel it appropriate. I will point out that several DFNYC organizers were part of this dicussion and were very responsive to Chris' statements. You might be interested in it:

"David is correct, of course. We need a 50-state strategy (and/or ongoing revisions to 50 state strategies) and we certainly need a 5-borough strategy for progressive advancement here in New York City. Staten Island does indeed represent an area where the common economic concerns and common concerns about education, health care and affordable housing provide political pontoons for Democrats that could become real bridges.

However, since we are having an open and honest discussion here, I wish to highlight an important issue that is uncomfortable for many people but which can really impede our ability to move together -- race.

As African Americans (particularly those with Southern origins) decrease in NYC's population, the level and intensity of racial sensitivity and concern regarding political empowerment will increase. This process has already started. Unfortunately, tension between Black and Hispanic political leadership simmers below the surface. (Ferrer's ascendancy is a crucial step in dissipating some of the tension. But, should Ferrer lose, will the 2009 Democratic Primary pit Billy Thompson against Adolfo Carrion and Anthony Weiner?)

And the more conservative cultural influences within the African-American, Caribbean-American and African populations are very powerful. On this front, the ideological tension between these communities and liberal white communities is clear and there has been too little effort on either side to overcome this.

As the Latino population -- as divided as it may be -- increases its political clout there will be exponential increases in the intensity of concerns regarding political empowerment. There will also be significant growing pains regarding practices that traditional "progressives" abhor but may have to endure and/or overlook to sustain coalition-building.

The Asian community's political situation is similar to that of Hispanics. The primary growth areas are Brooklyn and Queens. Empowerment issues are emerging here as well, particularly now that John Liu has provided a tangible role model.

Conservative whites, particularly the orthodox Jewish communities, are increasing in number and, in Brooklyn, the percentage of the voting population. Leaders in these communities are admirable -- actually role models -- in their ability to deliver services and influence the political system.

Progressive whites, and progressives in general, are a floating minority in this demographic soup. We are actually good at getting attention, providing policy leadership, and keeping the New York Times and Village Voice, for example, to the left of the spectrum. But the competing racial empowerment dynamics will create serious issues within the next 20 years.

There will certainly be a Latino and Black candidate in every Mayoral election going forward. And there are those who say that the age of the white Jewish liberal candidate (at the citywide level) is over, for example, and that the profile of successful white candidates going forward will be much more moderate.

Finally, to be that much more real, we must acknowledge the power of money. If there is one force that will regulate the race-based clashes of New York's future, it will be the mutual desire on the part of all community leaders to have "access" to power brokers and to "make money" off of politics. New York City will become more and more like Washington, DC -- more similar to the way in which the Congress is treated by lobbyists and interest groups.

This is the real battle that progressives must confront: racially-charged political struggles addressing public policy influenced by those willing to spend money on the politicians. Racial and ethnic "fiefdoms" will emerge and be bought, sold or pitted against each other by those seeking power and exploiting needs. The Atlantic Yards experience is a harbinger of things to come.

In fairness, there are efforts being made -- including work by the New Democratic Majority and several political clubs in Brooklyn. Ironically, some of the more liberal clubs have been LESS successful at creating a good racial mix in their membership. Why is this? Because our system of political representation includes the creation of political jurisdictions that promote racial segregation. This is a by-product of the Voting Rights Act's application to our state's politics and, frankly, I am not sure how to change this. Again, some things are simple -- like clubs meeting in areas more likely to encourage participation by many who don't normally participate. Sustaining interest, however, is much harder. I know because I have been there.

(Remember, New York remains a very segregated city in so many ways. I often wonder if the truest expression of equality would be when the number of white nannies walking the streets of Brownsville with Black children in strollers equals the number of Black and Hispanic nannies walking the streets of Park Slope with white children. There are few more dramatic statements of where we are and where we need to go than this one.)

We also need to advocate for policy changes that will force political leaders to talk to everyone, rather than segment the populace like radio markets. The use of Instant Runoff Voting in our Citywide and/or Statewide primary elections, for example, would both save money and promote greater unity. Yes, the end result may be more conservative than you or I may want, but we will not be carved up as we are today based upon our political "bloc". The other institutional change is to move our primary elections back to June. This would allow voters real time to consider differences between the parties and diminish the focus on differences between Democratic candidates.

Finally, there must be boroughwide and citywide efforts to transcend the boundaries at the local level and pull people together in a different way. The same hard work and respect needed to bridge the blue state-red state gap is needed between racial and ethnic groups here in New York City. It is my hope to build a political organization, New Brooklyn Leadership, that will move in this direction -- boroughwide with local chapters.

To be continued ...

Chris"

David Michaelson

http://democracyforum.blogspot.com/2005/11/piece-on-dfnyc.html

http://www.paramendra.com
http://www.swapn.biz 1

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Friday, November 18, 2005

A Piece On DFNYC


I held many leadership positions at both my high school and college, but both robbed me of my sense of belonging, in Nepal for being a Madhesi, in Kentucky for being non-white. My anger is not of some looney lefty. I have seen the system from inside out. And in both places there are people in powerful positions whose fantassy it is to have a cup of tea with me. They can not behave when they had a chance, they will not apologize when their moment has passed, but they want to just hang out, which is their idea of cementing the social structure that was what was offensive in the first place. And my goal is not of revenge. I stake out policy positions. The relationship between racism and me is the relationship between cancer and a doctor. My approach is scientific. I am a progressive. There are people I care about, like the dollar a day crowd. It is more a delight in ideas than any anger at anything that drives me.

I moved to NYC with great hopes. And I am not disappointed. This is the city to be in: the progressive capital of the world, the capital of the world, period. Every time I walk the streets, every time I ride the train, I fall in love with the city all over again.

I came into the city to cultivate my business ideas, and I even met a venture capitalist who claimed to have met Bill Gates in 1983, before he became Bill Gates. Recently I got another feeler out of the blue from another venture capitalist in California. But what has ended up taking almost all my time has been Nepal. When the Maoists declared their unilateral ceasefire, I showed up at the Public Advocate candidate Norman Siegel's campaign headquarters to volunteer: that was my idea of celebrating. It felt like I had my head under water for a long time, and finally I got to come up for air. I bumped into Heather and Leila there!

It is quite a lifestyle. You eat into your savings to do full time political work. But then it is not as reckless as it might look at first sight. Nepal is one of the top three hot spots on the planet. I am part of the peace conversation at the highest levels. If I can get myself more integrated, and if there is peace, I could end up a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, if this is like 1776 in Nepal and if a document I have written ends up the constitution of the country and turns it into the number one democracy on the planet, then what are you looking at? (Proposed Constitution)

That is not why I have been working on it: I got into it for emotional reasons. But the Nobel thing dawned onto me somewhere along the way. That would be a million dollars to perhaps start a company, or put it away in a solid investment portfolio and draw a modest annual $100,000 and dedicate myself full time to Dean 2008 as the volunteer Campaign Chair.

I am very proud of the work I have been doing for Dean 2008, mostly at the level of ideas. And I am really proud of this spectrum I chalked out:

The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power

I think this would be the least disruptive way of managing social change.

Getting involved with DFNYC has been central to my NYC move. I was beginning to feel a sense of belonging. But yesterday I broke off. I announced I was switching from DFNYC to hip hop.

Two nights back I went to this hip hop event. DFNYC Leila emailed me this free pass to the event. I have always loved dancing to this music. I just did not have a name for it. I mean I was aware of the term. But I had not put the two together. Too bad we did not bump into each other: the place was big. Like huge. I was so into it, some media types took my pictures.

By now DFNYC has become hard. There is this gap of communication. I have tremendous respect for the political knowledge and skill of the organization's two leaders, Heather and Tracey. But I believe there has come forth this communication meltdown.

For me it is all one continuum: face time, phone, email, blog entry. But even face time ease has evaporated. And I find the dichotomy between face time and the rest disconcerting. My land line number is on my homepage!

Race has to be discussed, gender has to be discussed. In detached ways. I think that throws a lot of my comrades off balance. And then my ideas at the blog can also get disconcerting. The organization appears reluctant to get out of the groove, its set patterns, the comfort zone.

And once in a while there are undertones of race and class. If this is the leading DFA group in the country, the leading progressive group, it better act like it. Every person should feel comfortable, regardless of race, gender and class. And if there are mistakes made, we talk about it, and move on. But for that honor system to work, you need ground rules. Like, no racist comments, real and uintended. When the unintended happens, it gets pointed out, apologies are made, and everyone moves on. The relationship moves to a whole new level. It deepens. Because none of us are sqeaky clean. We all have our weak moments. But as long as we intend to heal, those moments can be turned into strength. You engage in healing dialogue.

I mean, DFNYC could really grow. There would be no off season.

If Eliot Spitzer is destined to become Governor with over 70% of the vote, why did the black Democrat who lost the race for Governor against Pataki lose? Do white Dems abandon minority candidates like that? How do white Deaniacs feel about that? Is it happening? Is it not happening? I am new to town. I don't know many details. But you bet I will be asking these questions. That is the progressive thing to do. At this point dialogue is all I am asking for. I am not complaining, at least not yet. I don't have alternatives to offer, at least not in detailed forms. But race is a topic that has to be talked. People who ignore the topic ring alarm bells in my mind.

Bonding is a good to a great thing. But old racist, sexist social bonds - soup - have to be broken, and new, progressive bonds have to be established. If cutting edge progressives can not handle it, what luck do we have with the population at large?

For now, some time off. Hip hop.

Off to Webster Hall.

If You Want To
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Bill Clinton Is Now Anti War Like Dean


About war policy, a few guidelines can be suggested.
  1. The military is there for a reason. It can be put to use.
  2. But it should only be put to use as the weapon of very last resort after all other political, diplomatic and economic options have been exhausted to the hilt. Because war is always a nasty business. Lives are lost.
  3. Study the enemy, understand the enemy, measure the stakes, and go in with a very clear goal and strategy.
  4. Have a clear exit strategy before you go in.
  5. Build a coalition. Don't go in alone.
  6. Go in with full force, wage a decisive victory, and come out swiftly. Do not invent new missions while on ground.
  7. America is not an empire. Do not make attempts to pretend otherwise. Respect local sentiments against foreign military occupations. In the worst case scenarios, you can be an intervening force, but never an occupying force.
I think Bush lost Dean on point (2). Dean was offended that the country got misled into this war. Dean is no pacifist. (Howard Dean Is No Pacifist) It is just that he thinks a president needs to make an honest case for war, and only use it as a weapon of last not first resort.

Now Bill Clinton has gone public against the war, in Dubai. He has broken precedence.

Republican Senators are losing patience. It is not a good feeling that you might have been duped.

Upto two thirds of Americans now oppose the war. That is a lot of confused, angry people out there.

Clinton: Mistakes made in Iraq Newsday, NY
Iraq invasion big mistake: Clinton Trade Arabia
Invading Iraq a big mistake: Clinton Times of India
Bill Clinton Says Iraq War "Was a Big Mistake" About - News & Issues
Hillary Clinton Attacks Cheney on 'Torture' NewsMax.com
Clinton is the world's most powerful agent of change' Economic Times, India
Esquire: Clinton is world's "most influential man" Reuters
I won’t have invaded Iraq the way Bush did: Clinton Peninsula On-line
Iraq Criticism: Fool us once ... Seattle Post Intelligencer
Bubba blasts war New York Daily News, NY
Former President Clinton Says Iraq War 'Big Mistake' Voice of America
Clinton attacks Iraq invasion The Age (subscription), Australia
Clinton: Mistakes made in Iraq invasion Aljazeera.net, Qatar
Clinton says US made 'big mistake' in Iraq MSNBC
Iraq invasion big mistake: Clinton Trade Arabia, Bahrain
Clinton calls invasion ‘big mistake’ Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN
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Short Stories

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Social Security, School Vouchers, And Class Warfare


Social Security, what is the concept?

Social Security (United States) Wikipedia ..... In the calendar year 2004, it paid out almost $500 billion in benefits. .....

School vouchers Wikipedia .....

On Social Security the W crowd suggests private accounts. On public education they propose test scores and school vouchers. Both are lousy policy but smart politics. Politically they are trying to drive a wedge.

When you introduce private accounts, you are saying some of the money that otherwise would go into Social Security will no longer do so. So you weaken the Social Security pot. And those who do depend on their Social Security checks, as opposed to those for whom it is beer money, will get hurt.

I am not against private accounts. The Wall Street has a limitless appetite for money: that is how stock prices go up. But do that without messing up Social Security. So if people pay $10 of their $100 income to Social Security, they should continue to do so. But then they should turn around and save $5, and that money should go into private accounts. If you have such faith in Wall Street to take care of your retirement, I am sure you will scrimp and save the additional five dollars.

As for the politics part, there has to be a counter move. Maybe we should pass an amendment to Social Security such that everybody still chips in, but payments are stopped to those for whom it is beer money. That way you solve the insolvency problem.

On school vouchers, I am all for competition. And I do realize there are some smart students stuck in public schools that are sub par. But then those schools are sub par because they don't have enough money. So if you take away their money, they are going to end up even less good. So draining money from those schools is a very bad idea.

Instead there should be federally funded scholarships for those students. If you are in a public school, and you do well, you earn scholarships to attend private schools.

And we should at the same time increase funding for the sub par schools. You do that by making them less dependent on property taxes.

And I am all for test scores. But if you do not invest in increasing the quality of the education, and only invest in testing, what are you doing? Testing is the icing on the top. But W talks like it is the cake.

Stop the class warfare. Think in terms of the public good.

W is waging a classic class war. With school vouchers you try to pit a few less well off families against many less well off families. Normally they would stay united and Democratic. With private accounts, you pit the beer money people against those who really need it.

Like Britain, India and Pakistan. Britain said, you want independence? You can have it, but we are going to prove to you you will kill each other on your own. And so they organized a messy partition. The wounds have still not healed.

The powerless often are at the very brink of infighting. But it is not good policy to push them off the slope.
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Superpower Talk, Infrastructure Talk


America is not going to be the sole superpower forever. That is a fact. In the long churn of history powers emerge and subside. About 800 years back China was the number one country on the planet, on the cutting edge of science. 500 years back Europeans were barbarians, busy in their little fights, sticks and stones. We have all heard of Genghis Khan. The 19th century Britain claimed the sun never set on its empire, those screwed up Brits. America dominated the 20th century. It is my analysis this 21st belongs to Asia. But I expect America to be the number one country for much of my working life. It is because it is a more polished democracy than India, and China is not even a democracy. The biggest reason is that America is the most diverse country on the planet. That is why Europe is no competition. Europe is decades behind America on diversity issues.

And America is not a white country. It might have been, and there still are residues. But the future offers to be colorful.

TIME.com Print Page: Top Stories -- The Coming of the Minority ...
TIME.com: Welcome to America's Most Diverse City -- Page 1
CBS News | Whites Now A Minority In California | March 30, 2001 09 ...
NPR : Whites Now the Minority in Texas

So when I say America will continue to be the leading country, I am not paying homage to the whites. I am paying homage to the idea of democracy. The best thing America can do to make sure it stays the number one country is to take race relations in this country to a whole new level. I guess it could also balance the budget. And it could work on the free wireless broadband idea. And the idea of free, ad-based books online. And Americans could lose weight.

But for me it is not superpower talk. It is not about the ego of nations and states. For me it is about the individual: individuals in America, and India, and China, and everywhere. For me it is not about the relative strength of nations, but the absolute living standard of people everywhere.

So if the per capita income in America is $40,000, I want it to go up. If the per capita income in China is $6000, I want it to go up. If the per capita income in India is $3000, I want it to go up.
If the income in the US goes from 40,000 to 60,000 in a decade, but in China it shoots from 6,000 to 15,000 in the same timespan, China is growing faster, and all the glory to it. Everyone should be happy: more Chinese are rising out of barebones poverty.

There are people on the left and the right in America who sound alarmist on China and India. Those are racist sentiments. Do not demonize the dirt poor. An average Indian is dirt poor.

For me it is about progressive thinking, and the political, social and economic infrastructure. There is work to be done in every country on that infrastructure. And economic growth is truly a win win game.

China does not grow at the expense of America. Some people are like, oh, but China now manufactures many cars. So? Imagine a world with three billion cars, all electric. How is that for an idea?

You can not be for wealth creation in all income brackets and denounce the natural churn of the marketplace. Education and health are public policy failures. Citizens and public elected officials need to take responsibility. Don't blame those on the corporations.

And for me race relations are not about history, but more science and mathematics. To me democracy is a postulate, it is called one person, one vote. And build your various models from that basic postulate. When I build it all the way, the world looks like this: Reorganized UN.
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Thursday, November 17, 2005

DFNYC, 100,000 Strong, Scalable Organization


Money, Message, Organization
Does Hell Have A Kitchen?
2006: When DFA Could Really Grow
Blogging Is Scalable Media
The One Voice Concept
One Blog One LinkUp One Atom

If you can not register, you can not vote, at least not in this country. In Nepal, you don't have to register, you just show up at the booth. I think the system in Nepal is superior. Democracy is about having no barriers between the voter and the booth. Correct that. All that was before the king's coup of 2/1.

If you will not get a Blogger account, you can not participate in the one voice concept. It is like registering. But then universal blogging also makes possible two other things, among others: (1) scalable media, and (2) scalable organization.

I have talked about scalable media earlier: Blogging Is Scalable Media.

In this blog post I wish to touch upon the concept of a scalable organization.

Say we are serious about taking the Congress back in 2006 - I know I am - and we wish DFNYC to grow accordingly. What would be the best way to do it? What would be the best way to grow from 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 to 100,000? Is there a point where it becomes too much for the central leadership? With the traditional way of organizing you do reach that point pretty fast. With the scalable organization concept, you never hit that point. The smallest unit can keep splitting like amoeba endlessly and the organization stays healthy and vibrant like there were no bricks in the sink.

About 10 members form the basic unit. It could be a LinkUp, it could be a House Party group. As soon as they hit 20, they split into two. The idea is that the leader should get to know each member of the group very well, and members should get to know each other very well. This is more than collecting people for free, slave labor of phone banking and knocking doors. This is more than a political unit. This is a social unit. This is community building.

Face time for the unit is when you meet in person, once a month. Additional events are optional. Screen time is screen time. And blogging is key to it. All 10 members are members of one blog.

One Blog One LinkUp One Atom

From there you go vertical. You build a pyramid of 10. And at each level there is one monthly meeting for Face Time, and there is one common blog. The leader of a 5 deep organization might choose to attend meetings of only the two top layers. That would be a valid choice.

That is the framework for a scalable organization, scalable both horizontally and vertically. And all along the organization stays kind of structureless. There is no pyramid. Instead there is a cloud. And it is set up such that the best ideas could come up from absolutely anywhere.

How do the best ideas rise to the top? There are two obvious channels. One, the leader at one level takes it up one step, and so on. Two, the author of the idea takes it to the comments section of the person whose attention she seeks.

And the idea of blogging the echo chamber. Say DFNYC goes 100,000 strong. But then New York is already a progressive city. Don't you end up spending all your time converting the converted? Not if you blog the echo chamber, no, you don't.

100,000 progressives attending monthly meetings and vibrant in a cloud of blogs that are all connected to each other will impact the nation. You cross the city boundaries without physically bothering to.

Say at the top you have the 10 central leaders. In Nepal the communists would call it the Politburo. I don't mind if we come up with a different name. The clique? The den? The beauty of the scalable organization model is these 10 individuals do not have to work 1,000 times harder by the time the organization grows from 100 to 100,000. Because the organization is scalable. It is like Microsoft producing the first copy of Windows. The first copy is a lot of work. After that it is endless replication.

I really think I got something here.

And if each of those 100,000 individuals sign up to give $10 to the DNC each month through the Democracy Bonds program, that is $1 million for power purposes. If that can be replicated in the top 10 cities, that is $10 million. Looks like the organization is not only scalable, but also duplicable.

And once you really get this thing going, you make possible all sorts of organizing and community building. For example, I envision an Indian Caucus, as in Asian Indians, although the Native Americans get called that because when Columbus landed, it all looked so beautiful to him, he felt he was in India. Indians could reach out across geographical boundaries and create a separate semi virtual pyramid of 10. The same applies to other possible groups, and not just ethnic groups. Could be issue groups. Could be interest groups. It is upto the imagination of the members as to what groups.

What say you?

And there could be one blog for all city and town groups in one state, then one blog with 50 members for the 50 states. The existing sites, be it DFA, DFA Link, even the DFNYC site, are like a skeleton. This concept adds flesh to the skeleton. The two don't go counter to each other. And Blogger is free and so easy to use, it goes with the democracy theme. We have to be constantly thinking about the average person.
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