Government and the Arts

By: Harry Waisbren

On my last day in DC this past week I found myself at the Smithsonian American Art Museum per a suggestion from Alan Rosenblatt (@drdigipol). Upon entering hte museum, I found myself eccstatic to see an exhibit entitled 1934: A New Deal for Artists. This is in large part because my father has long been one of the foremost scholars and collectors of the WPA arts programs, and unsurprisingly he has quite enjoyed a book covering the exhibit that I bought for him.

Furthermore, the knowledge I have gained from my father's passion has made me increasingly convinced that such funding of the arts is essential in today's comprable environment, making me look to such exhibits with a much keener eye. This money would be allocated as but one aspect of a new New Deal that I also believe must be established, as the importance of providing job assistance to artsts, writers, and anyone unfit for physical labor is quite integral. Government assistance should go to both the working and creative classes, and we can look to successful New Deal programs such as the Federal Arts Project as a corrollary to today.

I am hopeful that the organizations and individuals promoting a "Green New Deal" consider the need for more artistic elements to permeate as well. It would not only create jobs for a suffering part of the economy, but it will express the pain and agony of a country whose government has--once again--turned its back on them in a manner in which no policy paper could compare.

21ST CENTURY ACTIVISM IN ACTION: BLOGGERS FIGHT FOR PUBLIC OPTION

By: Harry Waisbren

It’s been incredibly encouraging to watch the blogosphere’s fight for the public option’s inclusion in major healthcare reform. Observers have been able to watch prominent progressive bloggers flex their muscles, and their increasing influence is made manifest by their newfound capacity to rapidly push forward the development of new tools and strategies.

One element of this that has me particularly psyched about the evolution of activism is the Public Plan Whip Tool which Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has been heavily promoting. This tool correlates to the very successful effort to push members of Congress to vote against the Supplemental Appropriations Act, as they have utilized a crowdsourced effort to call every member repeatedly to both lobby for the cause and document their current position on it. The action’s page makes it easy for anyone to participate by providing concise messaging and the congressperson’s contact information, and the large pool of information is relayed into charts providing day by day and blow by blow updates of where these members of congress stand. At least 1,200 different people participated in the “citizen whip count” for the Supplemental Appropriations Act, and the effort for the public plan continues to go strong on Day 12.

Because of these early successes, I was surprised by the timing Chris Bowers’ post calling for a “new strategy on constituent phone calls to congress” yesterday afternoon. After all, there is only so much time even the most dedicated activists have available to spend on activism such as phoning a congressperson, and Bowers is quite blunt in his criticism of the status quo.

the bottom line is that constituent phone calls to members of Congress have mainly become an astroturf operation by corporate interests designed to skew perception of public opinion and further right-wing economic legislation. It is yet another aspect of our government that has been almost thoroughly corrupted.

Progressives should consider changing tactics. Instead of making phone calls to members of Congress, perhaps we should start campaigns to mail hundreds of copies of comprehensive, non-partisan polling analysis to every congressional office. Instead of making phone calls, perhaps we should turn instead to placing media requests that ask questions (ala our stand with Dr. Dean campaign). Or, perhaps when we make phone calls to Congress, our calls should focus on reminding congressional offices that most of the calls they receive are corporate astroturf.

Whatever we do, we can't allow the status quo to continue. We will lose to the billions of dollars in corporate money every single time.

Bowers does not explicitly cite the Public Plan Whip Tool in the post, and he responded to my email about it by emphasizing that he is not disagreeing with Jane about tactics. In fact, he states that he’s working with her to continue to adopt new strategies. I had been expecting him to denounce large scale blogosphere powered efforts to phone bank, but his passion for reforming these practices instead of replacing them was evident when he discussed its importance in relation to the Progressive Block. Bowers explained that both he and Jane have a shared desire for a dramatically increased focus on calling progressive members of Congress to urge them to vote against Democratic legislation unless specific demands are met. This flies in the face of the current phone banking strategy of attempting to lobby swing members of congress, and it holds great promise since progressives “never convince these swing voters to side with us” anyways. As Bowers argues, the status quo is so ineffective that “the Democratic Party leadership often encourages them to vote against us and heavily funded conservative organizations always place more phone calls”. Ending such encouragement that ensures the maltreatment of progressives is precisely why he is so vociferously seeking help to build the Progressive Block, and this development would have an impact far beyond phone banks.

Furthermore, as Bowers emphasized during our exchange, these strategies and tools can, indeed, “work in concert with one another”. I found this explanation to be extremely satisfying, as I believe wholeheartedly that continued and enhanced coordination between both of these efforts is absolutely essential. In fact, I see a direct corollary to Matt Stoller’s seminal post on Open Left calling for a closing of the rootsgap that separates Democratic politicians and their activist base. When used in concert, these two tools can do much in that regard, as they connect a coordinated block of progressive activists with a self-identified Progressive Block of legislators through the phone lines.

If we are to get the literally life or death issue of healthcare right, we need every progressive on the ground, in media, and in political office on the same page. Here’s hoping we can leverage FDL’s new tool and Open Left’s new strategy to help do just that!

Accountability Now MUST run a primary against Arlen Specter

By: Harry Waisbren

I have been a major fan of the Accountability Now PAC ever since I first heard rumblings of its creation during the height of the Fisa Fight. This is in large part considering they describe themselves like this:

Accountability Now is an organization built around a single guiding principle: challenging the institutional power structures that make it so easy, so consequence-free for Congress to open up the government coffers for looting by corporate America while people across the country are losing their jobs and their basic constitutional rights while unable to afford basic health care.

Anyways, I am writing this post believing that some of the most prominent members amongst the network of progressive bloggers that make up this coalition (including me) must already be discussing their quickly developing plans to launch by publicly announcing our goal to oppose Arlen Specter in a Pennsylvania Democratic primary battle. A variety of of these prominent bloggers have already been openly discussing supporting a primary against Specter, but they have been curiously silent about the prospects for Accountability Now to make him our main target. However, Accountability Now's suggestions page is empty still, but there is an email address posted soliciting for such suggestions.

Just in case I really am the first person to decivisely make this connection (or at least the first to blog about it), I sent an email to Accountability Now which I am pasting in its entirety below:

I am hoping that many of these messages are flooding your inbox right now! Many prominent Accountability Now bloggers have been openly advocating a primary for Specter, but I'm hoping they go all in and begin openly advocating for him to be the main target for Accountability Now.

He certainly would be the most news-making opponent to go after, and the timing couldn't be better to announce such support! Furthermore, his flip flop on the Military Commissions act and support of the repeal of habeus corpus couldn't be a more important---or timely---issue to jump out in front of with the release of the torture memos! The MSM loves conflict...and man would they love a story about open warfare between the base dems and the feckless dem leadership! Even if we get villified, it will keep the issue of torture in the news and it will provide a tooooooon of pressure on Specter to move leftwards. Plus, it'd be quite the display of netroots power that might force establishment news pundits take pause and realize how quickly they are falling behind in the media space amongst the most engaged citizens (on both sides of the aisle)!

I'm not even really asking----this is so perfect that it must be done and I am presuming talks are rapidly moving forward to make sure this is the case. Please though, when the decision is made, let me know and we can talk more about what I am planning on doing to help!

Even if I am the first to suggest this openly and vociferously (highly doubtful, but it'd be cool if I'm the first to blog about it), I really do believe this is so perfect that it has become a necessity. When it does occur, I will post more about how I can utilize my activism in various capacities and my media work the WYOU TV station (which airs my program Mad Progress TV) in particular to help this integral cause!

Ask the President About Accountability!

By: Harry Waisbren

Ask the President is a new service developed by The Nation, The Washington Times, and the Personal Democracy Forum that lets you vote on what question you would like to "ask the president". It's still very new, but there are certainly indications that this kind of project will succeed at having the winning question really asked of President Obama during a press conference. As a matter of fact, this kind of project has already been successful, as a very similar enterprise on Obama's transition website Change.gov had their winning question asked by George Stephanopoulos.

The winner of that contest was a question about whether Obama would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate things like torture and warratnless wiretapping, and it was poised by Bob Fertik at Democrats.com. Especially in light of this kind of early success, I am very excited to support them in similar efforts and will be doing all I can to convince other student activists to do the same!

The next Obama press conference is this Tuesday, and Democrats.com has a new question they are working on this time:

To vote for the question, simply click the green hand button at the top of the screen. It's also very easy to post the link in you Facebook profile and have everyone checking your news feed see it, and I hope that you send it out to any Facebook or Google Groups you are a part of that have poeple who may be intersted in helping!

This is an incredibly easy way for activists like us to help a cause we care about, yet it could have a major effect. Even if Obama tries to hedge if this question is asked, it will become more and more difficult for him to do so each and every new time it is poised. I think we all agree that Obama needs to be pressured MUCH more about ensuring accountability for those who have decimated our democracy, and this is a quick and easy way to help out. 

1 in 4 Americans already believe that the Bush administration committed war crimes, and some of our country's most respected lawyers are openly calling for President Bush to be prosecuted for murder. This is an extremely mainstream issue that needs much more attention, with even more evidence seen in how, when polled, 71% of Americans already believe there should be an investigation by either criminal prosecutors or an independent panel into the actions of the Bush administration. As the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin argues, our nation really was ruled as a "secret dictatorship", and now we need to both rapidly accept what happened and act accordingly.

It may not seem like much, but taking part in a campaign like this can really make that big a differnece if we can successfully break the silence and bring this into the public discourse! Just think, if 1 in 4 already believe Bush committed war crimes, what will happen when there are--finally--investigations and open prosecutions revealing the horrors of what we have done?

Our Spring Break speeches

By: Harry Waisbren

Yesterday we held our press conference for Our Spring Break out by the capital where I had the opportunity to be introduced as "Our Spring Break's inspiration". Definitely corny, but it is undeniably satisfying as an activist to know that my work and words are appreciated. Plus, it was more than a treat for me to be able to meet David Swanson who spoke right after me. I'm definitely very hopeful that I can work with him (and everyone else who has taken part in Our Spring Break) long after this event, and we'll be utilizing the Break Silence wiki specifically to ensure it!

Anyways, below you'll find the text of the speech I gave describing our motivations for the event:

On April 4^th, 1967—a year to the day before his assassination—Martin Luther King delivered a speech entitled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, a speech whose words perhaps ring truer now than even in its own time.

We here today see within King’s far too seldomnly referenced words a vision for our country; a diagnosis of the societal ills that continue to hold us back; a method to achieving his dream.

Yet his prescribed way towards societal redemption remains so controversial, that to this day we still have yet to reconcile the true meaning of his words, much less the fiery controversy that ensued upon his utterance of the

On the day marking the beginning of the last year of his life, King expressed—without equivocation—that "A time comes when silence is betrayal. He called out that that time had come for us in relation to Vietnam. Today, we call out that that time has come for us in relation to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just as he observed then, we must give voice to the voiceless; we must search to understand the arguments of those we call “enemy”. We must not take the easy way out, we must not engage in non-resistance against active dehumanization. Yet like King, we are left “as deeply concerned now about our own troops there as anything else”.

Then and now we recognize that “We are adding cynicism to the process of death”. This is because our soldiers, as King professed, “must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved”. And indeed, our soldiers do know. Yet still they die, knowing their country would have them give their life for a lie.

That day, King declared that “we must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.” Today, that prescription remains more true than ever, and I am proud to say that we are working in accord with his dictum. We strive to utilize to the fullest any and all of the new media technologies that we have at our disposal. Such innovative tools aid the match of our actions with words in an effort to amplify what we say, to fortify the actions that we take, and to make the ongoing amnesia regarding King’s call to Break Silence more difficult to maintain.

Yet why are we redoubling our efforts? Why do we push forward amidst the ongoing transitioning of the anti-war movement; amidst a period of change for the country and world at large?

The source of this inspiration also, naturally, links back to King. Like Vietnam in his time, Iraq has become, as he said: “but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit A malady of our country’s spirit that allowed the rise of the horrors seen in Vietnam then, in Iraq now, and likewise, perhaps , if not now, soon in Afghanistan…

In order to heal this malady, King charged that “we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values”. This revolution of values would be demarcated through our “shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.

As King did, We recognize that--without a doubt--a person-oriented society would never let the most patriotic among us die, generation after generation, amidst such cynicism. A person-oriented society would never let our veterans live—and suffer—alone as they struggle to make peace with what they were compelled by our government to do. Most of all, such a society would never condone the active betrayal of our country’s troops. And make no mistake—there is an ongoing betrayal of our country’s best and our brightest; a betrayal occurring despite their blatant exploitation by cynical politicians; politicians who personally profited off their suffering in order to continue an illegal and immoral war.

Then as now, we find ourselves “confronted with the fierce urgency of now”. As he said then and as it remains true today, we must “recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”

Hostility to a society that has made the youth of our country watch—in slow motion—as we make the same mistakes of a generation past. Mistakes we were actively learning about in history books. Mistakes that have led to far too many of our fellow students to fight, and die, while knowing it was all for a lie. Mistakes that make dedicating a spring break towards fighting to truly achieve King’s dream—more than worthwhile.

Beyond Iraq, this is a time to Break Silence!

Thank you very much

Civil Disobediance at the Pentagon for Our Spring Break

By: Harry Waisbren

I learned an awful lot about non-violent direct action this morning during the first action I was able to attend for Our Spring Break. The action was taken by the Council for Nonviolent Resistance and it included about 10 middle aged activists who walked willingly into an arrest amidst their attempt to deliver a letter to our secretary of defense. We met up with them early this morning where I was able to film a few short interviews. Here is one participant describing her involvement:



Here is another great discussion I had with an older woman who describes this event and grassroots activism at large in the context of her past activism during Vietnam:



After we had finished we took the metro and got off at the Pentagon stop. Despite my foreknowledge that I was not going to remotely risk arrest it was still a nerve wracking experience watching this commence amidst heavily armed officers. My nervousness quickly dissipated though shortly after the soon to be arrestees engaged the police who had asked to see an entrance badge if they were to move forward. It was clear that we were with them, and the police asked us to walk behind a short fence into the “free speech zone”. Ironically, this grassy area also happened to double as their “Sept. 11th Memorial Garden”. Such a set up could only be created in a post-Patriot act America, that’s for certain!

Anyways, as the police’s requests for the activists to move continued to be denied they began issuing warnings that they would soon be arrested if they did not comply. This acted as a signal of sorts as they all simultaneously sat down, refusing to stand up and then going limp when the police attempted to lift them. This action also seemed to act as a signal for the reinforcements to come in, as at least 10 Pentagon police officers zoomed to the scene on foot and motorcycle. As they were being carried off, an African American officer walked up to us and began quite an intriguing conversation that I do not believe I will be forgetting any time soon.

He began his engagement by telling us that he was severely against the escalation in Afghanistan. I was surprised by his honestly, as I was not expecting a policeman on the scene to be able to have such an honest discourse in this kind of scenario. He came up to us with purpose though, as he very apparently and very honestly was trying to find out what it was that we thought we were accomplishing. He was presupposing that such an action was useless if not counterproductive, and he did, indeed, have a point. His question of whether we think “[Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates really knows” about what was occurring had an obvious answer (absolutely not), but he made an even better point about the perceptions of such an action.

The officer kept on repeating the point that those watching considered the activists who had just been arrested to be “Freakos”, and that their direct action merely would reinforce the negative stereotypes in the minds of onlookers. He repeated the term Freakos so many times that I quickly came to the conclusion that it must be accepted jargon for activists taking part in such displays at the pentagon, regardless of its negative implications. However, the officer also made the specific and surprising point that he often saw employees of the pentagon stop and read banners and signs of protesters in the free speech zone. He even described seeing people shake their head and walk up and shake the hands of those in the memorial garden. I did not expect to hear an honest—especially a positive—assessment of such activities, yet I do not entirely agree with his premise that such actions are entirely counterproductive.

Below is another video interview we had with Gordon Clark and my fellow Our Spring Breakers Yael and Adam. Within it we went over some more of the specifics of what we had just gone through, as well as began to delve into the question of the effectiveness of such actions:



I often harp on the problematic nature of activism that reinforces stereotypes of activists as “dirty hippies”, and this event was a vivid display of all the inherent problems with such activism. However, as I described to the officer, there is a difference between civil disobedience predicated on gaining people power versus that aimed at personal empowerment. Perhaps these activists wanted to be arrested—regardless of whether it convinced even one person—as it made them feel better about themselves. Such a thought process would be part and parcel of their doing something they believed in despite paying a personal price to do so (as a matter of fact, they wanted to pay such a price).

Although...considering the degree to which such an action can reinforce all of the worst negative stereotypes of dissent, I left asking myself how and whether or not we should judge these activists and this kind of activism? In the end, all of us need to look ourselves in the mirror at night, and if that is what they were doing, then they were clearly doing what they had to do. Furthermore, those inclinations would deserve the respect earned by anyone standing up for their beliefs against the odds. However, if their motivations were less personal in nature, and included such things as bragging rights, popularity, or even a sense of superiority, then this certainly would not apply. They would be harming the movement through a selfish desire at self-aggrandizement. Selfish actions are still selfish even if they exact a personal price. However, likewise, if it was a largely unselfish action that was merely poorly planned, that certainly would not deserve any sort of scorn either.

In the end, I do not consider myself remotely capable in this instance to cast blame or decide this one way or the other. I commend their actions today at least, as even if the only thing they did was cause me to consider nonviolent direction action even more deeply it was a valuable experience for me at least. However, I would be the one acting selfishly if I do not act on what I have learned in this situation and work to ensure that such actions do not run such a risk of counter-productivity. Fortunately for my personal capacity of looking at myself in the mirror, this is precisely my plan, and if I am successful at all I hope that I can help as many others as possible on the way as well!


UPDATE: I have recently started corresponding with one of these activists--Pete Perry--about this action in particular in the context of the larger issues I referenced in this post. Pete rightfully pointed out that I was perhaps overly harsh, especially in light of this event achieving media attention through the AP wire. Pete posted his perspective about the action on his blog, but stay tuned as we have been discussing cross-posting and other ideas about how we can further expand on the utility of this action in particular. This project will be designed to be part of a larger discussion about how we can make non-violent direction action more effective, and we could definitely use more voices in this integral discussion if you are interested in taking part!

My Spring Break at "Our Spring Break"

By: Harry Waisbren

Well I have once again descended upon Washington, DC (the second time in a matter of weeks after Power Shift) for Our Spring Break---the anti-war alternative Spring break I have helped coordinate as a member of Campus Progress' Iraq committee---and while traveling I have been mentally going over why I am so motivated for such a trip. By definition, Our Spring Break is not the a stereotypical Spring Break for a college student, but I am left without a shadow of a doubt that this is exactly what I would like to be doing this break.

You could not possibly tempt me right now with a sunny beach or a sight seeing adventure or even down time on a comfy couch. Yet I do not consider myself to remotely be an aberration of a college student, rather, I believe that I am entirely a typical college student who has been lucky enough to have had the life experiences to make me both appreciate and recognize the world around me.

One of these primary experiences of mine has been my ability to learn about and work with Iraq war veterans who are now against the war. When you speak to these true patriots, you feel a sinking feeling inside amidst the recogntion that all of our tax dollars and tacit complicity contributed to their ongoing troubles. It is our country's collective complicity that has led to more of our soldiers dying from SUICIDE than in combat, it is our shame that 1/5 of our veterans suffer from PTSD or major depression, and it will be our burden to take care of the new generation of homeless veterans that are already in desperate need of our help.

When you learn of such things or witness the expression of them first hand as I did during Madison Winter Soldier you can't help but be changed. All of a sudden you recognize the litany of things that we take for granted in this life, and you feel a profound empathy for those whose very patriotism has brought them to such dire straights. Following such a profound realization, the "typical" college Spring Break activities seem like extravagencies, as far too many of our country's bravest men and women are left only dreaming for a typical sort of life.

Then again, I don't mean to knock sucking the marrow out of life and living it to the fullest. It would denigrate that which our soldiers fight for to give up on our personal happiness. But for me, there is no where else I would rather be right now, as it is precisely my knowledge that I am doing my part to ensure that this NEVER happens again that will make the good parts of life that much sweeter!