Ballad of a Thin Man

Walter Benn Michaels' "The Trouble With Diversity"

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:41:05 EDT

While on vacation out East, I got the chance to pick up and read Walter Benn Michaels' 2006 book The Trouble With Diversity. Might as well spoil the suspense and start by saying Benn Michaels didn't convince me when he argues (like Michaels Lind and Tomasky) that left-wing "identity politics" around race and gender stand in the way of a serious left-wing class politics. The book reminded me at various points of Catherine MacKinnon's argument (in Towards a Feminist Theory of the State) that feminists and Marxists view each other with suspicion because each party could undo one kind of oppression while leaving the other oppression intact. It's often not clear to whom Benn Michaels, an English professor, is addressing his argument. He offers criticisms (often clever, always articulate) of some academic arguments about identity, but he doesn't engage with many pivotal ones - like the literature on intersectional (rather than additive) approaches to identity, considering how identities mediate each other - how being identified as a poor Black woman has different social and economics meanings than just being poor plus being Black plus being a woman. He calls Omi and Winant's Racial Formation in the United States "certainly the most influential academic text on the social construction of race," but cites only two sentences from it.

If the argument is directed at political practitioners, we're left wondering how he actually pictures the left gaining power and effectiveness by throwing race and gender overboard. In a telling line criticizing the focus on sexism at Wal-Mart as a distraction from exploitation there, Benn Michaels asserts that "Laws against discrimination by gender are what you go for when you've given up on - or turned against - the idea of a strong labor movement." Tell that to all the folks in the labor movement and labor-allied groups who've worked to support the Dukes lawsuit and the fight against Wal-Mart's sexism as part of a broad-based critique of a company that helpfully illustrates the connections between conservatism's threat to gender equality, economic justice, environmental sustainability, and other values progressives and most Americans hold dear. Benn Michaels' approach, which denies that rich people can be victims of oppression or that poor people can be oppressed by more than only poverty, would render the left unable to fully understand, let alone seriously engage, with what Betty Dukes and millions of women like her are facing (see also Whitewashing Race). As badly as Benn Michaels may wish for a revived labor movement, in advocating a disregard for identity politics he's echoing the disconnection from progressive social movements which contributed the labor movement's decline in the first place. Those blinders regarding oppressions besides class mirror the blindness to class of too many in, for example, the pro-choice movement - blindness of which Benn Michaels would be rightly critical.

That said, we needn't accept Benn Michael's arguments about the irrelevance of race- and sex-based politics to appreciate the book's critical insight: that the plutocrats triumph when poverty is understood as an identity to be respected rather than as a problem to be eliminated.

Who Placed Whose Hands?

Josh Eidelson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:19:36 EDT

Hillary Clinton got some deserved criticism for her lecture about how "it took a President" to pass the Civil Rights Act (didn't Obama prove he values the role of the President when he started running to be the next one?). But Robert Caro's op-ed today reminds us she could have said something worse:

"Abraham Lincoln struck off the chains of black Americans," I have written, "but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into voting booths, closed democracy's sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands upon the lever that gave them a hold on their own destiny, made them, at last and forever, a true part of American political life."

This isn't poetic - it's just offensive. Did LBJ tie African-Americans' shoes before they left the house to vote? It should go without saying that African-Americans have been a "true part of American political life" since before the birth of the United States. Among other things, they led a movement which seized the franchise by shifting public opinion and transforming the political landscape. That movement made the difference between the days when LBJ was strategizing against Civil Rights legislation to the days when Jesse Helms must claim to support it.

Caro seems smug towards Civil Rights activists who didn't trust Johnson's support until they got it. No doubt which bills Johnson supported, and when he came around to support them, is indeed, as Caro says, some combination of "ambition and compassion." It's short-sighted for historians to lionize Johnson's choices while disparaging the people whose vision, tactics, and courage made it possible for him to wed the two. Of course it makes a huge difference who the President is. But the Great Man Theory that tells us Lincoln freed the slaves and then Johnson gave their descendants the vote is a theory that should be in the dustbin of history by now.

Let's remember that as we consider the progress Barack Obama's nomination represents as well as the struggles ahead should there be an Obama presidency.

McCain Hearts Usher: No Surprise

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:40:08 EDT

Reviewing Entertainment Weekly interviews with the candidates, Marc Ambinder expresses surprise that

In some ways, Obama has the tastes of a 72 year old man; McCain has the tastes of a 47 year old whippersnapper. Who knew?

At risk of sounding cynical, why should we be surprised when Obama associates himself with Dick Van Dyke and McCain associates himself with Usher? Isn't this what candidates often do in interviews - try to address potential vulnerabilities and convince more people that they're more like them than they realized (that is, when they're not focused on doubling-down on their perceived strengths)? That the guy smeared as a secretly foreign terrorist fist jabber touts an old white guy and the really old white guy who can't use a computer touts an R & B artist seems to make a lot of sense. Same reason around election time we often hear more from Democrats about their love of guns and Jesus and from Republicans about their love of Black people and the environment.

Fun With Collective Bargaining

Josh Eidelson — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:01:59 EDT

Kay considers sexism in "trade professions" and after pointing out that jobs like hair dressing aren't counted as such precisely because women do them, suggests that

What would help is first what these truck mechanics Harding points to are already doing, mentoring young women in non-traditional fields. Secondly, unions that represent those industries need to not only be free of sexism themselves, but aggressively pursue lawsuits that would discourage sexual harassment. This is happening with some larger trade unions already, but it's not as wide as it should be.

I think this really sells short the potential for trade unions to take on discrimination. Any kind of organization with the resources can file a lawsuit - or individuals or groups can do it with no organization at all. In some cases, like the Dukes suit against Wal-Mart (largest class action suit ever in this country), that can contribute greatly to leveraging pressure on a company. But workers with a union can change the behavior of their employer in a slew of other ways. That includes negotiating with them. Union workers can and do win binding contracts obligating companies to take on unequal opportunity by creating training programs, by collaborating with community leaders and/ or non-profits, by submitting to oversight by workers, clergy, politicians, or whoever else to judge progress, to change work rules or job descriptions that create needless barriers for people who could otherwise do the job - and in any number of other ways. And these workers can enforce these commitments, as well as the company's legal obligation not to discriminate, through collective action and through a grievance process that moves faster, cheaper, and more accessibly than a lawsuit. The limits are defined by power on the shop floor and nationally or internationally in the industry. As Thomas Geoghegan wrote last year in his book See You in Court,

a big change has been the way we have moved from contract to tort. For most working Americans, the kind of people I represent, this accounts for the biggest change in the way the law now impacts their lives. In the 1950s and 1960s, up to 35 percent of workers, especially men, were covered by collective bargaining agreements...In the last thirty years, there has been a loss of contract rights - to a job, a pension, or even health care - unlike that in any other developed country. It is really a new legal regime that many Americans experience as infuriating, without being able to express that fury in an appropriate way.

Now the missed opportunities within substantial chunks of the labor movement to link arms as part of movements for sexual and racial inequality in the twentieth century is not unrelated to the steep decline in union power and union membership. But those workers Kay is talking about, who have unions, have an arsenal at their disposal to attack discrimination in the workplace - not only through contract language of course, but also through the kinds of action, client pressure, media strategies, and such that play part in winning recognition and winning contracts - without depending on the prospects of a lawsuit.

One in Three, Leave Him Be!

Josh Eidelson — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:59:46 EDT

Contrary to the claims of conservatives trying to save the brand from an unpopular product, George W. Bush is a conservative, no qualifier necessary. He showed off his conservatism last week by vetoing health insurance for more children:

"It is estimated that if this program were to become law, one out of every three persons that would subscribe to the new expanded Schip would leave private insurance," the president said. "The policies of the government ought to be to help poor children and to focus on poor children, and the policies of the government ought to be to help people find private insurance, not federal coverage. And that's where the philosophical divide comes in."

Leaving aside the speciousness of Bush's statistics, and the spectacular problems with America's system of private insurance, this quote is telling on another level: It's not just that George Bush and the GOP cohort vying to replace him believe freedom is about keeping the government out of providing you insurance more so than keeping sickness away from your child.

It's that if there are three kids, George Bush would rather one have private insurance and two be left without health care than that all three have publicly-supported health care.

That should come as no surprise from the president who presided over Hurricane Katrina.

The Times Giveth, and the Times Taketh Away

Josh Eidelson — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:02:05 EDT

Reading the latest New York Times John McCain puff piece makes you wonder whether the Times and company only started pulling the guy down with McCain deathwatch stories so that they could have the pleasure of building him up all over again:

Between jokes, he is steadfast in his support for the present course in Iraq, his voice hushing to a near-whisper during paeans to the United States military. He is also prone to solemn monologues against the evils of torturing prisoners and the atrocities committed by "those thugs in Burma" against pro-democracy demonstrators, neither of which are top-of-the-agenda issues for most Republican voters. But they are important to John McCain, never mind the polls and focus groups, which are too expensive anyway.

Groan. Mark Leibovich also refers to "his campaign bus, christened the Straight Talk Express during his insurgent presidential campaign of 2000," a weird use of the passive voice that could leave us with the idea that it was so christened by David Broder or Saint Peter and not by John McCain. I guess the myth of McCain is just more fun when he's the underdog.

Wellstone's Book

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:36:59 EDT

Just finished Paul Wellstone's memoir The Conscience of a Liberal. It reads like a campaign book, which is what it is. Too much of it is taken up with descriptions of how much he respects colleagues who disagree with him, and how impressed they are with his courage. And Wellstone raises and then retires too quickly some questions that could have been the core of a better book - how effectively can electoral politics complement local issues-based organizing; did he vote for DOMA for the sake of re-election; how could Bill Clinton have pushed through more progressive policy. That said, Wellstone offers some telling reminders of the difference between merely opposing a bill and moving heaven and earth to stop it, and between paying lip service to a different kind of campaign and actually running one. And it needn't cost you your job or your usefulness at it.

The Clinton Presidency That Wasn't

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:48:00 EDT

Had the chance while I was back East for Rosh HaShanah to read George Stephanopoulos' memoir, which I guess is a lot like you'd imagine it to be. Not to give away the ending, but Stephanopoulos closes with the image of Bill Clinton delivering his State of the Union in the thick of impeachment, and his final sentence is:

Wondering what might have been - if only this good president had been a better man.

This perspective on Clinton - that the great potential of his presidency was spoiled by his sex scandal - is pretty popular, but I don't see a lot to support it. What were the big domestic or foreign policy initiatives that Clinton would have been able to push through in the last two-and-a-half years of his presidency if not for Monica Lewinsky? What's the political strategy that would have overcome the hostility of Bob Dole's Senate and Newt Gingrich's House to get them through?

Sure, the Lewinsky scandal drew a lot of public, media, and congressional attention. But it's wishful thinking to imagine that otherwise that airtime would have gone to important public policy. Bill Clinton spent much of the time he was being impeached at higher popularity than any of his peers at the same point in office. Like his wife, he did a deft job of parlaying Republican attacks into anti-anti-Clinton feeling. And if not for the impeachment overreach, it seems unlikely that the Democrats would have bucked history in 1998 by taking back House seats.

The story of a progressive savior that could have been if not for his adulterous appetites has a fun Greek tragic flair to it, but there's not a lot to back it up. And it has the unfortunate effect of perpetuating the idea that a brilliant politician could have triangulated his way to big progressive reforms if only he'd passed up that blue dress.

David Brooks Hearts White Fertility

Josh Eidelson — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:27:00 EDT

Why isn't John McCain on the stump telling Americans to have more babies?

Kate Sheppard notes the passage of Russia's "Day of Conception:"

Today falls exactly nine months before Russia Day, and as one of Putin's policies to encourage more breeding in his country, he's offered SUVs, refrigerators, and monetary rewards to anyone who gives birth on June 12. So the mayor of Ulyanovsk, a region in central Russia, has given workers there the afternoon off to make with the baby making. Everyone who gives birth is a winner in the "Give Birth to a Patriot on Russia's Independence Day" contest, but the grand prize winner -- judged on qualities like "respectability" and "commendable parenting" -- gets to take home a UAZ-Patriot, a Russian-made SUV.

This seems like a good opportunity to ask why the kinds of natalist appeals and policy justifications that are so widespread in Europe are all but non-existent in the United States. Sure, American politicians seem to be expected to have gobs of kids to demonstrate their family values. But why is it much more common for politicians in Europe to push policies explicitly designed to make people have more kids?

Discouraging though it may be, I think the best answer is race. Politicians in Sweden or in Russia or in France get further with calls for the nation to have more babies for the sake of national greatness or national survival because that nation and those babies are imagined to look more the same.

The L Word

Josh Eidelson — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:17:14 EDT

Guess where you can read the following political history:

You know, [liberal] is a word that originally meant that you were for freedom, that you were for the freedom to achieve, that you were willing to stand against big power and on behalf of the individual. Unfortunately, in the last 30, 40 years, it has been turned up on its head and it's been made to seem as though it is a word that describes big government, totally contrary to what its meaning was in the 19th and early 20th century.

Is it the pages of Reason Magazine? The declaration of some self-described "classicaly liberal" professor? Nope. Those words were spoken at last night's Democratic Debate by the party's frontrunner.

This is what people mean when they complain about the Clintons' much-vaunted triangulation - although this particular argument is really worse than triangulation, in that rather than positioning herself between two bad boogeymen of the hard left and hard right, she's just defining her politics against left-wing "big government" (didn't her husband already declare it over?). And she's defining "individual freedom" against "big government" too.

It's not a mystery why she would do this. Conservatives have done an impressive job of convincing people over the past decades that more government means less freedom. That's how they've peddled their attacks on the majority's ability to legislate against plutocracy. It's how they've pushed forward an agenda that leaves Americans less free - prisoners of fear of disaster, dislocation, and disintegration of their communities and their hopes for their families.

Democrats have not done a great job over the past few decades of framing the debate in a way that elevates freedom from want and freedom from fear and challenges the idea that we are more economically free if your boss can fire you for being gay or fighting for more money. Right-wing frames are powerful. That means contemporary candidates need to either co-opt them or challenge them. Which choice they make is telling.

A Nation Divided

Josh Eidelson — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:50:52 EDT

I am not being cute when I say that I have no idea how this article made it into the paper of record. It's like someone set out to write a not very relevant or interesting article, lost interest halfway through, and accidentally posted it on the website of the New York Times. Oops.

That's the American Dream: Someday you too can become famous enough that when you and someone else famous you're friends with support different primary candidates, that's news - even (maybe especially) if you have no comment on it.

What's the story here: That Oprah and Maya Angelou could prefer different politicians? That being friends hasn't swayed one of them to change her endorsement? That making clashing endorsements hasn't ended their friendship?

Cindy Sheehan: Not So Progressive

Josh Eidelson — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:22:08 EDT

More surprising than Cindy Sheehan's return from her ostensible break from activism is her willingness to embrace conservative cant against the income tax:

The Federal Reserve, permanent federal (and unconstitutional) income taxes, Japanese Concentration Camps and, not one, but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan were brought to us via the Democrats.

The 16th amendment empowers the majority to legislate against subjugation and plutocracy. It institutes a critical tool to confront on the badges of slavery abjured in the 13th amendment and realize the equal protection promised in the 14th.

Cindy Sheehan's inane legal argument and her outrageous ethical argument against the income tax are disappointing. What's more discouraging is skimming through the comments and realizing that taking on Nancy Pelosi arouses more outrage from DailyKos commenters than taking on the income tax.

The Latest Dem Debate

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:23:30 EDT

Is it just me, or was the difference between the questions asked and the questions answered more pronounced in this debate than the previous ones? Maybe because the questions asked the candidates to speak about the extent of racism in America or its role in exacerbating social ills. Maybe the most marked contrast was when the candidates were asked why Blacks with high school degrees are less likely to find jobs than Whites without them; most of the answers were about how to get more Blacks high school degrees.

The order of the candidates led to the delightful spectacle of Chris Dodd making funny faces every round about having to follow Mike Gravel saying something about how craven and nasty everyone else on stage was. And it gave Barack Obama repeated chances to echo John Edwards, one time even saying he was finishing his sentence - does that mean he doesn't take Edwards seriously as a threat at this point?

The biggest revelation of the night though was that Joe Biden organizes rallies for Black men to tell them they can be manly while wearing condoms. When I say progressive masculinity, you say Joe Biden! Where's YouTube when you need it? Someone should name a line of condoms after the guy.

Put Down the Female Candidate And Nobody Gets Hurt

Josh Eidelson — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:55:33 EDT

Andrew Sullivan approvingly cites a reader's nasty argument against Hillary Clinton:

If everyone is admitting that a Hillary Clinton's potential nomination to the Democrat Presidential ticket is only fuel for the religious right, then what do you think Senator Clinton's view is on that? Why is it that this either doesn't concern her, or she thinks she can overcome it? If I were in the same position, I would realize that winning the nomination, only to further create a dichotomy between the American politic, would be disastrous for the country.

Now it's one thing to say that Hillary Clinton shouldn't run because she's too unpopular to win the general election (though the polls won't be much help to you there). It's another thing to say that running for president even though a lot of people hate you shows "fathomless narcissism" (Sullivan's phrase). In other words, if you love America, and there are a bunch of people in America who hate you, you shouldn't run for election in America because it will divide America and that's too great a price to pay.

There are good reasons not to like Hillary Clinton. Those are not the ones that make her unpopular with the religious right. Hillary Clinton, for all her caution with the personal and the political, is a lightning rod for anti-feminist forces in American politics who don't believe women should exercise power traditionally reserved for men. Andrew Sullivan knows that.

It's silly, though all too common, to suggest that the main problem facing this country is a lack of consensus about where it should go or what kind of person should lead it. And it's outrageous, though by no means unusual, to argue that the enlightened response to the troubling views of a certain number of Americans is to accommodate them rather than to engage and challenge them.

Some people in this country think Hillary Clinton is a bitch because she wields power and wants more of it. It's a shame to see pundits who should know better suggesting she's a bitch for not acceding to those people's wish that she would disappear.

Faint Praise?

Josh Eidelson — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:14:33 EDT

Hillary Clinton's Exploratory Committee links a Daily Kos diary (with a not-so hearty 11 recommenders) that declares:

last night's debate performance has given me cause to reconsider the depth of my opposition to the likelihood of her nomination,

Time for a raise for Peter Daou?

This Is Your Life

Josh Eidelson — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:50:43 EDT

There were a lot of spooky moments in the two presidential debates this week ("Mitt, you say you'll protect us from the Hispanic invasion, but we caught you talking to Spanish-speakers! How can you defend yourself?"). The most spooky non-substantive part had to have been the moderators describing the "regular people" to themselves: "Your name is Josh Eidelson. You live in Sacramento. You have two siblings. You sometimes will eat a mango, dried mango, and mango sorbet in the same day. Is that right? And I hear you have a question for the candidates."

It was a lot like those Sesame Street episodes where different kind of produce are on a talk show about how they were made.

Mother's Day

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 13 May 2007 14:19:33 EDT

My parents brought me up to believe that Mother's Day was just about selling greeting cards.

Turns out, it's also about selling John McCain.

24 Hours for Darfur

Josh Eidelson — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 02:55:20 EDT

A novel form of student protest:

400,000 civilians have died in Darfur since 2003. The genocidal campaign led by the government of Sudan the Janjaweed militia continues while the world stands by. It is time we demand that our elected officials redouble their efforts to bring security to the people of Darfur. 24 Hours for Darfur uses video advocacy to insist on action from national governments and international institutions. We will compile 24 hours of continuous footage of people from around the world demanding change - footage that we will then display on the steps of Congress and in front of the UN so that our leaders can no longer turn a blind eye to the devastation in Darfur.

Check it out. Submit your own video here.

Politicize Away

Josh Eidelson — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:34:56 EDT

Of all the tropes trotted out in the wake of the murders at Virginia Tech, perhaps the most grating is the one about how tragedy shouldn't be politicized. The tragedy is already political. It results from the murderous choice of one man. But only some murderous plans are realized. And only some murderous potentials flourish. To honor the dead by eschewing public policy discussions about how to reduce the likelihood of a disturbed student getting a gun and killing dozens of classmates and faculty is a cruel joke.

Liberals and others make a mistake when they excoriate the right-wingers proposing sex-segregated housing or mandatory monotheism or concealed weapons for everyone as solutions to this tragedy for "politicizing" the deaths. Instead, let's excoriate them for offering really, really bad ideas, and for blaming the wrong people for something terrible that transpired.

Why shouldn't people contending to run the country tell us - as they did with this week's Supreme Court outrage - what it has to do with their plans for our country? We can mourn together with people we disagree with without pretending that those disagreements have no consequences.

You're So Vain, You Probably Think Jesus Is About You

Josh Eidelson — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 16:21:08 EDT

David Brody, blogger for Pat Robertson's CBN, weighs in on Barack Obama's legitimacy:

He talks about Jesus and how Christ changed his life. But religious conservatives aren't convinced at all and think he's way too liberal to be considered legitimate with his faith talk. I expect the faith discussion about Obama's Christianity to increase as time goes on. Is he genuine or not? If he is, then he'll need to figure out a way to defend certain positions (abortion and marriage) that don't jive with the Bible.

It takes a particular sort of arrogance to take every expression of personal faith by a political candidate as an audition for you and Pat Robertson. And it makes you wonder: How does David Brody know that Barack Obama doesn't share the biblical position that if a man violently causes a woman to miscarriage, he should be held financially culpable? Nothing there that doesn't jive with pro-choice doctrine.

This is a good example of why (though contra Rawls, I don't want to force "public reason" on everyone) we should prefer political appeals to the persuasive power of your religious tradition over political appeals to its authority.