Friday, November 07, 2003
Name that Cabinet
Paul Krugman's column this morning analyzes the Howard Dean Confederate flag flap for what it was--a poor choice of words obliterating the essential truth of the remark. Many white Southerners are getting their asses kicked by Republican policy but they keep voting Republican anyway thanks to coded racist appeals.
And on the national stage, it's not just racist appeals that work to get many Southerners to fall in line against the Democrats. You can bet the house on the fact that we'll hear a lot of "northeastern liberal" talk next fall if either Dean or Kerry gets the nomination. It'll be the Dukakisizing of the Democrat all over again--and it's little better than bigotry, too.
Washing up in the surf this morning is Intervention Magazine, the Internet successor to a print magazine founded in the early 80s to criticize American intervention in Central America. The site is extremely rich with news analysis, book reviews, and humor pieces. Start here, with editor Stewart Nusbaumer's analysis of bleeding-heart conservatives who believe in what they used to accuse liberals of doing--throwing money at problems, or one of Mick Youther's commentaries. Youther's stuff is pretty interesting--he juxtaposes quotes and soundbites to make sharp points about his subjects, like this one on the value of fear to the Bush Administration, or this one about Rush Limbaugh and the war on drugs.
(The latter contains a snippet of a Reuters report from May 1998 that so funny I can hardly believe anyone actually said it, or that a wire service deigned to report it: "House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002.")
Of course, you can say ridiculous things in public in America because Americans aren't all that smart about some things. Take, for example, naming cabinet departments. A new poll came out this week saying that 58 percent of Americans can't name a single department of the Cabinet--even when the poll gave them credit for coming up with names like Colin Powell or Donald Rumsfeld without mentioning a department. Only four percent of respondents could name more than five. With the poll's margin of error at plus-or-minus 3.5, that means it's theoretically possible that NO American can name more than five Cabinet departments.
The official name of the poll is the "Shocking Poll," however, so its goal is to come up with some kind of outrageous result. The last "Shocking Poll" apparently found that twice as many Americans can name Snap, Crackle, and Pop as the three characters on the Rice Krispies box than can name all nine Supreme Court justices--which I would not have needed a poll to tell you.
Paul Krugman's column this morning analyzes the Howard Dean Confederate flag flap for what it was--a poor choice of words obliterating the essential truth of the remark. Many white Southerners are getting their asses kicked by Republican policy but they keep voting Republican anyway thanks to coded racist appeals.
And on the national stage, it's not just racist appeals that work to get many Southerners to fall in line against the Democrats. You can bet the house on the fact that we'll hear a lot of "northeastern liberal" talk next fall if either Dean or Kerry gets the nomination. It'll be the Dukakisizing of the Democrat all over again--and it's little better than bigotry, too.
Washing up in the surf this morning is Intervention Magazine, the Internet successor to a print magazine founded in the early 80s to criticize American intervention in Central America. The site is extremely rich with news analysis, book reviews, and humor pieces. Start here, with editor Stewart Nusbaumer's analysis of bleeding-heart conservatives who believe in what they used to accuse liberals of doing--throwing money at problems, or one of Mick Youther's commentaries. Youther's stuff is pretty interesting--he juxtaposes quotes and soundbites to make sharp points about his subjects, like this one on the value of fear to the Bush Administration, or this one about Rush Limbaugh and the war on drugs.
(The latter contains a snippet of a Reuters report from May 1998 that so funny I can hardly believe anyone actually said it, or that a wire service deigned to report it: "House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002.")
Of course, you can say ridiculous things in public in America because Americans aren't all that smart about some things. Take, for example, naming cabinet departments. A new poll came out this week saying that 58 percent of Americans can't name a single department of the Cabinet--even when the poll gave them credit for coming up with names like Colin Powell or Donald Rumsfeld without mentioning a department. Only four percent of respondents could name more than five. With the poll's margin of error at plus-or-minus 3.5, that means it's theoretically possible that NO American can name more than five Cabinet departments.
The official name of the poll is the "Shocking Poll," however, so its goal is to come up with some kind of outrageous result. The last "Shocking Poll" apparently found that twice as many Americans can name Snap, Crackle, and Pop as the three characters on the Rice Krispies box than can name all nine Supreme Court justices--which I would not have needed a poll to tell you.
