Monday, February 07, 2005
My e-mail to David Brooks
...in response to this bullshit nonsense:
A Short History of Deanism
by David Brooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/05/opinion/5brooks.html?partner=rssuserland
Bobo,
I am amazed how low you can sink. They pay you for this?
Since when do the words :"Elks Lodges, the Rotary Clubs and the Soroptimists", "fraternal associations", and "lodge" have positive connotations? Pre-Enlightement perhaps?
Since when is it wrong to be a "champion [for] some specific cause"? Since when are "professional", "experts", "activists", "scholars", "educated class", "elite", "university-town", "highly educated", and "secularism" dirty words? Don't we all want education for us and our children? Isn't knowledge the machine of progress? Aren't Universities, colleges, and community colleges essential for the rise in one's class and attaining the "American Dream"? Isn't this a secular country? Don't you sometimes indulge in illusions that you are an "expert" (in something, God knows what in, but you never seem to write about what you know about).
I hear that Berkeley is a wonderful town. So are all the towns and cities in America and all seem to vote overwhelmingly Democratic, rich and poor, white and black, educated and un-educated. All those exposed to multiethnic, multicultural hustle and bustle of the city turn liberal. All that's left for Republicans are uneducated in rural and exurban areas, the wastelands of dogma, Rapturist indoctrination, intolerance, bigotry, crime, adult businesses, spousal abuse, divorce, abortion, murder, rape, robbery, illiteracy, fanatic militarism and total devotion to King Bush (http://www.topalli.com/blue/). But why am I telling you this - you are such an expert on the Red/Blue divide, you say.
You write: "The Republican coalition still contains some cross-class associations, like the N.R.A. and the evangelical churches, which connect corporate elites to the middle classes." These may be cross-class but they are not cross-educational. The corporate elites are not educated, they are job-trained. They got their degrees in business, accounting or economics, which is not education. They are not any better educated than their auto-mechanics, priests or maids.
I came here from Europe. From my perspective, Democratic party is somewhat Right of center and GOP is so far Right that it would probably be banned from elections in Germany as they have historical sensitivity towards such blatantly superpatriotic, racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic and proto-fascist programs, methods and rhetoric. This country was founded on the principles of Enlightement and liberalism. GOP wants to roll back three centuries of progress in just a couple of election cycles. You, as a public voice, should be ashamed for condoning such historically dangerous behavior.
I was never a Deaniac, but I am glad that the Democratic party appears to be abandoning the losing proposition of moving Right (thus allowing the GOP to move even more to the Right - unfathomable) and is ready to stand for the ideals that this country was founded on: liberty and equal opportunity for ALL. If Dean manages to do it, perhaps we can still rescue this country from the total impending disaster towards which the members of "non-reality community" are taking this country and the World.
Sincerely,
Bora Zivkovic
Chapel Hill, NC
http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com
