…and to thank the veterans alive and dead for protecting me and mine.
And worried that what I wrote kept coming out sounding either too qualified or would be interpreted as being too nationalistic.
And I realized something about my own thinking, a basic principle I’ll set out as a guiding point for the Democrats and the Left in general as they try and figure out the next act in this drama we are in.
First, you have to love America.
This isn’t a perfect country. I think it’s the best county; I’ve debated this with commenters before, and I’ll point out that while people worldwide tend to vote with their feet, there may be other (economic) attractions that pull them. But there are virtues here which far outweigh any sins. And I’ll start with the virtue of hope.
The hope of the immigrants, abandoning their farms and security for a new place here.
The hope of the settlers, walking across Death Valley, burying their dead as they went.
The hope of the ‘folks’ who moved to California after the war.
The hope of the two Latino kids doing their Computer Science homework at Starbucks’.
I love this country, my country, my people. And those who attack her…from guerilla cells, boardrooms, or their comfy chairs in expensive restaurants…better watch out.
I don’t get a clear sense that my fellow liberals feel the same way. And if so, why should ‘the folks’ follow them? Why are we worthy of the support of a nation that we don’t support?
So let me suggest an axiom for the New Model Democrats:
America is a great goddamn country, and we’re both going to defend it from those who attack it and fight to make it better.
And for everyone who is going to comment and remind me that ‘all liberals already do that’…no they don’t. Not when the chancellor has to intervene at U.C. Berkeley to get ‘permission’ for American flags to be flown and red-white-and-blue ribbons to be worn. Not when the strongest voices in liberalism give lip service to responding to an attack on our citizens on our soil.
Loving this country isn’t the same thing as jingoism; it isn’t the same thing as imperialism; it isn’t the same thing as blind support of the worst traits of our government or our people.
It starts with recognizing the best traits, and there are a hell of a lot of them.
They were worth defending in my father’s time, and they are worth defending today.
So thanks, veterans. Thanks soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen. Thanks for doing your jobs and I hope you all come home hale and whole, every one of you.
(11/12: edited for clarity and grammar)

So we had to go to the Valley for a funeral this morning. We were early, so we stopped at a Starbuck’s near the freeway exit, to sit and relax for a little while before going up to the memorial service and burial.
When we walked in, I immediately noticed two Latino kids sitting at a table arguing heatedly. They were dressed in Full Thug; baggy jackets, low-cut t-shirts, identical watch caps; and each had various words in script tattooed up their muscular necks.
My ‘threat assessment’ went from yellow to orange, as I watched them and started to follow their loud argument, and violent gesturing. The argument was being held in Spanglish, and while I understand Spanish pretty well, and given some warmup can speak a fair amount, this one had some words that took me some time to mentally translate.
“pointer”?
“set”?
“thread”?
…damn, they’re arguing over how to write a computer program in C.
Two years from now, they’ll be wearing polo shirts and Dockers and sitting in a cube somewhere.
And that’s what I love about this country.

Go read this great post by Matthew Yglesias on ‘tactics and strategy’ and what the Democrats need to do.

First, some damn good news. Here’s the ‘lead editorial’ in today L.A. Times (registration required, ‘laexaminer’/’laexaminer’):

There wasn’t much mystery last week about who would be elected to the state Legislature or California’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. Party leaders in the Legislature stacked the deck last year when they drew new district lines to reflect population shifts on the basis of the 2000 census.
Those 153 districts were carved into enclaves of heavy Democratic and Republican voter registration to provide “safe” seats. Maps in hand before a single vote was cast, you could have picked the winner in virtually every district — 80 in the Assembly, 20 in the state Senate and 53 in the House. Only five of the 153 were true contests. All but one of the 49 California incumbents in Congress won by a landslide, with at least 60% of the vote. The other, Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), won with 59%. Democrats remain strongly in control of all three houses.
This cynical deal may serve the pols well, but it’s bad for California. It becomes virtually impossible to hold lawmakers accountable at the next election. The Legislature is increasingly polarized between Republican conservatives and liberal Democrats. In spite of their majorities, Democrats need some GOP votes to pass the budget and any other fiscal bill. That’s why this year’s budget was deadlocked for two months beyond the deadline.
It’s in the public interest to have clear lines of opinion and vigorous debate. But the Legislature is so fractured now, it’s virtually impossible to reach a compromise on any major issue, particularly on spending and taxes. The result of Tuesday’s election will be even more gridlock.
…

Sign me up!!
And in today’s Daily Breeze (the local paper), something that has me scratching my head…

Mixed feelings over SP film event
NO SHOW: Insensitivity to Japanese-Americans is cited. Vets are stunned.
It was going to be a night to remember.
Ushers dressed in World War II military uniforms, vintage cars pulling up to the curb, Pearl Harbor survivors and a recently restored 1940s military searchlight would be on hand Dec. 7 to greet the crowds at a special anniversary showing of “Tora! Tora! Tora!” at San Pedro’s historic Warner Grand Theatre.
The 1970 film — a joint American and Japanese production — is considered one of the most accurate depictions of events leading up to the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Expected to attract hundreds, the showing on the 61st anniversary of the attack was to serve as a fund-raiser for the Fort MacArthur Military Museum in San Pedro.
But now the show is off.
Why? Veterans and museum members say it’s simply a case of political correctness run amok.
While there was a previous theater booking for Dec. 7, according to theater manager Lee Sweet of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, which manages the facility, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn concluded that the event would have been insensitive to the Japanese-American community.
“I wanted to be very sensitive to the Japanese-American community,” Hahn said. “Dec. 7 is a tough day, especially for the second and third generations of Japanese-Americans. Why do we want to do something that makes it more difficult?” The showing was planned this year to take the place of the Fort MacArthur Military Museum’s annual Pearl Harbor Day observance.
…

My knee-jerk reaction tends to be againt faux displays of sensitivity (‘faux’ being defined as those that have no real impact on people’s lives…as opposed to things like access to jobs, schooling, etc.). And Pearl Harbor is, like it or not, a part of our and Japan’s history. So I’m tilted toward the ‘this is stupid’ camp. Tenacious G, my SO, is Japanese-American, and on showing her this, she pretty much agrees…her comment was “I feel vaguely bad every Dec. 7, but it’s a part of all our history. This is just a way for people to pretend to be sensitive.”
But this one still has me thinking in circles…I’m interested in what other folks think.

From the New York Post:

MAVERICK director Larry Clark beat up the distributor for his movie “Ken Park” after the jerk declared that America deserved to get attacked on 9/11.
Clark, who helmed “Kids” and “Bully,” delivered a brutal beat-down to Hamish McAlpine after the screwy Scotsman started spewing anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments during dinner at London’s posh Charlotte Street Hotel Thursday night.
An enraged Clark, 59, punched McAlpine several times in the face – breaking his nose – choked him, then overturned the dinner table on the bloodied big mouth.
Clark was arrested by London police – and now McAlpine is pulling “Ken Park” from the London Film Festival, where it was supposed to unspool tonight.
“He says he’s not going to distribute the film now and he’s pulling it from the film festival,” Clark told us from London yesterday. “He can be mad at me for punching him in the nose, but don’t take it out on ‘Ken Park.’ ”
Clark said he lost it when McAlpine ranted that 9/11 “was the best thing that ever happened to America” and declared that innocent Israelis blown up by Palestnian suicide bombers “deserved to die.”
“I was wrong,” Clark said. “I shouldn’t have punched him. I shouldn’t have lost it. But at the same time, I wouldn’t have been able to look myself in the mirror the next morning if I hadn’t done anything. I’m not gonna let this [bleeping] idiot talk about supporting terrorism and the killing of innocent people. I am an American!”

Ya know, sometimes being a good witness just isn’t enough. And I know I shouldn’t approve of this, as Ann said about something else, but…I’m sure as hell glad I haven’t been put into the same situation.
[Link via Instapundit]

Matt “unarmed” Welch (Matt – Living in L.A., do you really want to announce that?) comments below and takes me to school with links two columns he wrote years ago on the Culture War. In case you’re too sleepy this morning to go click through, I’m excerpting them here. Go read the real things and get reminded of why he gets paid to do this stuff (while I get to buy a free CD on Amazon every three months from my referral fees).
From here:

There was a time in our politics, and in most countries’ politics, where a natural two-party divide would gather around Capital and Labor. I am not at all sad to see that grouping dissipate, since it led to the kind of mutual distrust and rancor that countries like France still suffer from (endless and frequently pointless strikes, the mistaken notion that all Business is Evil).
But there is definitely room in post-ideology politics for a party that is supposed to stand for — and articulate — the needs and rights of the working class vis-à-vis those who hold more power in this country. Unfortunately, what we get instead is a dispiriting divide based around abortion, guns and code words masking attitudes toward race.
So now the privileged young gather around Al Gore out of tired habit and aesthetic allegiance (except, fleetingly, when John McCain shook them out of their lethargy), while working class whites spread the vote, but still based on issues that have precious little to do with the condition of their lives. It’s not surprising that American politics are giving people the same feeling they have after a long day of barbecuing — tired, filled with crap, and ready for a long nap.

and from here:

I, like I guess a lot of people, have that incredible red/blue county-by-county presidential vote map on the wall in front of me, the one where Bush country is basically everywhere except the 100 miles along either coast and the banks of the Mississippi. It has been tempting, living here in L.A. and watching the Beltway/New York teevee shows, to dismiss the “flyover zone” as some kind of vast, inbred swamp of gun-waving Bible nuts with no brains, despite my personal experience to the contrary.
But I wonder if the real Cultural War in this country is actually the Great Frat Divide. After all, even San Francisco is full of bright sports bars pumping out Coors Light, and the GOP talent pool would be mighty shallow if it could only draw from Utah and Kansas. Anyone who thinks Hollywood is overrun with rich gay leftists hasn’t been to a rock club thick with “industry people” — invariably guys named “Marshall” who always look like they’re late for the next intramural flag-football game.

Look, even Matt wasn’t even the first to write about this (read The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin Phillips) and I’m sure that an hour spent going through the books on my shelves would come up with four or five others.
But read what Matt has to say.
And take it damn seriously.

Ann replied:

And I don’t know about LA County, but out here in the Big Orange the folks with the fake Calvin’s defiling something, isn’t limited to “The redneck truck-driving, Kid Rock-listening, reality-TV-watching guy.”
And that Ashcroft guy who’s all bashful about the partially nude statutes? Yeah, I’m sure his party is rather attractive to “The redneck truck-driving, Kid Rock-listening, reality-TV-watching guy.”
And, I could be wrong here, but the Labor folks, they pretty much uniformly vote Democratic and I think quite a few of them are “The redneck truck-driving, Kid Rock-listening, reality-TV-watching guy [or gal],” and we’ve reached them rather well. (Although we had to suffer a big spanking awhile back to get the picture.)
And don’t talk to me about military or veterans. No one in my party called multiple amputee Sen. Max Cleland unpatriotic.

Ann, let’s take a look at the numbers.
The Times had a great graphic yesterday (not available on the web, dammit) showing the counties in CA and how they broke out for Davis/Simon.
In Southern CA, it was LA and Imperial for Davis. That was it.
All the commuter ring counties, all the places where the blue and pink collar workers who are getting screwed by GOP tax and labor policies?? They went for Simon.
Ask yourself why.
Nixon’s political masterstroke was to have split the rank-and-file union members off from the union leadership, using race and culture as a lever. A lot has been done to try and bridge that split, but it’s still wide and deep.
Now on the face of it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for the union folks to go GOP. They are facing huge structural economic problems, and it may not look that way from where you and I live…but I’ll tell you that the crisis of the middle manager forced to ‘downsize’ his lifestyle isn’t anything compared to the crisis of the help-desk worker whose job is going to Ireland or the machinist who can’t afford to send his kid to U.C.
So while the culture clash is there…think ice sculptures and SkyBoxes…there are real issues there too.
And I’m staying the hell out of the Burton/Acidman fight. But you can’t paper over the ‘clash of cultures’ we have within our country with that one.
You saw this email, right?:

From: Peter Kirstein
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 1:46 PM
To: Kurpiel Robert C4C CS26
Subject: Re: Academy Assembly
You are a disgrace to this country and I am furious you would even think I would support you and your aggressive baby killing tactics of collateral damage. Help you recruit. Who, top guns to reign death and destruction upon nonwhite peoples throughout the world? Are you serious sir? Resign your commission and serve your country with honour.
No war, no air force cowards who bomb countries with AAA, without possibility of retaliation. You are worse than the snipers. You are imperialists who are turning the whole damn world against us. September 11 can be blamed in part for what you and your cohorts have done to Palestinians, the VC, the Serbs, a retreating army at Basra.
You are unworthy of my support.
Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History
Saint Xavier University.

Ann, if you don’t think there is a cultural chasm in this country, (and this email shows is loud and clear) and that the core constituencies of the Democratic party aren’t sitting on one side of it, you’re just not looking.
And while I think the Dems core issues … for justice, for the little guy, for the powerless … should be objectively in the interests of and dammit, they ought to buy us some respect in RedNeck Town, the cultural baggage we’re carrying…and what was expressed by Jef Malett and echoed by you … shuts us Right Out.
And as part of creating the New Model Democrats that I want to join up with, and that I think can win, we are going to have to find a way across that cultural chasm.

Regular visitors will know that I’m a huuuge fan of Ann Salisbury’s. She’s smart, committed, cute (and AFAIK, all you Orange County guys, single!), and a rabid, serious Democrat who in a better world ought to running for office.
But even the best of us sometimes step in it.
Ann points out this strip from Frazz (a personal favorite comic BTW):

There is a bunch wrong with this, sadly. My comment to her points out one side of it:
and you know, I have to wave a hand here. The redneck truck-driving, Kid Rock-listening, reality-TV-watching guy you’re happy to see off the polls is the same guy or girl who’s sitting on a ship headed to the Gulf right now, and their redneck, know-nothing grandparents won WWII as well.
Until the Democratic Party figures out how to trust and reach them, we’ll be the party of the coastal elites.
I don’t want to pile onto Ann, but those two points need a bit of elaboration.
If I’m a Hispanic minimum-wage worker at a resort hotel in Santa Monica, the Dems might have something to say to me. But if I’m a furniture factory worker in North Carolina…white or black…the Democratic contempt for my gun-toting, pickup-truck-driving, country-music-listening ways is as loud as the Eminem song I’m playing in the CD player as I drive by the local latte shop.
The Democrats will never win unless they find a way to reconnect with that voter, and they will never reconnect with that voter until they find a way to treat him or her with respect.
And, bluntly, they may not deserve to win unless they find that reconnection.
For all the sympathy that the liberal core constituency exudes for the working class, they always seem awfully uncomfortable when they have to deal with real, breathing examples.
[Update: A Shot In The Dark shows it in another light:

Garrison Keillor illustrates in this Salon piece why the DFL not only got clobbered last Tuesday, but probably hasn’t learned its lesson.
Contempt? He’s got it!

To choose Coleman over Walter Mondale is one of those dumb low-rent mistakes, like going to a great steakhouse and ordering the tuna sandwich.

That’s right – going to a steakhouse and ordering tuna, to escape a friggin’ Lutheran church basement lutefisk social.

Yeah, because the lumpenproles just don’t get it That’s why the Dems lost this cycle…]

Yesterday, I talked about ‘investors’ in the political process.
Today, in the L.A. Times (registration required, or use ‘laexaminer’/’laexaminer’), there’s a good analytical article: ‘Drug Industry Poised to Real Political Dividends’.

WASHINGTON — Few industries campaigned harder than pharmaceutical manufacturers to elect Republicans to the new Congress, and few industries are better positioned to reap the rewards of the election returns, analysts said Thursday.
“The pharmaceutical industry may be at the front of the line of groups looking at the next two years as an opportunity to make a lot of progress on their issues,” said Larry Makinson, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

Read the whole article, but do it before lunch.
They have a neat table of individual and PAC contributions to congressional campaigns broken out by industry and party. Check this out:
Lawyers and Law Firms
$59.3 million 72% D 28% R
Retired Persons
$50.2 million 36% D 64% R
Securities
$39.4 million 46% D 54% R
Real Estate
$38.5 million 47% D 53% R
TV/Movies/Music
$29.4 million 77% D 23% R
Insurance
$26.2 million 31% D 68% R
Health Professionals
$24.7 million 37% D 62% R
Computer Equipment & Services
$18.2 million 49% D 51% R
Pharma
$18.1 million 27% D 73% R
Oil and Gas
$17.6 million 20% D 80% R
It’s interesting to note how the party’s policies (pro-pharma in the case of the Republicans, anti-tort reform in the case of the Dems) neatly line up with 73%/27% and 72%28% splits in funding.
There’s a chicken-and-egg issue here; do the interest groups support the parties because they naturally align with them? Or do the parties shape their positions to accommodate the interest groups? But the result hatches all the same…

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Biiiirthday, dear Devra…
…returns of the day…