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Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro
Another series of voting fiascos in Florida. Much of that could have been avoided if people had only sent in absentee ballots a while ago. Too many waited for the last minute to do their early voting and it cost them, sad to say.
ReplyDeleteMore and more, Florida resembles a dysfunctional Caribbean country.
ReplyDeleteGreatly enjoyed this dose of Colbert today,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-november-5-2012-nate-silver?xrs=synd_facebook
I watched a program on TV which showed that the Ohio voting may well be as rigged as it was in 2004. Big problems in NJ/NY as well with so many voting stations (as many as 100) not working properly. How many absentee ballots were swept away in the floods as postal boxes are lost forever.
ReplyDeleteWe don't know what to expect.
We do now! Four more years!
ReplyDeleteI watched NBC's coverage of the election and was greatly impressed by Republican strategist Mike Murphy's honest comments. He said his party's chief failing is its "Hispanic problem". This party has chosen to disregard the largest growing segment of the population while promoting policies that are unfairly used against Latinos. And he never even mentioned that it was his party that gave us death squads in Central America, fascist dictatorships all the way down to Patagonia, that it gave us Castro and entrenched him in power, that it was his party that caused a war against Spain so that Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and other areas could be annexed for the capital they brought into Washington DC and its wealthy elites puppet masters. Not only is the party one who has a bloody history of imperialistic terrorism against Latinos, its current aims and efforts show that it doesn't give a flipping sh't about Latinos today. This is why it is missing so many votes from that segment of the population and lost several states in the election.* I also liked how he said his party is taking a too flippant view about rape and that this cause disaffection among many women. It makes you wonder, how can any Latino or woman vote Republican? It just makes no sense at all.
ReplyDelete* I watched a news feature by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) that discussed why many Latinos do not. They fear they will be followed by the government and reveal the addresses of others who may not be here legally. If they voted, it would mean another MILLION votes for the Democrats.
The basic problem as I see it is that Republicans continued to move further to the right while the Democrats encroached on the center. This goes back to Clinton.
ReplyDeleteDubya got elected solely on his carefully calibrated "compassionate conservativism," ans as one Latino CNN pundit noted, his "broken Spanish." People thought he was a center right candidate. Mitt was unable to even put up this pretentious facade.