I believe that Democrats have had a can opener the whole time
But they were convinced it was a bad opener, compared to the nice new one that movement conservatives had assembled. As a result, they ignored it, or even boycotted it long enough for it become a mass of rusty metal, that doesn't work very well, and simply requires some oil, steel wool and a good sharpening.
We have a lot of factions, from the green movement to LGBT issue politics, social justice and Public education, among many others. What we need, more than a can opener, is the ability to get our two hands to work on one action.
The can opener is urban America, and a little political Jujitsu reversing the momentum created by the "Culture War" waged by conservative America (or, as they say, "Real" America) on "the other" America is long over-due.
All of the separate factions of the Democratic Party are united in large urban areas, whether they like it or not, it's where they live. The little blue islands are our home "bases," in a physical sense, and they are in need of the focus of our National Party. They are the fulcrum of the can opener, and, for that reason, are the most obvious cause for building a "movement."
Liberalism primarily evolved out of the city-based "middle classes", based in trade, small-manufacture and the professions--the bourgeoisie, although skilled workers (Tom Paine, anyone?) and even freed slaves (Frederick Douglass) played a part as well. In turn, socialism/social democracy evolved primarily out of the working class, although disaffected members of the bourgeoisie (Marx & Engels, anyone?) played a significant role as well.
Of course, and this is the part that rankles a bit for my liberal sensibilities, to turn the culture war tide we would have to find ways to demonize the other side. granted there are ways to do that, but they are pretty ugly.
but your broader point I think is the right one, that the can opener exists, we just need to get the two hands working together. There is a huge progressive movement out there that lives and works together. It just is completely ineffective on the one hand at adequately including the working class because of its disconnection from organized labor, and on the other hand because there is so much single issue organizing going on. when really it needs to be clear that green activism, civil rights activism, public education activism, and anti-corporate anti-globalization activism are all part of one big team rather than a bunch of little teams trying to play different games on the same field.
But I do disagree regarding the supposed need to "find ways to demonize the other side." First off, telling the truth about racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia should be quite enough. But that should not be the central thrust. The central thrust should simply be the positivity of the diversity, vibrancy, openness, agency and future-orientation of urban life. And this, naturally, made me think of Miley Cyrus--well, at least as referenced and framed by Matt Yglesias earlier this week:
Miley Cyrus and American Exceptionalism
There's been a fair amount of attention lately to Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry's absurd article on American exceptionalism. More enlightenment can probably be obtained by considering Miley Cyrus' treatise on the matter, "Party in the U.S.A."
The setting of the tune is the sense of disorientation experienced by a heartland girl as she arrives in Los Angeles ("Welcome to the land of fame, excess, whoa am I gonna fit in") and her discovery of comfort in the form of popular culture:
Got my hands up they're playing my song
And now I'm gonna be okay
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!
The paradoxical element here is that the patriotic evocations of Americanness are consistently undermined by the basic backdrop of alienation. "It's definitely not a Nashville party," she observes "cause all I see are stilettos." The United States, in short, is a massive, diverse, continent-sized country. It contains substantial differences in regional culture (at this point in the music video she gestures toward her cowboy boots) that insiders pick up on based on small clues of fashion and manners.
While hacks like Ponnuru & Lowry try to identify Americanness with a particular form of conservative politics, the fact of the matter is that America's geographic and ethnic diversity entails political diversity. Their effort to identity the United States with opposition to mass transit, for example, founders on the fact that our largest and most important city is also one of the most transit-oriented city in the world.
And, of course, American pop music is hardly limited to the USA, as Matt moves on to note:
"Party," more plausibly, invokes popular music as a source of unity, capable of transcending both regional and racial ("And a Jay-Z song was on," turned into "a Michael song" in her performance at the Teen Choice awards) divisions. The irony, however, is that American popular culture is famously global. The mere fact that a Jay-Z song is on does not, in fact, provide any particular reason to believe that a given party is taking place in the USA. Jay-Z will be playing in person in Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom this summer. What's more, the story of American popular culture is actually a story in which non-Americans play decisive roles. Rock and Roll is a quintessentially American cultural form, and yet arguably its most famous practitioners are from England. A Britney song was on, but was the song written by a Swedish guy?
This, however, is the sense in which America is truly exceptional in a normatively valorizable way, and not merely "different from other places" (as all places are).
Yes, folks, thanks in part to the 1965 immigration act, reversing the highly restrictive 1924 Act, what distinguishes America from everywhere else is precisely our leadership in multi-culturism and multi-ethinicity. We are a world culture, despite our persistent tendencies towards incredible parochialism. And our music--itself a product of major contributions from every continent--is what most leads the way.
As they saw in the trade, free your ass, and your mind will follow. Or was it the other way around:
Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow is the second studio album by American funk band Funkadelic, released in July 1970 on Westbound Records.[1] The inspiration for this album was, according to George Clinton, an attempt to "see if we can cut a whole album while we're all tripping on acid."[1]
The album and its title track, a feedback-drenched number taking a third of the album's length, introduces the subversion of Christian themes explored on later songs, describing a mystical approach to salvation in which "the Kingdom of Heaven is within" and achievable through freeing one's mind, after which one's ass will follow. Many of the songs (such as the title track and "Eulogy and Light") subvert Christian themes, including the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm.[1]
The album's gatefold cover forms something of a visual pun, echoing the sentiments of the album title. The sight of a woman holding her arms towards heaven in an ecstatic pose is subverted upon opening the sleeve to find that she is nude.
So, what is Miley Cyrus doing here? Opening for Funkadelic, obviously:
STATE BLOGS
