The campaign to ensure that Mitch owns his miserable legacy goes global
Matt Gunterman February 6th, 2008
I’ve been working on a project. That project officially goes live on Wednesday, February 6, 2008, and — even though I’m writing this post on the evening of Super Tuesday — the project is actually “live” as I am typing.
And it’s live because it’s already tomorrow in most of the world, and this is a global effort that’s being launched.
The roots of this project, which we’re calling — in a rather playful sense — our Global McConnellism Awareness Initiative (GMAI), stem from about two months ago.
About that time we started thinking about how to begin to battle Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) in the long term.
In the short term, of course, our goal is the defeat of McConnell at the ballot box in 2008, but even if McConnell goes down in defeat this year, elements of his political machine will still be alive and empowered and the rancid brand of politics that he fathered — which centers on money grubbing, influence mongering, and hyper-partisanship — will still be going strong.
And in this short term battle, McConnell has all the advantages of his incumbency. In the short term we are fighting an uphill battle.
But the more we thought about the short term versus the long term, the more we came to ask the question: What does a long term battle against a politician like McConnell look like?
Politicians and political parties aren’t terribly adept at thinking long term, and that’s especially true of the national GOP today (even the likes of Karl Rove points that out on the party’s stance on immigration reform and its effects on the political loyalties of the nation’s burgeoning Hispanic population).
Of course, thinking long term really isn’t a skill that politicians need too much: the memories and attention spans of voters are terribly short, after all.
So, while the short term situation might put us at a disadvantage to McConnell because of his incumbency, the long term can be a place where we’re at the advantage because McConnell won’t put much time or resources into planning for the long term. It just doesn’t make much sense for him to do so when his political power is derived from the immediate here and now.
And, moreover, when we think long term, we have to keep in mind that McConnell’s power and influence will only be decreasing from this point forward.
Why?
Well, we can already anticipate significant setbacks for the GOP in the U.S. Senate races this year. Even if McConnell remains minority leader after 2008, his minority will be reduced.
And, if the GOP is ever to regain the confidence of a working majority of Americans, it’s going to take quite a lot of introspection and reinvention on the part of the party. Ditching Mitch McConnell from party leadership will be an obvious and important part of redefining the GOP brand. McConnell is, after all, one of the architects of the dominant system today.
And, when we’re looking into the far political future, McConnell — like all politicians — will be largely forgotten to the average Kentuckian.
It’s hard enough to keep voters focused on politicians who are actually serving in office, but when they’re gone from office, even the most powerful of office holders is soon out of mind.
That will be Mitch McConnell’s ultimate fate: political oblivion aside from a few bricks-and-mortar namesakes scattered around the state.
Essentially, the problem becomes: How do we make sure Mitch McConnell is remembered in some context and that he inherits the miserable legacy that he has earned?
The answer to that question is NOT to focus our efforts on the general population of Kentucky.
In the long term Mitch McConnell and his legacy will be given up to the historians and the political scientists, and not to public opinion. Public opinion about Mitch McConnell will eventually be formed by the “authoritative” and “official” accounts that are produced and vetted by scholars. Those vetted narratives will become conventional wisdom and common knowledge over time.
But not just American historians and political scientists will be involved in this sort of contextualizing.
We are living in an era when the United States is the sole global superpower. Our world is understood as a unipolar world. In the future when scholars the world over look back on this time, it will likely matter to them what was transpiring in the United States. What happened here affected nearly every corner of the globe.
I myself am betting heavily that future world opinion makers will never think kindly or highly of President George W. Bush (R). I think global consensus will frame Bush as one of the greatest human and political disasters of Western democracy.
And, what we want to do with the Global McConnellism Awareness Initiative is to clearly and justifiably connect McConnell to the disaster that is George W. Bush.
Towards that end, we have gone about recruiting and enlisting a small army of young and emerging scholars from around the world. They come from China, France, Germany, Iran, South Africa, Brazil, Greece, India, and Russia. They are all accomplished, highly educated, and well-connected.
And, when it comes to McConnell, they are all on the same page: our page.
Why should they care about this initiative and care to participate in it?
Well, first, they’re convinced of the miserable record and consequences of Mitch McConnell’s political career and operation. These young scholars all have a deep interest in nurturing and learning about the workings of democracy and democratic institutions. A man like McConnell — who regularly thumbs his nose at democratic principles, who has been reckless with the institution entrusted to him, and who has done lasting damage to the American nation — is someone who these scholars want to stop.
Second, it’s all an experiment of sorts. Can a project like this have a measurable impact over the course of decades? Will the common cause fade, or will it take on a life of its own? Will it become almost a whimsical pastime for these scholars to insert references to McConnell and McConnellism into their conversations and writings, or will it all prove to be too unwieldy in an intellectual sense?
In the end, we have some highly unorthodox and entertaining plans as to how to propagate our message on McConnell.
Most of what we’ll be producing won’t appear here on DitchMitchKY.
The first phase we’ll be launching will center on inserting McConnell and themes of McConnellism into the comments of high-traffic blogs and websites across the globe and all that conversation will take place in the vernacular.
But the end game will be to ensure that McConnellism becomes the 21st-century’s global equivalent of a term like McCarthyism — as a thing inherently undemocratic and something that a mature nation rejects.
- GMIA
- Comments(16)
Rural net coming soon
will be watching
What an amazing project. You could add more gravitas to this effort by including the U.N. ambassador from Latvia.
The task at hand is to Ditch Mitch. I was on the phone with Mr. Essek, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate that wants to Ditch Mitch. He seems to be a truck driver. Maybe we can schedule some debates on the radio or TV. After Mitch is ditched this year, maybe long term planning about how best to eradicate neo-conism, Bushism, and McConnellism are in order.
Better take this up with Bruce Lunsford boyo. With all deference to the Clay County lawyer and the truck driver, Bruce Lunsford will be the Democratic nominee. Bruce Lunsford will be the person Ditch Mitch has to rally behind. Bruce Lunsford will be their standbearer. Bruce Lunsford, by the way, hearts us Republicans. So why go with an echo with nasty partners when we can keep the real deal?
I love it.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=McConnellism
jim
With all due respect to you Matt, you must have a whole lot of time on your hands.
“With all due respect,” what sort of moronic tripe is that?
I do have a lot of free time on my hands between the two books, this blog, my teaching, the non-profit, and a stellar social life. That’s the curse of being so terribly competent and efficient. Oh well, I live with it.
The “moronic tripe” that you are referring to is called politeness from a born and raised Southern man. Something that obviously is lost when one chooses to move to Yale but feels the urgency to save the very people that he moved away from. Matt, you are obviously very highly educated. For that I give you all the respect of which you are due. Hence the term “with all due respect”. There is also another term. It is called being educated beyond your intelligence. I am fearful that you may qualify for that as well. Don’t ever under estimate the knowledge of life experience. While you were a student in Scotland in 2002, I had been living and working in the real world for over 50 years. Life in professional academia is so incredibly different than what the books say.
Having said that, please tell me more about your latest movement. I have two questions that I think are legitimate. Why is your small army of scholars to defeat McConnellism all from countries other than the US? I’m thinking they can’t vote against Mitch can they? More importantly, why will you not post on your own blog what you are going to produce? I’m sure it’s just me but it almost sounds like that perhaps that those of us in KY both pro and con who visit your site may not be intelligent enough to understand your message.
One other thing just as a suggestion from an old moron. Perhaps you should be careful who and what you refer to as “moronic tripe”. You never know who may actually be on the other end.
Having said all of that, I look forward to your response. My questions are legitimate. Please give me legitimate answers. Anything less than that and you prove exactly what I fear is true.
Politeness? As a qualifying phrase, “with all due respect” is fine to use, but when used for the effect of politeness, what follows it should be a statement of argument — not a statement of flippancy, such as “you must have a whole lot of time on your hands.”
Perhaps to those so inclined to the traditional Southern culture that’s called politeness, but I call it moronic tripe, and quite confidently so.
In regards to your comment about my “being educated beyond [my] intelligence,” all I can say is this is how it works: a man earns his degrees, he writes his books, he lives his life. When he is dead and gone, there is nothing left of him but the texts he leaves behind. My remnants will be my degrees, my books, etc. I’ll look pretty damn good on paper in death — far better than the average — and my progeny will be quite proud.
Yes, indeed, I get up everyday and work my to my fullest with my eventual and inevitable death in mind. That’s the historian in me, I have to say.
You have serious reading comprehension troubles, I can tell you that. The answers to your questions are clearly — explicitly — addressed in my post. However, I will entertain your questions nevertheless.
Why do these scholars come from countries other than the US? Well, should other people around the world have no opinion of people in power who shape their lives? Would you deny that George W. Bush and his idiocy haven’t adversely affected the lives of millions of people around the world? Should the fact that these people don’t live in the United States change their ability to have a sour and poor opinion of him?
Moreover, the implication of your statement, “I’m thinking they can’t vote against Mitch can they,” is absolutely ludicrous. Most of the people in the United States cannot vote for or against Mitch McConnell. They don’t live in Kentucky. What is the difference between a Chinese or a Frenchmen having an informed opinion on McConnell versus a Californian or North Dakotan? None of them can vote for or against Mitch McConnell. All of them might to varying degrees have their lives impacted by the votes of McConnell in the Senate.
Why will what these international writers produce not be posted on this blog? Somehow I doubt few of our readers are fluent in Mandarin, Portuguese, or German. The material they’ll be writing about will simply be variations on themes that have already been presented here. It wouldn’t be worth the effort to translate them from the vernacular to English. It’s not as if we’ll be releasing blockbuster material in foreign languages and not posting it here.
However, you are welcome to visit the French blog advertised on the left of this website. We are partnering with it and together we will be leading the way of informing Francophone Europe about the ills and evils of Mitch McConnell. It will all be in French, of course.
I don’t care who “Larry0927″ is. I put my name out on everything I write. I own it; I have the courage to reap the rewards and consequences to that fact.
I don’t spend any time at all concerning myself with hurting the feelings of people who like their anonymity so.
As I stated before, all the answers to your questions were available in the original post; it’s all quite commonsensical, really.
And I’m sure you just fret day and night whether what you fear is true. I’m sure the whole fucking world is on pins and needles waiting for what you fucking decide.
C’est tout à fait vrai. Ce cher M. McConnell n’est que trop peu connu à l’étranger. Pourtant, par sa position, par ses qualifications, par ce qu’il incarne, il mériterait d’être plus visible, si ce n’est apprécié, à l’étranger. Je ne porte pas de jugement; pas pour l’instant. Mais c’est juste un état de fait.
Et je tiens à préciser que bien qu’étranger, j’adore le Kentucky; donc pas de French bashing, merci!
Bien à vous
Wow, you really told me didn’t you Matt? Thank you for pointing out my serious reading comprehension troubles. Forgive me for questioning your global initiative. You far outrank me educationally, intellectually and in IQ. Of that, there is no doubt. But tell me Dr., what makes you so bitter that when someone wants to engage in a meaningful debate your response is one of insults and condescending diatribes?
Forgive the ramblings of an older, more experienced, less educated man than you. You have so much to learn. You are in a unique position to mold the minds of future world leaders while at Yale. Please don’t clutter their learning opportunity with your own bitterness towards whoever or whatever made you this way. Surely the loss of the election in McLean County didn’t do this to you did it?
No, I don’t think the world is waiting for what I decide. I am not egomaniacal enough to believe that the world cares one whit what I believe. I also no longer fear what I was afraid is true.
I wish you peace, Dr.
Larry0927
Thank you, thank you, thank you…… I will pray for Matt, I know you will too.
Ann328,
Ordinarily I would pray for Matt as you suggest but since Matt is a scholar in religion having written a paper on the effect of filth (dirt, germs,etc)on religion, I’m confident he doesn’t need it.
Larry, you’re such an idiot, and I don’t know how to stress that any more.
Do you know what my scholarly work is about? It’s about how the germ theory of disease, when it came about in late nineteenth century, made people — specifically large swaths of American Protestants — fearful of drinking from the same cup as another person. And, a major example of such a cup was the communion chalice, which was passed around during worship on a regular basis.
So, you know what they did? They developed thimble-sized glass or metal cups (today they’re plastic) for people to drink out of.
This action caused great controversy, however, because many people argued it was sinful not to use the traditional chalice and that to refuse to use it showed a lack of faith in God to protect them from disease-causing germs.
My scholarly work is considered extremely nuanced and fair in its treatment of religion and religious faith. You, however, are by no stretch of the imagination fit to judge it. You, in fact, could probably barely read it.
Let me say a prayer for you, right here.
—–
Our Kind & Loving, Merciful Heavenly Father,
We thank You for this beautiful Lord’s Day that you’ve granted us, Dear Lord, that we might seek the comfort of your Word and for the gift of counsel with You in prayer.
Dear Lord, we are also thankful for the trials that you present us. Today, Lord, we thank you for the major test you give us in Larry0927. Even though he talks out of his ass and doesn’t known a damn thing about anything, we will still strive to love him, Dear Lord.
Give us patience, Heavenly Father.
That is our prayer, in Jesus name,
AMEN
Thank you Matt. I appreciate the blessing but you my scholarly friend have some very deep rooted anger issues. Not one time did I say anything derogatory about your scholarly work and I certainly did not judge it. On this we both agree, I certainly am not qualified to judge it.
I realize it’s very early in the morning when you write your columns and responses on your blog. Perhaps you could use some more rest, who knows.
Until we meet again, I wish you peace Dr.
Get over it Larry0927. Do you not know that your behavior is so transparent as to be to the point of ludicrous. As is Ann328.
First, how “Christian” do you think it is for you (plural) to inform another person you’re going to pray for them because from your perspective something’s wrong? I’d call that arrogance, not Christian-like. You tell someone you’re going to pray for them when it would comfort them, otherwise you go into your room and pray in silence. Otherwise, you’re using prayer to provoke or to be righteous, and that’s sin, I’d say.
Second, why mention that my scholarship mixes the study of filth and religion in regards to prayer? My research is irrelevant in that regard. The only reason to do it was to make the statement — or to insinuate — that I think religion is filth. That I look down on it.
Well, in fact, I spent much of the early 2000’s as an itinerant preacher, and I’m very much a person who appreciates the role of religion in life. And, wait until my book “The Bondmen” comes out. Won’t that redefine things a bit. I’d say plenty of evangelicals and fundamentalists will be talking about the ideas in there for a long time.
You know, I don’t take crap, and I see right through your crap. You can’t play these little conservative/redneck games with me. Those games depend on the other party subscribing to a similar idea of what “nice” is. And I don’t. I have a very non-redneck notion of what nice is.