Barack Obama received a predictable post-convention bump in most polls, but the race for president remains fluid. John McCain’s surprise pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is expected to excite the Republican conservative base and possibly help him make inroads with women and independent voters.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Gustav provides the Bush administration and GOP with a chance at redemption, showing that it puts the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast above convention hoopla. Most of Monday's planned activities have been suspended. It also gives President Bush and Vice President Cheney a defensible reason not to attend, which comes as a relief to more than a few Republicans.
In the end, nevertheless, the election again could be decided by how the winds shift in Ohio, Florida, plus a few Rocky Mountain states. According to various state polls, Obama is virtually certain to win in 10 states, with a total of 146 electoral votes. These include Democratic strongholds in the Northeast, as well as California and Obama’s home state of Hawaii. McCain appears to have a lock on 101 electoral votes in 13 states, mainly in the South and the Central Plains. Obama is also favored in five more states in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, which would net him another 44 votes. McCain is favored in nine with 82 votes, including more of the South, Indiana, Montana, and his home state of Arizona.
But even if all this goes as expected, neither candidate would have the 270 Electoral College votes required. Obama looks slightly ahead in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, while McCain currently has an edge in Virginia, Arkansas, and Missouri. Assuming there are no upsets that still gives Obama only 255 votes from 19 states and McCain 213 from 25. This would leave five toss up states – Ohio, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and New Hampshire – with a total of 70 votes.
McCain’s campaign hopes hold on to the states that Bush won in 2004 and pick off Michigan, Pennsylvania or another Democratic-leaning state where he’s in striking distance. But that’s not certain and he meanwhile faces a challenge in Virginia. In Northern Virginia, Obama could benefit from increased Black voter turnout. To compensate, McCain is expected to target military families.
Obama is aggressively going after Colorado, where he accepted the Democratic nomination, and Iowa, where his positions and campaign organization could give him an edge. In addition, one or more Bush states could flip, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. McCain could take New Hampshire, but only four electoral votes are at stake and New England has clearly shifted Democratic in recent years.
Even if Obama doesn’t win, Democratic congressional majorities are expected to grow. The Democrats have advantages in fundraising, candidates, and polls that ask people which party they want to run Congress. In the Senate, the Democrats currently have a 51-49 majority and five retiring senators are Republican, three in states that Democrats look likely to win. No Democratic senators are retiring. The Democrats’ Senatorial Campaign Committee has a 2-to-1 cash advantage, which should help to extent their majority no matter who wins the presidency.
Ever wonder what would happen if Sean Hannity – or maybe Stephen Colbert – went to Iran? Well, here’s how it might go, courtesy of Jesse Guma, a film producer working in Los Angeles. Enjoy.
PS. Full disclosure: He’s my son, he shot this satire in Iran, and he actually can pronounce Ahmadinejad.
At noon we waited for the electricity, watching the bare light bulb for a sign. In the afternoon we drank rum and listened to reggae music. After the lights went out again at five we picked out nodes of brightness – hotels, hospitals, the palace, the “Vive Duvalier President a Vie” neon sign downtown.
I’d made a deal to crash at Herve’s house. He was renovating an old ruin along the Rue Pan Americaine, gradually turning it into an art gallery. He was doing all right but needed the cash and had an extended family to support. At 28 Herve was well-traveled, attractive, optimistic and occasionally a bit outrageous. He called himself a “tastemaker.” His gallery was certainly tasteful enough – quality paintings, ironwork and pottery. Artists and intellectuals gravitated to his scene, a nice home plus rum and evenings of bright conversation about change.
In some ways Herve reminded me of an old Bennington friend, the determination, artistic vision, energy and stubbornness, fired by a deep desire to create a cultural movement. Herve’s politics were a bit naïve for my taste – cultural revolution through art – but his desire to improve life in Haiti was compelling and absolutely sincere.
Each day we’d do errands in his Lancer, pickups at the day care center, food buying and visits to the Centre D’Art, speeding through places, classes and moods. On the car radio the announcer would talk about power rationing for the day. One area we visited was called Brooklyn. Why? I asked. “Because it is so bad,” he said, “nothing for the people.” Yet not as bad as some places, he quickly added. At least Brooklyn was near water and had some open space. True enough, but there were absolutely no trees.
The scene contrasted starkly with the lifestyle of the elite, especially places like San Souci. My first impression upon entering the place was “wow,” more white people than I’ve seen in a week. We had come to take in some “folkloric” dancing – AKA phony voodoo – in the hotel nightclub. Before long a white-suited black man worked his way toward us through the crowd, laughing effusively all the way.
This was Aubelan Jolicoeur, gossip columnist, one-time Minister of Culture, recently fired as Minister of Tourism. To young Haitians he was a fool, a caricature and maybe an informer. To people in search of the “bourgeois welcome,” however, he was “Mister Haiti.” He stopped by our table, made the required small talk, then took his hustle elsewhere.
Despite a recent loss of status Jolicoeur still had contacts with the hotels and in the art world. The backstory was provided by Ira, a Johns Hopkins doctoral student studying in the countryside. He’d come to the city for a monthly visit. After an 82 cent dinner and some cheap rum he was at San Souci to reaffirm his anger.
Ira was obsessed with the contrast of privilege and poverty. Habitation LeClerc, originally built for Napoleon’s sister and now a jet set haven, was located in the midst of an incredible slum, he pointed out, yet its guests never saw the reality on the other side of the resort’s high walls. “Those are very rich people,” he said, “people who don’t have to be on business trips to be here.”
The tourists moved to poolside to watch the on-stage show, a collection of three dances with flute and drum interludes. As the lights came up six performers charged on stage wearing tinseled costumes that absurdly exaggerated Latin style. During Act One – a “fertility” dance – two women let their halters drop. “This reinforces every racist stereotype people have,” Ira said.
As the dance continued the two darker women left the stage, leaving a half-nude, light-skinned beauty and one man to complete the “ritual.” Ira snapped, “The white bitch stays! Do you really think that black men have bigger pricks and black women like to screw? Maybe we’ll get some progressive nudity.”
We didn’t. Instead, after a flute solo the rest of the dancers returned for Act Two as “peasants,” barefoot and laughing in colorful hats. “In the city they have a Loa called Uncle Zaca, who doesn’t exist in the country,” Ira said. “He’s the Loa of the country people, a stooge. That’s how he’s portrayed. Look at those dancers, laughing like peasants. Ridiculous. And barefoot. An anthropologist once went into the countryside to see a Voodoo ceremony. He was very surprised to see people wearing shoes. ‘I didn’t know peasants wore shoes during ceremonies,’ he said. And I said, ‘When they can get shoes they like to wear them.’”
The “peasant” dance, basically rural folk leaping around with baskets, was ludicrous. But Act Three exceeded it in grotesque exaggeration. It began with eight dancers, all wearing red. One guy brandished flaming sticks to the sound of insistent drumming. The women circled while exchanging mock-possession shouts.
Suddenly, a dancer jumped into the pool, screaming, moaning and writhing. This brought the audience to its feet. The MC and choreographer “tried” to pull her out and off stage. But she crawled back, as if involuntarily drawn to the guy with the flaming sticks, a stand-in for the fire god.
A second dancer fell to the ground, flipping like a beached fish. Then a third. They crawled around as the “fire god” danced above them, flicking sparks from the torches. The orchestrated frenzy reached its final crescendo and then abruptly ended.The males carried the women off, still “possessed.”
“There you have it,” quipped Ira. “Three’s the magic number.”
Before we left I asked him to define his rage. The city elite lived in luxury, surrounded by intolerable conditions, he said. Child mortality ran high, people were starving, and the middle class was practically non-existent. The San Souci show was a classic display of what was wrong with Haiti – blacks distorting their own culture and then changing into Gucci to go home, whites watching absurd caricatures they took for reality. “But you can’t feel pity,” he added, “because these people know what’s going on and have a lot going for them despite their poverty. So the only response that seems to work is anger.”
“But when you’re angry you usually feel compelled to act,” I said. “It you don’t it becomes frustrating.” He agreed but had no answer, just two more years in Haiti to figure it out.
As the days drifted by the crisis became the norm. Rich Haitians drilled wells while the poor broke water lines with machetes to fill their buckets. The government issued warnings about the need to conserve, but in the wealthy enclaves people still washed their cars. Drought and famine swept the countryside as experts cautioned about impending catastrophe. The forests had been destroyed to produce charcoal, the only fuel most people could afford. But unchecked soil erosion was underway. Forest devastation was altering the climate; the land was getting hotter and retaining less water as the water table fell.
“The environment is shot,” one local expert concluded. “We are beginning to see the effects of galloping devastation.” A radio commentator had his own analysis” “God is not the problem. The problem is man.” This sounded true. Not much was left of Haiti that hadn’t been either destroyed by war and poverty or purchased by investors. Words like independence and human rights sounded empty in the face of ecologically ruin and a greedy, corrupt and potentially brutal regime. The country’s capacity to recover looked fatally damaged.
As a temporary escape from bleak reality we took in a movie. Actually, it was the first Haitian feature film ever produced. Shot with one camera and amateur actors, Olivia was a theatrical disaster. But movies were a popular pastime in Port-au-Prince, and the audience was oblivious to the pabulum plot about a country girl trying to make it in the city. She ended up having an illegitimate kid and finding a rich boy friend. It was a storybook Haiti that didn’t exist, but one the crowd in the theater preferred to crumbling real life.
When it ended, even harsh critics had to admit that it was strong and memorable, one of the best acceptance addresses ever delivered. In “The American Promise,” Barack Obama made the case for his candidacy, outlined a clear agenda, inspired his audience, and threw down the gauntlet before John McCain. “I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans,” he said. “I just think he doesn’t know.” Here’s the speech:
The Republicans attempted to deflate the enthusiasm with now familiar criticisms about Obama’s inexperience, responding to rhetorical skill and charisma as if they were somehow suspect. At the same time, however, a McCain spokesman hinted that the Republican convention might be postponed if Tropical Storm Gustav strengthens into a hurricane and hits the Gulf Coast on Monday, and The Washington Post reported that President Bush might cancel his appearance Monday, ostensibly for the same reason.
On Friday, McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate. Elected Alaska's first woman governor in 2006, she would also be the first Alaskan on a national ticket and the first woman GOP nominee.
In accepting the call, Palin referred to Hillary Clinton's run for president, and said, "it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all." On the other hand, she questioned the VP job in an interview a month ago, saying it didn’t seem “productive.”In fact, she admitted that she didn’t know what the vice president does.
A hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico could draw attention to the offshore oil rigs, mentioned by McCain as a solution to rising gas prices, being evacuated in the face of the storm. But it also begs the question – raised by evangelical leaders about some other natural disasters –of whether a judgment is being rendered – in this case on the Republicans. If the administration fails to respond effectively this time, it could be a turning point in the campaign.
After a peaceful march of about 7,000 people to the Democratic Convention Wednesday, a representative of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) met with Phil Carter, head of veterans affairs for the Obama campaign to deliver a letter to the candidate. IVAW has asked Obama to endorse three goals – immediate withdrawal, full veterans benefits, and reparations for the Iraqi people – and allow their letter to be read at the convention. Carter promised to get a response. Obama’s current Iraq plan is phased withdrawn with a “residual force” to remain behind.
For more stories, go to Convention Watch, a guide to highlights, protests, and convention history. For Pacifica Radio coverage, go to Election 411.org or KPFA’s Live Coverage. Photo courtesy of Phil Weinstein and the Alliance for Real Democracy.
After Papa Doc Duvalier’s death in 1971 Haiti attracted some renewed financial interest from the US, France, Germany and Canada. Most of it came in the form of loans, however, so the country’s deficit grew. Projects were launched only to be abandoned. During my trip in 1977 a World Food Program administrator explained it to me this way: “The real problem in any project here is maintenance. After you spend several years developing crops or putting up buildings there’s no grassroots support for keeping it going, no decentralization of effort. When money comes into the country it goes directly to Port-au-Prince.”
He was just as skeptical about tourism. “People on cruises don’t spend much money and don’t stay long,” he said. “Tourism isn’t the way for Haiti to go, the income won’t reach the peasants. It will go to the resort owners.”
Public aid and private investment were closely linked. The French focused on tourism, the US went with labor-intensive assembly lines. By 1976 more than 150 American manufacturers were producing for export. But the workers making the baseballs, electric motors, electronic components, ready-to-wear clothing and tiny football action figures for the Superbowl were getting only a $1.30 a day.
“The government is full of crap,” said Florian, a 40-something Haitian who had just quit his job as a social planner. It was just too frustrating. I asked for an example. When a $2 million loan was given for an irrigation project in Les Cayes, he said, only $400,000 was actually used for the work. The rest went to Haitian officials and American consultants. His picture was gloomy. There was no way to repay the flood of loans. Taiwanese efforts to develop a rice crop were “really making agriculture worse.” More foreigners were arriving since Jean-Claude Duvalier – known as Baby Doc – succeeded his father. “The ten percent – the literate and the wealthy – are squeezing the 90 percent and are helped by the regime,” he said.
We also talked about Jacmel. After several days in the crowded capital I’d retreated to this scenic spot on the southern coast. It’s a mulatto town, he noted, and didn’t respond to the “negritude” movement or even vote for Duvalier back in 1957. As a result it was “punished,” its schools closed and services cut. Conditions had improved lately, he admitted. At least the schools were operating again. But pressure to back the regime remained intense. Tontons still watchdogged the peasants and posters of Baby Doc and his mother lined most of the streets.
The day after I returned from Jacmel a series of blackouts began. More than half a million people in Port-au-Prince spent the night in total darkness. The next day Gary, a local DJ, explained that, due to drought and broken equipment, there was only enough power to cover five hours a day. He’d just come from a meeting where officials promised to order a Delco generator.
“It’s a bad nostalgia trip,” he joked, a reminder of the old days with Papa Doc when power was cut off for two hours every evening. US interests controlled the electric company at the time and its director was one of the most hated residents. Since 1971, though, Port-au-Prince had been getting 24-hour service.
Gary’s reaction was paranoia, a relatively common and largely justified point of view.The blackout could lead to a coup, he predicted, the “dinosaurs” rising up against Jean-Claude’s poor management. The signs were scarce but he was taking no chances. His plan was to leave the country.
This irritated Herve, an art gallery owner my Vermont friends Robin and Doreen had recommended. “Look, here we are,” he said, “with the windows open, talking about these things.” He wanted Haitians to stop bickering, come together, and work for change. Gary doubted it would happen. His immediate solution was to drown his sorrows at a plush disco in suburban Petionville. Like the expensive hotels, discos had their own generators to handle blackouts.
For most city dwellers a day without electricity was nothing new. Even water could be a luxury. Exploring Port-au-Prince I sensed my privilege. I wasn’t with the elite – days at poolside, nights in air-conditioned bars and hotels. But this was just a visit. For millions of Haitians it was permanent and almost unbearable.
After two weeks word came that Robin and Doreen would be delayed. That meant I was on my own – and running out of money. After my troubles back in Vermont I was still unsettled, but Haiti had been surprisingly restful so far. “I’m ready to live a quieter life now,” I wrote in my journal, “to let go of some of my anxiety. But it is with me beneath the calm. It is contained within my expectations, which cannot fully be met even with the best of luck. Well, perhaps I can limit – not lower – my expectations, ration them like food or drugs, entertainment or a fixed income. I expect to continue writing. For the moment, one expectation at a time is enough.”
As a tropical storm threatened New Orleans, Democrats made history in Denver on August 27 by selecting Barack Obama as their candidate for president. Forty-five years after Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a dream" speech at the Lincolm Memorial in Washington, DC, Obama became the first biracial candidate selected by a major political party in US history. See this historic moment below.
Hillary Clinton led the way, ending a partial roll call vote when she requested his nomination by acclamation. Even the most jaded observers were moved.
Day Two of the Democratic Convention was supposed to focus on “Renewing America’s Promise.” But the real drama revolved around Hillary Clinton, specifically how she’d handle two big tasks – bringing her disappointed supporters around to Barack Obama and taking the fight to John McCain. She managed both with power and grace, a performance so convincing that if Obama does lose in November she’ll be impossible to blame.
It was also a day to test catch phrases and attack jokes. Describing McCain’s support for the Bush agenda, Sen. Bob Casey offered a clever entry: “That’s not a maverick, that’s a sidekick.”According to pundit Jeffrey Toobin, this is what the Democrats need, “something simple and easy to remember.”
If that’s the challenge, Clinton came ready to play. “No way, no how, no McCain,” she began.And later, “we don’t need four more years of the last eight years.”But her rim shot was a play on St Paul and Minneapolis, location of the upcoming GOP convention. “It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities,” she said, "because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.'' Ba-dum!
Virginia Governor Mark Warner’s keynote talk was a letdown, especially considering that four years ago his spot was filled by Obama, who galvanized the hall and launched himself nationally. Instead, Warner served up marginal remarks aimed at independent voters. Describing the race as a choice between the past and the future, he barely mentioned the GOP candidate.
But Hillary was ready to do the heavy lifting. Watched from on high by her husband, she urged unity “as a single party with a single purpose” and made the case against McCain – more war, lost jobs, privatized social security, opposition to equal pay for women, and the threat of a “Supreme Court in a right wing headlock,” to name but a few.She also challenged her supporters. “Ask yourselves,” she said, “Were you in this campaign just for me?”Leaving no doubt about how she hopes they’ll answer the question, Clinton declared, “Barack Obama is my candidate” and she can’t wait to watch him “sign into law a health care plan that covers every American.” All in all, a hard act to follow.
Day One of the Democratic Convention left some hungry for “red meat” attacks on George W. Bush and John McCain. But convention planners and Team Obama decided to go for the heart, driving home their “One Nation” theme with moving speeches by Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. “This November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans,” said Kennedy, echoing a line minted by his brother, President John Kennedy. “The hope rises again. And the dream lives on."
Deflating criticisms that she and her husband are too cool and “elitist” to connect with average people, Michelle Obama delivered a warm, emotional appeal, strong on family, values and love of country. “All of us are driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do – that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be,” she said. “That is the thread that connects our hearts.”
Talking heads decried the decision not to go negative right away as a wasted opportunity. “We are a country that is in a borderline recession, we are an 80 percent wrong-track country. Health care, energy — I haven't heard anything about gas prices," argued former Clinton strategist James Carville. “If this party has a message it's done a hell of a job hiding it tonight.”
But weren’t the Democrats just taking a page from the GOP cookbook -- first warm the heart, then go for the jugular? If that’s the recipe, some raw steak is about to be served and the head chef will be Hillary Clinton.
Outside the convention, about 100 protesters were being processed today at Denver's temporary jail in a former warehouse, The Denver Post reports. On Monday night, riot police used pepper spray to force protesters out of the Civic Center, then blocked them from reaching the 16th Street Mall.
When anti-war activist and congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan returned to her room in Denver today, “there was a man standing by my desk holding the room phone with a screwdriver in his hand,” she said. For more stories, go to Convention Watch, a guide to highlights, protests, and convention history. For Pacifica Radio coverage, go to Election411.org or KPFA's Live Coverage
As I walked across a hot, treeless airfield from the plane to the ramshackle Duvalier International Terminal building in March 1977, a row of black faces stared down from the second floor balcony. Later, on the cab ride into the city, we passed wave after wave of makeshift houses and thousands of thin, dark Haitians.
The poverty was extreme; starving dogs searching the dirt roads, mothers cradling emaciated babies in their bony arms, young men struggling with huge carts of charcoal. Naked children, lanky teens and hobbled old folks wandered listlessly down the rutted roads. Drivers talked with their horns. Some people dressed in simple “western” clothing, and there were a few modern cars. But the tiny middle class was eclipsed by the pervasive deprivation.
On the advice of two friends, I'd flown there two days after turning 30. It had been a rough winter so far. My marriage had broken up and there was trouble at Burlington College. Travel and get a different perspective, they suggested. It made sense. I’d been so focused on work and Vermont for almost a decade that I’d missed the chance to explore the world.
They also had the perfect destination: the first Independent Black Republic, ruled by a corrupt dynasty, infused with both Catholicism and Voodoo. They were working on a new film, an animated history using indigenous Haitian art. I could go ahead and they’d join me later. Meanwhile, they could provide contacts and point me to some interviews. Given my dark mood it seemed like a frightening brilliant idea.
The day I arrived the tourist newspaper had a photo of Jean-Claude Duvalier on the cover, chubby in a conservative suit, grinning and sporting long sideburns. The paper said he had lots to be happy about. Haiti’s soccer team had just beaten Cuba, after all, and an “economic revolution” was getting underway. Hey, they might even find oil in Port-au-Prince Bay, the rag speculated. But reality was another matter. For example, workers at Habitation LeClerc, an exclusive $150 a day resort, were on strike for better pay. The bellboys refused to take out the garbage. When a brawl erupted the hotel manager was hospitalized.
Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier had died in 1971 after ruling Haiti for almost 20 years. But before leaving the planet he passed on his title – President for Life – to his chuckle-head son. With a taste for fast cars, a jet set lifestyle and $200 million stashed in foreign banks, the new president was downplaying the “iron rule” image at the time.
The new line was progress – with a smidgeon of liberalism. Jimmy Carter, US president and Trilateral Commission man of the year, apparently liked what he was hearing and promised more development aid. But the liberalism was superficial. Press freedom needn’t mean much when the criticisms targeted Jean-Claude or his Tonton Macoute, the thuggish “national security volunteer” force he’d inherited from dad. With US assistance, Baby Doc – that was the new boss’s unofficial nickname – had even trained his own Delta-style force, the Leopards, just in case armed struggle broke out.
Not even progress looked promising. Investors poured in bucks, but the country was heading for ecological disaster. Drought, crop failures, deforestation, food shortages, bad drinking water, major electrical outages, severe malnutrition and malaria – Haiti had it all. Meanwhile the regime’s two factions argued among themselves – the “dinosaurs,” old time followers of Papa Doc who lined up with his Madame Duvalier, versus the younger “Jean-Claudists.” A mother and child disunion was only a moment away.
Haiti’s story was both heroic and tragic. The richest of the Caribbean colonies, once known as the “pearl of the Antilles,” had become the poorest nation in the Americas. Portuguese slave traders had begun bringing Blacks to the island of Hispaniola as early as 1510. The Spanish had already killed off the Indians that Columbus found there two decades before. Spain eventually ceded the western part of the island to France, and the slave trade accelerated until the end of the 18th century.
Around the time of the French Revolution, one slave read a book by Abbe Raynal, a French priest calling for freedom and revolution. That 45-year-old coachman, Toussaint L’Ouverture, became Haiti’s liberator, a fearless warrior who mastered politics and intrigue. By the time Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in France, Toussaint had issued a constitution outlawing slavery. He tried to negotiate, but the little corporal assembled 60,000 troops, the largest expeditionary force in history, and tried to overrun the island. He did capture Haiti’s hero, and Toussaint died in a French prison.
In the end, a combination of indomitable resistance and yellow fever stopped the French. Saint Dominique was declared an independent republic in 1804, taking the name Haiti from the Indian word for “land of mountains.” But the country was in ruins, literally burned to the ground, and the next century was a violent time of serial dictatorship and deepening conflict between blacks and mulattos.
In 1915, the US stepped in. With a local uprising threatening US business interests, Woodrow Wilson decided to send in the Marines and set up a protectorate, touting the invasion as part of his “open door” policy. The troops remained for the next 19 years. When Franklin Roosevelt visited in 1934, the local reaction was blunt; crowds tore up bridges and telephone lines. The new empire answered with martial law. The greatest atrocity of the period was the slaughter of 20,000 Haitians working in the adjacent Dominican Republic, victims of a plan by that country’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo, to cut down the “foreign” labor force by murdering it. For that one Haiti’s government eventually received some compensation, $500,000 or $25 per death.
Papa Doc began his career with government jobs and US aid projects in the 1940s, an era of strikes and calls for “black power.” Speaking for blacks, who were often treated as second-class citizens by the less numerous but politically more powerful mulattos, he created a private army, the Tonton Macoute, who followed his orders, murdered his enemies, and acted like feudal warlords.
In 1957 Duvalier was elected president. The regime quickly degenerated into a dictatorship of unrelenting repression. Haiti was blacklisted from international aid and Papa Doc assumed a lifetime term, using Voodoo as a powerful tool of fear. His Macoutes, sporting “uniforms” of Denham and dark sunglasses, were so macabre that they seemed like zombis, the walking dead.
Most of the media attention was on convention stagecraft and the horserace dynamics of the presidential race – change vs. experience, Clinton dramas and VP rollouts, who’s a celebrity and who’s out of the touch. But what’s actually at stake is the choice being offered on issues that matter. Here are the Top Five, and what currently differentiates the Democratic and Republican candidates.
The Economy: Barack Obama pledges to help-middle class families struggling with rising costs and stagnant pay, reform healthcare and education, and renegotiate free trade agreements. John McCain argues for keeping the Bush tax cuts but decreasing government spending, reforming social security, and cutting taxes on middle class families by abolishing the Alternative Minimum tax.
Iraq & Iran: Obama argues that there’s "no military solution" in Iraq, calling for withdrawal of most troops and a UN convention on national reconciliation. He says he would meet Iranian leaders without preconditions, pursue “aggressive personal diplomacy,” and change Iran’s behavior through incentives. McCain says that US forces should remain until Iraq is able to defend itself, backed troop escalation, and thinks withdrawal “timelines” could trigger genocide in the region. He wants to get other democracies to escalate economic sanctions against Iran, and backs a military solution if necessary to prevent its alleged nuclear weapons plans.
Climate Change: Obama wants to cut US greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, says it should lead the global effort, and favors investing $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy. McCain would consider joining with other nations to reduce emissions if China and India agree to participate.
Abortion: Obama says women should make their own choices "in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy.” McCain argues that the landmark Roe v Wade decision should be overturned, would appoint judges who support that position, and backs aid for state efforts to boost adoption.
Healthcare: Obama calls for universal coverage but not compulsory insurance – except for children, subsidies to make coverage more affordable, and making insurer cover pre-existing conditions. McCain wants tax incentives to encourage people to get personal health insurance.
*History: The Rise and Fall of the Original Third Party
Political Conventions: A Video History
2008: Daily Highlights and TV Coverage
The Democrats in Denver, August 25-28.Monday: Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Edward Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Jesse Jackson Jr.; Theme – One Nation. Tuesday: Hillary Clinton, Mark Warner (keynote), Patrick Leahy, and Kathleen Sebelius; Theme – Renewing America’s Promise. Wednesday: Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Harry Reid, Bill Richardson, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, and Tom Daschle; Theme – Securing America’s Future. Thursday: Obama accepts at Invesco Field; Theme – Change You Can Believe In. Clinton gets a roll call vote. Obama picks Biden for VP.
The Republican in St Paul, September 1-4.Monday: Laura Bush, Cindy McCain; Theme – Service. Tuesday: George W. Bush, Joe Lieberman,and Fred Thompson; Theme –Reform. Wednesday:Rudy Giuliani (keynote), Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, and Sarah Palin; Theme – Prosperity. Thursday: Tim Pawlenty, Tom Ridge, McCain acceptance speech; Theme – Peace. McCain picks Palin for VP. George W. Bush and Dick Cheneycancel appearances.
Catching the Conventions on TV
On cable MSNBC plans 20 hours of coverage daily, while CNN offers a “multi-platform” approach, including intermittent live coverage. ABC, NBC and CBS air one-hour reports at 10 p.m. (EDT) each day, Aug. 25-28 and Sept. 1-4. PBS airs three hours of coverage nightly, beginning at 8 p.m. The Daily Show on Comedy Central broadcasts from the convention cities. BBC’s World News America airs coverage at 7 and 10 p.m. weeknights during both conventions, with Ted Koppel as a contributing analyst. C-SPAN offers "gavel-to-gavel coverage" beginning at 6 p.m. August 25 for the Democrats and 3:30 p.m. Sept. 1 for the Republicans.
Other Events
The Big Tent: A 9,000-square-foot, two-story structure with work space for bloggers and new media journalists. It was a collaboration between the Denver groups Progress Now and Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, teaming up with Daily Kos, Google, and YouTube.
The Starz Green Room: An alternative media hub for elected officials, Democratic staffers, foreign dignitaries, business executives, media and the entertainment industry. The most visible, reflecting the progressive pecking order, were expected to be Van Jones, Arianna Huffington, John Podesta (head of the Center for American Progress), Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, and writer David Sirota. Various celebrities also stopped by.
Ralph Nader: The independent candidate for president (currently on the ballot in 31 states) planned rallies during both conventions to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and press for inclusion in the presidential debates. Nader's rally in Denver was set for Aug. 27, the day Joe Biden gave his VP acceptance speech. The Minneapolis rally was scheduled for Sept. 4, the day McCain accepted the GOP nomination across the river in St. Paul.
Ron Paul: The former GOP candidate held a counter-convention before and during the Republican gathering, August 31-Sept. 2. According to Paul, the speakers would include Jesse Ventura and Barry Goldwater Jr. He also planned a counter-rally in Minneapolis on Sept 2.
Protests: Re-Create 68 and other groups organized rallies, marches and concerts during the Democratic Convention, beginning with an End the Occupation march and rally on Sunday, Aug. 24. Yuppies.org warned of “massive” anti-war protests, but attendance was disappointing. Denver police set up holding pens in case the protests get “too unruly.” The city passed a law barring people from carrying certain protest "tools" (chains or quick-setting cement) and noxious substances (urine or "feces bombs") that could be used to ward off authorities.
When 2,000 people participated in a peaceful anti-poverty march at the Republican Convention on September 2, police opened fire with gas and projectiles. On the previous day, 283 people were arrested after police fired projectiles, pepper spray and tear gas to disperse a crowd of 5,000 demonstrating near the convention site. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was among those arrested.
A dozen groups planning protests sued the U.S. Secret Service and City of Denver over plans to confine them to a parade route and fenced-in zone, saying that their Constitutional rights to free speech were being violated. U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger agreed that the protesters would suffer some infringement on their freedom of expression but said those interests must be balanced with security concerns.
The ACLU obtained a copy of a Denver Police Department bulletin advising officers that violent protesters at the Democratic Convention might be identified from their use of hand held radio, bikes, maps, and "camping information. The Bulletin provided a "watch list" of items that police are to associate with violent protesters.
Both Denver and St. Paul became virtual fortresses during the conventions, protected by airplanes, helicopters, barriers, fences and thousands of police officers, National Guard troops and Secret Service agents. In Denver, police spent at least $18 million on equipment alone, bolstered by National Guard troops and hundreds of officers from surrounding suburbs. In St. Paul, police called on 80 law enforcement agencies to provide 3,000 officers to supplement the city's 500-person force. Congress earmarked $100 million for security at the two meetings.
News
Florida and Michigan Votes restored
8/24: The Democratic National Committee vote unanimously Sunday to restore full convention voting rights to Florida and Michigan delegates. The two states had been penalized for holding their primaries in January, violating party rules.
Obama Taps Biden
8/23: Barack Obama selects six-term US Senator Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate. Biden, who has represented Delaware in the US Senate since 1972, ran briefly ran for president in 1988 and again this year. A resident of northern, upscale New Castle County, he is also well known in Pennsylvania, a swing state in the 2008 race.
Biden currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His Senate career highlights include presiding over contentious Supreme Court nomination hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, and development of the 1994 Crime Bill. He was instrumental in pushing the Clinton administration toward air strikes on Yugoslavia and initially supported the Iraq War, although he has since become a critic of how it has been waged. In 2004, he suggested that John Kerry pick John McCain as his running mate.
The speculation turns to McCain’s choice. Leading contenders include former opponent Mitt Romney, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Ohio Congressman Rob Portman, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and US Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000. The Republican Party base wants someone with a conservative record on social issues such as abortion, but McCain could decide to go with Ridge to counter Obama’s selection of Biden.
Presidential Debate Schedule Set
8/23: The first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain will be held on Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi. The topic will be foreign policy, moderated by Jim Lehrer, host of PBS’ NewsHour. The second debate will be Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, moderated by Tom Brokaw. The format will be a town hall-style discussion. The final debate will be Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in New York, moderated by Bob Schieffer, host of Face the Nation. All debates will be 90 minutes, 9-10:30 pm. The Vice Presidential candidates will debate Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis, moderated by Gwen Ifill, host/moderator of PBS’s Washington Week.
History
The Rise and Fall of the Original Third Party
It began with a charge of murder. In 1826 William Morgan, a 52-year-old Freemason and printer from Batavia, New York, had become dissatisfied with his lodge and announced plans to publish the details of Masonic rituals. When it became known, however, he was harassed, and, that September, seized by unknown parties and taken to Fort Niagara. Morgan was never seen again.
Although his fate was never determined, it was widely believed that he’d been kidnapped and killed by fellow Masons, a suspicion that increased hostility toward the order and lead to the formation of the first national third party in the United States. Spreading rapidly from upstate New York to all of New England and eventually west, the Anti-Mason movement soon became a political party, and subsequently introduced important innovations, including nominating conventions and the adoption of party platforms. Yet a decade later the party was over.
Morgan’s disappearance led many people to believe that Freemasons weren’t loyal citizens. Since judges, businessmen, bankers, and politicians were often members, ordinary people began to consider it an elitist group and possibly a powerful secret society. Others suspected links to the occult and ceremonial magic.
One persuasive argument was that the lodges' secret oaths could bind members to favor each other over “outsiders.” Because the trial of the alleged Morgan conspirators was mishandled and the Masons resisted further inquiries, many concluded that they controlled key offices, abused their power to promote the interests of the fraternity, and were violating basic principles of democracy. Enraged, they decided to challenge what they considered a conspiracy.
In western New York, citizens attending mass meetings in 1827 resolved not to support Masons for public office. The National Republicans were weak in New York at the time, and shrewd political leaders used anti-Masonic feeling to create a new party to oppose rising “Jacksonian Democracy,” which favored a more powerful president, expansion of the right to vote, the patronage system, and geographical expansion. The fact that Andrew Jackson was a high-ranking Mason and frequently praised the Order didn’t help. One of the most prominent Anti-Masons was former President John Quincy Adams, who wrote a series of stern letters condemning the institution after Morgan’s disappearance.
Numerous Anti-Masonic papers were published, four of them –The Anti-Freemason, AntiMasonic Christian Herald, Free Press and Anti-Masonic Baptist Herald – issued from the same printing office in Boston. Anti-Masonic spelling books, school readers and almanacs were distributed, and Anti-Masonic book stores and taverns opened. In some churches it became a religious crusade.
Upstate New York was the flashpoint but the excitement soon spread through New England and reached as far west as Northeastern Ohio. In some parts of that state, lodge halls were reportedly destroyed by mobs, property and records were carried away, Masons were ostracized and businesses closed.
A national organization was planned as early as 1827, when New York leaders attempted, unsuccessfully, to persuade Henry Clay, a former Mason, to renounce the Order and head the movement. His slippery reply to an inquiry on his opinions about the group was that he’d become a Freemason as a young man but hadn’t given the order attention for a long time. In fact, Clay was a former Grand Master, but the growth of the movement led him to practically disown it.
In the 1828 elections the new party proved unexpectedly strong, eclipsing the National Republicans in New York.Within a year it broadened its base, becoming a champion of internal improvements and protective tariffs. The party published 35 weekly newspapers in New York, including the Albany Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed, who went on to become a powerful political boss. Openly partisan, one Journal comment on Martin Van Buren included the words "dangerous," "demagogue," "corrupt," "degrade," "pervert," "prostitute," "debauch" and "cursed" in a single paragraph.
When the Anti-Masonic convention met in Philadelphia in 1830 it adopted the following platform: “The object of Anti-Masonry, in nominating and electing candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency, is to deprive Masonry of the support which it derives from the power and patronage of the executive branch of the United States Government. To effect this object, will require that candidates besides possessing the talents and virtues requisite for such exalted stations, be known as men decidedly opposed to secret societies.”
The Party invented the political convention, electing local delegates to chose state candidates and pledge their loyalty. Soon the Democrats and Whigs recognized the value of the idea for building a party and began holding their own. By 1832 the movement’s focus on Masonry faded, but it had spread to more states, becoming especially strong in Vermont and Pennsylvania.
Vermont’s Anti-Masonic Interlude
In 1831, William A. Palmer was elected governor of Vermont on an Anti-Masonic ticket, and remained in office until 1835. In 1832, when the national Party ran a candidate for president, it was the only state to cast its electoral votes for the nominee, William Wirt, a former Mason.
Palmer was a former judge and US Senator with an established reputation. Formerly a Jeffersonian Democrat, he led in the popular vote for governor in 1831, but it took nine ballots in the state legislature before he was chosen. He won again the following year, but still didn’t get a clear majority of the popular vote. This time it took 43 legislative ballots before he was re-elected. In 1834, he won on the first ballot, but only because the other parties, anticipating the collapse of the Anti-Masons, hoped to win over its constituents.
Palmer also led in the popular vote in 1835. But this time he couldn’t win in the Legislature, and after sixty-three ballots Silas Jennison, winner of the Lieutenant-Governor’s race, was selected. The rest of the Anti-Masonic ticket was indorsed by the Whigs. The opposition to Palmer was due primarily to his Democratic leanings and the belief that he intended to support Democrat Martin Van Buren for the presidency the next year.
Governor Palmer believed that secret societies were evil. But he didn’t take radical stands in his speeches. In his first inaugural address, he declared the intention to appoint only men who were "unshackled by any earthly allegiance except to the constitution and laws," and suggested legislation to prohibit the administration of oaths except "when necessary to secure the faithful discharge of public trusts and to elicit truth in the administration of justice."He wanted to "diminish the frequency" of oaths because of the "influence which they exercise over the human mind."
Anti-Masons ultimately succeeded in forcing Vermont’s lodges to close – for a while. But that left the state party with less reason to exist, and in 1836 Vermont’s Anti-Masonic leaders joined the new, anti-Jacksonian Whig Party. The Whigs didn’t last long, and Vermont later changed its allegiance to the emergent Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery.
John Charles Frémont, the Republican candidate for president in 1856, won about 80 percent of Vermont’s popular vote. In 1860, it backed Abraham Lincoln, giving him the largest margin of victory of any state.For the next 100 years, Vermont remained solidly Republican.
Scourge of the Masons
Thaddeus Stevens was born in Vermont, but made his name in Pennsylvania. He openly became an Anti-Mason in 1829 when he supported Joseph Ritner, the party’s candidate for governor, who was defeated that year but won a surprisingly large vote. A few months later Stevens became a delegate to the second State Anti-Masonic Convention, and then attended the first national convention in Philadelphia in September, 1830. He attracted attention by delivering speeches strongly attacking Masonry. In one of them, "On The Masonic Influence Upon The Press," he deplored the lack of publicity given to the convention and attributed it to Masonic influence.
"Look around,” Stevens declared. “Though but one hundred thousand of the people of the United States are Free Masons, yet almost all the offices of high profit and honor are filled with gentlemen of that institution. Out of the number of law judges in the State of Pennsylvania, eighteen-twentieths are Masons; and twenty-two out of twenty-four states of the Union are now governed by Masonic chief magistrates. Although not a twentieth part of the voters of this commonwealth, and of the United States are Masons, yet they have contrived, by concert, to put themselves into eighteen out of twenty of the offices of profit and power."
In 1833 Stevens was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature on the Anti-Masonic ticket. His legislative talents showed themselves from the start. An excellent debater with a devastating wit that cut his opposition to shreds, he also knew how to maneuver behind the scenes and bide his time.
His big chance came in 1835, when Anti-Masons took control of the legislature in coalition with the Whigs. Wasting no time, Stevens proposed a law designed to suppress secret societies and became chairman of a committee to investigate the "evils of Free Masonry." The proceedings that followed have been likened by Masonic writers to the Inquisition and led to Stevens being labeled the "Grand Inquisitor." Thirty-four witnesses were summoned, including some who had renounced Masonry.
The most dramatic incident occurred on January 18, 1836. Prominent Masons who had previously refused to appear before Stevens’ committee were being compelled to testify. Among these were ex-Governor George Wolf; George M. Dallas, Masonic Grand Master of Pennsylvania at the time, and ten year later US Vice President under James Polk; and Joseph R. Chandler, editor of the United States Gazette, published in Philadelphia. When ordered to answer questions, however, all three refused. In all, 25 witnesses were placed in the custody of the House Sergeant-at-Arms. After several days, when some of the Whigs broke with the Anti-Masons, the prisoners were released and Stevens' campaign ended.
Stevens stood almost alone in trying to maintain the Anti-Masonic party on a national basis. When the 1835 State Anti-Masonic Convention endorsed William Henry Harrison for President, he initially refused to accept it because Harrison wouldn’t pledge to use the government to go after the Masons. Due to his continued efforts to keep the Anti-Mason Party alive, Stevens couldn’t secure enough support to be elected to Congress until 1848. From then on, however, he began to attract attention with anti-slavery speeches, and subsequently helped to launch the Republican Party.
In 1858 Stevens returned to Congress as a Republican and soon assumed leadership of the House, where his strong abolitionist sentiments, plus his legislative skills, gave him tremendous power during the Civil War.
End of the Road
The Anti-Mason Party conducted the first U.S. presidential nominating convention in Baltimore in 1832. Its candidate, William Wirt, won 7.78 percent of the popular vote and Vermont’s seven electoral votes. The highest elected office ever held by a member of the Party was governor: besides Palmer in Vermont, Joseph Ritner served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1838. By 1833, however, the organization was already in decline in New York, its members gradually uniting with the National Republican Party and opponents of Jacksonian Democracy in the Whig Party.
Following the election of Governor Ritner, a state convention was held in Harrisburg to choose Presidential Electors for the 1836 election. The Pennsylvanians picked William Henry Harrison for President and Vermont’s convention followed suit. But when national Anti-Masonic leaders couldn’t obtain assurance from Harrison that he wasn’t a Mason, they called a national convention. Held in Philadelphia in May, 1836, it was a divisive gathering. A majority of the delegates agreed that the purpose of the party remained anti-masonry but decided not to back a national ticket that year.
The third and final Anti-Masonic National convention was held in Philadelphia’s Temperance Hall in November, 1838. By this time, the party had been almost entirely engulfed by the Whigs. The convention unanimously nominated Harrison for President and Daniel Webster for Vice President. But when the Whig National Convention chose Harrison and John Tyler, the Anti-Masons did nothing and soon vanished.
Under the Anti-Mason banner savvy politicians were able to briefly unite many people who were discontented and suspicious of political elites. In the end, however, the fact that William Wirt – the Anti-Mason choice for president in 1832 – wasn’t just a former Mason but defended the Order during the convention that nominated him, suggests that, despite the party’s name, that single issue wasn’t so central after all, and clearly not enough to sustain a national movement for long.
Three days after the 2008 presidential election, no matter which political party takes the White House, a convention will be held in Vermont’s Statehouse to consider more radical solutions to the problems facing the nation. The organizing group is the Second Vermont Republic, a citizens’ network that aims to dissolve the United States and, in particular, return Vermont “to its status as an independent republic.”
This may sound unlikely, if not impossible. Yet a recent Zogby poll commissioned by the Middlebury Institute, a think tank studying “separatism, secession, and self-determination," indicates that that 20 percent of Americans think “any state or region has the right to peaceably secede from the United States and become an independent republic.” More than 18 percent told pollsters that they “would support a secessionist effort in my state.”
Could it happen? Frank Bryan, a political scientist who co-authored a 1989 book that called for restructuring Vermont democracy along decentralist lines, has argued that “the cachet of secession would make the new republic a magnet" and "people would obviously relish coming to the Republic of Vermont, the Switzerland of North America.” For Thomas Naylor, the former Duke University professor who launched the movement in 2003, the question isn’t “if” but “when.”
“Lincoln persuaded the public that secession was unconstitutional and immoral,” Naylor has noted. “It’s one of the few things that the left and right agree on. We say it’s constitutional – and ultimately it is a question of political will: the will of the people of Vermont versus the will of the government to stop us.”
As you might guess, there’s no shortage of skeptics. According to Vermont attorney and historian Paul Gillies, "It doesn't make economic sense, it doesn't make political sense, it doesn't make historical sense. Other than that, it's a good idea." Vermont archivist Gregory Sanford even claims that some of the arguments for secession, in Vermont at least, are based on “historical facts of dubious reputation.” The State Archives often gets requests for copies of an "escape clause" in the Vermont Constitution, which supposedly allows Vermont to withdraw from the US. “The truth, drawn from documents, is less satisfying; there is no, nor has there ever been, such an escape clause,” he says.
But the underlying issue isn’t whether there is legal authority, but why millions of people across the country think it’s a reasonable and attractive idea. An answer worth considering is provided by Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a newspaper that covers secession and related issues. "The argument for secession is that the US has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable – it's too big, it's too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens," he explains. "Congress and the executive branch are being run by the multinationals. We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war. If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what's left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire."
Vermont has been fertile ground for such “outside the box” thinking in the past. For example, the state didn’t immediately join the new United States after the War of Independence, remaining an independent state from 1777 until 1791. Plus, half a century later it was the first state to elect an Anti-Mason governor during a period when opposition to the secret society was growing.
The Anti-Mason movement – which elected two governors and ran a candidate for president in 1832 – lasted only a decade, and most of its political leaders eventually joined either the short-lived Whig Party or the more durable Republicans. Along the way, however, it pointed out the dangers of elite groups and, on a practical level, initiated changes in the way political parties operated. The Anti-Masonic Party wasn’t only the first third party in US national politics. It introduced the concept of nominating conventions and the adoption of party platforms, reforms soon embraced by the other parties.
This wasn’t the only time a short-lived political movement produced unexpected change. In 1912, the new Progressive Party, formed by Theodore Roosevelt when he lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft, led to the election of Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt soon left the Party, but its work continued under the leadership of Robert La Follette. Although La Follette’s run for president in 1924 netted only 17 percent of the vote, he won in his home state of Wisconsin, and successful reforms were implemented there.
So, what can a campaign for secession accomplish, even if the goal isn’t achieved? To answer that, consider the basic agenda underpinning the Second Vermont Republic: political independence, human scale, sustainability, economic solidarity, power sharing, equal access, tension reduction, and mutuality. Running through it all is a strong decentralist thrust. Secession advocate Kirkpatrick Sale describes decentralism as a “third way,” already evident in bioregional movements, cooperative and worker-owned businesses, land trusts, farmers markets, and a wide variety of grassroots initiatives.
In a recent article assessing whether Vermont could “go it alone,” Bill McKibben argues, “Functional independence would be the proper first step, and useful in its own right.” He also provides a list of practical projects to help create more food self-sufficiency, energy independence, and local economic power. Although he thinks “any political independence movement is going nowhere now” – the main reasons given are the hope offered by Barack Obama and problems requiring global action – McKibben’s advice is to build some affection and trust in the meantime by sharing information and making small but effective moves in the right direction.
Naylor aims for the fences, calling secession a rebellion against empire designed to retake control from big institutions, and help people care for themselves and others by “decentralizing, downsizing, localizing, demilitarizing, simplifying, and humanizing our lives.” In some ways, the movement is reminiscent of an earlier effort in Vermont to reframe the debate.
In 1976, dissidents from the Democratic and Republican Parties attempted to create a “third way” called the Decentralist League of Vermont. The group was convened by Bob O’Brien, who had just lost the Democratic primary for governor, and John McClaughry, a Republican scornful of his Party’s leadership. Each invited allies for a series of meetings to define a joint agenda. Contrary to some accounts, left-wing leaders such as Murray Bookchin and Bernie Sanders weren’t involved, finding an alliance with people on the political Right unappealing at the time. Invited by O’Brien, I took notes and helped craft the group’s Statement of Principles.
Although the Decentralist League lasted only a few years, ultimately disbanding when its Left wing opted for electoral politics and Right signed on for the Reagan “revolution,” it pointed to what might unite people who find the current national and global order unsustainable and dangerous. Taking aim at all forms of centralized power and wealth, the League asserted that decentralism is the best way to preserve diversity, increase self-sufficiency, and satisfy human needs.
“Decentralists believe in the progressive dismantling of bureaucratic structures which stifle creativity and spontaneity, and of economic and political institutions which diminish individual and community power,” the statement said. The political platform included support for local citizen alliances; widespread ownership of industry by employees; a viable and diverse agricultural base; a decent level of income for all; education that stresses self-reliance, creativity, and a combination of learning and work; technologies that increase energy self-sufficiency; and mediation of disputes rather than reliance on regulations and adversary proceedings.
On the other hand, the League’s demise underlines the fragility of a left-right alliance, which also has recently created difficulties for the Second Vermont Republic. The controversy began when the Southern Poverty Law Center accused Naylor and the group of talking to an allegedly racist group, the League of the South. Critics pounced, and Seven Days, a liberal weekly in Vermont that was distributing Vermont Commons as an insert, decided to end the arrangement. Labor groups soon demanded the removal of offensive web links on Second Vermont Republic’s website, disassociation from certain groups or individuals, and the release of a statement clearly opposing racism, fascism, bigotry, and discrimination. Although there is no evidence that Vermont secessionists condone such things, they’ve been pressured to prove it.
Whether Vermont’s secession movement can recover and grow, especially in the face of demands to break ties with groups that don’t embrace all progressive principles, remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, the Decentralist League and McKibben’s project list may point toward a platform with practical, short-term benefits.
Decentralist League of Vermont Statement of Principles, March 1977
In a free and just society all men and women will have the fullest opportunity to enjoy liberty, achieve self-reliance, and participate effectively in the political and economic decisions affecting their lives. Wealth and power will be widely distributed. Basic human rights will be protected. The principle of equal rights for all, special privileges for none, will prevail.
When economic and political power is centralized in the hands of a few, self-government is replaced by rigid and remote bureaucracies, the independence of each citizen is threatened, and the processes of freedom and justice are subverted. Centralized power is the enemy of individual liberty, self-reliance, and voluntary cooperation. It tends to corrupt those who wield it and to debase its victims.
The trend toward centralization in our social, economic, and political systems has given rise to a deep sense of powerlessness among the people, a growing alienation throughout society, the depersonalization of vital services, excessive reliance on the techniques of management and control, and a loss of great traditions.
Decentralists share with “conservatives” repugnance for unwarranted governmental interference in private life and community affairs. We share with “liberals” an aversion to the exploitation of human beings. We deplore, however, conventional “liberal” and “conservative” policies which have concentrated power, ignored the importance of the human scale, and removed decision making from those most directly affected.
Decentralists thus favor a reversal of the trend toward all forms of centralized power, privileged status, and arbitrary barriers to individual growth and community self-determination. We oppose political and economic systems which demand obedience to the dictates of elite groups, while ignoring abuses by those who operate the controls. We believe that only by decentralization will we preserve that diversity in society which provides the best guarantee that among the available choices, each individual will find those conditions which satisfy his or her human needs.
Decentralists believe in the progressive dismantling of bureaucratic structures which stifle creativity and spontaneity, and of economic and political institutions which diminish individual and community power.
We support a strengthening of family, neighborhood and community life, and favor new forms of association to meet social and economic needs.
We propose and support:
-- Removal of governmental barriers which discourage initiative and cooperative self-help
-- Growth of local citizen alliances which strengthen self-government and broaden participation in economic and political decisions
-- Widespread ownership of productive industry by Vermonters and employees
-- Protection of the right to acquire, possess and enjoy private property, where the owner is personally responsible for its use and when this use does not invade the equal rights of others
-- Rebuilding a viable and diverse agricultural base for the Vermont economy, with emphasis on homesteading
-- A decent level of income for all, through their productive effort whenever possible, or through compassionate help which enhances their dignity and self-respect
-- Reshaping of education to promote self-reliance, creativity, and a unity of learning and work
-- A revival of craftsmanship in surroundings where workers can obtain personal satisfaction from their efforts
-- The use of technologies appropriate to local enterprise, and which increase our energy self-sufficiency
-- Mediation of disputes rather than reliance on regulations and adversary proceedings
This decentralist program implies a de-emphasis of status, luxury, and pretense, and a new emphasis on justice, virtue, equality, spiritual values, and peace of mind.
Decentralism will mean a rebirth of diversity and mutual aid, a new era of voluntary action, a full appreciation of our heritage, an affirmation of meaningful liberty, and a critical awareness of Vermont’s relationship to the rest of the nation and to the world.
Burlington...the People's Republic...Progressive politics and Chittenden Mysteries... 40 plus years in the Green Mountains with many a side trip along the way....Writer, editor, historian and progressive manager. Former Pacifica Radio CEO & Editor of Toward Freedom, Vermont Guardian, Vanguard Press, Public Occurrence, and Vintage.
Barack Obama received a predictable post-convention bump in most polls, but the race for president remains fluid. John McCain’s surprise pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is expected to excite the Republican conservative base and possibly help him make inroads with women and independent voters.
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