Op-Ed

Since I’m usually one of the last people in the country to get my copy of the New Yorker (well, it sure seems like it), I’m aware of any excitement or controversy the new issue has generated long before the magazine actually lands in my mailbox.

So I was hardly shocked at the cover of the July 21 New Yorker when I finally saw it — Barack, Michelle, Osama, the burning flag, the AK-47. Of course it’s satire, as editor David Remnick has been forced to explain a few times since the issue whacked America in the face. I also saw the problem with it. Satire normally creates acute discomfort for those it is targeting, but this cover managed to wound only those who had already been wounded.

There are probably three things necessary if the United States government is to better provide for the American people: First, expose as baseless and harmful the pseudoscientific theories that claim to show that helping people actually hurts them, that charity is cruelty, that a higher minimum wage hurts workers, that health coverage leads to poor habits and health, that altruism doesn't "really" exist and therefore should not be engaged in, etc. Second, recount for people enough stories of actual altruism, both individual and collective, that they understand its power and are inspired to engage in it and promote it. Third, make some systemic changes in our government so that the will of the people, thus developed, can have some impact on it.

In response to public demand for impeachment hearings and pressure from Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Congressman Robert Wexler, and others, as well as electoral challenges by pro-impeachment candidates, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally caved and proposed to allow Kucinich to present impeachment in a Judiciary Committee hearing.

The hearing was then scheduled for a Friday (July 25) and scheduled to last a full two-hours (10 a.m. to noon). Then the topic was altered. Rather than being about impeachment, the hearing will be about impeachment and other supposed remedies to a lawless presidency, with the bulk of the time devoted to those other remedies. Most of those other remedies will involve, believe it or not, legislative proposals. Thus, the dererrence to future presidents who follow the Bush-Cheney tradition of violating all laws and checks on power will be the knowledge that during the administration following Bush-Cheney some bills were passed criminalizing what had always been criminal activity.

The moral center of humanity slowly asserts itself. Only the most powerful are too afraid to join.

You may have missed the news: At the end of May, 111 nations, including, at the last minute, Great Britain, showing the world the power of an unleashed conscience, agreed to an international ban on cluster bombs, surely one of the cruelest and, given the nature of war today, most unnecessary weapons in modern arsenals.

Among those not endorsing the treaty and MIA at the conference in Dublin where it was debated were Russia, China, Israel and, to the surprise of no one, the United States of George Bush, that increasingly isolated moral rump state of which so many are so ashamed. Indeed, the treaty is widely seen as a “diplomatic defeat” for the U.S., so identified is the Bush administration with the sanctity of its WMD.

OK, we’ve had a few days to debate and get over it. The current issue of the New Yorker has that astonishing cover featuring Barack Obama as a Muslim etc. etc. In the fireplace, the American flag burns. On the wall, a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

In short, every major Rovian stereotype aimed at the presumptive Democratic nominee and his wife now announces one of America’s oldest liberal magazines. The cartoon evokes stereotypes reminiscent of Jim Crow and Willie Horton. Whether it lampoons or promotes them is being debated.

But the New Yorker has clearly produced and distributed an indelible image based on race, religion, patriotism and an outspoken spouse---all factors that could tip the balance on the Obama candidacy.

Given the magazine’s historic commitment to balance, shouldn’t the New Yorker now give equal time to the factors that could likewise define the McCain campaign---his "McBush" one-ness with the incumbent, his age, his unbalanced temper, his misogyny?

Along those lines, we list ten suggestions that have come our way to send the New Yorker for a “fair and balanced” follow-up cover.

Senator Obama, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for President, delivered a profound speech today at the NAACP Convention.

He deftly connected his campaign to the historic civil rights journey, and the leaders that paved the way for historic race for the presidency in 2008.  He coupled personal responsibility with government intervention, which triggers private sector investment, and addressed structural inequalities head on.  To me that is a sound and full gospel for change and a basis for hope.  This comprehensive “big tent” message is good for the healing of our nation. 

A reasonably evenhanded biography of Barack Obama, published last year, describes him as "an exceptionally gifted politician who, throughout his life, has been able to make people of wildly divergent vantage points see in him exactly what they want to see." The biographer, David Mendell, reports that "the higher he soared, the more this politician spoke in well-worn platitudes and the more he offered warm, feel-good sentiments lacking a precise framework."

Now, less than four months before Election Day, with growing disquiet among significant portions of Obama’s progressive base, the current negative reactions can’t be dismissed as potshots from the political margins. Even the New York Times, in a July 4 editorial headlined "New and Not Improved," has expressed alarm: "We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games."

Congressman Virgil Goode recently responded to a statement I'd blogged about him. Here's what I wrote and his response:

"The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va., making a speech on the morning of July 4, 2008. The event is open to the public, and is Monticello's annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. Numerous immigrants will become citizens in an event besmirched by the presence of a war criminal, and held in the district of Congressman Virgil Goode, whose entire reelection campaign platform consists of hatred for immigrants."

Goode replied:

"The blogger's statement is false. I do not hate anyone. The blogger also does not distinguish between legal and illegal aliens. The illegal aliens have not followed the process and procedures that those being sworn in as citizens on July 4th have followed. The illegals and the proponents of amnesty want to jump in front of those going through the legal process."

"Civilian casualties have been a continuing issue in Afghanistan, and President Karzai has rebuked American and NATO forces for what he has called carelessness in their military operations."

This is the genteel, bloodless language of geopolitics, spoken by the Gray Lady and the heads of state and makers of policy whom she serves. You wouldn’t know that “carelessness” referred to killing a bride (and twenty-some guests) on her wedding day, except that the observation comes at the end of the New York Times’ account of our July 6 bombing of an Afghani wedding, which followed a Fourth of July missile strike in that country — look at the fireworks, Mom! — that killed 15 innocent civilians. Careless superpower indeed.

The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va., making a speech on the morning of July 4, 2008. The event is open to the public, and is Monticello's annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. Numerous immigrants will become citizens in an event besmirched by the presence of a war criminal, and held in the district of Congressman Virgil Goode, whose entire reelection campaign platform consists of hatred for immigrants.

If you support the complaints against the first King George III enumerated on the first Fourth of July in the Declaration of Independence, I encourage you to attend the event. Go early. Wear an impeachment shirt. And bring a copy of our poor abused Constitution. This is not a time for fear and timidity. How dare this fascist blood-soaked murderer set foot in Charlottesville or on the grounds of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson?