Barackface

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Barack The Glass Walls, Ceilings, Smash 'Em

Barack, verb, to break the glass walls and ceilings

Barack Obama is hot today. He is old enough. He will still be hot four and eight years from now. But he is hot today. He is ready for prime time. He was ready in 2004. That is how he got introduced to the world.

Barack Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. He does not feel foreign to me.

Barack Obama is biracial. He is not African American. But then his father was African, his mother American. He is more African American than the African Americans.

Barack Obama is blue, Barack Obama is red, Barack Obama is white. Barack Obama is black. Barack Obama is yellow, purple, green, magenta. Barack Obama is loud.

He will be 47 in 2008. John Kennedy was 42 when he became president. Martin Luther King was 35 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton was 46 when he became president.

You have to want to become president if you want to become vice president. A vice president is, by definition, someone who will be president should something happen to the president. It is important to have the oomph. Having the talent is not enough. You also need a burning desire. You need fire in the belly. And so I think Barack Obama needs to start amassing the bells and whistles.

Barack is black. Hillary is a woman. Both are amazing, outstanding. I don't think that is an accident. It has taken something extra for people like Barack and Hillary to make it into that ultimate white boys' club, the US Senate. They must feel the extra need to stick to their respective collective identities. Black. Woman.

Hillary has her last chance in 2008. If she does not run, she will not get another chance. If she does not win, she will not get another chance. And it will be a long time before another woman comes within striking distance of the top political job in the world.

Barack is ready, but people think he should wait. Hillary is capable, but people think she can't win. As if the country needs to grow up a little more to be able to digest some black guy, some woman. Such people don't understand what leadership is all about. You don't wait for the country to grow up. You help the country grow, you make the country grow. You become the reason the country grows. Or you are not a leader, you are someone hoping to become a constitutional monarch.

But this really is not about breaking the race and gender glass walls and ceilings. That will at best be a byproduct. The real deal is the real deal. It is about the new century and all its promises. It is about Hillary and Barack being the best possible vessels to take the country and the world into the new century.

It is Hillary Obama 2008.

It will be Hillary versus McCain, and Hillary will win. Obama's presence on the ticket will help neutralize the gender factor that some think might be a drag on Hillary. But this is not about race, this is not about gender. This is about offering the very best we have to offer.

Hillary is the first letter in the word hope, and Obama is the second.

And Mark Warner would look great in the cabinet, perhaps as Education Secretary. I got to meet the guy last night.

Three Pillars, Draft 2
Hillary 2008
Immigrant Power
The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal
Eliot Spitzer
2008 Countdown: Hillary-Obama
Obama Votes Nay
Russ Feingold And 2008
Rahm Emanuel: Big Ideas For America
Obama, Ethics Reform, And White Dems
Karl Rove, Hands Off Hillary
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
Hillary In Person
blac
The Spectrum Concept: Wide Applications
A Different Kind Of Campaign, A Scientific Campaign
Primitive Liberals Need To Stop Attacking Hillary
Race, Gender, Progressive, Conservative Divides
The Spectrum On Gender
Michelle Bachelet: Yet Another Woman
Soviet Health Care In America
Politics At The Speed Of Thought
Social Progress: Show Me The Money
Blacks, Hispanics At The Core Of The Democrat Rainbow Coalition
The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
Obama Was In Town And I Missed It

On The Web

Clinton, Hillary Rodham
White House: Hillary Rodham Clinton
HillaryClinton.com - Hillary Rodham Clinton for Senate
Hillary Rodham Clinton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hillary Clinton Forum
Hillary Clinton For President
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: Constituent Email Form
Hillary Rodham Clinton News - The New York Times
The Unofficial Hillary Rodham Clinton
Sen. Hillary Clinton

Barack Obama - US Senator for Illinois
Join BarackObama.com
Barack Obama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The New Yorker: Fact
OBAMA, Barack - Biographical Information
American Rhetoric: Barack Obama -- 2004 Democratic National ...
Transcript: Illinois Senate Candidate Barack Obama (washingtonpost ...
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Profile: Barack Obama

In The News

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton says gay marriage not main concern WCAX, VT
Sen. Clinton Attacks GOP Over Gay Marriage Amendment FOX News
Husband Bill an asset to Hillary Clinton's campaign Pasadena Star-News
Hillary Clinton is running for something Belleville News-Democrat, IL
RICHARD BENEDETTO: Clinton's Senate run setting her up for '08 Huntington Herald Dispatch, WV
Can Hillary Win Florida or Ohio in '08? Yahoo! News
Senate run will determine Hillary’s White House chances Muskogee Daily Phoenix
Beyond the Hillary Hype Town Hall
Hillary Clinton Kicks Off New York Senate Bid FOX News
Hillary Clinton in Senate re-election bid Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
Hillary Clinton in Senate re-election bid Swissinfo, Switzerland
Democrats endorse Hillary Clinton's re-election bid People's Daily Online, China

Sen. Barack Obama calls on Wal-Mart to offer alternative fuels Blogging Stocks
Barack Obama Isn't Not Running for President TIME
Is Barack Obama looking at Presidential '08? Is America ready for ... South Carolina Headlines, SC
Senator Durbin Backing Barack Obama for President WJBDRadio.com, IL
Despite Neil Young's endorsement, Barack Obama's not a candidate San Jose Mercury News, USA
Neil Young Supports A Barack Obama Presidency All Headline News
Barack Obama ProgressiveU.org, CA
Despite Neil Young Song, Barack Obama Won't Run In '08 KIROtv.com, WA
Sen. Barack Obama: Bush Slogans 'Can't Hide Coffins' NewsMax.com, FL
Barack Obama jokes Conan O'Brien could be his presidential running ... WIS, SC
Barack Obama Draws Ovation From Omaha Audience Nebraska StatePaper.com, NE
Senator Barack Obama Calls on Wal-Mart and Other Large National ... All American Patriots (press release), Sweden
Senator Barack Obama Introduces Bill Requiring Oil Companies to ... All American Patriots (press release), Sweden
Obama: Writes outrageous letter to Stephen Colbert! Read it here. Chicago Sun-Times, United States

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Three Pillars, Draft 2

The Democratic Party needs a new vision, a winning vision, a vision for the 21st century, a vision to take back the Congress, and then the White House. A vision to make it the natural party in power.

You have to be able to say it in one word, in one phrase, in one sentence. There has to be this core vision. Companies call it the mission statement. A political party also needs it, as does the Democratic Party. Democrats have to present themselves as progressives. I would like to propose there are these three broad pillars to progressive thinking. One, democracy. Two, the market. And three, social progress. Together we call them the three pillars.

Democracy

Democracy is about moving towards the ideal of one person one vote, in America, all over the world, and also as a principle in international relations. If you get rid of the electoral college idiocy and start having direct elections for president, if you divide the country into 100 constituencies of roughly equal population for the 100 seats in the US Senate, if you seriously do campaign finance reform, if you can get major voter registration drives, if you can get out the vote, if you can fight today's attempts at disenfranchisements, if you can turn DC into a state, if you can go back to the ideal of no taxation without representation so as to give all tax paying immigrants the right to vote. If you can run grassroots campaigns. If you can wisely and transparently spend the big money raised from many small contributors. Or ultimately end up with publicly financed campaigns. All that would be great on the domestic scene.

As for the global scene, it is only through a total global spread of democracy that the progressives can earn real gains. We have to envision a world where every country is a democracy. And that spread has to be non-violent for the most part. Indigenous movements that get global support. Iraq has 27 million people, and Nepal has 27 million people. We have to spread democracy like in Nepal not like in Iraq. Nepal's April Revolution has major lessons for the Democratic Party in the US. Imagine a California where all shops are closed, all private and government offices are closed, there's no traffic on the roads, and more than a quarter of the people are out in the streets for 19 days. A complete shutdown. That is what happened in Nepal. It was magic.

The only way to win the Long War, also known as the War on Terror, is to spread democracy in all Arab countries. And Nepal has set an example there. We have to move towards rule of law within nations and rule of law between nations. Immigration spreads democracy and prosperity across the world like no formal tool of US power could hope to do. Immigration is not something to be stopped, but something to be managed.

Market globalization is going ahead full speed. Trying to stop it is a disservice, not to say not possible. The right thing to do is to engineer a political globalization. If the market is electricity, democracy is magnetism. Together they make for beautiful electromagnetism.

Market

As for the market, corporations can go astray, they can go corrupt in parts. But overall I go with the Fortune magazine characterization that corporations are one of the greatest human inventions ever. It is important to counter corporate abuse, but it is even more important to "get it" when it comes to corporations. Market mechanisms can be harnessed to solve many of society's problems.

Economics is like physics: you ignore it at your own peril. Progressives can not afford to be economic illiterates. Money compares to words and mathematical symbols among the greatest tools for human communication ever. The progressive has to be market friendly while at the same time staying on guard to market and corporate excesses. Heck, the progressive can help engineer democratization within corporations. I think a great way to melt glass walls and ceilings would be to introduce lot of numbers for the hiring, firing and promotion processes within corporations. Let there be numerial, quantified measures to how well individuals do within corporations. Glass walls and ceilings are a major drag on productivity.

Progressives need to be dreaming up the corporations of tomorrow, to create the jobs of tomorrow, not blanket demonizing those corporations that exist today. When you blanket demonize corporations, you end up disengaging, and you lose the tools to right the few wrongs of the corporations. But overall corporations are great stuff. The progressives also have to think of market solutions to many problems, so that the public sector solutions to some remaining problems stay focused and well managed. There is also a need to spread credit in all income brackets, so that people in all income brackets can hope to start and sustain and grow businesses. And for the lowest income brackets, the concept of micro credit has to be widely applied. Credit without collateral at decent income rates.

But the most important topic on the market front is how to turn America into an information age economy. I think the concept of free, wireless broadband provided by the private sector is at the core of the idea. Textbooks should also be online and free, supported by ads. More wealth was created during the industrial than in the agricultural age. Similarly more wealth will be created in the information age than has been the case in the industrial age. Education has to be lifelong, and health care has to be universal. In an information economy, human capital occupies center stage, that's why. Human capital, physical capital, financial capital.

Social Progress

Social progress issues might be the trickiest, but to me personally, they are the most important. People who can dazzle you with their acumen of grassroots political organizing tend to be callous when it comes to the mechanics of social progress. Too often we see it in black and white and dismiss those who disagree with our positions, instead of seeing ouselves as the vanguard of social progress who need to educate the rest by going to their level, and then bringing them along. Instead of demonizing the homophobes, perhaps part of our efforts should go into understanding their mental mechanisms to see what change might be possible. This is not a call to not focus on political victory. Most people will not change their minds: they simply will have to be defeated. But we need to be more sophisticated, and not let our enlightened stance on social issues scuttle the rest of our common sense approach to mainstream governance issues. This is a call to be compassionate progressives. And we have to transform the whole pro choice talk into something much larger, a talk on gender relations in general. And we have to take race and gender relations together. Those two have much in common.

So, in short, there are three pillars to progressive power: democracy, the market and social progress. And we have to move along by building a winning coalition, a governing coalition. We have to become the natural party of power that makes the best of globalization and the internet to lead America into the information age and to spread democracy and prosperity across the planet.

Core Vision: Three Pillars For The Democratic Party

The Three Pillars

29 May