Wednesday, September 22, 2010

PASTE 'EM ONE

Teabag-backed outsider and multimillionaire Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino has won the GOP nomination for governor of New York, upsetting the favorite. He galvanized the frustrated with outrageous rhetoric, and he isn't through with that. Addressing himself to Dem nominee Andrew Cuomo, son of former governor Mario, Paladino accused him of having a sense of entitlement and challenged him to debate, saying, "Andrew, for the first time in your life be a man."

Cuomo was reportedly furious and has been taking counsel on how to respond to this treatment.

For rightists to call into question the manhood of their opponents is nothing new, but it hasn't often been done this blatantly. The previous method was the old "soft on Communism" and "soft on crime" tags. And "Crazy Carl" has a kind of crude vitality that many may find refreshing because conventional politicians, including Andrew Cuomo, tend to be mealy-mouthed and careful not to offend anyone.

Cuomo doesn't want a free-for-all. But by hanging back he let Paladino choose what kind of campaign this will be, and that's what he opted for.

Paladino showed what he's about earlier, when he emailed racist and pornographic humor to friends, including a cartoon that showed the president of the United States as a comical black African "native." So you might figure that someone like like him would have no chance in as diverse and traditionally progressive a state as New York.

Think again. A new poll has Cuomo at 49% and Paladino at 43%, and the margin of error is 3%.

What should Cuomo do? I'd have him throw it back in Paladino's teeth. Stand up and call him a thug. Call him a social Darwinist who thinks that society should belong to the "successful" and that the rest of us can be written off. Say that he thinks only the weak care about everyone. Charge that he doesn't believe in our basic equality and that he thinks fairness is for losers. Say that he's indifferent to why some things have to be the way they are. Say that he'd paralyze the state and fight with everyone. Say that he thinks minorities are funny and inferior. None of that is untrue. All of it ought to matter.

Here's the thing: If you don't fight and fight hard for yourself, the people won't believe that you'll fight for them when it counts.

Nationally, too, the Dems should quit explaining and get moving. I have hopes for President Obama's instincts and I think he may do what it takes. As of the end of this month I would have him quit informing, quit arguing, quit appealing to reasonableness, and go wholly on the offensive. I would have him refute and ridicule the things the teabaggers say and go after their movement by name. I would have him directly address the birther nonsense, the claim that he is a Muslim, and the claim that he is a Marxist. I would have him cite these as proof of the irresponsibility of this fantasy movement. I would have him drive up the Republicans' negatives and give the Dems a shot of adrenalin so they stop running away from him and get a gleam in their eye.

The baggers have gotten this big because nobody slapped them down; nobody wanted to call them on their ignorance, their illusions, their frequent racism, and the lies they propagate. Politicians are reluctant to be critical of them because they see them as a portion of the electorate. They are a portion of the electorate that the Democrats cannot win over and that they may as well attack when they have reason to. Again, if you don't fight, the people will think that you're effete and that your position must be an indefensible outcome of gutless or corrupt operating.

A back-alley brawl isn't edifying. But it can be bracing. And it has to come!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

TOUGH BACK THEN, TOO

I see it has been exactly two months since I posted anything. Here are some thoughts for now.

I recall that when psychics were weighing in on the upcoming 1960 presidential race, one of them predicted that New York's new liberal governor Nelson Rockefeller would be the Republican nominee and strangely added that his runningmate would be a Democrat, Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams. Well, both were political royalty and exciting. But the GOP would not have put Williams -- or even Rockefeller, as it turned out -- on their ticket.

Williams was 49 in 1960 and had been elected to six two-year terms as gov, a most successful vote-getter in then-Republican Michigan. Just as the New York governor was "Rocky," Williams was "Soapy," an old nickname derived from his being an heir to the Mennen skin-care fortune. (If curious about him, check out the Thomas J. Noer biography, Soapy.)

These two men were handsome and dynamic. They had the glamor conferred by old money. Theirs was first-rate personal charisma. They were tireless, dauntless campaigners and relentless optimists. Both wanted to be president because of what they could do with the job. Had movie star pizzazz been what it took, they would have been.

Williams was a big man, slender but broad-shouldered, with a shock of dark hair. Alongside the average-sized Rockefeller, he would have made him look short. He had a distinctive face with large, clear eyes and a big mouth that spread his sharp nose and formed an easy and infectious grin.

For Williams civil rights was the overriding issue, central not only to our society's rightful destiny but to our ability to keep the Third World from going Communist. He was hard on fellow Dems such as JFK and Adlai Stevenson, who took a cautious or nuanced approached to it. He could be inflexible and self-righteous.

Soapy was more consistently and boldly liberal than just about anybody. And it was entirely genuine. He was a deeply religious Episcopalian who attended mass every morning and thought in terms of the Social Gospel, bringing the kingdom of God to earth. His earnestness and his aristocratic background existed in tension with a somewhat cornball persona: he always wore a green polkadot bowtie and loved to call square dances. Colorful though he was, as a speaker he was boring.

Always out in front of the pack, Williams advocated a worldwide New Deal. When he was through as governor, he was appointed our ambassador-at-large to Africa, where he denounced imperialism and demanded "Africa for the Africans," angering many here and in Europe but helping America's image and influence there.

The Michigan legislature was long Gerrymandered so that rural Repubs had very disproportionate power. They used it to block the administration's agenda. As time passed and he won re-election by wider margins, they had to give way somewhat. But they were unprepared to acknowledge that the state required action and new taxes to meet its expanding needs.

After his '58 re-election, the governor, having borrowed considerable money to get things done,
asked for a graduated income tax as the lone fair recourse. The legislature held out for a hike in the regressive sales tax. Williams dug in, calling their bluff. And Michigan went bankrupt.

That ended the talk of him for president. The Republicans, national as well as state, were eager to do to Soapy Williams what they are now so eager to do to Barack Obama. Obama is not nearly as liberal as Williams was, but no matter. The opposition will gladly hurt all of us if it will defeat him.

While Gerhard Mennen Williams never made it to the White House, he did move things along: in Michigan, in Africa, and in the Democratic party. In the end that, and not personal ambition, is what matters. And he knew it.