The Idea(s) of Democracy

It’s happening! The first issue of a new journal, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, is out. It is free online at http://www.democracyjournal.org/

According to the founders, its mission is to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the twenty-first century that builds on the movement’s proud history, is true to its central values, and is relevant to present times.

This is no ordinary political magazine. Rather, its editors seek breakthrough thinking on the concepts and approaches that respond to the central transformations of our time: the breakdown of the ladder of upward mobility; the promise and problems of an information-based, globalized economy; new national security threats which cross old boundaries and defy old assumptions from jihadist terrorism and nuclear proliferation to climate change, pandemics, and poverty; and a society where people work and live in new and different ways.

This is not the old politics, warmed over. Democracy is not interested in either reiterating the conventional wisdom or maintaining unity around outdated orthodoxies. We see our role as upsetting tired assumptions, moving past outdated and obsolete divisions, and stretching the envelope of what is accepted by and of progressives.

With a bold invitation, the first issue is launched. We have no doubt that ideas can change the course of our nation. Now is the time to fashion a new progressivism for the twenty-first century, and we welcome all who are willing to join in this conversation.

Be sure to read the Message to Our Readers from the first issue: http://www.democracyjournal.org/article.php?ID=6465

And don’t forget to follow the developments at UNITY08: http://www.unity08.com

Check it out!

Get This Message to Washington - John D. Maguire

GET THIS MESSAGE TO WASHINGTON!
John David Maguire
with author’s permission

On April 12 Bill Coffin, a prophet and patriot, died. He provides us a perfect text for this morning: “This war in the Middle East is as disastrous as it is unnecessary; perhaps in terms of its wisdom, justice, purpose, and motives, the worst war in American history. Of course we feel for the Iraqis, so long and cruelly oppressed, as we support our military men and women: But we don’t support their military mission. They were not called to defend America but rather to attack Iraq. They were not called to die for, but rather to kill for, their country, and in an illegal and unjust war opposed by the UN Security Council and virtually the entire world. What more unpatriotic thing could we have asked of our sons and daughters serving in the military?”

If that is true of Iraq, how truer it would be if we – out of desperation or demonic deliberateness – intervene with nuclear strikes in Iran? Just think of the numbers: An estimated 2.6 million people would die within 48 hours. Over 1,000,000 people would suffer immediate injuries. Over 10.5 million people would be exposed to significant radiation from fallout. It would be a collapse of a 60-year moratorium going back to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If we were to drop a nuclear bomb on Iran, it would be the third time in human history such a bomb had been used: Every time by the United States! And this time it would not even be at the end of a long, deadly and wearing war against a major opponent. Instead it would be another preemption, an American first-use against a country not at all an immediate threat to the US and its interest, but rather would be used as an extension of our attempt to impose US control on the Middle East.

We American people must wake up to where we are. We’ve been on the wrong road for five-and-a-half years. At every fork, we take the wrong turn. Now – this summer – we are at a crucial fork. One road leads to a hopeless, hapless, horrible pit where military power serves empire rather than freedom; where we lose from within what we’re trying to defend from without; where fundamentalism and the state scheme together to write the rules and regulations; where true believers in the Gods of the market turn the law of the jungle into the law of the land; where in the name of patriotism we keep our hand over our heart pledging allegiance to the flag while our leaders pick out pockets and plunder our trust; where elites insulate themselves from the consequences of their own actions; where ‘the strong take what they can and the weak suffer what they must;’ where we have become global bully boys, the scourge of the weaker, not a model or missionary of freedom.

The other fork in the road – the one we must take – leads to an America whose promise is ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.’ There is nothing utopian about this. It leads to a world where every life is precious and of infinite worth. It leads to a world of justice, compassion, sustainability.

We are at that fork in the road. The time to take the road toward life is now. Our current nuclear threats to Iran underscore the urgency of the moment. In order to start down the right road, we must commit today to doing the following:

• We must call on our representatives in Congress to pass immediately legislation prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons in Iran or elsewhere without further specific authorization by Congress.
• We must insist that any military action against Iran requires specific authorization by Congress in conformity with Article I, Section 8, of the United States Constitution.

• In order to calm turbulence and advance peace, we must insist that President Bush or his highest level emissary respond to Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recent letter and offer to meet with him to discuss steps toward a situation freed of the specter of nuclear weapons.

• We must launch a blitz of letters to the media as well as the Congress, street demonstrations and activities in civic groups, to oppose the extension of war in the Middle East by the Bush administration, especially the use of nuclear strikes in Iran by the United States. Our lives, the lives of our descendants and the lives of many inhabitants of this globe are at stake.

We must assert our moral autonomy, our moral power, our moral insistence that we will not be a part of the dishonesty, the brutality, and the hypocrisy behind the current war of aggression. We must call together for an end to the insanity – an end to the obscenity – of the war in Iraq and certainly demand no new war in Iran.

Let’s crystallize our resolve by listening once more to William Sloane Coffin: “Our real mortal enemy is war, war itself. Let us not argue that we’ve had to go to war to defend vital interests. Those interests aren’t worth it. Nor let us argue that we must go to war to defend our democratic way of life. Such a way of life – governed and led this way – will not survive. Let us instead proclaim a new kind of patriotism, which takes as its object of ultimate loyalty not the nation-state but the human race (didn’t Margaret Meade say, ‘We have explored the entire planet and found only one human race’)?”

“Remember,” says Coffin, “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good.” The bad ones are the uncritical lovers of their country and its loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s lover’s quarrel with all the world. We must join our voices, raise our voices in this quarrel. If you’re at the edge of an abyss, the only progressive step is backward!”

Today’s message is clear. Begin disengaging from Iraq and, for God’s sake, the world’s sake, the sake of humankind, no new war – particularly nuclear war in Iraq.

John D. Maguire

June 10, 2009

Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project Change *
A Joint Anti-Racism Venture
Claremont Graduate University
170 E. 20th Street, Claremont, CA 91711

When John Maguire retired as president of the Claremont University System the Institute for Democratic Renewal was formed to continue his passions for peace and justice.

Energy Policy Draft for Unity08

A new potential “third way” is organizing on the internet, http://www.unity08.com

The site, Unity08, describes the effort as follows:

We’re a movement to take our country back from polarizing politics. In 2008, we’ll select and elect a Unity Ticket to the White House— one Democrat, one Republican, in whatever order, or independents committed to a Unity team. Come join us - and you don't have to leave your party to do it.

As Unity08 develops a “platform” of issues, there has been much discussion of energy policy. Following are my thoughts in four related points:

1. Technology: We should not succumb to the myth that all our problems will be solved by technology. We are still waiting for technology to solve the problems of global warming, the depletion of fish populations and the return of cod, the social problems of urbanization, the demographic issues, etc. etc. Technology deals with a small fraction of our major issues. Today’s technology is living off of yesterday’s science, and we are investing less today than we did yesterday in pure research. THAT is the serious issue that needs attention -- Support for theoretical research

2. Electrical Energy: The energy that produces the electricity that runs industry, keeps our cities and their inhabitants alive, well and comfortable will increasingly be supplied by nuclear energy. The old problem with waste is on the verge of solution. The issue here is building our uranium reserves; China may be ahead of us.

3. Transportation Energy: Oil may have already hits its PEAK, and geologists are pretty well agreed. So once we are on the downward slope of using our reserves, short to mid term efforts will be made to extract from shale (at higher cost) etc. There is no doubt that oil is a finite resource and we will depend increasingly on lower grade crude, at a higher cost. Demands for oil for transportation will force most governments to subsidize the price in one way or another and provide incentives for manufacturers to produce more efficient and alternative fuels and engines. We need to continue experiments with compressed natural gas (CNG), biodiesel, electric, ethanol, Fischer-Tropsch, liquefied natural gas (LNG), methanol and propane, etc. Tax incentives should be given to those investing in these alternatives as well as vehicles that are lighter and use alternative fuels. Short and mid term we need to push for more public transportation.

4. Foreign Policy and the dollar: Oil has been driving much of our foreign policy since WW II. It has formed our relationships in the mid-east and makes our dealings with the Saudis dangerous. For a while it looked like a great coup to have oil priced with the dollar as the sole exchange. We need to be prepared to have that change as China increases its ownership of the US debt, and has higher energy demands, the EU achieves greater independence from the US and the movement for a kind of mixed Pan Arab currency gains ground. The bottom line is that we need to strengthen the dollar through reducing our massive trade imbalance and debt.

MFA

Toward a Draft Platform

A Platform?! I am not necessarily proposing a third party, although fusion voting is an excellent idea. (See previous postings). A broad based discussion of a new vision for America is the agenda, so why have a platform if we are calling for a bottoms up discussion and participation – a new idea in American politics? There are several reasons:

1. We need somewhere to begin; it is not our final destination. Like a seed, we need to plant something that can grow, or mutate, or find itself grafted. I am offering a beginning point for what may be a national agenda for discussion.

2. It can be used as a point of departure, not necessarily the destination.

3. This draft Platform will help sketch a broad outline and show how inclusive, not exclusive, the agenda might be as it develops.

4. The draft Platform is meant to attract participation by showing the breadth of the visioning process.

Put simply the objective is to form a vision of an America that serves as a world leader in international peace, a prime mover for the elimination of world poverty and hunger, a leader in the development of non fossil fuel energy alternatives, a facilitator for international cooperation in the battle against AIDS and other diseases, a leader in research and international cooperation for environmental issues such as global warming.

I envision the input being made through community (affinity) discussion or dialogue groups that will meet periodically (hopefully once a month) to attempt to reach consensus on issue topics that will be posted on a national web site. That web site will be the primary portal through which individuals can check on progress relative to the overall visioning process. Individuals will also be able to access this site to locate the meeting places and times of local dialogue groups. For those unable to join a group some means will be found for retrieving their contributions, but the emphasis will be on the process of community dialogue.

Why is this important now?

Kevin Phillips, once a leading Republican political strategist for the Reagan administration, has argued that our national survival may well depend upon a radical turn in current policy, and that means a new vision. In his newest book, American Theocracy, he argues that the current American empire has unfortunate precedents.

Militant Catholicism helped undo the Roman and Spanish empires, the Calvinist fundamentalism of the Dutch Reformed Church helped to block any eighteenth-century Dutch renewal; and the interplay of imperialism and evangelicalism led pre-1914 Britain into a bloodbath and global decline. The possibility that something similar could propel the United States into war in the Middle East—and that once again, God would decline to rescue his chosen people –is the precedent that needs to be kept in mind. (p.375)

So, in outline form, the draft Platform is composed of the following parts:

I. International

A. Establishment of Peace through vigorous international multi-lateral

treaties that include non-aggression agreements, non nuclear proliferation, and funding of U.N. peace keeping forces

B. Participation in all international efforts to stop environmental degradation and fight global warming.

C. Provide leadership in efforts to find alternatives to fossil fuel for energy.

D. Leadership in reaching goals to eliminate world poverty and hunger.

E. Participation in programs designed to reduce and finally eliminate diseases such as AIDS and malaria.

F. Supporting a more level trading field in world agriculture

II. National

A. Advocacy for clear separation of religion from public policy issues and affirming reason and science as the tools for policy formation, not religious faith and dogma.

B. Reduction of the national debt and foreign credit dependency

C. Closing the growing wealth gap between the upper 1% and lower three fifths of our citizens.

D. Major revision of our health and education systems.

E. Establishment of a minimum annual wage for every citizen.

F. Creation of a more equitable tax policy at every level.

To these major issues will be added regional, state and local issues relevant to individual dialogue groups.

Whereas third parties frequently become focused on only one issue, the effort here is clearly a much broader one. If an upwelling of commitment to this kind of platform became audible in American politics, then the two major parties would have to take these issues seriously and reform from within. That would be wonderful. But if not, then it is conceivable that down the road a new Third Party would have to be formed out of this Vision for America.

Let me know what you think!

MFA