The Ownership Society

[subplotkudzu]

I'm probably going to segue this into other political natter starting tomorrow, but I do want to put forward one thing I think political parties need to do to restore some sense of trust.

They have to publically own or disown their outliers.

It's become all too easy for the wingnut right and the nutroots left to spout on about anything and everything with a total lack of decorum, civility and often evidence, and for the main body of the party to profit from the base energizing but disown it (with a wink and a nudge and a little wave to keep the hits coming) when the line is crossed and someone starts calling them on it. "It's not us, and why are you being so senstive."

Bullshit. If you're going to embrace these people as part of the party you have to own them, and you can get called out for it when they do go out of line. I'm not talking about opnions, where John Lewis points out his opinion of McCain's attacks. He's a citizen, he's not part of Obama's campaign, he's allowed to his opnion. I'm taking about this coming from the Inland Republican women's group.



But of course, they certinaly didn't think anyone would find it racist.

Before the Democrats get too holier than thou, there's always this


If we want to have a civil conversation between people on opposite sides rather than just drive each other into ideological corners we have to slap down our own extremes. This is where the party ends; I can't stand listening to you and your racist friend. 
 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The bikini and gun photoshop is light-years away from being the most offensive anti-Palin thing I've seen in the past couple of weeks. There's the "SARAH PALIN IS A C**T" (without asterisks) T-shirt.

And yes, this is _exactly_ the problem with politics nowadays. When someone says "I hate Obama," chances are good that what the person really means is "I hate that knowitall baristo at Starbucks with the white-boy dreadlocks and the 'Buck Fush' t-shirt" or "I hate the person who keeps stenciling 'Cheney' under the word 'Stop' on stop signs."

The magic of the internet is that we all get to see the other side at their worst -- because both sides are eagerly searching for examples. It's a perfect feedback loop.

How to break it? I don't know. Whichever party were to try it would be in the position of having to say in public "Many of our supporters are borderline psychotics with Tourette's syndrome and internet access" -- leaving the other side the almost irresistible temptation to respond "SEE? They ADMIT IT!!" So nobody's going to go first. It's also a great way to piss off the base. McCain's good manners and collegiality don't win him any prizes from the hardcore conservatives who run web logs.

Perhaps if some national crisis, foreign threat, or natural disaster -- whoops, nope. Tried all of those already.

I found this (http://www.cracked.com/article_15663_god-fuse-10-things-christians-atheists-can-agree-on.html) to be a surprisingly thoughtful essay on basically the same topic.

Cambias

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

The bikini and gun photoshop is light-years away from being the most offensive anti-Palin thing I've seen in the past couple of weeks.

Well sure, but a) I'm lazy and didn't want to dig around to find something worse and b) this is a family blog.

I'm pretty sure it would take an actual invasion from a foreign power, with their troops on our soil, to get the far sides to stop this. Maybe Canada could invade, bringing their greater politeness and civility with them. But just because we have idiots out there making these sorts of statements it doesn't mean we have to pay attention to the or condone that behavior.

If all of the "SPiaC" t-shirt wearers were schooled by their peers that such behavior just isn't acceptable they'd likely take the shirt off because it's not getting the right reaction. If the guy inflating the giant Curious Goerge in Obama-Wear doll at the McCain-Palin ralley were told to deflate it and get a grip by his neighbors they'd probably do so.

It's not necessarily a job for the party leadership, but a job for everyone.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

One tangent here - according to Sean Quinn's accounts on fivethirtyeight the one thing campaign organizers hate more than anything else in dealing with their side's voters are the damn yard signs. They accomplish nothing - they move no votes, they cost the party money - but many people who don't want to donate time or money still want to proclaim their allegiance to their group in a public fashion, lest their neighbor with a yard sign think their side is winning. The voters concern on this is so great that they will return week after week to see if the yard signs are in, eating up volunteer time with each visit, but claim they don't have time to vounteer themsevles. Just to show their support with a yard sign.

Maybe we could just wear colored armbands or something. And have chariot races.