[PREV - WEAK_POINTS] [TOP]
REPUBLICAN_LOST
March 7, 2012
LONG_SHOT
Lessig makes the point that the
"Tea Party" people at least Though the buzzphrase
claim to care about the way "special interests"
money rules congress. appears to apply more Any interest
widely than that. you don't
He's a believer in "bipartisan" like is
outreach: his scheme requires special.
such a super-majority he claims Some of this may be
we need everybody on board. his own psychological (Because *you*
bias: he's a former are *normal*.)
Now for someone like me... libertarian, a former
the word "bipartisan" has Reganite (and now
been contaminated by three a former Obama supporter).
years of Obama fully as
much as words like "hope" For him, reaching
and "change". out to the "other
side" is reaching
And the Tea Party just looks out to who he used
like a prime example of the to be.
way the mob can be stampeded
in random directions during
hard times, in this case (And it appears to be in
signing up as (yet another) decline, people who
front for the Koch brothers. report they're in
sympathy with it dropped
But it is true that from 27% to 20%.)
around 40% of US
citizens self-identify
as "conservatives", and An oddity about this is that if
those are indeed people you ask people about specific
worth reaching out to, issues, they don't seem quite so
if you could figure out conservative. Apparently calling
some way to do it. yourself "conservative" is a lot
like saying that you're normal.
One of Lessig's first
moves in bipartisian Or maybe it's
outreach was to address like being a
a tea party gathering... Yankees fan.
This immediately angered It's easier on
one of the writers at the the ego to be on
Nation (David Zirin) the winning side.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/something-more-than-polar_b_1030476.html
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164188/memo-lawrence-lessig-tea-party-no-answer-occupy-usa#comment-894771
http://www.thenation.com/article/164198/lawrence-lessig-responds
ROOT_BELOW
Alienating many of your
natural allies with your
first move would not
seem to be a successful
attempt at "outreach".
My first thought on hearing his talk:
The current generation of "conservatives"
have convinced themselves that money can But it could be
do no wrong-- they need to go through an that's just the
intellectual revolution before they can beltway-style,
even grasp what Lessig is talking about. punditocracy
version.
This awe of money, and the
confusion of crooks-in-suits One might
with some sort of "free distinguish
market" activity has to be between
has to be shot down. "genuine"
conservatives
and the
hucksters
Maybe the bi-partisian clarity that using the
Lessig feels is a prerequiste for label for
change is going to be too ellusive. cover.
It might be that the left-- the
current version of "left"-- needs
to play this to win.
--------
[NEXT - THE_BIG_KNOT]