Concord and Liberty

Checking in again. I'm feeling gloomy about the Democratic presidential primaries. It's partly because I'm a Clinton supporter. I know she still has a chance to win and that a lot depends on the big primaries in early March, but the chorus of discouraging stories from the media is getting to me.

The main problem is how dysfunctional the entire Democratic primary/caucus process appears to be. I agree with a number of commentators who have said that caucuses aren't very democratic, since they only include the relatively small part of the population that can make it to the caucus at a specific time, instead of having all day to vote. And it's disquieting that there is so much disagreement about what the current delegate count is. You'd think somebody would know!

It's been a long time since there has been such a closely contested race. I'm sure it's just as well to find out the problems. They were bound to come to light eventually. Changes need to be made for the next time, but for right now, it's my candidate who is being harmed the most by the inadequacies of the system.

Resuscitating this blog after almost three years, I can say that the political situation is looking up. I know the next two years will be bumpy at best, but the gains by the Democrats in November were momentous. The American electorate moved slowly, but the voters finally figured out that they were being lied to, and reacted appropriately.

My involvement in Carson City politics turned out okay. I didn't go to the convention in Las Vegas, but I did do some canvassing for Bonnie Parnell, who was running for the Assembly. She had served two terms, then retired from teaching and from politics at the same time. One reason she decided to run again was that her successor was a conservative Republican who had helped (along with the rest of "The Mean 15") to hamstring the 2003 legislative session by refusing to consider a tax increase which Nevada desperately needed (and which ultimately passed when one brave Republican broke ranks). Bonnie won by a fairly thin margin, and my canvassing could have added a few votes to her total. But I haven't done any politicking this year.

As November 7 approached, I couldn't shake a feeling that no matter what the polls said, the Republicans would somehow grab the election. I'm glad I was wrong, and I'll try not to fall into that kind of pessimism again. There were enough vote counting problems to show that there's no room for complacency, but the election didn't get stolen. And there will be improvements before 2008.

So the good news is that the United States is still a democracy.

Labels: Democrats Nevada

Chesterton, in contrasting Dickens' attitude toward France and Italy with his attitude toward the United States, gives an excellent definition of patriotism.

But with America he could feel -- and fear. There he could hate, because he could love. There he could feel not the past alone nor the present, but the future also; and, like all brave men, when he saw the future he was a little afraid of it. For of all tests by which the good citizen and strong reformer can be distinguished from the vague faddist or the inhuman sceptic, I know no better test than this -- that the unreal reformer sees in front of him one certain future, the future of his fad; while the real reformer sees before him ten or twenty futures among which his country must choose, and may, in some dreadful hour, choose the wrong one. The true patriot is always doubtful of victory; because he knows that he is dealing with a living thing; a thing with free will. To be certain of free will is to be uncertain of success. Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens; American Notes

Chesterton shows that it was just because Dickens had such great hopes for America that he criticized it so strongly. I think that Dickens was right in this passage from American Notes:

The Post Office is a very compact and very beautiful building. In one of the departments, among a collection of rare and curious articles, are deposited the presents which have been made from time to time to the American ambassadors at foreign courts by the various potentates to whom they were the accredited agents of the Republic; gifts which by the law they are not permitted to retain. I confess that I looked upon this as a very painful exhibition, and one by no means flattering to the national standard of honesty and honour. That can scarcely be a high state of moral feeling which imagines a gentleman of repute and station, likely to be corrupted, in the discharge of his duty, by the present of a snuff-box or a richly-mounted sword or an Eastern shawl; and surely the Nation who reposes confidence in her appointed servants, is likely to be better served, than she who makes them the subject of such very mean and paltry suspicions.--American Notes, Chapter VIII, 'Washington. The Legislature. And the President's House'

This has an archaic ring, but Dickens is correct in viewing the distrust towards public servants as reflecting on the character of the distrustful public.

I went to the Carson City (Nevada) Democratic Party convention today, signed up as an alternate to the State Convention in Las Vegas next month, and signed up as a member of the Carson City Democratic Central Committee.

I've been voting since 1968. The only other time I did anything beyond voting was in 1992, when I read about a "Democratic Work Night" in the local paper. I attended, and stuffed packets, but chickened out when they asked for volunteers to hand out the packets door-to-door the following weekend.

Halfway through today's proceedings I got to thinking, "Why didn't you ever do this before? Why did you assume somebody else was doing everything that needed to be done?" It's true that I was energized by Howard Dean's campaign. But why was I so passive before? I'll be thinking about this question in the coming months.

I'm even prepared for the thought of knocking on doors. Here's a quote on that subject from Dean's book, Winning Back America, from the section about his first campaign, for the Vermont house (page 44):

I was living in a little apartment in the North End of town. Every day I'd leave work and drive directly to the ward to knock on doors. I knew if I went home first I'd find all sorts of reasons not to go back and pound the pavement. You've got to screw up your courage to go and knock on strangers' doors. Every day I'd bang on a hundred doors. I knocked on every door in the ward twice over the summer and fall. One woman answered the door and said, "You must really want this." "Yes, I do," I replied.

This passage is inspiring because it shows that political ability is something you can learn. I hope I can learn a little, anyway.

Lionel Trilling, discussing the situation of the novelist in late 1940's, says that the novelist will be aware of History, for he is the historian's heir,

but he will also be indifferent to History, sharing the vital stupidity of the World-Historical Figure, who of course is not in the least interested in History but only in his own demands upon life and thus does not succumb to History's most malign and subtle trick, which is to fix and fascinate the mind of men with the pride of their foreknowledge of doom.

This quotation is from the last page of "Art and Fortune" in The Liberal Imagination. I recalled the passage today while I was mulling over what Howard Dean might do now that he has suspended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. It's easy, reading news stories on the Web, to get discouraged about his prospects. But Dean doesn't read the stories. He shares that vital stupidity.

He's certainly in a better position to influence U.S. politics than he was two years ago. He knows more about the country, about his capabilities, about the things that need to be changed. His recent statements emphasize that change is difficult. It doesn't happen overnight. I admire his patience and I'm trying to imitate it, i.e., trying not to expect him to do something brilliant tomorrow. I'll try to be satisfied to know that he's still out there, working on the next step.

Jacques Barzun, writing on the English Civil War, in connection with Hobbes' view of the state of nature:

In that war, worse than the battles were the sieges of towns; most casualties took place there--starvation and plague, often followed by massacres that did not spare women and children... The lives snuffed out is estimated at 200,000, or two and a half to three percent of the population. From Dawn to Decadence, page 267.

This would be the equivalent of over five million people being killed in the United States. Something to keep in mind in moments of discouragement. The United States has been and is a fortunate nation. The present problems are still minor compared to what many other nations have been through.

The Greeks named the Black Sea Pontus Euxinus, meaning "the Stranger Welcoming Sea." It was actually a dangerous place for mariners. Maybe they hoped the name would nudge it in the right direction.

That's sort of the principle behind the name of this site. I'm not sure there is any firm ground in American politics right now. It's really easy to get depressed, and I need to keep reminding myself to look for any signs of good news. That's the reason for the site name.

The name of this blog is taken from the title of an essay by José Ortega y Gasset, a brief commentary on Cicero's book On the Republic. Cicero began writing his book in 54 B.C., a few years before the outbreak of civil war in Rome. Ortega's essay was published in 1940, in Buenos Aires, when he was in exile after the Spanish Civil War.

One of the crucial points made in the essay is that a society requires "common consent in certain ultimate matters." As long as the element of common consent remains strong, the society can tolerate a great deal of political discord and still flourish. But if common consent fails, the society will split into irreconcilable groups, the first step on the road to civil war.

The area of common consent in the United States has undoubtedly been shrinking in the past few years--to the point where another bitterly contested election could lead to civil discord. I want to think about why this is happening, and whether there are any hopeful prospects for change.