Divisions in American Left Yield Trump: The Case of Bill Maher and Response of Some Liberals to Discussion of This Case

It's clear to me following the last federal election in the U.S. that the American left is divided in a way that powerfully contributes to the dysfunction that has produced a Trump presidency and a Republican majority in Congress. Bernie bros vs. Hillary supporters. Libertarian-leaning Democrats vs. socialist-leaning and progressive ones. Those who see "identity politics" and "political correctness" as the bane of the Democratic party, and those of us who cannot imagine a Democratic party without a commitment to identity politics — because identity politics touches on the concreteness of those who are "actually" poor and marginalized in our society; it names the reasons many of us are shoved to the margins and struggle economically.

Moral Marches in North Carolina and Progressive Solidarity: A Developing Meme

An important meme is developing about the Moral Monday marches in North Carolina regarding which I blogged glancingly several days ago. In the latest development in this movement uniting people of faith and others working for progressive goals in the Southern swing state of North Carolina whose legislature and governor's office are now dominated by hard-right Republicans, more than 100,000 people marched on the state capitol in Raleigh Saturday.

Why Pope Francis Is an Important Figure in Progressive Politics

Sonali Kolhatkar on what makes Pope Francis an important figure in progressive politics:

RJ Eskow on the Mistakes Mr. Obama Has Made in Consulting Beltway Wisdom re: the "Center"

Richard (RJ) Eskow asks what progressives should do about Mr. Obama: 

Sojourners Again: Questions about Coherence and Integrity in the Struggle for Justice

I'm continuing to find the story of Sojourners and its prejudice-driven refusal to take sides in the struggle for justice for LGBT persons in society and faith communities instructive.  The narrative line that catches attention here: it's a parable about how people of faith who profess to be committed to justice nullify this when they refuse to practice justice in some area in which, right before their eyes, the struggle for justice is being played out in a conspicuous way.

Amy Dean on Democrats' Self-Created Trap

Amy Dean on the trap the Democrats keep creating for themselves, when they campaign on hope and vision and then govern according to a pragmatic "transactional" agenda that back-stabs members of their base to whom they've made promises they never intended to keep: 

President Obama on Human Rights: Missed Opportunities, Serious Failure of Leadership

I follow Charles Blow on Facebook because he's one of the best political commentators around, in my view.

And so I'm interested to see him today commenting at his Facebook page on the revelation that the Obama administration wants to make it easier for federal snoops to wiretap the internet.  Charles Blow's Facebook comment: 

Cenk Ugyur and Bob Herbert on Costly Political Miscalculation of Obama Administration

In the news today: two good pieces of political commentary on the drastic miscalculation of the Obama administration in listening to the advice of New Democrats like Rahm Emanuel, and tacking right when it ought to have tacked left.  From the outset of the administration.

Newsweek on Obama's Moral Cowardice: Find Principles!

 

 

Jacob Weisberg’s latest op-ed piece in Newsweek is rightly gaining attention around the internet.  Weisberg decries the moral cowardice of President Obama, and encourages him to find moral principles around which to build his presidency.  Weisberg adopts as his frame of analysis the new carpet the president has recently installed in the Oval Office, which is ringed with inspiring quotations from Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, and the two Roosevelts, along with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Newt Gingrich on Living the Message: Implications for Pastoral Leaders in a Sacramental Church

According to his ex-wife Marianne Ginther, when she asked Newt Gingrich how he could give a speech about traditional family values while having an affair, Mr. Gingrich replied:

It doesn't matter what I do.  People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live.

And this is precisely why I keep pushing against Michael Sean Winters' persistent attempt to charge Catholics of the left with reductionism, when we insist that how our pastoral leaders live the message they proclaim is part of the message.  In Winters' view, the truth proclaimed by the church's magisterium can be separated from the lives of those making the proclamation--as if those lives are not part of the message proclaimed.

David Sirota: An Ascendant National Progressive Uprising in Democratic Party

David Sirota at Salon, on the demise of the corporation-controlled beltway elite of the Democratic party:

Yes, this is why Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, so vociferously berated the progressive movement on the eve of Colorado's primary, and why DNC power brokers moved so forcefully against [Andrew] Romanoff. He was the latest candidate to represent what those elites know to be an ascendant national progressive uprising inside the Democratic Party — one that keenly understands money’s corrosive effects on public policy and that, therefore, rejects the Beltway’s corporatist model.

Seeing that this uprising threatens their power and their D.C. worldview, these elites are desperate to preserve Dark Helmet’s principle — so desperate, in fact, they have resorted to employing Obama’s presidential campaign infrastructure to prop up more conservative candidates against progressive challengers in intra-party battles.

In the News: America Magazine on Gulf Situation, Peter Daou on Obama's Defining Challenge

 

A smorgasbord of new online articles that have struck me for one reason or another.  And so I’d like to recommend them to readers.  The first two are about the Gulf disaster.

First, I’m struck by the conclusion to America magazine’s latest editorial, which addresses the situation in the Gulf of Mexico.  America’s editorialist parallels my own thinking about the ecological tragedy of the Gulf: as I noted recently, what seems particularly tragic about the destruction happening there is that we cannot ever calculate (and reverse) all the damage now occurring in a short period of time in this part of the globe.  A region whose abundant, precious wildlife Haitian artist John James Audubon catalogued with such loving care at the start of the 19th century is now irretrievably wounded—and we are all the losers.

Mr. Obama Promises Return to Normal for Gulf: Too Little, Too Late

Mr. Obama has told residents of the Gulf region that things will return to normal for them.

But that's simply not true.  Irreversible damage has now been done and continues to occur on a daily basis.

Living Biblically: A.J. Jacobs and the Lincoln-Halter Race in Arkansas

A few days back, when blogged about the I-believe-everything-approach to Catholic orthodoxy, a reader of this blog (and friend of mine), Brad Caviness, logged in to recommend that I read A.J. Jacobs’s book The Year of Living Biblically (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007).  I’ve now obtained a copy (my local library helpfully provided me with a LARGE PRINT EDITION that I had not requested, SO I GET THE POINT OF EACH SENTENCE IMMEDIATELY).  Jacobs’s book is a fascinating read from a number of standpoints, and I may well comment on it further when I’ve finished it (I’m about three-quarters way through the book now).

I’m learning a tremendous amount from this book, particularly about Judaism, but about various streams of Christianity as well, since Jacobs’s quest as he wrote this book was to follow as scrupulously as possible every commandment in the bible—both the Jewish and Christian scriptures—over the course of a year.  And then to write about the experience, if he lived through it.

More Congratulations: Michael Bayly's Progressive Catholic Voice Also Makes Top Catholic Blog List

Yesterday, when I congratulated Colleen Kochivar-Baker whose Enlightened Catholicism blog just made the top 50 Catholic blog list at Online Christian Colleges, I didn't realize that another blog I very much admire (and recommend here) also made the same list.

This is Michael Bayly's Progressive Catholic Voice blog.  As with Colleen's blog, you'll find a link to Michael's in the blog list on the right side of the Bilgrimage page.

Congratulations: Enlightened Catholicism Makes List of 50 Best Catholic Blogs

News that brings delight to me as this day begins: a blog I very much admire, Colleen Kochivar-Baker's Enlightened Catholicism, has just appeared in Karen Anderson's list of the 50 best Catholic blogs.

Solidarity Again: Rabbi Lerner on Crafting a New Political Discourse and New Political Imagination

 

Rabbi Michael Lerner responding to Chris Hedges re: how progressives should assess President Obama:

. . . [H]ere is a basic truth about communication: if you are referencing ideas that are already popular in the culture, you can do so with a short slogan; but if you are trying to introduce new ideas that do not resonate with the "established wisdom" or "common sense" of the culture, it often takes a nuanced discussion that is longer-and hence the nuanced position may feel too long to people who have been accustomed to the dumbing down of popular discourse by the media and the politicians.

I’m struck, of course, by the recognition that we need a new cultural and political discourse that moves us beyond the stalemate in which we now find ourselves.  One that reaches for hope, even when hope seems far away.  And one that digs into the depths of imagination to craft new ways of talking about our shared humanity and the social and economic institutions we develop to express that humanity.

DNC Asks Me for Money: No Human Rights Focus, No $$

 

I received my Democratic National Committee (DNC) survey yesterday—the one that has been discussed at various websites recently, including Americablog.  It informed me that I am a valued leader who has been specially selected for participation.

And then, of course, it dunned me for money.

Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Lacewell on the Coming Hard Turn to the Right

 

Rachel Maddow interviewed Melissa Harris-Lacewell yesterday about the “hard right turn” Virginia has taken recently—though it voted Democratic in the 2008 federal elections.  Evidence of the hard right turn?

Controversy about the National Prayer Breakfast: Parallels between The Family and Opus Dei

 

As I continue reading about that powerful, shadowy group The Family, which was in the spotlight last year due to its ties to those promoting kill-the-gays legislation in Uganda, I’m struck by the significant number of strong parallels between this group and Opus Dei about which I blogged a few days ago. 

The Family is back in the news right now, because it sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast to be held in D.C. two days from now—and which President Obama will attend.  As Adele Stan reports at Alternet, this event is usually the only annual sighting of the shadowy group called The Family, and the by-invitation-only breakfast is not even open to the media, at that.  Stan notes the dominant influence The Family exerts over the U.S. government and its foreign policy: hence the president’s decision to attend the event, though Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is urging Mr. Obama to reject the invitation because of the “cult-like” characteristics of The Family (see also Arthur Delaney at Huffington Post).