Recommended Reading (3/1/05)
by Dean Hartwell
Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils (Edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair; CounterPunch and AK Press; 2004)
I don't agree that there is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats but this series of essays points out why the Democratic Party has lost support in recent years. Democrats have, for the most part, opposed gay marriage, supported the War on Drugs and supported United States military intervention in several places, such as Haiti (1994), Bosnia (1995), Kosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003).
By taking these and other positions on issues, the Democrats show themselves to be a copy of the GOP and give critics like Alexander Cockburn ammunition to claim that there is no difference. Democrats should take a long look at their values before venturing onto the political battlefield against the GOP.
Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate -- The Essential Guide for Progressives (by George Lakoff; Chelsea Green Publishing Co.; 2004)
This book asks us to think about how we communicate political issues. Repeatedly, Republicans have scored victories on a host of issues by "framing" the debate with careful word choice.
For example, President Bush and others have called for an end to the "death tax," refusing to call it by its original name, the estate tax because a tax on death sounds bad. They have also used other frames like "tax relief" and "culture of life" to advocate tax cuts and to oppose abortion, respectively.
Elephant shows Democrats how to fight back with wording of their own. But to do so, they must understand the nature of framing. Lakoff points out that there are two models of thought on U.S. politics, the "strict father model" and the "nurturing model." By using the former, the Republicans decry all taxes as anti-family. The progressives can use the nurturing model to point out that taxes are necessary to pay for things we all enjoy, like a clean environment.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (by John Perkins; Berrett - Koehler Publishers, Inc.; 2004)
Author John Perkins tells his own story of how he worked for United States businesses and compromised the interests of nations that had something the government wanted. He would, for example, offer loans to nations that he knew couldn't pay them back. When they defaulted, Perkins, on behalf of the United States, would ask for something in return for forgiving the debt, such as a vote in the United Nations, military bases, etc.
Perkins provides a chilling historical picture of what happens to nations that do not fall in line with U.S. interests: the assassination of Omar Torrijos in 1981, the coup d'tat of Salvador Allende of Chile in 1973 and the overthrow of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran in 1953. What did all of these and other similar events have in common? They were carried out by economic hit men or military forces at the behest of the United States.
Books like this one remind us that we should not be so quick to blame other people for tragedies in the United States, like September 11th. Sometimes the real culprit stares at us in the mirror.