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ALSO INSIDE What’s Happening to America?: Bill Ayers, Chalmers Johnson, Amiri Baraka (page 11) Grad Life: Coming Down from the Ivory Tower (page 6) FROM THE editor’s desk

November 2008 The Road Ahead http://gcadvocate.org Despite the bitter acrimony, the racist quintessential nadir of low governance— points out in this issue of the GC Advo- [email protected] mobs, the comic distractions, and the a position from which everything looks cate (see page 14) the differences are im- CUNY Graduate Center absurd lack of substance that has defined better, more hopeful and optimistic. portant and criticizing Obama is a coun- the 2008 presidential campaign, one of From this position, Obama’s message terproductive exercise. However, despite Room 5396 the most fascinating and unexpected de- of change seems to have resonated almost the obvious policy differences and the 365 Fifth Avenue velopments of this election cycle is the messianically with the average American more obvious ideological and even intel- New York, NY 10016 recent and surprisingly palpable feeling voter, and indeed Barack Obama’s incred- lectual differences between the two, we (212) 817-7885 among so many voters that something ible rise to political stardom has been an must be wary of placing too much hope meaningful and potentially momentous inspiring story; and his remarkably well in a candidate who, like his Democratic Editor-in-Chief is on the horizon. Whether this some- fought and rhetorically elegant cam- and Republican brethren, is so deeply James Hoff thing new is not simply a slick repack- paign—consider his Philadelphia speech ensconced in the corporate political sys- aging of something old is a fair and, let’s on race, which, as Tim Krause notes (see tem. Like other Democratic politicians Managing Editor face it, absolutely necessary question— page 20) was as rhetorically elegant as before him, Obama, should he win on the Michael Busch the cover of this month’s GC Advocate Lincoln and King—leaves one with the 4th, will likely find himself so tied to the makes a case for this kind of practically sense that he may actually be the real deal real Democratic Party platform that the Layout Editor pessimistic approach. and more than just another Democratic possibility of meaningful change will be- Mark Wilson However, it has become increasingly politician. But at least for now, until he come quickly lost and/or watered down difficult—even for skeptical third party proves otherwise, Obama is a Democrat among the give and take of the political Media Board Chair advocates like myself—not to get caught and a skilled politician, and despite the process. Like The Wire’s Mayor Carcetti, Rob Faunce up in the idea that our nation stands at rhetoric of change, his policy positions, whose ideological enthusiasms are de- a potentially historic crossroads. Despite those of which he has been willing to voured by the calculations and compro- Contributors the last eight years of Democratic and make a case for, have been consistently mises of the Baltimore political machine, Bill Ayers Republican incompetence, despite the middle of the road. Obama’s real political potential may just Amiri Baraka botched and stolen elections, the cow- His health care policy, for instance, quietly fade once he gets into office. In ardly Congress, the immovable Senate, while potentially a first step in the direc- this sense it will be critically important Frank Episale and the Bush administration’s record- tion of a national health care system is like that, at least for the first hundred days, Jesse Goldstein breaking streak of criminal malfeasance, nearly every health care plan proposed by the Left throw its weight behind Obama Chalmers Johnson it still seems possible, and almost inevi- a major party candidate in the last twelve and remain vigilant and demanding, but Tim Krause table, that we may finally be on the verge years, woefully inadequate. It does noth- the real impetus for change is not going Matt Lau of something positive—that the news ing to tackle the fraud and waste of pri- to come from the Democrats or the Left. Clay Matlan coming out of Washington may for once vate insurance companies, while offering The real potential of an Obama presi- Renée McGarry be good. In fact it is precisely because little help to businesses, whose health dency and the real potential for positive Steven Pludwin of these sad precedents that the idea of care costs, make it increasingly difficult change is, ironically, going to depend less Alison Powell something better seems almost inevi- to compete with their foreign counter- on who Obama is and more on the state table. Perhaps we have finally reached a parts who operate out of countries with of the nation come January 20th. It is no Justin Rohers-Cooper nationalized health care. The reasons for secret, after all, that this economic crisis Mark Schiebe this are so obvious that it almost goes has been a boon for the Obama campaign Harriet Zanzibar Correction without saying: the health insurance in- and it is clear that the longer it goes on, dustry is one of the most powerful lob- and the more desperate the public be- publication info bies in the nation and both candidates comes, the less they are going to continue TheGC Advocate is the student have received ample contributions. Like- to hiss and boo at the concept of redistrib- newspaper of the CUNY Grad- wise Obama’s position on military spend- uting the wealth. The more people who uate Center and is published ing is arguably mainstream conservative are laid off and find themselves without seven times a year. Publication and is almost indistinguishable from health care, the fewer people there will be is subsidized by Student Ac- McCain’s. Like McCain, Obama supports concerned about the socialist threat of la- tivities Fees and the Doctoral an increasingly large military and mili- bor unions and national health care; and Students’ Council. tary budget. Loren Thompson, a defense the more banks that go bust, the fewer analyst with the Lexington Institute, told executives there will be willing or able submissions McClatchy Newspapers that “Tempera- to lobby against greater regulation. One The GC Advocate accepts con- mentally, Senators Obama and McCain way or another Obama, should he win on tributions of articles, illustra- are very different on defense. But when Tuesday, is going to inherit a long list of tions, photos and letters to the you read the details of their defense posi- troublesome and increasingly dire eco- editor. Please send queries to tions, they are remarkably similar,” add- nomic, social, and environmental prob- the email address above. ing “Whether we get Obama or McCain, lems. In this sense he may very well find Articles selected for publica- we will get a bigger military.” None of himself positioned, thanks in part to the Nikolas Kozloff (honest) tion will be subjected to edi- this is to suggest that there is no differ- increased power of the executive carved torial revision. Writers who Last month’s book review in the Advocate, ence between McCain and Obama, but out by Bush and Rove, in one of the most contribute articles of 1,000 “The New Left Looks East,” was accom- only to suggest that their similarities are momentous periods in presidential his- words will be paid $50 and panied by a photograph of a man erro- greater than they may seem, and that like tory. Only then will he have the mandate those who submit longer ar- neously identified as Nikolas Kozloff. In all major party candidates, they are both and the public support to break the chains ticles requiring research will fact, the photograph was of Steve Stein, a bound by the corporations and lobbies of both parties and actually potentially receive $75. We also pay for leading authority of Peruvian history. The that have paved the way for their can- live up to the hype he’s been generating photographs and artwork. Advocate regrets the error. didacies. As Amiri Baraka passionately for the last four years.

The GC Advocate is published seven times a year, in Septem- Turn the musings of ber, October, November, De- Don’t submit your mind into manna cember, February, March, and for the masses. Write April. Submissions should be for the Advocate. sent in by the middle of the month. Print copies will nor- CONTRIBUTE [email protected] mally be on the stacks around the end of the month.

Page —GC Advocate —November 2008 political analysis The Other November Election michael busch livarian Revolution looks vulnerable Venezuela’s Troubled Economy the end of 2007 to between six and seven As Venezuela prepares to mark the to defeat. The economy is in serious The election comes at a particularly percent in the first quarter of 2008. One tenth anniversary of its Bolivarian Rev- distress; public support for the Chávez tumultuous period in the country’s re- problem has been a slowdown in indus- olution, Hugo Chávez has little cause regime is wilting; state nationalizations cent history. While a number of factors trial production. Another has been the for celebration. His stewardship of the have repelled potential investment; and have been isolated to explain Venezuela’s steep decline in foreign investment. Ac- state economy has largely resulted in government policies have largely re- current problems, the locus of trouble cording to the Economic Commission failure: income inequality is on the rise fused to conform to the necessities of is the economy. Until the global finance for Latin America and the Caribbean, while poverty reduction has not kept reality. crisis this fall, the surging price of oil on neighboring Colombia—a country pace with the country’s unprecedented Yet in all likelihood, Chávez will es- international markets had dramatically wracked by security concerns—attracts oil returns. Basic food staples—such cape the impending vote with minor expanded Venezuela’s economy which nearly fourteen times more investment as milk, eggs, and meat—are scarce, losses. The Bolivarian regime stands result in inflation spiking to danger- from abroad than Venezuela. To the raising fears that an impending food to benefit from a confluence of at ous levels. Venezuela currently suffers southwest, Peru’s annual inflows from crisis looms on the horizon. Violence least three factors that will maintain from the highest inflation rate in Latin foreign investment dwarf Venezuela’s is rife. Venezuela’s murder rate, which Chávez’s power in the near term. First, America, and forecasters see no end in by a magnitude of nearly ten. Even tiny tallied over 12,000 homicides in 2007, and of greatest concern, is the country’s sight. Experts expect it to climb past El Salvador and the Dominican Repub- has grown so ruinous that the country seeming transition to authoritarianism. its current rate of 35% by year’s close, lic enjoy more foreign investment than no longer releases official data. Internal Chávez has declared a state of exception which would rank Venezuela’s tower- Venezuela. disturbances from burgeoning seces- that has allowed him to extend execu- ing inflation second only to Zimbabwe Cast in historical perspective, the sionist movements have threatened tive power and bar political opponents in the global economy. Compound- Bolivarian republic closely resembles state stability. Moreover, recent gov- from participating in this month’s elec- ing these concerns is the weak value previous revolutionary regimes in the ernment politics hardly inspire confi- tion. Second, any organized opposition of Venezuela’s newly-introduced cur- developing world. Earlier experiments dence. In the last year alone, Venezu- that remains finds itself in shambles. rency. The bolívar fuerte was launched with state socialism in the Global South ela threatened war with neighboring Though it seemed as if an opposition with the objective of curtailing Venezu- have all articulated a standard menu of Colombia, repeatedly rattled its saber movement might take shape following ela’s inflationary economy, but has had policies. Each is generally designed to at the United States, and most recently, Chávez’s December referendum defeat, the opposite effect. The “strong bolivar” accomplish five central objectives: com- tossed Human Rights Watch observers any hints of continued momentum are trades on the black market at less than bat the economic influence of foreign from the country after the organization undetectable. Finally, and most im- half its nominal value, pushing up the capitalists; nationalize key industries issued a critical report on regime trans- portantly, Chávez will benefit from the costs of imports which in turn further that generate significant international gressions. strongest buffer against electoral defeat: intensifies mounting inflation. In Octo- exchange; recentralize state capacities; With the country suffering under the his populist politics. Though the recent ber, collapsing oil prices on the inter- collectivize agriculture; and redistrib- weight of political turbulence and a de- drop in oil prices will likely force Chávez national market devalued the new cur- ute wealth. In addition, revolutionary teriorating economy, Venezuela’s No- to scale back his state-spending on the rency to its all-time low, capping off a regimes have often created social wel- vember election could produce a sig- poor in 2009, the government will not 44 percent plunge since the middle of fare programs to enhance the lives of nificant shift in the balance of national consider any reductions until after the August. the poor. The Bolivarian Revolution power. Indeed, some analysts have ar- election. Indeed, Chávez has increased Adding to the country’s difficulties, shares these ambitions. gued that the winds of change are gust- spending as the elections draw near. As the tremendous economic growth en- Chávez has pursued a dramatic re- ing through Caracas with increased in the past, this will translate into vic- joyed over the past five years has begun structuring of Venezuela’s sociopo- momentum. To be sure, Chávez’s Bo- tory at the polls. to stall, dropping from 10.3 percent at litical institutions. Before coming to

cuny news IN BRIEF might have forgotten to reward the tion Fund, which sponsors the move- tion of constitutional rights was “objec- chancellor’s gallery of underlings, fret ment. Participating students have re- tively reasonable” within the context of not. According to the Professional Staff ceived training in voting rights law and the period. Congress, a whole slew of vice-chancel- poll monitoring. lors and other assorted henchmen also HIP HIP Hooray!!! received pay hikes. Most raises were of CCNY Student Activists Finally Adjuncts sick, literally, of not being a five-figure nature, ensuring that none Get Their Day in Court covered by health insurance can finally of the top executives would be left out Just when you thought the bad old days breathe a sigh of relief. As of this month, of the $200,000 annual salary club. But of the Rudolph Giuliani years were adjuncts and graduate assistants (with don’t worry: most won’t have to suf- dead and gone, their ghosts have re- A,B, or C designations) enrolled as full- fer increased taxes under the Barack turned to haunt former student activ- time doctoral students are now eligible Obama plan. ists at City College—and just in time for low-cost health insurance coverage. for Halloween! According to the Office of the Provost, CUNY Law Students On October 27th, a federal jury began eligibility requirements demand that Defend Democracy hearing a case that dates back a decade adjuncts “earn at least $4,112 a year in With the John McCain campaign going involving student activists that took one of those titles. If they are employed Chancellor Matthew down in flames, CUNY Law students on former CCNY president Yolanda for just one semester, they must earn at Goldstein are organizing to ensure that democ- Moses. Three students filed a lawsuit least $2,061 to be eligible.” racy doesn’t get taken down with it. On against Moses for installing surveil- Moreover, “adjuncts (or non-teach- Breaking News: November 4th, a group of seventy-five lance equipment inside the college’s ing adjuncts) are eligible in the semes- students will disperse to various poll- Morales-Shakur Center, home to cam- ter in which they are teaching or oth- Chancellor Goldstein ing stations throughout the city to pro- pus and community activist groups. erwise working, as long as they earn Receives Hefty Pay Increase tect the voting rights of those targeted At the time, local organizations were at least the minimum amount for plan In answer to recent state-led cuts to the for disenfranchisement. mounting a campaign against the Giu- coverage. Students who are enrolled in CUNY budget, the Board of Trustees The students intend to station them- liani administration’s attack on equal the health insurance plan in the spring tightened its belt still further by bump- selves in predominantly poor and mi- access to CUNY education. semester will be covered over the sum- ing Chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s nority neighborhood precincts, where In response to the lawsuit, Moses nul- mer as long as there is an expectation annual salary by $55,000 (a 14 percent they will “enhance access to voting and lified student elections that would have that they will remain eligible in the increase). This brings the chancellor’s to prevent the use of unlawful prac- been captured by a slate of activist stu- fall.” yearly pay to just under $500,000 a tices, such as demanding proof of citi- dents, prompting yet another lawsuit. Students concerned about the fine year. When his housing stipend (!!!) zenship, turning people away without A federal judge has already determined print of eligibility are encouraged to is thrown into the mix, the chancellor’s photo identification when it is not re- that Moses violated the First Amend- contact Anne Ellis in the Provost’s of- total income amounts to an additional quired, or restricting access to language ment rights of the students through her fice for more information by email $100,000 per annum. interpreters,” according to the Asian actions. The jury has been charged with at [email protected], or by phone at Those concerned that the Trustees American Legal Defense and Educa- determining whether or not the viola- (212) 817-7284. November 2008—GC Advocate—Page  Hugo Chåvez power, Chávez built his political plat- thirty operating service agreements. In company’s production has been cut by also subsidized the public’s consump- form on attacking the established order the aftermath of these state takeovers, over 700,000 barrels per day. Outside tion of food and basic goods through as the source of the nation’s problems. Venezuela renegotiated terms of agree- expert observers argue that these num- government-run supermarkets that He criticized the ruling regime for ment with all the firms but three, which bers grossly underestimate the slow- purportedly serve eleven million citi- their willingness to mortgage Vene- increased taxes on profits to 50 percent, down by at least a half a million barrels zens. Moreover, the state has launched zuela’s future on the economic policy and placed 60 percent of operations per day more. job creation schemes outside the oil prescriptions of so-called Washington under direct governmental control. Venezuela has never recovered from industry to relieve economic stresses Consensus neoliberalism, and prom- Unlike many developing countries the disruption to its oil production. generated by unemployed sectors of ised radical reforms if elected. Once in possessing a wealth of energy resourc- While the spike in energy costs on the population. office, Chávez initially delivered on his es, Venezuela enjoyed the technical international markets temporarily in- The chief dilemma of this charitable pledge to jettison the decrepit state in- and managerial capacity needed for fused the country’s struggling domes- state-spending is the fact that invest- stitutions of the Punto Fijo era. In their effective nationalization. By the time tic economy with new life, Chávez’s ment is directed at the most unpro- place, he established alternative politi- Chávez ascended to power in 1999, decapitation of PdVSA’s technical and ductive and marginal sectors of the cal structures that promised to deliver Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, bureaucratic expertise exacerbated the population. On the one hand, many of much-needed social services to the Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), uncertainty of private investment in Chávez’s state-sponsored efforts to im- extensive ranks of Venezuelan poor. had developed into one of the world’s Venezuela. Between an unstable regula- prove the lives of Venezuela’s poor, like On top of these concessions, Chávez most efficient, technologically ad- tory framework for private investment, food subsidies and health care, are sim- outlined a comprehensive reform vanced, and profitable energy firms. the government’s growing portfolio of ply consumed without any yield. On the agenda for state overhaul to be imple- PdVSA possessed the expertise and expropriated industries, and deterio- other hand, those resources dedicated mented throughout the duration of physical capabilities to extract over rating physical security conditions on to raising the productive capacity of his presidency. four million barrels of oil per day from the ground, the cost of doing business marginalized segments of the popula- Similar to nation-states in the de- Venezuela’s expansive reserves of heavy in Venezuela has been proved too high tion have largely failed to do so. Despite veloping world emerging from revo- crude. The company’s team of engi- for many potential financiers. As a re- government claims to the contrary, for lutionary tumult, Venezuela labors neers and geologists were so highly val- sult, the toxic combination of private example, illiteracy throughout Venezu- under structural constraints that limit ued that they became an invisible hand sector fears, reduced industrial produc- ela has not been reduced significantly the Bolivarian government’s attempts guiding state political and economic tion, and an inflationary environment since the advent of the anti-illiteracy at social welfare improvement. Yet be- decision-making. has intensified the country’s economic program Mision Robinson. According cause the country is endowed with the Chávez moved to gut PdVSA of its turmoil. to The Economist, the literacy initiative second largest hydrocarbon deposits senior management early in his presi- has taught nearly 100,000 Venezuelans in the world, including massive pe- dency, however. Following the failed Ideals and Reality how to read, a far cry from the 1.5 mil- troleum reserves, Chávez has enjoyed coup against him in the spring of 2002, Yet at the moment economic indica- lion claimed by the government. An- room for maneuver that many leaders state oil employees staged a work strike tors increasingly suggest that real living other, paradoxical, problem faced by pursuing radical reform have not. This that ground the country’s oil sector standards in Venezuela must fall, and Chávez’s oil-financed Bolivarian social has been especially true until this fall to a halt. Chávez responded by firing Chávez has responded with aggres- service programs is the perpetuating when oil prices skyrocketed following 18,000 striking PdVSA employees, a sive policies designed to raise the liv- cycle of “catch-up” they face in meeting the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. move that effectively cut the company’s ing standards of his constituents. Most the needs of marginalized populations. Unsurprisingly, then, a key compo- workforce in half. Employees left with recently, the president celebrated Inter- While mission workers welcome and nent of Chávez’s redistribution scheme more than their pink slips. According national Worker’s Day by announcing depend on increased petroleum rev- is nationalization of Venezuela’s natu- to one former PdVSA president quoted a thirty percent wage increase for all enue, the influx of oil wealth into the ral energy sector. The government has by journalist Christian Parenti, “Those Venezuelans, noting “there is no social- Venezuelan economy produces greater moved aggressively to reclaim control workers took with them tens of thou- ism without the working class.” At the rates of inflation, which in turn exac- of its oil fields, and the profits they pro- sands of years of experience, types of same time, Chávez made plain his in- erbates disadvantages faced by the im- duce. In April 2006, Chávez ordered embedded experiential knowledge that tention to lighten the burden of labor poverished majority. the expropriation of eighteen oil op- cannot simply be purchased.” Since by reducing the national work day from The president’s militancy on behalf erations and the cancellation of over then, official numbers show that the eight hours to five. The government has of his impoverished constituents ironi- Page —GC Advocate —November 2008 cally set a trap of policy contradictions other three million voters, who had state of Carabobo, Zulia, Tachira, An- have attracted paltry numbers of par- into which Chávez has unwittingly supported Chávez in his reelection bid zoategui…the next step would be war, ticipants. wandered. His Bolivarian Revolution earlier in 2007, voted against his plat- because they would come for me,” he Beyond strong-armed tactics and is currently caught between the op- form in December. Since then, a survey warned in June. an increasingly ineffective opposition, posing forces of rising expectations published by Datos pollsters shows the Possibly sensing his increased vul- however, the most important safe- among the citizenry, and the necessary popularity of Chávez’s Bolivarian gov- nerability, Chávez decreed a small, guard buffering Chávez from politi- compromises needed for economic sta- ernment declining 34 percent, a sharp but sweeping, expansion of executive cal opponents is his potent populism. bility. In an interesting turnabout this departure from already sagging popu- power at the start of August. Along the Latin America boasts a rich tradition past spring, Chávez acknowledged as larity ratings at the end of 2007. way, he also ordered the disqualifica- of government spending and clientelis- much by reversing course on his anti- Chávez has, in a sense, been betrayed tion of hundreds of local opposition tic practices to strategically manipulate neoliberalism. Arguing that he would by his own. A recent series of high candidates poised to win seats in this electoral outcomes. Venezuela is no dif- not sell-out his poor constituents, profile defections from the Bolivarian month’s election. Chávez argued that ferent. Chávez pursued a dramatic re- Chávez nevertheless issued a number regime have undermined government those barred from running deserved structuring of Venezuela’s sociopoliti- of presidential decrees mandating new stability. First, General Raúl Baduel, prison sentences for their rampant cor- cal institutions after coming into power economic policies that mirror prescrip- former Venezuelan Defense Minister ruption, not state-sanctioned legitima- in 1999, delivering on a pledge to dis- tions outlined by Milton Friedman in and close aide to Chávez, publicly broke cy. Nevertheless, none of those expelled mantle the decrepit stilts propping up the name of national stability. The pres- with the president. Baduel attacked from electoral participation have been the old order. In their place, Chávez es- ident ordered a temporary reduction Chávez for failing to meet the growing found guilty of any crimes. At the end tablished alternative political structures in state spending, increased the cost of needs of Venezuela, and claimed that of October, Chávez continued his of- that he promised would deliver much- borrowing money, ordered all banks Chávez was leading the country down fensive against the ranks of opposition needed social services to the extensive to double their reserve holdings on all the road to authoritarianism. Then candidates, threatening to jail the gov- ranks of Venezuelan poor. Bolstered by came accusations from Chávez’s ex-wife ernor of Zulia, Manuel Rosales. As The new deposits, and removed significant billions of dollars from unprecedented sums of money from circulation. While Marisabel Rodríguez that the president Advocate went to press, Rosales’ future oil sales on the international market, the new policies paid immediate divi- harbored dreams of dictatorship, and was unclear. Yet Chávez emphatically state sponsored programs have en- dends by slowing inflation, their use-by needed to be stopped from consolidat- announced his determination to “put joyed hefty bankrolling and an explo- date was of short duration. With na- ing further power in the executive. Ro- Manuel Rosales behind bars” before the sion of growth in the size and scope of tional elections looming, Chávez soon dríguez’s public show of opposition was elections. Predictably, such actions pro- their operations. The political utility of resumed his lavish spending on the followed by the refusal of the Podemos vide fodder for those alleging Chávez’s these grassroots operations is clear: for downtrodden. Party, long a key supporter of Chávez’s thirst for dictatorship. millions throughout the country, they Bolivarian coalition, to continuing sup- These claims notwithstanding, it is provide a consistent, positive interface November Forecast porting the president. unclear whether such measures are with the government—a valuable asset Increased state financing of pro- Still, an opposition victory in No- even necessary to maintain government grams aimed at Venezuela’s poor is es- vember is far from certain. In the first power. The opposition is a mess. Look- in securing voter turnout on November pecially important in the face of a per- place, and certainly most worrisome to ing to capitalize on Chávez’s weakened 23rd. ceived reduction in popular support for many observers, is Chávez’s willingness position following December’s referen- When the smoke clears following the the Chávez regime. While in the past to unleash his unappetizing autocratic dum vote, opponents of the Bolivarian Venezuelan elections this fall, Chávez Chávez has enjoyed the buffer of wide- impulses to stem defeat across the na- government took the offensive. Eight of will have suffered the loss of only a spread popular support against the tion. To be sure, the stakes are high. Up the country’s most influential opposi- handful of regional allies. In all like- harsh reality of Venezuela’s deteriorat- for grabs are nine regional gubernato- tion parties signed a “unity pact,” build- lihood, of the twenty-one governor- ing economy, public confidence began rial seats, including oil-rich Zulia and ing on increased popular dissatisfac- ships currently controlled by Chávez evaporating in 2008. Chávez’s declining a significant bloc of neighboring states. tion with the direction of state politics. and his allies, only two will fall to the popularity took shape most startlingly Were opposition parties to seize power Since then, however, political capital opposition. Results for the hundreds this past December when voters dealt in these departments, Chávez’s plan for accrued from the referendum victory of regional posts to be determined by him his first electoral defeat in a refer- a self-styled “Bolivarian revolution” has been squandered by infighting and local elections are more difficult to endum that would have significantly would grind to a halt. This marks the disorganization. determine, but will almost certainly expanded presidential powers. Chávez’s election as the most significant mo- The most startling evidence belying proportionally mirror gubernatorial loss, however, was not in itself a major ment in Chávez’s presidency since the a potent, “unified” opposition took the outcomes. If so, these minor cuts and stumbling block for the Bolivarian Rev- failed coup which briefly jettisoned form of recent demonstrations protest- bruises should not significantly hamper olution. Chavista absenteeism, howev- him from power in 2002. Chávez him- ing the president’s August decrees. In Chávez’s march toward “socialism in er, was startling. The government lost self has not been shy to forecast the dire stark contrast to the marches against the twenty-first century.” The fluctuat- the referendum by a hair’s breadth, yet consequences of an opposition victory. Chávez’s December referendum—ral- ing price of oil, Venezuela’s disintegrat- 44 percent of Chávez supporters chose “Imagine if the opposition groups man- lies which drew tens of thousands to ing economy, and Chávez’s own hubris, to stay home during the election. An- aged to win…the state of Miranda, the the streets—recent demonstrations however, just well might.

adjuncting Adjunct Project Wants You to Have More Money! renee mcgarry and jesse goldstein ment for the taxes that have already been withheld. not have the W-2 Form for the year in question – you Students working on campus at their university are If they give you any problems, you can explain that can get this from the IRS – they should have all of exempt from Social Security and Medicare Tax in the this exemption is in the internal revenue code: IRC this information on file for the last three years of tax state of New York—as per IRC 3121(b)(10) and Sec- 3121(b)(10), or in IRS Publication 15 page 35. If they returns. Call 1-800-829-1040 or visit one of the IRS tion 218 Modification 242. We have confirmed this are not going to be able to refund everything that you centers listed on the back of this sheet. with the IRS and the New York State Social Security are due to get back, you can ask them for a statement Fourth, fill out the personal information on the Administrator, Kevin Mack. explaining what they are able to refund, if anything. form, lines 1 and 2, and then sign the bottom – the This exemption only holds for work done while you Second, if you haven’t gotten all the money from rest is already filled out for you. are enrolled in classes as a full-time student. your employer, you should file IRS Form 843 (at- Fifth, in Line 2 you must write in the total refund Check your paystubs: if you have been having these tached). You must file a separate Form 843 for each that you would like. This should be the sum total of taxes taken out of your check, there is a way to get this tax year that you are seeking a refund for. The IRS social security and medicare withholdings listed on money refunded to you for prior years so long as you asks that you attach a statement from your employer the W2 or paystub. can prove that you were taxed! (explained just above) but if you cannot get a state- Sixth, GET YOUR MONEY!! Mail the completed (Internal Revenue Code: IRC 3121(b)(10) Publica- ment, then instead you can just attach your own form with attached documentation to: Department tion 15: Employer’s Tax Guide, page 35.) statement that says you tried but were unsuccessful. of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Ando- In order to get your money back, follow these The top of your statement should have “your social ver, MA 05501-0002. steps. security number-1040-the year in question” ex: 123- Brought to you by the Adjunct Project. www.ad- First, contact human resources at the campus 43-4343 – 1040 – 2008. junctproject.org or email: theadjunctproject@gmail. where you work. Tell them you would like them to Third, for each Form 843 that you file, attach a W- com. stop withholding Medicare and Social Security taxes 2 form for the appropriate year, or your most recent Let’s make a better CUNY! The Adjunct Project and that you would like to inquire about reimburse- pay stub – as evidence of the withheld taxes. If you do wants your involvement! November 2008—GC Advocate—Page  grad life The Long View from the Ivory Tower Alison Powell the killings for which he received the death penalty, ciology or the hard sciences). There is no dearth of During my first semester at the GC, I’ve been struck he was executed at San Quentin on Dec. 13, 2005. students here who brilliantly and responsibly inte- by the complicated relationship many of us are ne- I returned to my program troubled with the im- grate their politics into their lives as academics (the gotiating between our responsibilities as academics plications of considering the death penalty in the upcoming election happily digresses a number of and as citizens of a troubled city, country, and world. context of such esoteric theory. I had really enjoyed seminars; buttons abound), and we should keep in Many of my fellow humanities doctoral students have asking, and formulating tentative answers to, ques- mind how our work contributes to the “greater good.” a latent social worker or justice advocate inside them, tions such as “How were public executions related to Having visited San Quentin, I truly believe that hav- and I’ve enjoyed debates where we consider how our medical advances in the late 1500s?” Meanwhile, con- ing read Foucault and Bentham allowed me to com- political commitments should or could be integrated demned inmates in our own country—economically prehend what I witnessed in a more meaningful with our research and writing. I took the longish way disadvantaged, subject to the racism and classism of way; that experience has helped me nurture the long around to the PhD, taking several years off to work in their juries, burdened with incompetent representa- view (not to be confused with the “Oh my, it will be the nonprofit sector, and I’ve recently found myself tion—were being executed via state-sanctioned lethal fifty years before I pay back my student loans” long considering what originally compelled me to work injection. A few books (including Truman Capote’s view) and to see that our work, which can at times in non-profits, when I’ve always felt most at home in In Cold Blood) and one documentary (The Execution feel absurdly narrow, has implications far beyond our academia. Passionate as I am about my politics, they of Wanda Jean Allen) later, and I left my program, own disciplines. As teachers, for example, asking our feel, ultimately, less deeply a part of me than my ob- packed up my car and sped away to a job in Califor- students to analyze everything from Legally Blonde sessions with poetry and literary criticism (subjects nia. It would be dishonest and self-aggrandizing to to the Canterbury Tales encourages them to wres- hard to apply, say, in day-to-day work at a women’s pretend it was solely altruism that led me to such a tle with their environment in a more empowered, health clinic). decision. I craved a break from the teaching/non- complicated way. Immediately before coming to the Graduate Center, earning lifestyle, from the loose-at-ends non-sched- While ambivalence about the potential for change I was a fundraiser for a nonprofit focused on ending ule of grad school, and the Midwest (it’s easy to trade through grad school may be natural, the work of uni- the death penalty—at times a Sisyphean task. My in- the bleak winters and conservative politics of Indi- versities is to improve our critical faculties and sense volvement in the movement arose, strangely enough, ana or Missouri for the ocean, redwood forests and of history. What universities contribute isn’t only the through research I’d undertaken in a graduate class on anything-goes of San Francisco). In general, taking result of overtly sociopolitical theoretical stances— theories of corporeality. The course nurtured in me a a break between graduate programs is something queer theory, feminist studies, African-American fascination with theorists like Judith Butler and Gilles I recommend. studies, Chicano studies, etc. But even the very act of Deleuze; this, along with reading about executions in Over the next two years I met heroic individu- posing highly specialized questions has ethical merit early modern England, had me riveted. Theory can do als—appellate lawyers, religious leaders, the families with powerful implications. As the world becomes in- that—the puzzle of the theory enabled me to look po- of murder victims who oppose the death penalty, staff creasingly general and high-speed, we participate in a litically abhorrent subject matter squarely in the face, who every day brought optimism to their work. But global consumer culture, reaching for what’s in front and even enjoy doing so. Yet the writing copy for direct mail appeals to members, or of us without discipline or reflection; well, if we don’t same year, I visited the classes of a designing a new t-shirt, I found myself wistful about exactly resist that—if we, too, participate in it—we close friend who is the Program my life in grad school. Like everything else, gradu- at least complicate it by avoiding the split-second re- Director of the Prison Univer- ate school churns out self-deprecating, embarrassing ward. I mean, nothing English lit scholars do is fast. sity Project at San Quentin State situations (like my first literary seminar when I pro- We can’t position ourselves as consistently integrat- Prison, and overheard some nounced Borges with a hard “g”). Still, our primary ed and relevant to the nonacademic world, not prac- of her students discussing obligation is to read what we would (hopefully) al- tically, not yet. We want to: there’s a healthy desire to the impending execution ready read anyway, and then be intimidated but in- demolish the ivory tower. But it seems important to of Stanley “Tookie” Wil- spired as scholars in the field talk to us about the remember that, as college teachers, researchers and liams. An early leader of work. In the 9-to-5 grind at the office, planning some writers, we are somewhat removed from the 9-to-5 the Crips, he was later fundraising event, I missed having, say, my weird ob- world of commerce, government, service industries credited with negotiating session with 16th century religious sermons encour- or (as my radical, social-justice careerist friend called a truce in one of the larg- aged. I missed the jolt of conversing about something it) the “nonprofit industrial complex.” It’s easy for us est gang wars in the nation, absurdly specific with others who are as excited. Then to think about what is intimidating and taxing about and nominated for a Nobel there was the schedule: as a fundraiser, I had to be at being a graduate student, and we fetishize a bit the Peace Prize for his books work at 9 until 5 or later, and work some weekends; difficulty of the PhD route, in a way that sometimes to help disenfranchised now I do a whole lot of my work in pajamas and I do rings false. Sure, at times reading Hume or prepping youth. Though he main- it whenever I want. for a seminar at the Shakespeare conference makes tained his innocence in Social justice work, though, does provide a very me want to hole up in my increasingly shrinking liv- real sense that your work has an immediate ing space, watch Almodovar movies and drink inad- impact. Trying to fight the death penalty visable quantities of red wine. But maybe I bemoan in the United States is tough, but we saw the work to feel a teensy bit less guilty about what I’m measurable progress. At Planned Parent- not doing—collecting signatures, handing out sand- hood, there was satisfaction leaving every wiches, organizing protests. I’d bet all 35 square feet day having armed some sixteen year old of my living space that GC students fret more about girl with bilingual safe-sex pamphlets and the problems facing our nation today than your aver- contraceptive information. But I think the age twenty-something; yet we spend our time on de- idea of a fundamental difference between coding the Romantic ethical imagination or reading social work and academia is, to some ex- 16th century antitheatricalist texts that have seem- tent, a false dichotomy. Coming from a ingly little relevance to the problems of poverty right conservative state, I was at college before outside our doors on 5th Ave. I learned to be skeptical of politicians and Don’t get me wrong: the work we’re all doing is demagogues, to marvel at the power of deeply challenging, sometimes absurdly so. But individual resistance, and to understand still, for many of us, we’re here because we have the the complexity of institutionalized rac- amazing luxury of pursuing our favorite thing in the ism and sexism, inadequate distribution whole world. The long view, for me, means reckoning of wealth, and the abysmal conditions in with the fact that, sure, the paper I’m developing on our prisons medicine and sacrifice in Donne won’t end the three For the vast majority of us here at the GC, strikes law, collect those signatures, or get health care we don’t get the direct satisfaction of see- to people in need, but my awareness of this disparity ing how our own activities help to solve the reminds me to enjoy what I’ve got, and also motivates various social problems that concern us (I me. I may not exclusively do work that privileges a should note that I’m thinking very much political agenda—I am far from advocating that—but as a person in English lit; it may be easier I will continue to consider what’s come historically to visualize a connection to social change from this ivory tower, and celebrate how that work coming from the disciplines of history, so- was later used as fodder for social revolution. Page —GC Advocate —November 2008 What’s So Democratic about American Democracy? advocate staff Institute for Democracy and Electoral of their own political values. In addi- tice, and the more politicians continue It is true that American democracy has Assistance (IDEA)—an intergovern- tion to this tremendous lack of political to practice active forms of distraction, come a very long way in the last two mental organization that helps to build options, the absence of any significant the fewer voters there will be who are hundred and thirty-two years. Before global democracy—“voter age popu- democratic involvement previous to willing to tackle the issues on their own the secret ballot, it was not uncommon lation” turnout in the United States in the general election, such as the party and find themselves capable of taking a to find oneself threatened with bodily 2000 was only 46.6 percent. Compare selection of primary party candidates, stand one way or the other. harm at the polls, and of course, voter that to the Russian federation, in which including the almost total absence of fraud, ballot rigging, and outright de- voter turnout for 2000 was 68.8 percent general participation in congressional Tactical Disenfranchisement struction of votes, have all been fre- or Azerbaijan, which came in at an as- primary decisions, leaves most voters Despite the great dearth of actual quent occurrences throughout US his- tounding 71.2 percent in 2003. with the sense that their vote is a mean- participation, it is still tempting to be- tory. In the New York elections of 1868, According to National IDEA, “Nine ingless choice between two often hand- lieve the myth that, although not many for instance, marauding gangs of youth, of the top 20 countries [for voter turn- picked and largely identical candidates. of us vote, we still have one of the most under the direction of Boss Tweed, beat out] are European (seven Western and Worse yet, their opinions, concerns, or honest and open democratic systems in and intimidated opponents of Tamma- two Eastern), six are African, three needs seem superfluous to the machi- the world, where every citizen, regard- ny Hall, stuffed ballot boxes, and voted Asian and two Oceanian.” Not surpris- nations of the political parties and cor- less of race, gender, class, or income, two, three, sometimes four times each ingly, North and South America are porate sponsorships that help to gener- is free, should they choose, to easily in an attempt to completely control conspicuously absent from this list. In ate party tickets and manipulate party and securely exercise their democratic and dictate the outcome of the elec- fact, since 1945 the United States ranks agendas with various and intense forms rights on a regular basis? Unfortunately tion. This kind of outright violence and only 139 out of 200 countries in voter of lobbying. Because of this perceived this vision of American democracy is explicit fraud is, thankfully, more un- age population turnout, averaging only and often actual sense of distance from just not true. On top of all of the inher- common today, and yet the legitimacy 48.3 percent for the postwar period. the most important aspects of the polit- ent structural and social problems that of our democracy still faces a series of Although critics of this systemcontest ical process—that is, actually choosing plague our democracy, we still have not increasingly complicated challenges. that a study of actual “voter eligible” who gets on the ballot to begin with—a fully figured out how to insure an equal Until recently, the trend in Ameri- voting trends, which would exclude majority of voters opt out of the system opportunity for all Americans to freely can history has been a general, if at the millions of prisoners and parolees all together, with only a small majority exercise their right to vote, especially if times unsteady, increase in suffrage who are ineligible to vote in forty-eight voting in the general elections. that American happens to be a member and voter enfranchisement. From the states across the country, as well as the In addition to the fact that most vot- of an ethnic minority, poor, or both. Fifteenth and the Nineteenth amend- number of non eligible non citizens liv- ers are actively kept on the margins of Of the many forms of tactical disen- ments, which gave the vote to African- ing in the United States, would offer the political process, there is also the franchisement currently being waged Americans and women respectively, to a fairer assessment of the actual vot- more obvious and unsavory fact that against poor and black Americans, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which put ing rates than “voter age” turnout, the political campaigns, especially in the the most direct and devastating has an end to explicitly racist Jim Crow numbers are still pretty dismal. If we presidential elections, have become been the growing number of convicts poll taxes and literacy requirements, measure voter turnout by the “voter largely substance-free political theatre and parolees who have lost their vote. the thrust of American policy has been eligible” population, the figures go up and comic entertainment. Consider Sadly, like many democratic nations, to offer greater and greater opportu- to close to 53 percent in 2000, but that for instance the inordinate amount of the United States, with few exceptions, nities for popular participation in lo- is still barely a little more than half. In attention given to the stupidity, sex ap- does not allow people in prison to vote. cal and national elections. This trend, other words, of the millions of people peal, clothing choices, and Midwestern Because we are a federal system, this however, has always faced a consider- eligible to vote only slightly more than accent of McCain’s running mate Sarah decision is made on a state-by-state ba- able amount of opposition from crafty half are willing to even bother to go to Palin. Although it is important for vot- sis; however, currently only two states politicians and political parties, and, the polls. According ers to get a strong sense in the United States allow prisoners to after the debacles of the 2000 and 2004 to IDEA, the United The more politicians of the character and vote while in prison: Vermont, which general elections, it seems clearer and States, often invoked continue to practice intellect of all of the has a prison population of about 2,300, clearer that we are currently suffering as the pinnacle and candidates involved in and Maine, which houses only a little through one of the most aggressive as- defender of global de- active forms of any election, the over- more than 2,100 inmates. This means saults on our democracy in decades. mocracy, is in the bot- distraction, the fewer emphasis placed upon that of the more than two million in- From a dismal lack of voter participa- tom third of one of the Palin’s lack of qualifi- mates in the United States as of 2008, at tion, to the continued intimidation and most basic measure- voters there will be cations (don’t get me least 1,996,000 are denied their right to active disenfranchisement of poor and ments of a healthy de- who are willing to wrong, she is clearly vote. That’s close to 4 percent of the to- African-American voters, to the elec- mocracy. Angola (88.3 unqualified) is more tal number of people who voted in the tronic manipulation of poll results, we percent.), Uzbekistan tackle the issues often than not a dis- 2,000 election—a huge swing vote that seem to be faced with yet another se- (88.2 percent), Taiwan on their own traction from the real would have likely given Al Gore the ries of fundamental challenges to the (70.1 percent), Leba- issues. Likewise, the election had they had the opportunity solvency of our democracy. As the next non (60.2 percent), Venezuela (77.2 mudslinging of the McCain campaign to vote. According to the Bureau of Jus- election approaches, and as charges of percent), Iran (67.6 percent), and even and the ridiculous amount of attention tice the total US prison population has voter fraud are already being hurled the Palestinian Authority (75.4 percent) given to Obama’s name, his supposed increased from approximately 250,000 from all sides of the political spectrum, (whose legally and popularly elected ties to Islam and Sixties radical Bill Ay- in 1975 to more than 2,000,000 today. there seems no better time to take a Hamas government the Bush admin- ers, are all explicit forms of political Indeed, when you compare over time, close and critical look at these threats. istration helped Israel to oust in 2006) obfuscation. Indeed, these obfuscatory the rates of “eligible voter” turnout to all have greater voter turnout than the tactics seem intentionally designed the rate of “voter age turnout” the gap Where are the Voters? United States. How is this possible? to distract the voter and eliminate the between the two increases dramatically One of the most fundamental prob- Two of the most significant reasons possibility of actual political discus- from 1972 all the way to the present. lems that threatens the legitimate func- for this dismally low turnout include sion, which, for most candidates—who Some of this gap surely is the result of tioning of our current democracy is, a general sense of apathy and a some- want to simultaneously please as many increased immigration, but it is clear quite bluntly, the sheer lack of partici- times open and active distrust of cam- donors on both sides of any given is- that much of it is directly related to the pation among most eligible voters. De- paign politics more broadly. In a two sue as possible—is anathema. The fact number of voting age inmates and pa- spite the great advances in voting rights party, winner take all electoral system that American voters are turned off by rolees who are nonetheless ineligible of the nineteenth and twentieth centu- like our own, huge percentages of the these tactics, even as they happily in- to vote. In this sense looking at IDEA’s ries, one of the most disturbing facts population, who see themselves as nei- dulge in them (consider the huge boost voter age figures truly does provide a about our democracy is, and has been, ther Democrat nor Republican—those to Saturday Night Live’s ratings since better sense of the actual health of a the limited number of citizens who individuals whom the media likes to Palin was chosen as vice-presidential democracy in terms of voter participa- choose to actually participate at the call “independents”— are left without nominee), is not surprising. In many tion. Indeed, looking even more closely polls. According to the International any seemingly legitimate representation ways, we get the democracy we prac- there is a correlative, but much smaller November 2008—GC Advocate—Page  gap between the years 1952 and 1968. two. Although this might sound fair on worst kind of voter intimidation, and is that while actual practices of fraud may Although there are few ways to test the the surface, Hacker explains that “the reminiscent of the shameful and still- go unnoticed—after all, as Mercuri hypothesis, it is possible that these two Social Security Administration is un- practiced tradition of intimidation and suggests, if you were going to cheat the gaps correlate to the two biggest dis- able to match submitted names with disenfranchisement of African-Ameri- system electronically, you could easily enfranchisements of blacks in the 20th numbers in 28 percent of the cases sent can voters that has been ongoing since do it without the voter’s, or poll work- century, the first ending only after the to it.” This means that in addition to the Fiftheen Amendment was passed. ers’ knowledge—software glitches and 1965 Voting Rights Act, with the second any illegal or redundant registrations Indeed, the voter fraud scandal cur- calibration problems may be rampant beginning shortly thereafter, with the that might have been appropriately rently being hyped up by the Republi- enough to disqualify thousands or tens devastating and exponential increase eliminated, Florida may have “acciden- can Party is actually far more insidious of thousands of votes by the end of the in prison populations, which dispro- tally” purged 28 percent of their vot- and harmful to our democracy than general election. portionately effect African-Americans. ing rolls. Not surprisingly, as in Ohio, the supposed threat of double regis- Although many ex-convicts are allowed where poor and African-American trations and votes from the grave. The What to Do? to vote, sometimes immediately after voters were disproportionately effected Republican strategy, since it realizes Obviously there are no magic bullet leaving prison; sometimes, after they by these purges, Hacker reports that it cannot fairly win many key swing solutions for how to fundamentally im- have finished their parole; and some- “while black voters made up 13 percent states in 2008 has been to aggressively prove our democracy. Real democracy times after a specified amount of time, of the scanned pool, they comprised protest voter registrations with the im- takes time, effort—enormous amounts many of them never realize this and 26 percent of those who were purged; plicit intent of discouraging and fright- of effort—and a level of engaged citi- few people are going out of their way while whites were 66 percent of the ening off Democratic voters who may zenry that begins in kindergarten and to make it clear. This means that of the pool, they were only 17 percent of the fear being arrested or challenged at the pre-school. There are, however, a num- millions of ex-convicts the US produc- rejected group.” voting booth. ber of practical changes that would at es many of them are perpetually kept One of the more recent and malicious least increase voter turnout, reduce from voting for the rest of their lives. manifestations of this ongoing attempt Electronic Voting: A Future Threat to fraud and intimidation, and increase Even worse perhaps than these ex- to suppress voter turnout of minorities, Democracy enfranchisement. plicit forms of disenfranchisement especially African-Americans, can be One of the other more troublesome The first and most obvious, but per- is the much more sinister and much seen in the current controversies sur- developments to come out of the Help haps most controversial solution is to more cynical Help America Vote Act rounding supposed acts of voter fraud. America Vote Act is the move toward begin the process of repealing state (HAVA), which, in its attempts to elim- The tempest in the proverbial teacup electronic voting. HAVA legislation was laws that prohibit convicts and parolees inate supposed voter fraud, comes as over the fraudulent activities of some originally intended to address the dim- from participating in their democracy. close as anything to helping replicate ACORN employees, for instance, has pled chads and other paper ballot prob- The two million citizens behind bars, the biased and unfair requirements of been exploited and manufactured as a lems that plagued the 2000 elections, many of them for non-violent crimes Jim Crow laws. As Andrew Hacker of way for Republican operatives to run but instead of helping to create better, such as drug possession, are perhaps Queens College ably pointed out in a last ditch effort to intimidate and clearer, and more accessible ballots, more disproportionately effected by the New York Review of Books (Sept scare away as many Obama voters as the legislation has instead convinced legislation than any other group and 25, 2008), voter identification laws, the possible. Of the very small number of many states that electronic voting will have a right to have their concerns and purging of voter rolls, and the dispro- actual voter fraud cases processed in solve all of their problems. However, as needs represented. Equally controver- portionate number of African-Ameri- the United States, the majority of them anyone who has ever used a PC knows, sial but perhaps less radical would be to cans who have lost their vote for life, were simple mistakes, such as acci- computers come with their own set pass legislation making the first Tues- will all contribute to a perfect storm dentally filling out a registration form of new and previously unimaginable day of every November a federal holi- of voter disenfranchisement, just in twice, or felons voting who did not un- problems. One of the great virtues of day. Although this would not effect all time for the first African-American derstand they were not allowed to do the paper ballot is that it provides an voters, since many would still have to democratic presidential candidate. In- so. According to the New York Times in actual as opposed to a virtual record of work, it would act as a kind of mandate deed, voter identification laws, such as total there have been 95 cases of voter any one citizen’s vote, and in the case of stressing the importance of the process, those required by HAVA legislation, fraud brought before courts in the suspected fraud or recount, can be eas- essentially saying to the public, this is tend to disproportionately effect poor United States between 2002 and 2005. ily accessed, and in most cases, easily a special and important day. Likewise, and African-American voters—many Of those 95 cases, 25 were acquitted or read and interpreted. Electronic voting although highly controversial, passing of those, Hacker argues, who would dismissed, while at least 40 were com- machines, on the other hand, often do state laws that make voting mandatory normally vote Democratic, and who, mitted by party officials, candidates or not include a paper ballot, and what’s and non-voting subject to a small, but in this election would overwhelmingly election workers. The actual number worse, provide absolutely no assur- largely unenforced fine, would help to vote for Obama. of individual voters convicted of fraud, ance to the voter that the vote they cast create and reinforce the sentiment that According to Hacker, HAVA, in its at- who actively tried to cheat the system will be properly registered. Although voting is not only a right but a duty. This tempts to “clean up” state voter rolls, has by voting twice is only about 30. How- it may have taken a room of lawyers to legislation would also send the message opened the door to a new form of im- ever, of these 30, the New York Times recount the Florida ballots, no amount for democracy to function well it must plicit disenfranchisement through the reported that 18 of them were simple of lawyers can recount something that provide universal representation. process of “purging” the voter rolls of examples of ineligible voters voting. In exists only as a final tally. More immediately, we should pass poor and African-American voters. In other words, the majority of voter fraud Rebecca Mercuri, who works for the an amended HAVA that actually helps key battleground states like Florida and cases prosecuted in the U.S. From 2002 computer forensics firm Notable Soft- Americans vote by recommending the Ohio, state governments have sought to 2005 were cases where one individ- ware, has repeatedly criticized the use elimination of voter Identification poli- to eliminate illegal voters from their ual voted one time and was prosecuted of electronic voting as it currently ex- cies and the arbitrary removal of names voting rolls in ways that have resulted simply because they were ineligible to ists. According to Mercuri, “fully elec- from voter rolls. Considering the in- in a widely disproportionate number vote. Even counting these ineligible but tronic systems do not provide any way credibly small numbers of voters who of legally registered poor and African- hardly fraudulent votes, that’s about that the voter can truly verify that the actually attempt fraud, the increasingly American voters being removed from ten a year: hardly the kind of stuff that ballot cast corresponds to that being strict identification requirements for the rolls. In Ohio, for instance, election could change the outcome of an elec- recorded, transmitted, or tabulated. voting are unreasonable and unneces- officials scrubbed voter rolls by sending tion even in the smallest rural borough Any programmer can write code that sary. HAVA should also recommend a out letters to all registered voters and in the nation. The New York Times displays one thing on a screen, records “voter verified Paper Ballot electronic then removed the names of those vot- quoted Richard Hasen from Loyola something else, and prints yet another voting system as devised by Rebecca ers whose mail was returned. Accord- Law School, an expert in election law result. There is no known way to en- Mercuri, which allows for the voter to ing to Hacker, this resulted in the re- as saying “If they found a single case of sure that this is not happening inside of verify a paper copy of their electronic moval of 35,427 names from the Ohio a conspiracy to affect the outcome of a a voting system.” vote before that paper ballot is secure- voter rolls. “A review” of this process, Congressional election or a statewide Indeed, as early voting begins, re- ly submitted and available in the case says Hacker “found that the addresses election, that would be significant. But ports from across the country have of any computer malfunctions or re- were in ‘mostly urban and minority ar- what we see is isolated, small-scale ac- been verifying Mercuri’s concerns. counts. eas.’” In addition, Hacker argues, Afri- tivities that often have not shown any In West Virginia, for instance, there More important than all of this, how- can-Americans and poor citizens tend kind of criminal intent.” Even more dis- have been numerous complaints about ever, is a greater emphasis on the im- to move more often, and without a for- turbing is the climate of fear that is cre- electronic voting machines that have portance of democratic participation in warding address, meaning they are far ated around these accusations of voter apparently been “switching” or “flip- public schools. All children should be more likely to be among those 35,000 fraud. In this same article the New ping” votes from Obama to McCain, taught the importance and the respon- removed from the rolls. Even more sin- York Times reported that a 43 year old while in Tennessee there have been at sibility of participating in their own ister, in Florida, election officials, sim- mother of four, Kimberly Prude, was least two reports of Votes for McCain governance, whether at the local or na- ply compared the names and social se- imprisoned for more than a year after flipping to Obama, and even votes for tional level, and more funds should be curity numbers of registered voters and voting while on probation. This kind of Obama flipping to Green Party candi- provided to create and maintain cur- removed all of those registrations that disproportionate punishment for the date Cynthia McKinney. The triparti- riculums that promote democratic par- showed any discrepancies between the performance of one’s civic duty is the san nature of these problems suggests ticipation and values. Page —GC Advocate —November 2008 Forgetting Iraq and the Discourse of Responsibility Steven Pludwin and center have been calls for increased Iraqi respon- bility? What types of identity do such interpolations There are no longer any innocent words. sibility regarding everything from security, to the construct? In sum, what are the consequences of this — Pierre Bourdieu, curtailment of violence and the financing of recon- discourse for both the people of Iraq and for the Unit- Language and Symbolic Power struction. ed States? To speak about Iraq’s current state of affairs Asked towards the latter part of his life how he came Many have followed Carl Levin’s suggestion that “it and future possibilities through the medium of Iraqi to define his interest in a series of diverse probléma- is indeed long overdue that we cut the cords of de- responsibility does further violence to Iraqis by cast- tiques, Michel Foucault responded by stating that he pendence and push the Iraqis to take more respon- ing them as resentful and pathological, while trivial- was driven by a very basic and fundamental ques- sibility and ownership,” and have stressed the need izing the traumatic sense of loss endured as a result tion—the desire to comprehend what is happening “to change our current course in order to shift more of war, invasion and internal conflict. Additionally, around us, to inquire, “What is our present?” In an responsibility from our troops and taxpayers to the the responsibility discourse allows the United States age of contradictions, when “invasions are touted as Iraqi government.” The overriding sentiment has to simultaneously lay blame and escape blame. It in- interventions” and “occupation as liberation,” that been to “force them to take responsibility for their duces a kind of psychological displacement and col- question poses a difficult challenge. Presently, the own future, politically, economically and militarily.” lective forgetting regarding the war in Iraq, making it United States is at war in Iraq. Yet beyond that simple Recently, Democrats in the House have introduced tougher for us to understand what our present is and statement of fact, not much else seems clear. With legislation that would require Iraq to become liable limiting our space of comprehension by masking and an absence of clarity and an abundance of ambigu- for funding its own reconstruction. Florida Demo- obscuring reality. ity surrounding the conflict, our collective memory cratic Representative Allen Boyd’s recent article in is intoxicated. As the battles continue and guilt is as- the Tallahassee Democrat—“It’s Time for the People Responsibility, Violence and Iraqi Identity sessed with the talk of civil war, exit strategies and the of Iraq to Share in Reconstruction Costs”—demon- The concept of responsibility is Janus-faced. While now famous dictum, “no end in sight,” it is necessary strated his “renewed efforts to require the Iraqi gov- on the one hand, we instinctively need to assign to return to Foucault’s question and ask—how do we ernment to take more responsibility” by touting the blame, to attribute guilt, and determine levels of cul- make sense of what is happening around us? merits of a federally mandated shared investment in pability, it is not clear that the attribution of responsi- Over the past couple of years, the dialogue sur- Iraq’s future, reaffirming his belief that “it is time for bility to an individual or group of individuals will be rounding Iraq has shifted on all sides of the politi- the Iraqi government to step forward to meet more of commensurate with reality. It is not always the case cal spectrum. A discourse of responsibility—insisting its security and reconstruction expenses.” that the subject labeled “responsible” is truly the re- that Iraqis be held accountable for their own coun- But how do we make sense of this discursive fram- sponsible party. Hence, responsibility is marked by a try—now provides the framework within which our ing of Iraq around issues of responsibility and ac- certain ambiguity because rather than simply calling discussions about Iraq take place. Resounding from countability? What exactly does it mean to be held our attention to those who should be held responsi- the echo chambers of political pundits from right, left responsible or to assume a greater share of responsi- ble, the ascription of responsibility may actually serve

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All special offers with coupon only. Excludes corporate accounts. One coupon per customer. November 2008—GC Advocate—Page  to produce the subjects it marks. As a result, anytime displacement and loss, must also asses their personal by the juxtaposition of 9/11 to the Iraq War. While responsibility, or the lack thereof, is attributed to an failings—their refusal to take responsibility for them- our memory of 9/11 as an event of unprecedented agent, it presents a reason to reflect on who is being selves. This ascription of responsibility perpetrates a importance and collective purpose remains indelibly labeled and why. second layer of violence on top of the physical vio- burned into the national psyche, our understanding Calls for the Iraqis to assume a greater share of lence that accompanies the horrors of war. It inflicts of the Iraq War, from its inception to the present re- the responsibility for their country continue inces- a psychic violence by placing the problems in Iraq mains muddled. santly. But who exactly are the “Iraqis?” Instead of at the feet of the Iraqis, all the while displacing any Every moment of remembrance for the nation is simply reporting or reflecting objective reality, such sense of culpability on the side of the invading and simultaneously an instance of forgetting precisely statements produce a unified Iraqi subject—one that occupying power. because memory fashions the past in a way that pri- blurs the lines of ethnic and religious cleavages. They oritizes a specific way of seeing history. The construc- serve to further distort what is taking place in Iraq by Forgetting Iraq… tion of national memory is a political project, where, speaking in terms of a fictive universal Iraqi identity. That the discourse of responsibility also works to to echo Aleida Assmann, “history is not only what This practice of naming is a political act of the first displace culpability presents another way in which to comes after politics; it also becomes the stuff of poli- order; an exercise of power that recalls Nietzsche’s ar- make sense of its power to shape our view of the war. tics.” As a result, the current discourse that surrounds gument in the Genealogy of Morals that “The lordly Simply put, it provides a mechanism for the United the conflict in Iraq forces us to ask not only what is right of giving names extends so far that one should States to escape blame for the situation in Iraq by remembered, but how it is remembered. How will we conceive of the origin of language itself as an expres- repositioning the locus of responsibility onto Iraqis. remember Iraq tomorrow? A year from now? Twenty sion of power on the part of the rulers.” The power to For instance, in a 2006 episode of Meet the Press, as years from now? Moreover, what will we forget? name an event or a group of individuals is the power the discourse of responsibility was gaining traction, While answers to such questions will also depend to construct identities and meaning. Thus, to inscribe the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, in part on future political moments, the discourse of the discourse of responsibility on Iraqi bodies is to Dr. Richard Haass, explicitly argued for the need to responsibility provides a social frame that helps me- establish a bifurcated framework wherein those who construct a frame through which people see the cur- diate the experience and memory of the Iraq War. It take responsibility for themselves, their future, and rent debacle in Iraq. In a roundtable discussion he allows the United States to begin the process of disas- their livelihood are deemed normal. Conversely, as stated that, “If Iraq doesn’t work, I think it is incred- sociation from the tragedy of Iraq by placing distance Alyson Cole argues, those who fail to take responsi- ibly important for the future of the Middle East and between itself and its actions. The continuous discus- bility for themselves are placed within the category American foreign policy around the world that the sion regarding the need for Iraq to take responsibility of abnormal, resentful and pathological. It is within principle lesson not be that the United States is unre- for itself helps foster a collective forgetting of the cru- this later category that the discourse of responsibility liable or lacked staying power.” He concluded that, “It elty associated with invasion. It renders it impossible places Iraqis. is essentially important for the future of this country to recognize our national deeds of violence, allowing For example, calls for increased Iraqi responsibil- that Iraq be seen, if you will, as Iraq’s failure, not as for what William Connolly has called, “the forgetful- ity are often coupled with a focus on their inability America’s failure.” This reimagining of Iraq facilitates ness of the present in the present.” or unwillingness to do so. For instance, Senator Carl a psychological displacement as to where responsibil- Levin emphatically stated that “Iraqi leaders have not ity actually resides. What’s Really Lost? met their benchmarks to share power and resources, Most importantly, Haass’ statement sets its sights We return now to the question that marked our beyond the present by calling for the need to alter the to modify de-Bathification laws, to schedule elec- beginning. That is, how do we know, how do we tions and to amend their constitution.” Additionally, way in which the Iraq War will be remembered. In make sense of, what our present is? Proving “Iraqi in- Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe writes that “the in- this regard the shift to a discourse that produces Iraq- nocence” or “American guilt,” is not what is at stake ability of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense to assume full is as the responsible agents as opposed to the United here. Instead, my goal has been to illuminate how our responsibility for providing life support to its more States can be read as an attempt to shape collective reality is mediated and shaped through discourses than 100,000 troops marks a setback in the slow pro- memory in the present; an act of crucial importance of power and how these discourses construct identi- cess of turning over greater responsibility to the Iraqi for the nation. Ernst Renan, in his essay, “What is the ties, engendering ways of seeing, remembering and government.” Underpinning these statements is the Nation?” referred to the nation as “a soul, a spiritu- forgetting. With all the talk of responsibility there is, implication that failures in Iraq continue because of al principle,” sustained largely by the “possession in of course, everything that goes unspoken. This forces the failings of the Iraqis themselves. There is an im- common of a rich heritage of memories.” For Renan us to ask what gets lost in a discourse that attempts plicit notion that it is time for Iraqis to move on and it is a sense of collective memory that provides the to reposition responsibility and inscribe other agents take control of their situation. As one local commen- nation with a foundation that bridges the past to the with its obligations. tator in the Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel put present and links the present moment with a vision of When officials speak about the absence of Iraqi it, “I think we should give the Iraqis one year from the future. Through a narrative of the past a group of leadership or the need for Iraqis to assume greater June 1st to get their act together and then we are out individuals comes to know itself as constitutive of a responsibility, the United States effectively casts the of there. If they can’t do it in the six years since we collective body. It is the stories we tell ourselves about Iraqis as delinquent and erases their status as victims. unwisely invaded their country, then they obviously ourselves that turns individuals into citizens or sub- can’t do it.” In other words, the invasion was five years jects; providing an adhesive for a disparate group of The mounting civilian casualties, the refugee crisis ago—get over it! “I’s” to know itself as a “We.” Haass’ statement reflects and the problems of internal displacement remain By portraying Iraqis as unable or unwilling to move the act of constructing a narrative, a story through hidden from clear view. However, despite the great beyond their current situation, the discourse of re- which Americans will remember their nation’s role in lengths to which the United States goes in its attempt sponsibility draws directly upon Nietzsche’s concept Iraq. to reposition the locus of responsibility from itself of ressentiment. For Nietzsche, the subject of ressen- However, while every nation needs a particular onto Iraqis, gaps between rhetoric and reality remain. timent is one that fails to act with an eye toward the knowledge of the past, what kind of knowledge is, of The discourse and the reality, to invoke the language future, but instead cleaves to its suffering and clings course, of utmost importance. Nietzsche believed that of Fanon, follow the dictates of “mutual exclusion.” to its past. Psychologically invested in its suffering, “cheerfulness, a good conscience, belief in the future, Such a disjunction strikes at the heart of Judith But- the subject of ressentiment becomes dependent, the joyful deed—all depend, in the individual as well ler’s question of “who counts as human.” Whose lives lashes out and searches for an agent outside of itself as the nation on there being a line that divides the vis- count as lives? And finally, what makes for a griev- to blame. Iraq’s failure to take responsibility for itself ible and clear from the vague and the shadowy.” His able life.” To be able to recognize the significance and is cast within this framework. The discourse com- notion that “we must know the right time to forget trauma of what Iraq and all Iraqis have collectively mands the Iraqis to let go, reinvent themselves, and as well as the right time to remember,” highlights the undergone in the past five years might provide an highlights their failure to do so as a deficiency. By re- fact that a nation’s existence is contingent upon not entry point into an important dialogue about Iraq’s fusing to assume command of their country, Iraqis only a collective, but a selective, national memory. present and future possibilities. are depicted as invested in their suffering and unable The nation commits itself to “historical error.” The Pierre Bourdieu once wrote that “from a strictly to move beyond their past, both dependent on, while imperative is not only, never forget, but in addition, linguistic point of view, anyone can say anything just simultaneously lashing out at, the United States for forget to remember. as the private can order the captain to clear the la- its current predicament through acts of insurgent But while the art of forgetting is critical to the na- trines; but from a sociological point of view, it is clear violence and civil war. Portrayed as unable and un- tional imagination, what exactly is so imperative to that not anyone can assert anything or else does so willing to overcome their melancholic state and face forget? What is it that requires such collective amnesia at his peril.” I propose that it is imperative to assume their present, Iraq is deemed irreparable because of on the part of the nation? In response, Renan main- the role of the private in Bourdieu’s formulation in the Iraqis themselves. tained that historical inquiry could actually undo order to assert all that the dominant discourse omits In this regard, the attribution of responsibility to the national foundation by bringing to light “deeds and attempts to silence. By struggling against the for- Iraqis is a practice fraught with violence. William of violence.” Selective memory and collective forget- getting of the current moment, regardless of the po- Connolly has pointed out in the case of the alcohol- ting then become essential means of disavowing past tential dangers involved we begin to piece together a ic that he or she “has to contend not only with the incidences of brutality effectively reflecting Margaret more comprehensive picture of what is actually tak- debilitating effects of the disease but with the moral Atwood’s contention that “we tend to remember the ing place, producing a better understanding of what judgment of those who construed it as simply a will- awful things done to us and to forget the awful things our present is. This commitment will no doubt guar- ful abdication of self responsibility.” Similarly Iraqis, that we did to others.” This type of discriminating re- antee the development of counter-narratives, despite in addition to coping with the trauma of invasion, lationship with the past is perhaps best exemplified attempts to ensure otherwise. Page 10—GC Advocate —November 2008 book, Sheldon Wolin, a Princeton political theorist and analyst of American democracy, holds that “De- mocracy is about the conditions that make it possible for ordinary people to better their lives by becoming political beings and by making power responsive to their hopes and needs.” However, the founders of the country and virtu- ally all subsequent political leaders have been hostile What’s to democracy in this sense. They favored checks and balances, republicanism, and rule by elites rather than rule by the common man or woman. Wolin writes: The American political system was not born a democ- racy, but born with a bias against democracy. It was constructed by those who were either skeptical about Happening to democracy or hostile to it. Democratic advance proved to be slow, uphill, forever incomplete. The republic existed for three-quarters of a century before formal slavery was ended; another hundred years before black Americans were assured of their voting rights. Only in the twentieth century were women guaranteed the vote and trade unions the right to bargain collectively. In none of these instances has victory been complete: women still lack full equality, racism persists, and the destruction of the remnants of trade unions remains IsAmerica? America in the midst of a moral and a goal of corporate strategies. Far from being innate, democracy in America has gone against the grain, against the very forms by which the political and eco- political crisis—one that goes deeper nomic power of the country has been and continues to than George W. Bush? || The Advocate asks be ordered. It is this history that makes the election of 1932 so America’s brightest minds what’s going exceptional. “The sovereign people,” Wolin contends: on—and what we can do about it were fully entitled to use governmental power and re- sources to redress the inequalities created by the econ- omy of capitalism. That conviction supported and was solidified by the New Deal. A wide range of regulatory IN THIS ISSUE: agencies was created, the Social Security program and a minimum wage law were established, unions were le- n Chalmers Johnson gitimated along with the rights to bargain collectively, and various attempts were made to reduce mass unem- n Bill Ayers ployment by means of government programs for public works and conservation. With the outbreak of World n Amiri Baraka War II, the New Deal was superseded by the forced mobilization and governmental control of the entire economy and the conscription of much of the adult male population. For all practical purposes the war Chalmers Johnson change. Bringing the opposition party to power, how- marked the end of the first large-scale effort at estab- ever, is not likely to restore the American republic to lishing the tentative beginnings of social democracy in good working order. It is almost inconceivable that this country. “Can Any any president could stand up to the overwhelming Socioeconomic conditions in 2008 somewhat re- pressures of the military-industrial complex, the ex- semble those in 1932, making a realigning election Administration tra-constitutional powers of the sixteen secret intel- conceivable. Unemployment in 1932 was a record ligence agencies, and the entrenched interests they 33 percent. In September 2008, the rate was a much Reverse the United represent. The subversive influence of the imperial lower 6.1 percent, but there were many other severe presidency, the vast expansion of official secrecy, and economic pressures. These included massive mort- the irrational commitments of American imperialism gage foreclosures, bank failures, rapid inflation in the States’ Downward (761 active military bases in 151 foreign countries as prices of food and fuel, the failure of the health care of 2008) will not easily be rolled back by the normal system to deliver service to all citizens, a looming Spiral?” workings of the political system. catastrophe of global warming due to the overcon- In his speech to the 2008 Democratic National Con- In order for that to occur, the election of 2008 would sumption of fossil fuels, continuing costly military vention, Barack Obama called the forthcoming presi- have to be a “realigning election,” of which there have interventions with more on the horizon due to for- dential election a “defining moment” in this country’s been only two during the past century—in 1932, elect- eign policy failures (in Georgia, Ukraine, Palestine, history. It is conceivable that he is right, and there are ing Franklin Roosevelt, and in 1968 bringing Rich- Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, and elsewhere), and record- precedents in American history in which an election ard Nixon to power. Until 1932, the Republicans had setting budgetary and trade deficits. The question inaugurated a period of reform and political realign- controlled the presidency for 56 of the previous 72 is whether the electorate can be mobilized as it was ment. However, such a development is extremely rare years, beginning with Abraham Lincoln’s election in in 1932 and whether this would lead to a realigning and surrounded by contingencies that are normally 1860. After 1932, the Democrats occupied the White election. The answer to neither question is an unam- beyond the control of the advocates of reform. So let House for 28 of the next 36 years. The 1968 election biguous yes. me speculate whether the 2008 election might set in saw the withdrawal of Lyndon Johnson, the defeat To even contemplate that happening, the Demo- motion a political renaissance in the United States— of Hubert Humphrey (not to mention the assassina- cratic Party has to win the election, and it faces two restoring a modicum of democracy to the country’s tions of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King), formidable obstacles in doing so: race and regional- political system and ending the march toward impe- and created a new alignment that favored the Repub- ism. Although large numbers of white Democrats rialism, perpetual warfare, and bankruptcy that be- licans based on the so-called “southern strategy.” Its have said to pollsters that the race of a candidate is gan with the Cold War and approaches its end game essence was to run Republican racists for office in the not a factor in their decision to vote, there is ample at the present time. old Confederate states. Before 1968, the Democrats evidence that they are not telling the truth. Andrew The political blunders, serious mistakes, and gov- were clearly the majority party, winning seven of the Hacker, a well-known specialist on this subject at ernmental failures of the last eight years so discred- previous nine presidential elections. Between 1968 Queens College, calls this phenomenon the “Brad- ited the administration of George W. Bush that his and 2004, the Republicans won seven of the next ten. ley Effect,” referring to Tom Bradley, a former black name was barely mentioned at the 2008 Republican Of these two realigning elections, the one that mayor of Los Angeles, who lost his 1982 bid to be- convention. Even John McCain chose to run as a can- elected Roosevelt is more important for our purposes come governor of California even though every poll didate of “change” despite the fact that it was his own because it ushered in one of the few truly democratic in the state showed him leading his white opponent party’s misgoverning that elicited those demands for periods in American political history. In his latest by substantial margins. Similar results appeared in It is almost inconceivable that any president could stand up to the overwhelming pressures of the military-industrial complex, the extra-constitutional powers of the sixteen secret intelligence agencies, and the entrenched interests they represent Chalmers Johnson November 2008—GC Advocate—Page 11 The question of whether we will become a nation among nations and a people among peoples, or rather insist belligerently on our right to be the uber-nation and go out, then, in the proverbial blaze-of-glory is palpable, immediate and real Bill Ayers

1989 when David Dinkins ran for mayor of New York Middle Atlantic states (Delaware, Maryland, New for peace and justice, holding everyone’s feet to the City and Douglas Wilder sought election as governor Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), and the District fire. of Virginia. Dinkins was ahead by eighteen percent- of Columbia. It is the primary Democratic strong- That strikes me as right. Lyndon Johnson, the most age points but won by only two, and Wilder was lead- hold. The South is today a Republican stronghold. It effective politician of his generation, was never in- ing by nine points but actually won by only a half a is made up of the eleven former Confederate states volved in the Black Freedom Movement, although he percent. Numerous other examples lead Hacker to of- (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, did pass the most far-reaching legislation in history in fer this advice to Obama campaign offices: ALWAYS Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennes- response to a robust and in many ways revolutionary SUBTRACT SEVEN PERCENT from any favorable see, Texas, and Virginia). movement in the streets. Franklin Delano Roosevelt poll results. That’s the Bradley effect. The second Republican stronghold, displaying an was neither a labor leader nor an activist, and yet he Meanwhile, the Karl Rove-trained Republican Party intense and growing partisanship, is the Mountains/ presided over critical progressive social legislation has been hard at work disenfranchising black voters. Plains region. It is composed of the thirteen states in a time of radical labor mobilization in shops and Although we are finally beyond property qualifica- of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Ne- mines and factories across the land. And Abraham tions, written tests, and the poll tax, there are many braska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklaho- Lincoln was not a member of an abolitionist political new gimmicks. These include laws requiring voters ma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. The second party, but reality—including in effect a general strike to present official identity cards that include a photo, Democratic stronghold is the Pacific Coast, which by enslaved human beings—forced emancipation to which for all practical purposes means either a driv- includes the nation’s most populous state, California, the forefront of American politics. Each of these three er’s license or a passport. Many states drop men and joined by Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. acted at a moment of crisis and expanding possibili- women from the rolls who have been convicted of a The Midwest, where national elections are won or ties, each responded to radical grassroots movements felony but who have fully completed their sentences, lost by the party that is able to hold on to and mo- for social justice on the ground. or they require an elaborate procedure to be reinstat- bilize its strongholds, is composed of Illinois, Indi- Of course the White House “matters,” but where in- ed. There are many other ways to discourage black ana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, tellectuals, artists, and activists tend to get muddy is voters from attempting to vote, not the least of which Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The two most in analyzing how and why it matters, what its critical is that the United States imprisons a greater propor- important swing states in the nation are Florida (27 limits are, how this or that election, this or that can- tion of its population than any other country on earth, electoral votes) and Ohio (20 electoral votes), which didate, a vote for this one or “that one” or neither one a burden that falls disproportionally on blacks. These the Democrats narrowly lost in both 2000 and 2004. fits into a larger strategy for fundamental progressive obstacles can be overcome but they require heroic or- These five regions are today entrenched in the na- change. Too often when the wildly noisy carnival of ganizational efforts. tion’s psyche. There is no way to get around them in a national election sweeps into town it’s as if a mag- Regionalism is the other problem standing in the a national election, which barring a clear and unmis- netic hole opens up, sucking all energy and light into way of attempts to mobilize the electorate on a na- takable performance failure by one of the parties—as its gaping maw. Some abandon other important work tional basis. In their book Divided America, the po- happened to the Republicans during the Great De- under the banner, “All for the White House,” others litical scientists Earl and Merle Black argue that the pression—will normally produce very narrow victo- offer “critical support.” But without a serious, collec- U.S. electorate is hopelessly split. This division, which ries by one party or the other. tively generated critical analysis, national elections is becoming more entrenched with each passing year, In the 2008 election, there are two main issues that reinforce a terribly retrograde and entirely unworthy is fundamentally ideological but is also rooted in eth- will determine whether or not it will be a realign- idea: if we get the right leaders, we can sit back while nicity and manifests itself in an intense and never- ing one. Republican Party failures in managing the they bring us the change the world needs. If the less ending partisanship. “In modern American politics,” economy, in involving the country in catastrophic bad alternative lands in the White House there’s no they write, “a Republican Party dominated by white wars of choice, and in ignoring such paramount is- need for dancing in the streets; we might feel relieved, Protestants faces a Democratic Party in which mi- sues as global warming all dictate a Democratic Par- but the real work still lies ahead. In this regard it’s norities plus non-Christian whites far outnumber ty victory. Militating against that outcome is racist worth remembering the insight expressed by Eugene white Protestants.” Another significant and grow- hostility toward the Democratic Party’s candidate. It Debs at the turn of the last century when he told a ing difference is gender imbalance. In the 1950s, the seems probable that the crisis caused by the perfor- group of workers in Chicago, “If I could lead you into Democratic Party, which was then by far the larger mance failures of the incumbent party will guarantee the Promised Land I would not do it, because some- party, was evenly balanced between women and men. a realigning election favoring the Democrats. But it one else would come along and lead you out.” Fifty years later, a smaller but still very potent Demo- is impossible to know how swayed by race the nation I subscribe to Myles Horton’s idea that great mo- cratic Party contained far more women than men (60 may be. The fate of the nation hangs in the balance. ments of social upheaval—Mountain Times he called percent to 40 percent). “In contrast,” says Black, “the them—are inevitable in an unjust world, but that Val- Republican Party has shifted from an institution with Chalmers Johnson is the author of three linked books on the cri- ley Times are critical in order to prepare ourselves ses of American imperialism and militarism. They are Blowback more women than men in the 1950s (55 percent to (2000), The Sorrows of Empire (2004), and Nemesis: The Last Days for the coming storms. This is the hard and essential 45 percent) to one in which men and women were of the American Republic (2006). work of movement-building. We, of course, cannot as evenly balanced in 2004 as Democrats were in the will a movement into being, but neither can we sit 1950s.” Bill Ayers idly by waiting for a movement to spring full-grown, The old American antagonism between the two as from the head of Zeus, and land in our laps. Prepa- sides in the civil war (Southern Democrats vs. North- ration, preparation, preparation. ern Republicans) had by the 21st century given way to “The Politics of We must agitate for democracy and push hard for “a new American regionalism, a pattern of conflict in human rights, learning to build a new society through which Democrats and Republicans each possess two our collective self-transformations and our limited regional strongholds and in which the Midwest, as Teaching in an everyday struggles. We must commit to the com- the swing region, holds the balance of power in presi- mon good even as we take a full and realistic measure dential elections.” Unjust World” of reality. This means making a concrete analysis of The five regions, each becoming more partisan During the heat of the 2008 battle with Senator Hill- real conditions, finding ways to make connections and less characteristic of the nation as a whole, are ary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination for between and across specific movements—war and the Northeast, South, Midwest, Mountains/Plains, president, Senator Barack Obama was asked who he warming, peace and labor rights, queer freedom and and Pacific Coast. The Northeast, although declining imagined Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. would sup- human rights—and positing alternatives. We must slightly in population, is becoming more unambigu- port if he were alive today. Without hesitation Obama seek ways to live sustainably, to stop the addiction to ously liberal Democratic each year. It is composed of responded that he didn’t think Reverend King would consumption and development and military power, to New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, support or endorse either one; King, more character- relentlessly press the egalitarian ideal of fair distribu- New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont), the istically, would be in the streets building a movement tion of rights and wealth, and this means specifically Page 12—GC Advocate —November 2008 All children and youth, regardless of economic circumstance, must have full access to richly-resourced classrooms led by caring, qualified, and generously compensated teachers, and assessment must be in the service of student learning and teacher effectiveness. K-16 education is an urgent priority and a fundamental human right Bill Ayers opposing war and surveillance and caging in favor of let them float in the air, without support … they are identify the obstacles to your full humanity, and the more education, more health care, and social secu- embarked on a great voyage—like us who are also courage to act upon whatever the known demands. rity for all. In these efforts the competing impulses without support and embarked on a great voyage.” Education as the practice of freedom. and ideals that animate our history are on full display: Here Galileo is raising the stakes and taking on the School has always been and will always be con- rights and liberty and the pursuit of human freedom establishment in the realm of its own authority—it tested space—what should be taught? In what way? on one side, domination and conquest and repression strikes back fiercely. Forced to renounce his life’s work Toward what end? By and for whom?—and at bottom on the other; education, health care, and some degree under the pressure of the Inquisition he denounces the struggle is over the essential questions. What does of economic security throughout life in close conten- what he knows to be true, and is welcomed back into it mean to be human? What does it mean to construct tion with war, surveillance, and containment. the church and the ranks of the faithful, but exiled a meaningful, purposeful, and valuable life in the We live in a time of empire resurrected and un- from humanity—by his own word. At this point a world, here and now? What demands does freedom apologetic, militarism proudly expanding and trium- former student confronts Galileo in the street, say- make? phant, war without justice and without end, growing ing, “Many on all sides followed you with their ears The education we are accustomed to is often little disparities between the haves and the have-nots as and their eyes believing that you stood, not only for more than a caricature—it is not authentically or economic dislocation wracks the world, white and a particular view of the movement of the stars, but primarily about full human development. Why, for male supremacy retrenched, basic rights and protec- even more for the liberty of teaching—in all fields. example, is education thought of as only kinder- tions shredded, fear and superstition and the mobi- Not then for any particular thoughts, but for the right garten through 12th grade, or kindergarten through lization of scapegoating social formations based on to think at all. Which is in dispute.” university? Why does education occur only early in bigotry and the threats of violence, and on and on. The right to think at all, which is in dispute—the life? Why is there a point in our lives when we feel we The powerful cannot rule in the old ways, ordinary right to pursue an inquiry into uncharted spaces, the no longer need education? Why is there a hierarchy people are unwilling to pursue solutions in the old right to challenge the church and its orthodoxy with of teacher over student? Why are there grades and ways, and a missing piece of the puzzle—a radical argument and evidence in the public square. The right grade levels? Why is there attendance? Why is being new vision and program—cries out to be discovered to think—this is the heart of education which, at its on time so valuable? Why is education separate from through action. We live as well at the eclipse of the best, rests on the twin pillars of enlightenment and production? American empire—Randy Newman sings that “The liberation, knowledge and human freedom. We want Schools in a democracy resist the over-specializa- end of the empire is messy at best/and this one is end- to know more, to see more, to experience more in or- tion of human activity—the separation of the intel- ing/like all the rest.” The question of whether we will der to do more—to be more competent and power- lectual from the manual, the head from the hand, become a nation among nations and a people among ful and capable in our projects and our pursuits, to the heart and the head, the creative and the func- peoples, or rather insist belligerently on our right to be more astute and aware, more fully engaged in the tional—as a distortion, and build upon the unity of be the uber-nation and go out, then, in the proverbial world we inherit and that we are simultaneously des- human beings, a unity based both upon recognition blaze-of-glory is palpable, immediate and real. The tined to change. of differences as well as consciousness of interde- trauma of contradictions that is America. All of this Education in a democracy must be considered dis- pendence. People are different—distinct capacities, pushes us toward becoming authentic actors and ac- tinct from education under a dictatorship or a mon- unique needs—and we are, at the same time, entirely tive subjects in our own history. archy, and the distinction matters. After all, school connected. The knowledge we lack includes an ac- And none of this, of course, is easy or automatic; all leaders in fascist Germany or communist Albania or knowledgment of the reality of our wild diversity— of it demands, in Gramsci’s famous dictum, “pessi- medieval Saudi Arabia are all agreed that students something that just is—and at the same time an ac- mism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” We might should behave well, stay away from drugs and crime, ceptance of our deep connectedness. The knowledge harvest some hope now in the growth of opposition do their homework, study hard, and master the sub- we desperately need is a knowledge based upon full to war and occupation worldwide. Or we might be ject matters. But in a democracy there is something human recognition, upon unity and solidarity. The inspired by the growing reparations and prison ab- more: the attempt to develop in students and teach- goal of democratic schools, then, is the mobilization olition movements, or the rising immigrant rights ers alike the ability to think for themselves, to decide of intelligence and creativity and initiative and work movement that is re-framing the question of work what is black and what is white, what’s false and what’s of all people in all directions. and rights as well as the stirrings of working people true. Teaching in a democracy is geared toward par- Educators, students, citizens, and activists must everywhere on earth, or by queer people courageous- ticipation and engagement, and it’s based on a com- press in this period for a new kind of education based ly pressing for full human recognition and rights. But mon faith: every human being is of infinite and incal- on the principle that the fullest development of all mainly hope resides in a simple self-evident truth: the culable value, each a unique intellectual, emotional, will be the condition for the full development of each. future is unknown, and it’s also entirely unknowable. physical, spiritual, and creative force capable of ask- This new education advocates an end to sorting peo- History is always in the making, and we are—each ing. Who in the world am I? What in the world are ple into winners and losers through expensive stan- and every one of us—works-in-progress. It’s up to my choices? How in the world shall I proceed? dardized tests which act as pseudo-scientific forms us, for nothing is predetermined, and we are acting Education in a democracy is characteristically of surveillance; an end to starving schools of needed largely in the dark with our limited consciousness eye-popping and mind-blowing—it’s about opening resources and then blaming teachers for dismal out- and our contingent capacities. This makes our mo- doors, opening minds, inviting students to become comes; and an end to the rapidly accumulating “edu- ment both entirely hopeful if exquisitely treacherous more capable and powerful actors and choice-mak- cational debt,” the resources due to communities his- and all the more urgent. And it brings me to the wild ers as they forge their own pathways into a wider torically segregated, under-funded and under-served. and wonderful, controversial and always-contested world. But much of what we call schooling forecloses All children and youth, regardless of economic cir- world of education. or shuts down or walls off meaningful choice-mak- cumstance, must have full access to richly-resourced In Brecht’s play Galileo the great astronomer sets ing. While many of us long for teaching as something classrooms led by caring, qualified and generously forth into a world dominated by a mighty church and transcendent and powerful, we find ourselves too-of- compensated teachers, and assessment must be in the an authoritarian power: “The cities are narrow and ten locked in situations that reduce teaching to a kind service of student learning and teacher effectiveness. so are the brains,” he declares recklessly. “Supersti- of glorified clerking, passing along a curriculum of K-16 education is an urgent priority and a fundamen- tion and plague. But now the word is: since it is so, it received wisdom and predigested bits of information. tal human right. does not remain so. For everything moves my friend.” A fundamental choice and challenge for teachers, We might try to create open spaces in our schools Intoxicated with his own radical discoveries—he has then, is this: to acquiesce to the machinery of con- and our various communities where we expect fresh seen more, become shockingly more aware—Galileo trol, or to take a stand with our students in a search and starting winds to blow, unaccustomed winds that feels the earth shifting and finds himself propelled for meaning and a journey of transformation. To be a are sure to electrify and confound and fascinate us. surprisingly toward revolution. “It was always said prison guard or an educator. To teach obedience and Winds that tell us we are alive. We begin, then, by that the stars were fastened to a crystal vault so they conformity, or to teach its polar opposite: initiative throwing open the windows. In this corner of this could not fall,” he says. “Now we have taken heart and and imagination, the capacity to name the world, to place—in this open space we are constructing togeth- November 2008—GC Advocate —Page 13 er—people will begin to experience themselves as as contradictory as that might seem. The internation- be, what the key link in that chain of progressive powerful authors of their own narratives, luminous ally perceived racial conflict in the United States was struggle is that if grasped will hoist the whole of us actors in their own dramas, the essential creators the most glaring contradiction to US claims to being incrementally to the next level of unity and struggle? of their own lives. They will find ways to articulate the almighty white angel of world politics. We cannot go backward or even contemplate it. A their own desires and demands and questions. In this The colored secretaries of state provided some of revolutionary must first find out what it is the peo- space everyone will live in search of rather than in ac- the cool out necessary not only to sublimate that ple want, what they need. Unfortunately, for some, cordance with or in accommodation to. This is the key image but to foist on this world of colored people a the definition of revolution is to construct some to a democratic future. confusing tactic, so that when either secretary of state elitist cultural nationalist, religious or infantile left- hopped out of a plane somewhere in this mostly col- ist position, the “further out” the better, so they may Bill Ayers (http://billayers.org) is Professor of Education and Se- nior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He ored world, friends and righteous enemies would be claim, since few others will get down with that, that is the author of several books on education and politics, includ- startled by who was carrying the message. they must be the most revolutionary of all. Too often ing: To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher (soon in 3rd ed.), Fugi- So now that it’s come all the way to the “top” of US this is just a means of hiding out from the real work tive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Actvist (2001, re-released Nov. of educating and organizing and settling for being the 2008 by Beacon), Race Course: Against White Supremacy (co- government, there is a need for another, Yeh! black, author, out Dec. 2008 from Third World Press), City Kids/City face to cool out the ugliness the last twenty some hippest chump in the closet. Teachers and City Kids/City Teachers (New Press, 2008), Teaching years have mashed upon the world. We might not What we must be aiming for at the present level of the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice (2004), agree with the intention of this playacting, but at the US politics is a people’s or popular democracy, rather and Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom (2004). same time we must recognize the forces that make it than the dictatorship of wealth that exists today. That necessary. Recognize those forces, because we are a struggle must include replacing the monopoly capi- large part of them. And with that recognition must talist-imperialist domination of US politics at every Amiri Baraka come the understanding of what the next step in this level with a united front, which should be led by the protracted struggle to ultimately eliminate imperial- working class in alliance with farmers, the progres- ism and monopoly capitalism is: which are the base of sive petty bourgeoisie, oppressed nationalities and “Forward is Where continuing national oppression, racism, gender op- progressive national bourgeoisie: in other words, the pression, and anti-democratic hegemony anywhere loose Obama coalition, as it exists now. We Have to Go” in the world. For the Afro-American people a national united What the young people with the signs in St. Peters- The very negative side of the “post-racist” line that front, democratic assembly, would be a huge step burg said to Barack Obama—“You’re undermining Obama runs is that the die is cast for nitwits to say in the right direction, as what was attempted by the the (Black) Revolution”—is merely one more exam- that racism is done and gone and that if you still in Convention Movement of the 19th century, the Na- ple of how confused and misdirected too many who the ghetto or still don’t have a job, it’s on you. Obama’s tional Negro Congress in the 1940’s and the Gary style themselves “revolutionary” have become. For best intention is that there is the making of a post rac- Convention in 1972. It is this kind of organized force one thing, it is certain that these folk do not even un- ist coalition that can provide the muscle for his cam- that would be powerful enough to maintain the cor- derstand what revolution is. I would guess they are paign and victory in the election. But reality—the rect orientation of any national coalition of multina- more of the tiny throng captivated by anarchism and cops, the jails, the unemployment figures—puts all tional forces to win this election and help steer the infantile leftism who think revolution means stand- that down every day. ship of state. ing on the sidelines hurling insults at the people who Still, it is a very pimpable figment. ANew York Times The fiercest opponents to such a victorious coali- they think are their enemies. recent cover story—“Is Obama the End of Black Poli- tion are the racist right and the juvenile delinquent If you want to stand around with signs of some sig- tics?”—is a stinking example of its pimpablity. One left some of whom are quite rightist and even some nificant show of political clarity, they should at least obvious answer to that is “Only if Obama is the End quite racist; e.g., how can Nader put Obama down for be aimed at the crypto fascist John McCain. To not of White Politics.” One could hope that an Obama “sounding white”? What does “white” sound like, af- even be able to identify who the main enemy is at any victory would signal an incremental leap in the direc- ter all? And how come Nader don’t sound like that? given stage of struggle is patently non-revolutionary. tion of more democratic allowances for highly skilled Ultimately this political period will be characterized To think that Obama is the principle target of our operatives within the system, which is what Obama by what kind of political force blacks and progressive struggle is, at best, infantile and anarchist. At worst, it certainly is. But “post-racist”? Gimme me a break. Americans can put together to secure Obama’s elec- could be pro-McCain. Black politics will only disappear when the black tion and push him ever to the Left. Hubert Harrison, If we go back to basics, revolution is the seizure of majority disappears, and even the wish fulfillment of the black socialist, wrote in the New York Call in 1911: power. The aim of revolutionaries, at most stages of New York Times “liberals” can never achieve this, nor “politically, the Negro is the touchstone of the mod- struggle, is the seizure of power. To picket Obama is the creepy self hatred of those incognegroes the Times ern democratic idea. The presence of the Negro puts to move to seize power for McCain. wants to anoint as “post-black.” Still the question of our democracy to the proof and reveals the falsity of What is also not understood is the tortuous path Obama’s candidacy is a quite different consideration. it…True democracy and equality implies a revolu- of revolutionary struggle. Obama, along with quite a As I have said in print and in the flesh at many forums, tion …startling even to think of.” So the question of few other “post ‘60s” developments is still the prod- the foundation of Obama’s successful candidacy is his “Black Politics” must be inextricably bound to pro- uct and direct result of the turbulent Civil Rights and 90 percent support from the Afro-American people, gressive politics in this country and just as we fought Black Liberation movements of the ‘60s. Without Dr. a fact that I’m sure he understands. Obama also un- as black people and with progressive allies of many King, Montgomery, Malcolm X, Robert Williams, derstands that it is the rest of the American people nationalities even to vote, or for that matter, to drink Rosa Parks, CORE, the Freedom Riders, the Black he must reach out to, no matter how his attempts to out of public drinking fountains or ride anywhere in a Panthers, SNCC and CAP there could be no Barack do this are questioned, even by black people. After bus, so it is this same “Black Politics” that will help us Obama. Without those bloody struggles against black all, 90 percent of 12 percent is not enough to win the tackle our current national problems. Black politics national oppression, racism, discrimination and seg- presidency. in its most progressive meaning is the struggle for a regation, there could be no Obama candidacy, or cer- The so called militants, black and white, simply fail people’s democracy here in the United States. This is tainly not of this magnitude. to understand that the logic and strength of Obama’s what the Obama campaign asserts boldly. We must Jesse Jackson’s two runs for president were admi- candidacy is the 21st century manifestation of the see that it continues to do so right into the Oval Of- rable, and yes, they were part of the sledgehammer of Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements. Jesse fice nda beyond. black politics from the 50’s through the 80’s. And just Jackson’s two impressive candidacies were also part Amiri Baraka is an internationally acclaimed poet, playwright, as that force created the visible use of Colin Powell and of that movement. Not to accept both these phenom- political activist, and the former Poet Laureate of New Jersey. He Condoleeza Rice as negro “buttons” within the righ- ena as positive aspects and results of our collective is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and mu- sic history and criticism, including Blues People: Negro Music in twing establishment of US bourgeois politics, none of struggle is to lack “true self consciousness.” White America, (1963), The Dutchman (1964), Black Magic, po- that was possible without the black movement itself, The real question now is what the next step should ems (1969), and Somebody Blew Up America (2001).

Unfortunately, for some, the definition of revolution is to construct some elitist cultural nationalist, religious or infantile leftist position, the “further out” the better, so they may claim, since few others will get down with that, that they must be the most revolutionary of all Amiri Baraka Page 14—GC Advocate —November 2008 book REVIEW Democracy’s Demons Inside the Mind of the American Voter Justin Rogers-Cooper mocracy, they argue, you’ve got to start with how vot- (the public believes more people working is good), Ñ The Myth of the Rational Voter ers make decisions. In The Myth of the Rational Voter, and pessimistic bias (the public believes the economy by Bryan Caplan (2008) George Mason University economics professor Bryan is worse than it is). Antimarket bias is a core part of Ñ Just How Stupid Are We? by Rick Shenkman (2008) Caplan echoes Thomas Franks” central question: why his critique and philosophy, though. At the end of his Ñ Red State Blue State Rich State Poor do people vote against their economic interests? For book, Caplan returns to it as he proposes that free- State by Andrew Gelman (2008) Caplan, however, this question pertains to those vot- market economics be taught in schools. “People do ers who vote for protectionist trade policies. They not understand the “invisible hand” of the market, Recent stories of America’s relatively abrupt fall from don’t do this because they are ignorant. They’re “ir- its ability to harmonize private greed and the public “exceptionalism” typically trace the corruption and rational.” They process information emotionally. interest,” he writes. He believes the public doubts the incompetence of the executive branch. Much of this They “tune out” information that upsets their beliefs. ability for “profit-seeking business” to generate posi- commentary focuses on the abuse of executive power If democracy fails, it’s because it does what voters tive social effects. “They focus on the motives of busi- during the administration of George W. Bush. The want. In short, voters want to feel good about voting. ness,” he writes, “and neglect the discipline imposed majority of it has come from journalists, pundits, or Their choices are irrational, and therefore democracy by competition.” Instead, voters should understand insiders near the White House (think Richard Clarke, cannot behave rationally. This is his main argument the benefits of comparative advantage, the danger Bob Woodward, or Frank Rich). In their narratives, against those folks who think democracy could be of price controls, and the “long-run” benefits of la- the nation’s problems came from a relatively small better if people were more educated. On this point, bor-saving innovation. Indeed, Caplan prefers voters group of political appointees that grossly abused the he seems to score. understand that jobs go overseas because “there are power locked into unelected positions of government: You might contest that voters aren’t “disturbingly more remunerative ways to use domestic labor.” He Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, ignorant” or that the past few years are a “fragile, tem- doesn’t specify them, unfortunately. and so on. By this point, we’re probably too familiar porary condition,” but Caplan’s got numbers, facts, It’s almost too easy to point toward the current with the awesome corruption, decadence, and ethical and studies to back him up. Some of these figures are economic crisis as a response to Caplan’s own “pro- decay exposed within the military/industrial com- from classic studies, and also appear in similar litera- market bias.” First, his old reference to the “invisible plex–the CIA, the NSA, the EPA, the Interior and ture. In Just How Stupid Are We? for instance, another hand” refers to competition and greed among indi- Justice departments, the Pentagon, and so on. George Mason academic, historian Rick Shenkman, viduals. It does not refer to the combined, abstracted This general mindset has been described as a warped catalogues several of the same studies: Only 20 per- greed that powers a hundred-billion dollar company institution of policies inaugurated during the Ronald cent of U.S. citizens have passports; half of Americans like, say, AIG or Lehman Brothers. Imagine that one Reagan years. Reagan’s quip about “government be- don’t know how many senators each state has; half of the figures the invisible hand tries to regulate is a ing the problem” seemed to address the perceived can’t name their congressman; only 40 percent can single-income, black-female household in Cleveland. failures of the Great Society programs and gave polit- name all three branches of government; only 34 per- The other figure is a gigantic insurance company with ical cover for neo-liberal deregulation and free mar- cent know that congress declares war; and 49 percent thousands of employees all coordinating their activi- ket ideology. While channeling Reagan’s rhetoric of believe the president can suspend the constitution. ties to exercise the most exacting, overly clever, and small government, Bush used the one-party Congress During the McCarthy hearings in 1952, only 19 per- seemingly sophisticated set of policies ever imagined to cut taxes to large corporations, legalize torture, cent of the population knew what the Foreign Service to produce wealth. The invisible hand can probably and cow a compliant judiciary branch to re-write the did. In 1986, only 30 percent of the population knew nudge the grandmother fairly easily with a sub-prime Constitution. In July, a federal court ruled that Ali al- Roe v. Wade had to do with abortion. It goes on. contract: follow your greed and get this house re-fi- Marri’s status as an “enemy combatant” was legal; the The effect of all this information could mean a few nanced. But the same invisible hand would probably same ruling allows for the indefinite detention of any American citizen. With no checks and balances until 2006, the zero regulation of govern- ment, banks, and Wall Street sunk the nation into recession, criminal- ity, insolvency, and panic. Enter Barack Obama and the Age of Re- demption. Right? Not so fast. In the past year, several contemporary historians, economists, and sociologists have begun searching for other explana- tions about the Bush years. How did Bush and his cronies get into power, anyway? Who put them there—and why? They examine the role played by American citizens in maintain- ing the health of their own demo- cratic institutions. These books fol- low the general thrust of Thomas Frank’s widely read critique of red state America fol- things. First, it appears that a majority of citizens have get its fingers broken trying to stop AIG. What Caplan lowing Bush’s re-election in 2004,What’s the Matter been ignorant of political events and the political pro- doesn’t account for is that gigantic corporations, like with Kansas? Instead of limiting their focus to the cess for a long time. Second, this knowledge implies monopolies or trusts, are not equal to an individual. seeming contradiction between red state cultural and that the education system is seriously flawed. Or, fi- They have more power, more authority, more choices, economic interests, they ask much broader questions nally, it may be that people do, in fact, choose to vote more information, and thus their unchecked greed about the role of culture, information, religion, pas- based on emotions rather than reason. Since Caplan can do more damage. It’s not proportional. So when sion, emotion, and education for voters in the United is an economist, he cares most of all about voters” ig- he criticizes voters who elect representatives that can States. These questions rightfully strike at the very norance of economics. If they could purge their basic express their antimarket bias, he neglects consider- heart of participatory politics and government by the biases about economic behavior, the political process ing the way it might “balance” the greed he finds so people and they don’t begin or end with Bush. The would work better. This would happen because poli- productive. biggest problem, these authors contend, is not lack- ticians could finally start implementing policies they Caplan might remember, too, the decline of union luster voter turnout for midterm elections. Nor is it know work for the long term, instead of trying to sat- power during the neo-liberal era. If laid off workers about the apathy or ignorance of those that sit out isfy voter feelings about, say, jobs going overseas. can no longer organize, isn’t it logical to assume they elections entirely. What keeps these writers awake at Voter sensitivity to protecting jobs is what Caplan might elect protectionists to office during times of night are the people that do vote. calls antimarket bias. He also faults antiforeign bias economic crisis? In other words, they’re choosing to If you want to understand the problem with de- (the public is scared of foreigners), make-work bias be “irrational” economists because they’re actually ra- November 2008—GC Advocate —Page 15 tional workers and consumers. Just because the milk velopments. When the “masses” got the vote in the they should begin honestly assessing another crack and toys can be made cheaper in China, that doesn’t 19th century, politicians had to dumb-down their among the white base: do they hate Arabs or blacks? mean the labor-saving “innovation” of cheap Chi- tactics. They began using “fake imagery, slogans, Their conflation of Obama as a Muslim and an Arab nese labor is preferable. The milk and toys could have songs, torchlight parades, and bombastic rhetoric.” and a terrorist seems to clearly indicate this confu- been made safer in the United States. Furthermore, Men were elected and came to power “on the back sion. This might end up being another of Bush’s un- without a social safety net voters anxious about jobs of a simplistic phrase designed to generate an emo- welcome legacies for the Republican Party. Too much will never quit worrying about their next paycheck. tional charge from the masses.” This is the connection of the base seems to understand the war on terror as a So it’s no use telling them to worry about the benefits between the real evangelicals who supported Bush conflict that resembles a clash of civilizations between of free trade years down the road. If economists want and the “secular” evangelism of those who believe Christians and Muslims. By doing this, Bush has more free-trade, they might ironically find it works in Obama. Politics and religion trade on the fears of tenuously shifted the zeal of white American racists better in a socialist state with more unemployment those that wish to be saved. Both Karl Rove and Da- away from their long support of the institutionalized benefits, education, and health-care. Higher taxes for vid Axelrod understand the need to create an emo- persecution of African-Americans, onto the backs of these benefits might translate into less anxiety about tional bond with people using a new public myth as a Muslim Americans. When he over-sold the myth of free-trade. vehicle to power. the terrorist as an Islamic extremist, he neglected to Less anxiety over these benefits might also lessen For Shenkman, the “limited capacity” of the gen- stoke the old code-words involving race. These are another of Caplan’s worries. He believes that voters eral public has become so toxic because it has be- the words the McCain campaign invokes when it uses are irrationally afraid of foreigners because they take come a taboo subject. This limited capacity—this phrases like “the real America” in Virginia, an echo of jobs here and abroad. He desires they instead consider ignorance—might mean something different in light former GOP candidate George Allen’s rant in which that “total output increases” when different places in of Caplan’s thesis about how voters choose to be ir- he uses the word “macaca.” The problem now for the the world concentrate on what they do best. “Imag- rational. It suggests that the stupidity of racism might Republican party is that Bush might have confused ine how much time it would take to grow your own sometimes be indistinguishable from real stupidity. moderately racist Republicans enough that, after food?” he asks. He rapturously cites the “The Law of Shenkman believes the issue could be confronted by eight years, they don’t know who to hate. Comparative Advantage,” which “shows that mutually questioning the intelligence of the population. He In his study Red State Blue State Rich State Poor beneficial trade is possible in every way.” As an exam- suggests a sustained, popular critique of the entire State, Columbia statistics professor Andrew Gelman ple, Caplan offers a scenario where Americans should sacred mythology surrounding the Constitution’s no- surveys how the intense electoral divisions in the make cars and Mexicans should make wheat. Special- tion of “the people.” This critique is acceptable in pri- 2000 and 2004 elections corroborates the way race ization increases production if each country focuses vate conservation, but not in public debate or in the and religion worked together among lower-income on producing what it does well. So when American media. It’s certainly not going to appear as a question voters when they voted Republican. It’s not what you wheat jobs go to Mexico, that’s a good thing. in a debate, or in a post-debate wrap-up. The question would expect: his findings dispel some of the easier But voters, Caplan says, often see lost jobs, lost wag- about the people is always going to be: what do they assumptions of those elections, and how poor whites es, and wasted public services (think of those who ar- think? But the question can never be: how intelligent vote. First, he found that in blue states the rich dispro- gue against allowing illegal immigrants access to hos- are those that think it—and maybe even how racist? portionately support Democrats, although nationally pitals). I would again refer Caplan to reconsider the The fallacy of “our civic religion” is to treat all vot- the rich overwhelmingly support Republicans. Al- negative value attached to higher taxes in a socialist ers” opinions as equal. The reason the Constitution though the rich are slightly more socially liberal than state. It would be harder for voters to resent the pos- removes so much power from the people, Shenkman the poor, they basically vote for their own economic sibility of homelessness, unemployment, and getting argues, is because the framers didn’t trust the people interests (even in blue states). Conversely, most poor sick if they understood their job loss didn’t translate to make good decisions—they relied too much on people in red states vote Democrat. Indeed, a strong into losing their lives. It’s hard to reconcile free-trade their crazy emotions. majority of the poor voting along class lines in the red and pro-market policies with lower taxes and cuts in For Shenkman, the biggest myth broken in mod- states are black. In the red states that vote Republican, “liberal” social programs: ironically, it seems neces- ern times was liberalism. The shocking right-wing income is a very strong predictor of voter choice. That sary to have more socialism if one wants to have more rise of an evangelical Moral Majority and neo-liberal is, the more wealthy a red state voter, the more likely free-trade. This seems true unless one desires a stand- economic platform has angered liberals in the past they’ll vote Republican. Gelman argues that wealth ing reserve of poor, desperate, under-employed, sick, three decades, and acutely so during the Bush term. matters more in red states; they essentially vote along poorly housed, and angry people waiting around for What these movements displaced, however, was a class lines. the next job boom. These folks might, however, be the progressive belief in a rights-based US society. Thus, Perhaps surprisingly, religion and social issues are ones angry enough to fight wars. the shock was about the conservative “reaction” to more important for rich voters than poor voters: “It If we know anything about American history, it’s the Civil Rights Movement, “which laid bare the rac- is richer Americans in richer parts of the country, that the anger of humiliated people can turn ugly fast. ist beliefs of thunderous majorities of white South- more than the poor and rural, who are voting based There is a vague sense of this for Caplan. He ties anti- erners” (glancing at recent news reports, Ohio and on ‘Gods, guns, and gays.’” After the last few weeks, foreign bias to sentiments about foreigners who “look Pennsylvania would have to count here as Southern, can’t we add African-Americans back to this list? Gel- like us” and those that don’t (note the “us”). He then too). Furthermore, “one obvious factor in liberal de- man uses the statistical language of trends between cites 1980s surveys that show the United States pre- cline was their embrace of the Civil Rights Movement the polar opposites of rich and poor, but it’s worth ferred Canada and England to Japan during a period and the women’s movement.” In other words, a string considering whether the social issues voters use to of anti-Japan hysteria, even when trade deficits with of neo-conservative and neo-liberal governments re- vote Republican reveal a gray zone of the Republican Canada and England were higher at the time. placed a couple decades of Civil Rights administra- middle class. This middle class is living in the sub- In Just How Stupid Are We? Shenkman notes that tions that acknowledged—and tried to address—the urbs of America’s racist heartland: the South and the voter stupidity and angry racism move together. Fur- grave historical “inequality” of slavery and its lega- Midwest (Pennsylvania to Kansas). It’s not a stretch to thermore, politicians exploit it. “Bush’s assertion after cies. Instead, the neo-liberal, neo-con era decided imagine that significant white Republican swing-vot- the 9/11 attack that our enemies hated us because we to instead focus on how to maintain wealth at the ers in the suburbs are basing their decisions, in part, are free was mindless,” Shenkman asserts, “but people individual level. Instead of introducing policies that upon race. believed it. His claim that oil had nothing to do with might correct the genocidal facts of American race After all, even when accounting for their recent our invasion of Iraq was downright comical—but a relations, government instead imagined a world of diversification, the suburbs remain especially segre- majority of people believed it.” The public also be- free individuals and perfect markets. In a sense, this gated in the south and more so in the Midwest. Many lieved in the link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. ideology was an attempt to erase history. Americans live in de facto apartheid neighborhoods— And the public that believed this attached their anger The language of neoconservatism and neo-liber- the legacy of white flight, which was the legacy of Jim to human bodies, not abstract policies. Shenkman re- alism is fascinating because of what it does not as- Crow segregation, which was the legacy of slavery. If calls that the first turning in public opinion against sume. Caplan’s book on economics doesn’t have the race is the reality of how class is lived, as Stuart Hall Bush happened because of the Dubai port “scandal,” word “race” in the index, which isn’t to say he’s at has argued similarly elsewhere, then suggesting red when an American port would have been leased to an fault. By contrast, however, what Shenkman exposes states vote along class lines is also to suggest red states Arab government. People didn’t trust Arabs. People here is that the pro-America and pro-patriot feelings also vote along racial lines, at least in part. There has aren’t outraged by hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ci- of the Republican Party derive some of their power always been that fourth, unnamed party of white su- vilian causalities, either. In his recent endorsement of from different degrees of white racism and feelings premacists among the Reagan coalition, and among Obama, Colin Powell cited the infamous video of the of white superiority. Obama’s candidacy has forced the American population. woman at the McCain rally wondering if Obama was journalists and citizens to rediscover this passionate If voters are stupid and ignorant, perhaps the ques- Arab. It was a dangerous signal from Caplan’s “us” emotion, founded on a myth of white America, that tion to ask is not: how do we educate them, or, how do more than four years after Abu Ghraib. some felt was safely buried in the past. Lurking be- politicians exploit their stupidity? Perhaps the ques- Both Shenkman and Caplan also agree that vot- hind stories of Sean Bell, Rodney King, and Amadou tions to ask are not about democracy in general, but ers rely less on information and reason and more on Diallo, it has re-emerged hot and angry at McCain- about the United States. How much longer can the passion and myth. “Like the adherents of traditional Palin rallies. Nixon’s “silent majority” have found their quiet, racist passions of the suburbs determine elec- religion,” Caplan writes, “many people find comfort voice again. tions? How long will they vote based on the myth of in their political worldview, and greet questions with When pundits talk about the confusion of the Re- a white America? And how do you change the emo- pious hostility.” Shenkman traces the history of mass publican Party and the fracturing of its Reagan coali- tions of racism? How will they stop believing a myth political participation with an eye toward these de- tion among defense-hawks, the rich, and evangelicals, when the myth is their nation? Page 16—GC Advocate —November 2008 art REVIEW In the Custody of Love clay matlan at what one saw / Or did one see what one looked at?” self of the responsibility of either looking or seeing. Ñ Live Forever: Elizabeth Payton. At The Peyton can be accused of answering both questions. If Thus she sees but does not look at her subjects while New Museum (through January 11). we consider the first part of the poem—the question at the same time she looks at her subjects but does of looking versus seeing—the answer is apparent. No, not see them. Her devotion obscures the faculties of One must be careful with how one approaches the Peyton did not look at what she saw. Instead she saw her sight. And as a result of this the paintings become work of Elizabeth Peyton. It is too easy to dismiss something in her subjects that negated her need to about the life of her own imagination, the way those her, to fault her for her own seemingly bottomless look at them. She saw the magic of youth and her own she loves might be presented. To put it another way devotion to the seductions of youth and beauty as unbiased affection, but she did not look at them as she paints the emotional sensation of her own love. Sarah Valdez did in her review of Peyton’s 2001 show human beings, because to do that would have neces- Her paintings of Kurt Cobain and Liam Gallagher, at Gavin Brown. In that review Valdez wrote that sitated painting them as that. Peyton transforms her the lead singer of Oasis, present them as peaceful, Peyton was “achingly vacant” and that her paintings muses, making them softer, more feminine, and in willowy things, two notions of them that do not come hung “around like so many posters of celebrities on a the process negates them as living things. At the risk to mind when one looks at the men or listens to their pining teenager’s bedroom wall.” Her wispy, dreamy of being glib, they become something else. Peyton music. But in Peyton’s world there is a calmness that figures do recall the analogy that Valdez made: their succeeds in othering her subjects from themselves, of surrounds everything. Her paintings extinguish the fashion school-like illustrative qualities lend them an choosing to see in them a beauty that is available to no fires that burn inside. inherent weightlessness that seems the stuff of wistful one but her. Nick (La Luncheonette 2002), is a profile However, this calming, and ultimately this long- infatuation. And yes, it’s true that Peyton loves her view of a young man with delicate features. His skin ing, because what Peyton is really painting is her subjects. She admitted as much in a recent New Yorker pro- Elizabeth Peyton, Piotr file by Calvin Tomkins, when on Couch, 1996 (detail) she remarked: “I really love the people I paint. I believe in them, I’m happy they’re in the world.” Her enthusiasm for those she paints is apparent, and at the risk of being sentimental, this enthusiasm is not a negative. If anything it is refreshing in an art world that has not only taken to viewing any sort of unironic en- thusiasm as dubious, but seems to believe that aggressive disin- terest is somehow an aesthetic stance that equates belligerence with intelligence. Peyton’s love, though, is also distracting. It de- tracts from her paintings, taking them out of the realm of painting and transforming them into de- votional objects. Her gaze often feels clouded by her worshipful relation to those she paints. However, it is also too easy to buy into Peyton, as so many do. The accessibility of her emotions is a boon for viewers who want to have artistic intent cleanly laid out before them. It is a disservice to Peyton that these same people are only interested in her candy veneer and not in the depth that lies within her work. They only see, as is painted a mix of purple and white. He has a thick own longing, are where the work becomes problem- Jerry Saltz wrote, “dazzling portraits of radiant youth.” mass of black hair that blends with his body. Behind atic and difficult. In succumbing to her own desire Saltz is right, her paintings do have a dazzling quality him is what looks to be a street painted in the same the work loses rigor and reverts to the status of the to them, a dazzle that is bound in her sense of color, muted yet vibrant palette. It is a beautiful piece and a dreamy sketchbook. There is no question that there is which is not only bold but has a depth of understand- testament to Peyton’s skill with color that it does not something bold and interesting in a woman portrait ing about who her subjects are. Her fascination with feel outlandish and alien, but it resides more in the painter choosing to portray men in a lithesome, femi- youth is what should make Peyton problematic, not world of fantasy than in reality. The painting, like so nized way. In fact, were John Berger to revise Ways her love for the people she paints. If anything, Pey- much of her work is the manifestation of her dream of Seeing he would do well to mention Peyton in his ton’s easy relationship with the concept of love should for this world. chapter on the use of women in European oil painting, be commended. It lends her an emotional availability Peyton paints with an intuitive feeling, choos- as Peyton manages to offer and imbue an odd even and vulnerability that positions her as someone the ing not to capture her subjects the way they are, but awkward femininity to those she paints. But as inter- viewer can feel sympathetic towards. She is distinctly how she sees them to be. To lift a line from the Im- esting as it is, this action, whether conscious or not, different from her contemporary John Currin, who, portance of Being Earnest, Peyton doesn’t paint with ultimately feels like a lack of rigor, as if she couldn’t up until his strangely intimate November 2006 show accuracy, she paints with wonderful expression. And be bothered to attempt an unstylized rendering. Re- at Gagosian, displays an often bitter and detached it is her wonderful expression that makes her work gardless of the fact that the people she paints are fa- vision of women that comes dangerously close to so compelling and also so aggravating. That she has mous, an argument against her that has always been outright misogyny. Currin paints with a hunger for no ability to stand at remove from those she paints hollow and a little lacking in rigor itself, her paintings his subjects that is off-putting, as if he seeks to re- positions her as being guilty of fawning over her sub- falter because of her own longing. So intent is Pey- imagine women so that they might fit his own desires, jects. Consequently Peyton answers the second ques- ton on translating her love to that powerful rectangle while Peyton’s hunger is perhaps best characterized tion in Crane’s poem and the answer is also no, she that she gets lost in the magic of the experience of as one that seeks to reach out and touch; to feel con- did not see what she looked at. It may seem that this art making. She paints with so much fondness for her nected with those she paints. It is this longing which divergence between looking and seeing is paradoxi- subjects that she paints them out of existence. Peyton envelopes her work and opens it to attack. cal, but that is both to misunderstand the poem and has said that she is overwhelmed with the passing of I cannot help but be reminded of Hart Crane’s poem discount the scope of Peyton’s vision. By committing time and this is evident in her paintings. She seeks to “Hieroglyphic” when I think of Peyton: “Did one look to her own aesthetic agenda Peyton absolves her- Continued page 22 November 2008—GC Advocate —Page 17 Oppenheimer tries to calm his wife Kitty (played by REVIEW Sasha Cooke), who tries and fails to sustain her hus- music band’s attention. The two briefly connect through po- etry: Kitty sings Muriel Rukeyser’s “Three sides of a coin” and Oppenheimer again responds with Baude- laire. In these tense times, the emotional heights of poetry are the plane on which husband and wife can A Screaming Comes briefly meet. After an argument, Oppenheimer leaves and Kitty is left alone to contemplate the uncertain fu- ture. In the first act’s final scene, the eve of the testing date, the weather turns ugly at Trinity, and the bar- Across The Sky rel-chested military supervisor of the project, Gen- Mark Schiebe eral Leslie Groves (Eric Owens), stampedes around Ñ Doctor Atomic at the Met the stage, frustrated by a meteorologist’s predictions of continued storming. Oppenheimer warns of the possible dangers of testing in storm conditions, and The idea to do an opera about the atomic bomb was the brainchild of Pamela Rosenberg, who in 2002 then, in an attempt at comic relief that he can’t quite was the politically-minded director of the San Francisco Opera. The genesis of the bomb’s music, carry off, teases the General about his weight. Groves however, came much earlier, in a childhood experience of John Adams: “I do remember as a kid—I leaves, and in what is certainly the emotional climax don’t know how old I was, maybe seven or eight years old—living in the most secure, Stephen Spiel- of the opera, we find Oppenheimer alone with his bergesque, idyllic village in New Hampshire… getting into bed one night, and my mother gave me a creation, singing Donne’s sonnet. The Act ends with kiss and turned out the light. I heard what is perhaps the opera’s most effective tableaux: a jet plane way, way high up in the the bomb is lowered into view and hangs suspended sky, and I went into a panic, because in air, a pool of yellow light on its upper left corner, I wondered if that was the Russians and as we gaze at the illuminated sphere we perceive coming to bomb us.” Adams’s experi- the linkages between the spherical weapon, the phys- ence, the vague but numbing fear of icist’s brain, and the earth itself. A moment of reflec- nuclear annihilation, was the expe- tion ensues: is this the end of the road for technologi- rience of the entire baby-boomer cal man? The curtain falls. generation, who grew up during a Act Two opens with a rumbling electronic white cold war and an era of widespread noise created by blending numerous radio frequen- paranoia, symbolized most poignant- cies, a static froth and aural analogue of the nucle- ly by ‘the bomb’ itself, whose invisible ar radiation shortly to be released into the desert waves of radiation threatened skin air. Adams’s score deftly interweaves “found” radio and sanity alike. As Norman Mailer sounds and various types of musique concrete with has put it in his 1957 essay “The traditional orchestral sounds. His palatte in Doctor White Negro,” the bomb ushered in Atomic is particularly rich, emphasizing how far he a new phase in the history of human has come from his minimalist work in the 1970 and consciousness; a kind of psychic frac- early 1980’s, and even from Nixon in China, which turing occurred where normal Amer- featured live stage voices imitating the sound of tape icans would go about their everyday loops. Minimalist repetition still plays an important lives of getting and spending, all the role, but Adams draws from a far larger array of sym- while aware, on another level, of the phonic styles, incorporating molten Wagnerian brass, possibility of the instant, impersonal, lush French impressionistic harmonies, and (what absolute extinction of the race. Such Peter Sellers dubs) “Stravinsky emergency music,” bone-chilling thoughts provide the which Adams employs as a leitmotif. psychic materials for Adams’s bracing Two hundred miles from the test site, the Oppen- score in Doctor Atomic, which heimer’s Indian maid Pasqualita (played by Meredith opened at the Metropolitan Opera House on October a deeply personal nod to John Donne’s Holy Sonnet Arwady) croons a lullaby to their child: “In the north 12, and runs though November 13. “Batter my heart, three-person’d God.” Here Donne’s the cloud-flower blossoms/ And now the lightning The opera is Adams’s third, and continues the famous poem serves as the text of Oppenheimer’s flashes, / And now the thunder clashes, / And now the composer’s commitment to giving operatic treatment aria, which ends the opening Act. The line “bend / rain comes down!” The baby sleeps but the storm rag- to controversial social and political issues that have your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new” es deep into the night and Adams’s music rides along deep significance in the collective American psyche. is addressed not to God, but to the bomb, which hov- in its electricity. The radio rumblings gain in promi- 1987’s Nixon in China (the title pretty much sums ers menacingly over the stage, suspended by wires. nence and compete throughout with the “Stravinsky up the plot) was the beginning of a collaboration Not surprisingly, the focal point of the entire opera is emergency music,” the French horns and trumpets, between Adams and the adventurous director Peter the soul of the enigmatic director of the Manhattan the oboes buzzing pedal tones below, strings swirl- Sellers. 1991’s The Death of Klinghoffer, which stages Project, who was a brilliant physicist with the heart of ing wind spirals above. The General Leslie Groves has the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by a poet, and whose struggle is here projected in Faust- disregarded all warnings about the storm, and the test the Palestinian Liberation front, brought heavy criti- like magnitude. shot is scheduled for 5:30 am. cism including charges of “romanticizing terrorists,” Act I opens near the testing sight in New Mexico From this point on, time itself seems to warp. Nar- which drove Adams away from the medium for over with Oppenheimer (played by Gerald Finley) and fel- rative fizzles and we the audience wait with the scien- a decade. Doctor Atomic, the story of J. Robert Op- low physicists Edward Teller (Richard Paul Fink)and tists and the generals, the Indians and the children. penheimer and the making of the first atomic weap- Robert Wilson (Thomas Glenn) arguing the merits of There is nothing, really, left to do. In a brilliant move, on, is perhaps a less politically charged topic, though deploying the weapon in Japan at a time when the Adams emphasizes the deathly slow pace of the final certainly no less psychologically unnerving. While it war in Europe was winding down. Sellers’s libretto, day with a choice bit of minimalism, introducing an was first staged by Sellers in San Fransisco in 2005, perhaps the most experimental element in the op- array of clocks which tick away underneath the or- the Met’s version features an entirely new stage de- era, is a collage of pre-existing texts, a heady mixture chestra, looping in an out of sync—not one count- sign by Penny Woolcock, a British television direc- of the prosaic and the sublime: declassified military down but many… an infinity of countdowns. The tor whose film version of Klinghoffer helped mitigate documents, transcripts of meetings, interviews with physicists, in a touch of black humor, make predic- some of the earlier criticism of the opera. Woolcock’s participants in the project, standard histories, and tions about the size of the explosion: how far will the vision of the stage is stripped down, as she eliminated poetry. The effect rendered is an odd mixture of gritty heat travel? Will the radiation reach their families? Sellers’s chaotic, electron-like dancers. In fact, there realism and surreality. When the idealistic Teller la- Will the earth’s atmosphere catch fire and the planet is relatively little movement on stage, the visual dy- ments that Americans will lose their souls if they re- burn? Suddenly the night sky is filled with a vision of namism coming more from electronic gimmicks like lease the deadly weapon, the mercurial Oppenheimer Vishnu, as described in the Bhagvad Gita. The chorus the digital projections of mathematical equations and responds by quoting Baudelaire: “The soul is a thing chants in slow crescendo: “At the site of this / Your Japanese bombing targets grafted onto the oversize so impalpable, so often useless, and sometimes so shape stupendous / full of mouths and eyes / terri- windows of the Oppenheimers’ bedroom. The over- embarrassing that at this loss I felt only a little more ble with fangs / when I see you Vishnu / with your worked, strung-out physicists even nap at one point. emotion than if, during a walk, I had lost my visit- mouths agape and flame-eyes staring / all my peace is The story spans the tension-filled two weeks in the ing card.” The three principals go back and forth in gone / and my heart is troubled.” The physicists and summer of 1945 before the first testing of the weap- heated debate until the matter is decided. military personnel lie in rows of ditches as the warn- on, scheduled for July 16 in Los Alamos, New Mex- Scene two takes place in the bedroom of Oppen- ing shots are fired... It has happened before, but there ico, the site Oppenheimer would name “Trinity” in heimer’s house in Los Alamos, late in the night, where is nothing to compare it to now. Page 18—GC Advocate —November 2008 theater REVIEW Puppets! Puppets! Puppets! frank episle draws on a variety of puppetry and musical tradi- to some extent; there is no ethnic majority in Hawaii, Ñ Tom Lee’s Ko’olau. Puppets and direction by Tom tions; Lee focuses less on violence and disease than and while Ko’olau’s 19th-century islands were not quite Lee. At La Mama Experimental Theatre (closed). on the bond that holds this family together as they the islands we know today, they were already a place Ñ Drama of Works’s 7th annual Carnival of fight to live and die together, on their own terms. The where cultural influences from Japan, Portugal, and Samhain. At HERE Arts Center through Nov. 8. puppetry techniques employed are divided into two many other nations held sway. spaces. The foregrounded characters, Ko’olau and his There has long been a thread of theatre theory that While puppet theatre probably makes up less than ten family, are represented by a variation on Japanese ku- claims theatricality must be as invisible as possible if percent of the theatre I see, it makes up a much higher ruma ningyo (cart puppets), a kissing cousin to bun- the audience is to become emotionally involved with percentage of the memorable theatre I see. Year after raku puppets. Puppeteers sit on wheeled carts, the the narrative on stage. This idea has been perpetu- year, production after production, the “object theatre” puppets’ feet resting on the feet of the puppeteers; ated, in part, by misreadings of Brecht’s writings, and community astonishes me with their extraordinary when the performers move the cart around on stage by simplistic statements like “Wagner turned the ingenuity, craftsmanship, and infectious joy in their by moving their feet, the feet of the puppets seem to house lights off; Brecht turned them back on.” It is not medium. Despite bouts of enthusiastic cheerleading be walking. While kuruma puppets are often elabo- my intention to enter into such debates here, but it is from myself and other small-time reviewers, though, rately painted and costumed, Lee has simplified the sufficient to say that the same audiences who smiled the audience for this work remains small. Even as pup- aesthetic of his charac- pets make their way into more and more mainstream ters with a rough-hewn events, from Broadway shows to the Metropolitan style he says is intend- Opera house, shows performed primarily by pup- ed to evoke the wood- pets have remained marginal even within the already cuts and other crafts of marginal downtown theatre scene. It sometimes feels Hawaii. as if the field of puppet practitioners is growing at a While the kuru- rate much faster than puppet audiences. ma- based Ko’olau There are a number of reasons for this, some of family occupies the which I have written about elsewhere. Just as comic foreground, the back- books have struggled for a perceived “legitimacy” in ground is dominated literary and visual arts circles, puppets are often seen by a large screen, onto as a subset of children’s theatre, and children’s theatre which layers of shad- is often seen as an aesthetically uninteresting train- ow, light, and video are ing ground for audiences. This work is more likely to projected. As with the be studied for its pedagogical potential than for its cart puppets, Lee has politics, its narrative strategies, or its aesthetic value. designed the shadows Exacerbating this bias is the fact that so many puppet and projections to re- shows play extremely short runs, even by the stan- flect the hand-carved dards of off-off-Broadway. Because most reviews are elegance of Hawaiian written for potential audiences of shows that are still prints. Unlike the cart running, reviews of such short-lived productions are puppets, the shadows hard to come by. and projections are not This month, then, I will write about one show that built on any particular has already closed (Tom Lee’s Ko’olau) and, more tradition but are an Tom Lee’s Ko’olau briefly, one that has not yet opened but will be closed amalgamation of tech- shortly after this issue of the Advocate goes to press niques familiar to anyone who frequents contempo- delightedly at Lee’s ingenuous craftsmanship could be (Drama of Works’s 7th annual Carnival of Samhain). rary New York City puppet performances. Even in the heard sniffling back tears at the death of Kaleimanu. The story of Kalua’iko’olau, a nineteenth-century company of their accomplished peers, however, Tom One of my favorite puppet theatre companies, Hawaiian man who died of leprosy (Hansen’s dis- Lee and his team are exceptionally inventive in their Drama of Works, have made a name for themselves ease), is a very sad tale indeed. In Tom Lee’s Ko’olau, deployment of these techniques. Anyone who thinks both as creators of their own work and as curators it is a very sad tale told with a great deal of joy and of overhead projectors as good for nothing more than and supporters of the work of others. The company’s ingenuity. It is also a powerful refutation of the no- excruciating presentations from middle school sci- Artistic Director, Gretchen Van Lente, produces the tion that revealing the mechanisms of theatre com- ence teachers has clearly not seen Ko’olau. sometimes-monthly “Punch” puppet jams and, once promises theatre’s capacity for emotional impact. Indeed, much of the thrill of this performance, as a year, right around Halloween, puts together an even In 1892, Ko’olau moved—with his wife Pi’ilani with many puppet pieces, is that the mechanics of she calls the Carnival of Samhain. This year’s Carni- and their son Kaleimanu—to Kalalau, a remote area production are very much in view. The bodies and val runs for only three days (November 6th through of Kaua’i in order to avoid being moved to a leper faces of the on-stage puppeteers, and the ways in November 8th), and misses the more spine-tingling colony by the Provisional Government (the Repub- which they manipulate their puppets are a part of why potential of both October 31st and November 4th, but lic of Hawai’i had not yet been formed, but Queen the kuruma ningyo are so fascinating to watch. Simi- promises to be an exciting event nevertheless. An Lili’uokalani had already been overthrown by planta- larly, projections and shadows are primarily operated, eclectic mix of puppet and burlesque acts that run tion owners, with the aid of the United States).When in full view of the audience, by Lee himself and by the gamut from the genuinely creepy to the semi-sexy a local sheriff attempted to capture him, Ko’olau killed his lighting designer, Miranda Hardy. The pair hunch gothic farce, the Carnival of Samhain may well be the both the sheriff and the two Provisional Government over their projectors with transparencies, hand pup- best way to dispose of $15 in early November. soldiers who accompanied him. After first Kaleimanu pets, a glass of water, and a variety of other objects Ko’olau (closed). Puppets and direction by Tom Lee. Music by and then Ko’olau died of Hansen’s, Pi’ilani quietly bur- that result in an astonishing array of layered effects. Yukio Tsuji and Bill Ruyle. Lighting by Miranda Hardy. Costumes ied them both and the returned to her family home. On the screen, clouds float by, letters are written, vil- by Kanako Hiyama. Additional projection design by Caren Loe- From here, the story might have faded into obscu- lains raise their guns, and a young Maui casts his fish- bel-Fried. Asssistant director Nao Otaka. Company: Matthew Acheson, Marina Celander, Frankie Cordero, Miranda Hardy, rity like so many other anonymous tragedies of the ing line into the sea to raise a series of new islands. Yoko Myoi, Nao Otaka, Tom Lee. Understudies: Takemi Kitamu- time. What rescued Ko’olau and his family from being Against this larger-than-life backdrop, the small, very ra, Kiku Sakai. This production opened on September 18th, 2008 just a footnote in the history of the Provisional Gov- human story of Ko’olau and his family unfolds. at La Mama Experimental Theatre (74A Eastth 4 Street, NYC) th ernment was that Pi’ilani worked with journalist John With little-to-no dialogue, Ko’olau’s aural elements and closed on October 5 . Additional information is available at www.tomleeprojects.com and www.lamama.org Sheldon to record her story in Hawaiian. Because come primarily from live musicians who line either so few surviving texts document this period from a side of small auditorium. As with the puppets, the in- The th7 Annuual Carnival of Samhain. Curated and presented by Hawaiian perspective, the resulting volume has be- struments draw from a mélange of world-music tra- Drama of Works. Featuring Puppet State Players (“Mothra Me- morial Junior High”), Drama of Works (Poe’s “The Black Cat”), Z. come a key historical document, and has captured the ditions, mostly Asian, with a particular emphasis on Lindsey Briggs, Evolve Company (“Becoming”), Marta Mozelle imaginations of writers, painters, theater artists, and Japanese sounds and the occasional nod to the mu- MacRostle, Chiara Ambrosio, Pinchbottom Burlesque (“The filmmakers. Most famously, Jack London’sKoolau the sic of Hawaii. Lee, like many of his contemporaries, Mummies Curves”), Nasty Canasta, Jonny Porkpie, Amy Chen, Will Randall, Puppet Junction, and Bone Daddy. Thursday, No- Leper and W.S. Merwin’s The Folding Cliffs tell two borrows so gleefully and unapologetically from his vember 6th through Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 7pm. HERE very different versions of the narrative. contemporaries that he inevitably opens himself up Arts Center (145 6th Ave, NYC). Tickets: $15. Running time: Tom Lee’s puppet theatrical Ko’olau is a beautifully to accusation of cultural appropriation. The subject of Approximately 90 minutes. Additional information available at crafted, highly emotional iteration of the story that Hawaii, however, inoculates him from such charges www.dramaofworks.com and www.here.org November 2008—GC Advocate —Page 19 film REVIEW The 2008 Election and the Media tim krause or Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican who expressed herself in vapid platitudes that were Discussions about politics and the media are nothing convention in Saint Paul, the Alaskan governor rid- right at home among broad swaths of angry, confused new, but the 2008 Presidential Election is remarkable ing high on a wave of nativist anger and America-first voters. Palin, I think, is best seen as a hack, not in for having featured, in its sheer scope and intensity, bigotry; or the continual revelation of the Presidential the sense of a “hack politician”—although she ful- the awesome power of the new media. From the cam- debates, which played out as studies in affect and at- fills this role with gusto, You betcha! and she’s hack- paigns to their supporters, from partisans to unaffili- titude, Obama’s limpid focus and delivery contrasting neyed to boot—but in the sense of a computer or tech ated voters, something like a systematic integration sharply with McCain’s catalog of verbal and physical hack: an unexpected trick of engineering or play that of politics with daily life has been attempted, and in tics (“My friends,” his eyerolling and grimacing)— scrambles a program’s or tool’s wonted, designed-for some part achieved, as the election plays itself out have been lost in the onrush of new narratives, new specifications, opening up new, potentially useful and along the full spectrum of twenty-first-century tech- media for consumption. interesting, applications. Bizarre (if not treasonous) nology. Like Governor Howard Dean’s fifty-state strat- As both a candidate and as a media figure, Obama from the perspective of governance, McCain’s choice egy, everything is now in play, from traditional news has benefited hugely from the new media dynamics at of Palin makes perfect sense as a fiendishly inspired sources like newspapers and television to cellphones, play in American politics. These dynamics are crys- reverse engineering of Obama’s media success, a des- social networking sites, blogs, even video games. It tallized in many of the things the Obama campaign perate attempt—in the operational vacuum formed is perhaps the first fully postmodern election, with has done so repeatedly and dazzlingly well during the by McCain’s lack of either a consistent message or its interlocking media narratives resembling the election. The utilization of political websites and oth- a well-organized, smoothly running campaign—to giddier moments of critical theory—Debord’s so- er Internet resources for political networking, advo- halt Obama’s groundswell of support at the end of the ciety of the spectacle, say, or Baudrillard’s endlessly cacy, and fundraising; the creation of a vast campaign summer. That, like many hacks, Palin’s disadvantages repeating simulacra—in their depictions of human organization relying hugely on volunteerism and new have, in the scarce two or so months she’s graced the society awash in a plethora of competing signs and technologies; an intuitive grasp, even, of the look national stage, far outweighed her dubious advantag- images. Where the election has outdone even these of new media, as with the campaign’s sleek, hyper- es, has for many only increased her media appeal: in fantasies—indeed, where it’s been most paradigm- modern website, which borrows heavily on the Ap- the campaign’s last week, vowing to “go rogue” and breaking and historical—has been in the amount of ple Computer aesthetic (rounded icons in smoothly ignore the advice of McCain staffers, Palin reads to bottom-up, user-generated content that’s been part blended colors, a confection of links and nested wid- me like one of the doomed Nazi wives in Hitler’s Ber- of the chaos, from lengthy action and advocacy dia- gets): all demonstrate a saturation of all media, ev- lin bunker—Magda Goebbels, say, who poisoned her ries on political blogs to entire genres of satiric vid- erywhere, with Obama’s electrifying brand. Obama’s children rather than have them survive the death of eos on YouTube: an explosion of politically-themed own telegenic charisma, his trademark skinniness the twisted dream that was the Third Reich—who writings and folk art that rivals any among America’s golden ages of political art, the Revolu- tion, the Civil War, and the two World Wars. The following will be a brief reaction, both favor- able and non-, both amazed and aghast, at some of the strange and wonderful things—from the candidates themselves to some pretty crazy videos on the Inter- net—I’ve seen during the 2008 election. The very speed of events in this election is itself a marvel. We’ve had the twenty-four-hour news cycle for at least fifteen years, but rarely before have po- litical events crowded so thick and fast into the months, weeks, and days. Indeed, the news has A scene from “Wassup been so frenetic that the vivid- 2008,” produced ness and immediacy of each mo- by 60 Frames. ment, each image, each gaffe and attack, has vaporized each meme of the moment be- and jug ears and wide smile, are candy to television still vowed to fight on against the victorious Russians fore in the white-hot forge of the perpetual campaign. and YouTube: think of all of the spots, all of the cam- and Americans, and who hoped, in those last, fiery The last time I wrote for the Advocate, the news of paign ads and photographs that feature Obama’s face, moments of apocalyptic zeal, for the ragged, starv- John McCain’s multiple homes had just broken—this as so many force multipliers that drive home both the ing brigades of schoolchildren and nonagenarians to happened on August 21, a little over two months ago, message and the man, his policy and persona, in one save them from the rampaging hordes of Yanks and but this is as far off from the present moment in cam- seemingly seamless continuum. This is not to be ha- Slavs. In the course of singularly ruining her first po- paign time as the mythic events of prehistory are from giographic, and it’s saying nothing about the actual litical incarnation (following Churchill’s dictum that the modern day. Just in the last week, a flood of bad content and history of Obama’s policy statements and in politics, unlike in war, one may die many times), news has hit the foundering McCain campaign, from voting record: I’m merely saying that Obama is an Palin has done something far better and finer: she increasing reports of knives-out infighting among exceptionally able politician, well at home as both a has entered the hallowed mists of American parodic his handlers and staff to the bizarre story of Ashley user (as the head of his tech-savvy campaign) and as mythology, among the company of other now-lov- Todd, who secured her own tawdry bit of Campaign a subject (as a superstar) of the new media. able freaks, burnouts, and demagogues such as Aaron 2008 lore, and a sad, Gibbonian footnote in the his- Obama’s media nemesis isn’t, of course, John Mc- Burr, Terry Eagleton, George Wallace, and George tory books as well, with her made-up story of being Cain, his titular opponent in the 2008 Election, but Allen. Valhalla was meant to burn at the end anyway, beaten by a six-foot-four black male (that boogeyman Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican and this goes for even gimcrack and pasteboard Val- in Karl Rove’s and other American racists’ closets), Vice-Presidential nominee and, like Obama, already a hallas like Governor Palin’s. who allegedly carved a backwards letter “B” on her figure of American historical folklore. Palin dropped But enough with analysis: here’s a short, in-no-par- face as a grisly token of Barack Obama’s name. (She like a bomb into the Republican convention, thrilling ticular-order “top five” list of strange and amazing confessed on October 24 to having lied, the bloody B the assembled delegates and the Republicans’ hard- bits of media from the campaign. Links are provided an act of self-mutilation that was more scratch than right Christian Evangelical base with her quasi-myth- where appropriate: wound, yet red enough to brand Todd with infamy in ic persona, at once intimately familiar and enticingly 1. “Wassup 2008” from 60 Frames, which recasts the deathless digital archive of the Internet.) Even the exotic: a fiery warrior queen from the frozen North the members of a famous (and famously irritat- most standout moments of the campaign—Obama’s and a tenacious hockey mom and mother of five ing) Budweiser commercial from 2000 as fellow speech at Denver’s Mile High Stadium, a jubilant (the youngest, Trig, an infant with Down Syndrome, suffers in George Bush’s America. The chorus of end to a meticulously choreographed convention; which delighted anti-choice “infanticide” partisans) screaming near the end is sublimely cathartic, a Page 20—GC Advocate —November 2008 ★ The Third Annual Advocate ★ The Third Annual AdvocateFilm Series J^Wda
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November 2008—GC Advocate —Page 21 much-needed purgation of the last eight years of 4. The Rachel Maddow Show, whose host, Rachel est, and as a testament to the hatefulness and ir- war, economic collapse, environmental disaster, Maddow, is the smartest, funniest, coolest, and rationality of some few on the far right, these must and existential dread: it might be too soon to start newest of the Bush-era television anchors-cum- be seen, like the following clips from Strongsville, knowingly quoting, apropos of McCain’s cam- partisan entertainers. While her show perhaps Ohio, recorded on October 8. (http://www.you- paign, old chestnuts like “Birnam Wood to Dunis- needs to fine tune a bit—Maddow’s a bit more ra- tube.com/watch?v=sIgv992NZs0; http://www. nane,” but when barely-remembered actors from dio than TV, and the show lacks the funnier bits youtube.com/watch?v=VJghQMq49dw&feature= an eight-year old ad, for God’s sake, team up to of, say, Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, which of- related) deliver a hilariously poetic exorcism of your Pres- ten plays as a meta TV show about TV—Maddow 8. “Barack OBollywood,” an inspired visual mashup ident’s and party’s legacies, and deliver in the pro- is easily the most informative and engaging net- of images of Obama with cheesy-funky low-res cess a two-minute film that’s worth entire shelves work talking head in years. graphics effects and a hypnotically grating Bol- of Syriana and Lions for Lambs and In the Valley of 5. “A More Perfect Union,” Obama’s speech on race lywood beat. Less a testament to Obama’s global Ellah, I’d say you’re fucked. (http://www.youtube. in Philadelphia on March 18, occasioned by the roots and appeal, or his supposedly postracial com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE) firestorm of fake controversy generated by videos politics, than an excuse for tripped-out silliness. 2. McCain’s “Lime Green Monster” speech of June of Obama’s pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-451XM- 3, a cinematographically ill-conceived response saying some quite vitriolic things about the Amer- suY) to Obama’s winning of the Democratic primaries, ican Dream. Obama’s speech was a classic pivot, 9. The poll-tracking website www.FiveThirtyEight. in which McCain was put against a sickly green taking a huge liability and turning it into an occa- com, brainchild of genius statistician Nate Silver: backdrop that in the words of blogger Atrios made sion for a meditation on race and history, in rheto- like Chuck Todd’s electoral math wizardry during McCain look “like the cottage cheese in a lime jel- ric as finely crafted and deliberative as Lincoln’s or the primaries on MSNBC, Silver’s deep analysis of lo salad.” The green backdrop was mercilessly ap- Martin Luther King’s or Bobby Kennedy’s. (http:// polling data provides necessary hard facts among propriated by an army of YouTube directors, who www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo) added backgrounds like the Hindenberg explosion 6. “Vlad and Friend Boris Presents ‘Song for Sarah’ the swirling blather of the punditry. How the site or an atomic blast to McCain’s listless, uninspired for Mrs. Palin,” a knock-off of both Borat and will manage the post-election transition remains speech. (Original speech at http://www.youtube. Flight of the Conchords that still manages to turn to be seen, but this has been the best of the blogs com/watch?v=A7RuX4pQPLY; search for “Mc- Palin’s nonsensical image of Vladimir Putin rear- this year. Cain green screen” on YouTube for the hundreds ing his head in Alaskan airspace into a tenderly 10. “La Pequeña Sarah Palin,” perhaps the final ver- of parody videos.) smutty joke, delivered in mock earnestness by two dict on the Palin candidacy. I won’t ruin the sur- 3. Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. Sure, you’ve seen it a mil- faux-Russian troubadours who gaze longingly prise, but those with finer sensibilities, or who lion times already. Fey’s dead-on take is great, as across the frozen Bering Strait for a glimpse of are easily offended (particularly by cross-dress- well as a nice example of the confluence of old and their beautiful neighbor Sarah. (http://www.you- ing little people), might avoid this. La Pequeña new media: the big-money mass culture hack of tube.com/watch?v=XR9V_aOCga0) is perfectly sublime, a leering gargoyle on our Palin’s Obama hack, saved by YouTube for viewers 7. Racist McCain-Palin supporters on YouTube: I’m digital cathedral. (http://www.youtube.com/ who can’t bother with the crapfest that’s the tele- loath to give these more attention than they’ve watch?v=VV8uEzGuvfc) vised program. gotten, but for sheer WTF? anthropological inter- Don’t forget to vote!

in the past Peyton would have Art Review E.P. Reading had the inclination to paint these Continued from page 17 (self-portrait) 2005 bright, real things as such. This is capture those she loves and hold not to say that there aren’t stum- them forever, lest the ravages of bles, she still has an inherent time claim them before she does. preciousness and her paintings Unfortunately, time has caught from magazine images and mov- up with her subjects but Peyton, ies feel like throwaway exercises, surprisingly, has adjusted to this, as evident in the interesting but as reflected in her mid-career sur- ultimately empty painting of Mi- vey, “Live Forever: Elizabeth Pey- chelle Pfeifer and Daniel Day- ton,” at the New Museum. Those Lewis from Days of Innocence. that love Peyton will continue to Yet it is not “girly art,” or at love her and those that hate her least it is moving away from that, most likely will not be swayed, as as Roberta Smith concluded in their prejudices run too deep and her review of the exhibition. And are often well founded. Yet those though Smith ultimately gives who are willing to reconsider “Live Forever” a positive review their position on Peyton’s work and does not mean for her char- will not necessarily be rewarded acterization of Peyton’s art to be but will come away with the sense a pejorative, she does Peyton a that there is more to Peyton than disservice by classifying the work was previously evident. as “girly.” For it is assertions like Comprised of 104 works, there this that only serve to reinforce are many paintings that will irk the tired idea that bearing one’s Peyton’s detractors, from the emotions for the world to see is overly delicate paintings of Kurt a distinctly feminine act. Peyton Cobain to the self-conscious char- is not an aggressive artist, she is coal and ink drawings of Ludwig not Jenny Saville—a fellow por- II of Bavaria from her 1993 show trait painter whose works are so at the Chelsea Hotel. But some- startling that one cannot help but thing happened to Peyton’s work be overwhelmed by them—she is starting around 2003; she seems instead a painter of softness and to have given up her fight against emotion. Her art is imperfect and time and has instead come to ac- at times too self-absorbed but cept it if not embrace it. Green she is worthy of consideration Nick and Walt (both from 2003) because she strives to display are simple colored pencil line love as an actual thing. Camus drawings portraits that show an wrote of being in the custody of emerging restraint. One would expect, based on her quently appears in Peyton’s work, here make sense. love and the wonder of a loving heart. work from the 1990s, that Peyton would make these Doherty doesn’t feel longed for. The love is there but It is our relation to these things that allows us to feel men more delicate than they are, instead Peyton it has been replaced by a sadness for the life he has an exalted emotion. While not Camus, Peyton none- draws them as men and not as anachronistic Victo- chosen to live. Her paintings are losing their weight- theless strives for the same thing in her work. We may rian dandy fantasies. Peter (Pete Doherty) (2005) is a lessness, replaced by a real sense of, if not gravity, fault her for subject matter and longing but we must startling watercolor on paper. Peyton has succeeded then concreteness that before was missing. Jonathan accept the sentiment that she commits to. For in an in capturing the beaten up and worn out quality that (Jonathan Horowitz) (2007) shows the artist Jonathan increasingly divisive and unloving world perhaps it exemplifies Doherty, lead singer of The Libertines Horowitz scruffy and middle-aged sitting in a chair. is enough to try, even if the execution is suspect, and and Babyshambles. His vacant eyes, a motif that fre- His blue eyes are alive and intense. It is unclear that bring a little love into it. Page 22—GC Advocate —November 2008 NEWS FROM THE doctoral students’ council

Important Info about Your Paychecks Recently it was brought to our atten- www.cunydsc.org. Please contact Co- department, please be sure to attend We’ve been notified that some gradu- tion that the Graduate Center’s cost of Chair for Business Management, Chris all meetings (twice per semester) and ate students may have been paying attendance figure might be consider- Sula ([email protected]), to find notify your DSC rep if you can’t make Social Security and Medicare on their ably lower than it should be; in investi- out how much money your department it (DSC program reps serve as Grad wages (particularly on work as an ad- gating this, we looked at other univer- is eligible for this year. Council alternates). A complete list of junct at another campus). Please review sities in the tri-state area, as well as the upcoming meetings is below. the following information, and contact United States Department of Education Open Meetings Law, Quorum, Voting If you are on a committee and don’t your appropriate Human Resources website, to determine how cost of atten- Since the DSC is subject to the know when your next meeting is, or if department if you think you are paying dance estimates are calculated. What Open Meetings Law and the General you are a Grad Council member and more than you should be. The DSC’s we found was that individual universi- Construction Law, we are constantly are not receiving notices by mail, please Adjunct Project has been notified about ties are free to develop their own cost vigilant about urging our members to contact Alice Eisenberg, the Grad this situation. of attendance figures; indeed, several of attend meetings. Making and main- Council Staff Assistant, at aeisenberg@ Please check: www.nyc.gov/html/opa/ the universities had different figures for taining quorum is crucial to our ability gc.cuny.edu. If you would like to serve html/taxes/socialsecurity.shtml#cuny different colleges and programs within to keep an efficient and effective stu- on one of the standing committees for more information their own university! dent government working! (Committee on Committees, Informa- Above you will find a table containing If you are a member, it is absolutely tion Technology, Curriculum and De- CUNY Students Working at CUNY cost of attendance figures for the Grad- imperative that you not miss meet- gree Requirements, Library, Research, You are exempt from social security uate Center, as well as other schools in ings, and when you must, please send Structure, Student Services), please and Medicare if you are a CUNY stu- our area. The reported figures are for a non-member replacement to serve as contact Rob Faunce, DSC Co-Chair dent working at CUNY and: your proxy (notifying us in advance, graduate programs within each univer- for Communications and Chair of the You are at least a half-time under- at [email protected]). If you are a sity, with the exception of Rutgers. Grad Council Committee on Commit- graduate, graduate, or professional member who simply cannot attend the What seems clear is that the Gradu- tees, at [email protected]. student or you are at least a half-time ate Center’s estimated cost of atten- meetings, please get yourself a perma- undergraduate, graduate, or profes- dance figure is low when compared nent replacement and resign. Plenary Guest Speakers sional student enrolled in the number If you are a student from an unrep- with others universities in New York Director of Student Affairs Sharon of credit or unit hours to complete the resented (or under-represented) de- City, as well as Yale in New Haven, CT. Lerner, Associate Director of Student requirements of obtaining a degree of- It is within the Graduate Center’s pow- partment, please consider representing Affairs and Director of Student Ser- fered by CUNY. er to reevaluate this figure, and to do so your department at the DSC. Simply vices Elise Perram, and Assistant VP The FICA exemption does not apply would undoubtedly benefit students. contact Co-Chair for Communica- for Information Technology Robert if you are not enrolled in classes during tions Rob Faunce (robfaunce@gmail. Campbell were guest speakers at the breaks of five weeks or more, including Visit Our Fantastic Website com) for more information; a complete September and October DSC plenary summer. Same great address, divine new con- list of reps’ rights and responsibilities meetings. Incoming Provost Chase Less than half-time students of tent: www.cunydsc.org is your one- is available from Rob on request. The Robinson will be with us on Novem- CUNY who are employed at CUNY stop source for student information at unrepresented departments are Audi- ber 21, and Ombudsman Rolf Meyer- and CUNY students working for the the GC. Conceived by DSC Co-Chairs ology, Earth & Environmental Science, City but not at CUNY are subject to so- Greg Donovan and Rob Faunce, our Economics, Electrical Engineering, son and VP for Student Affairs Mat- cial security and Medicare taxes. site is user-friendly to manage (which Mechanical Engineering, German, Lib- thew Schoengood are scheduled for saves the Steering Committee a lot of eral Studies, Mathematics (2), Physical December 12. Cost of Attendance Askew? energy) and even easier to surf. Visit Therapy, Physics, Psychology: Clinical, Important Upcoming Dates: For many students, the excitement of the website and download a form, look Psychology: Cognition, Brain, Behav- getting a graduate school acceptance at our pictures, and catch up on news of ior, Psychology: Cognitive Neurosci- DSC Plenary meetings (6:00 letter is followed by the question: “How note around the GC! ence, Psychology: Educational (2).The p.m./5:30 for food, GC 5414): Nov 21, am I going to pay for this?” Oftentimes underrepresented department is Soci- Dec 12, February 13, March 20, April student loans from the federal govern- Chartered Organizations ology. 24, May 8 ment are a leading source of this pay- A note to all Chartered Organiza- DSC Steering Committee meetings ment process, and the financial aid tion leaders: In order for your group to Graduate Council and Grad Council (6:00 p.m., GC 5489): Dec 5, Jan 30, office often determines the amount remain chartered (that is, eligible for Committees March 6, April 3, May 15 of federal aid an individual student is funding and an office from the DSC) The Graduate Council is the decision- DSO Media Board (6:00 p.m., GC eligible for. While any grants, scholar- you need to submit updated contact in- making body of the college, comprised 5489): Feb 20, March 27 ships, or remissions the student may formation, a membership roster, and a of students, faculty, and administra- Visit us online at www.cunydsc.org. have been awarded are considered, the constitution and mission statement to tors. (This is not to be confused with students expected family contribution, Co-Chair for Student Affairs Gregory the Doctoral Students’ Council, which DSC Winter Party: Save the date! as determined by the student’s Free Ap- Donovan at [email protected] is the college’s student government.) December 12, 8:30pm, Room 5414. plication for Federal Student Aid (FAF- by December 15th at the very latest. Without substantial student attendance Free food. Free drinks. Free stuff. SA) is subtracted from the university’s at Grad Council, student voices will not Music on the iPod. Dancing, delights, estimated cost of attendance to deter- Departmental Allocations be heard. Additionally, we must con- delicious, de-lovely, de-stressing winter mine the amount of aid a student can DSC reps are reminded to spend tinue to oppose efforts to limit student fun with your representatives from the receive. This makes the university’s cost their allocations and submit receipts by representation at the Grad Council. If DSC and your peers at the Graduate of attendance figure very important. the stated deadline on the DSC website, you are a Grad Council rep for your Center. Cost of Attendance for CUNY and Surrounding Universities Graduate Centera NYUc Columbiaacd New Schoolb Fordhamcd Rutgerse Yalef Housing 7,425 12,260 17,335 17,550 12,050 9,942 Food 2,776 3,000 Transportation 850 684 684 790 18,000 Books and Supplies 1,016 1,016 2,000 920-2,050 840 Personal/Misc 3,676 4,315 3,487 1,550 6,130 Total 15,743 23,350 23,037 17,494 19,810 9,942 18,000 a Figures based on the 9 month school year b Estimated figures are based on student surveys and updates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics c Housing figure includes room (rent, utilities) and board d Based on Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Each school produces their own estimate) e Typical room, board, and fees for New Brunswick student living on campus f Includes all expenses November 2008—GC Advocate —Page 23 THE back page Chancellor Goldstein Declares Himself Emperor for Life Matt lau we don’t see it as a con- In a move that has stunned everyone on 80th street tradiction at all.” except Jar-Jar Binks and a few other affirmative ac- Rumor has it that the tion hires, CUNY’s favorite and only chancellor Mat- Emperor has a number thew Goldstein has declared himself Emperor of the of changes in mind go- entire CUNY galaxy. ing forward at CUNY. “Unlimited power and the idea of being able to Among the mostly high- destroy entire community colleges and other blights ly anticipated by himself on CUNY’s new image were just two of the reasons will be his institution of the Emperor couldn’t resist this opportunity,” said droit de seigneur or pri- the Emperor’s spokeswoman Mark Schiebe. “And mae noctis, the so-called besides, the Star Wars tie-in merchandising will re- “right of the first night,” ally help us pay for all the CUNY presidents’ condo with CUNY students. maintenance fees during this time of economic hard- “I know what you’re ship. Do you know what those fees are for luxury thinking,” said the Em- buildings these days? We’d have to ask them to give peror’s spokeswoman. up their various concubines and mistresses and their “‘How can the Emperor midtown dungeon without our new ad dollars.” be so sexist in the 21st When a reporter asked if the Emperor hadn’t in century by demanding fact purchased his “emperor’s cloak” at Ricky’s Hal- sex only from female loween costume superstore, Schiebe glared at him students?’ But I’m here for an awkwardly long period of time. Finally it oc- to reassure you that curred to other press in attendance that the Emper- while the Emperor will or’s aide may have been trying one of those Darth be forcing CUNY stu- Just don’t tell him his Vader moves where you choke a dude out just by dents to have sex with Death Star is broken. looking at him. It didn’t work. him right after they Another reporter asked how the Emperor felt pass the CPE exam; out of deference to the women’s “With grad students it won’t be primae noctis; it about being an Emperor who is still less powerful movement and multiculturalism, he will be doing it will be omnis noctis—both all nights and ALL night. then the mayor of New York City. in the most politically correct possible way. As for enrollment—that had already occurred to “Actually Lord Bloomberg’s decision to change ex- “He will not just be sleeping with a select few of the Emperor in his infinite wisdom—which is why isting laws so that he can maintain his indomitable the students. He will be sleeping with each and ev- CUNY is planning a war of conquest against all tri- grip on the city was a real inspiration to the Emperor ery one of our outstanding undergraduates, male or state area colleges and universities. We’re going to in his decision. We’ve even been encouraging Lord female, straight or gay, American or Muslim.” start with the Cornell University medical center be- Bloomberg to disregard the election process and just Concerns were immediately voiced by the press, cause we know they keep large stockpiles of Viagra stay in office indefinitely. I mean, I think it’s pretty many of whom work for CUNY student newspapers. and Cialis on hand. The Emperor will need to up his clear from the man-on-the-street interviews on lo- Many wanted reassurance that the “first night” poli- current dosage. cal news that everyone in the city wants him to re- cy wouldn’t apply to graduate students. Others were “As for marketing this decision so that people will main mayor. The Emperor is a very powerful man afraid enrollment at CUNY would drop precipitous- accept it, can’t you already see it? Look who’s wielding and the Mayor is an extremely powerful man. So no, ly or that failure rates on the CPE would skyrocket. god-like power at CUNY?”

ask harriet BY HARRIET ZANZIBAR Dreading a Future of Animal Sex Dear Harriet, inbox like an interminable avalanche screwing up the country once and unsuspected third nipple, why, either I met this terrific guy. But I found now that America has decided to spend for all. you learned to love that extra nozzle or out on our third date that his parents half of every presidential term standing Now to your problem, which reminds you spent the rest of your life writhing are into crazy sex stuff. Seriously cra- at opposite ends of a political football me a great deal of a friend of mine who in an unshakable state of heebie-jee- zy sex stuff, like, dressing up as farm field shouting obscenities at each other found out, rather startlingly, six years bification. But today, not only do we animals and suckling each other, stuff like an entire nation of soccer hooligans into a relationship that her lover har- no longer expect relationships to last like that. left in a state of permanent enragement bored a secret fetish for amputees, and longer than our current wireless plans, So I don’t want to be a prude, or after a botched program of universal who ended up spending the balance but our capacity of amorous transience judge “Dave” on account of his par- lobotomization. It’s a wonder that more of that relationship, which was not all releases all the pressure. Discovering a ents, but all I could think of while he of my mail isn’t originating from state a very long stretch of time, hiding her new partner’s hidden bodily oddities or was telling me about this was, does penitentiaries specially set aside for sig- left arm behind her back whenever peculiarities in their sexual proclivities this thing pass on to the next genera- nificant others whose chief argument they had sex, so that she’s now slightly might not be the big brain-exploder it tion? By telling me this, was he prep- to their lovers’ embracing McCain was skewed and tends to walk around with used to be: not being locked in might ping me at some level for his own a blunt instrument upside the head. her right breast forward as if she were make it easier to say, “Huh. Well, that disturbing revelations two or three or Americans are seriously indulging in offering it up for critique. Now you can might be fun for a while.” ten years down the road? so much mutual scorn and outright ha- choose to look at this as a tragedy—the My point, PIG, is that it would be — Pastoral Intimacy is Gross tred it’s frightening. I’ve seen batteries Collapse of a Promising Love Thanks to easy to let the potential for a sudden left that were less polarized. a Lie; or you can look at it, as I tend to, turn in your sex life hang ominously Before I get started on your problem, I’m glad to see the back of it—though as six great years, one weird year, and over you like the sex toy of Damocles, PIG, I want to give a shout-out to the with my luck the Republicans will have then release: which really comes out to but letting that happen can ruin more end of the election season and all of the stolen the election again by the time both of them regaining freedom to pur- than the revelation itself. Have fun complaining it entails about “my boy- you’re reading this and this whole mess sue a better match. with your boy, forget about Cowdad friend is stupid because he’s voting for won’t be over until sometime next year, Sixty years ago you were stuck with and Bullmom (or vice versa), and enjoy McCain” or “we broke up because she by which time the cities will be smol- what you got. If you took Hazel home the ride. Who knows? Your bubblegum thought Tina Fey was running for pres- dering ruins and the tribunals will be from the chapel and discovered, upon lipstick could be more of a gross-out ident” or “omg lolcats luv teh nader, guillotining cable news pundits by the a suitably respectful sober excavation than any of the relics tucked away in his ok thx bye” that’s been clogging up my dozen for their role in permanently of her garments, that she harbored an wardrobe. Page 24—GC Advocate —November 2008