Walter Ballin

Tikun Olam's(not to be confused with Michael Lerner's Tikkun) Richard Silverstein writes that we might be witnessing the disintegration of the Republican Party, with so many prominent Republicans jumping ship and endorsing Barack Obama. I also think that this may very well be if the Democrats take advantage of the opportunity that they will hopefully have to do what's necessary to solve the serious problems that this country faces.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/10/24/is-the-republican-party-disintegrat

Is the Republican Party Disintegrating Before Our Very Eyes?
Oct 24th, 2008 by Richard Silverstein

I think that some of us may not be truly aware of what is happening within the Republican Party. Comment is Free yesterday published my article about the Republicans who've defected from the McCain-Palin ticket to endorse Barack Obama. As Democrats, we're tickled and flattered by the embrace of former foes. But I think more is going on that just that.

First, let's note that besides the major figures like Colin Powell, Lincoln Chaffee, Christopher Buckley, Jim Leach, Bruce Bartlett, and others I mentioned in my earlier posts, there are new "turncoats:" yesterday Scott McClellan endorsed Obama as did CC Goldwater, Barry's grand-daughter. Today, former Republican Massachussets governor William Weld endorsed. As did former Republican Minnesota governor Arne Carlsson. Former Regan solicitor general, McCain advisor and eminent Republican legal scholar Charles FriedKenneth Adelman endorsed. This guy worked for Ronald Reagan for Pete's sake! American Conservative Magazine editor Scott McClellan endorsed the Democrat. Republican Hollywood actor, Dennis Hopper has endorsed. endorsed. Shockingly, neocon former NSA advisor

I wouldn't be at all surprised if before November 4th Richard Lugar (who has already spoken highly favorably of Obama) and Chuck Hagel (his wife already has) endorse Barack. Can Olympia Snowe be far behind?

I can remember in past presidential elections Democrats who turned tail and ran by endorsing Republicans. Zell Miller comes to mind and of course Joe Lieberman, not to menon Ron Silver. But we viewed them as strange anomalies who didn't signal any serious challenge to the prevailing ideas of the Party.

But is what is happening now to the Republican Party something different? Is this merely a strange, interesting footnote to an amazing political campaign; or does it denote a major shift occuring within the Republican Party? Dare we hope that with the end of the Bush reign, those Republicans who can no longer stomach it are turning against the Party for embracing the worst excesses of Bushism? Might this signal a possible break between the Party and neoconservatism? Might a new Republican leadership emerge from the McCain-Palin debacle which will chart a different path than the one chosen over the past eight years and even farther back?

Or even more interestingly, might the Democrats recruit some of these former Republican faithful to come on over to our side? This would stun the remaining neocons on the Republican sinking ship even further.

I don't hold out much hope for the Republicans reforming their Party from within. The second scenario may be more possible. I think in effect, this has been what the Democrats started in recruiting Congressional candidates in 2006. They deliberately chose more centrist, conservative candidates in districts where this was necessary for a Democrat to win. Perhaps Republican moderates have noticed this and the defections are part of that process. Certainly, the fact that Democrats picked off Lincoln Chaffee in the last election has to be a message to the moderates that they have little or no future in their Party as presently constituted. This may've played no small role in Chaffee's endorsement of Obama. As long as such moderates remain they will be isolated on the "left" of an increasingly marginal & extremist Party; and Democrats will gradually pick them off like low-hanging fruit.

I don't want to make the mistake that Republicans like Karl Rove made in claiming a major "realignment" of political power in the offing. Democrats could do much to ensure their own downfall if they play their cards wrong in the next two or four years. But it's clear that "something's happening here and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. [GOP] Jones."

Posted by Walter Ballin at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am for protecting marriage. So I am going to the crux of the entire issue. I oppose Proposition 8. However, I call for an initiative to ban divorce.

Posted by Walter Ballin at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I sent this message to Obama's campaign via the campaign website, regarding the news report today that McCain is going to play extra dirty in the debate Tuesday night and throughout the remainder of the campaign. As the website does not have a feature to bold words, I used caps on the part of the letter that I wanted to emphasize. Also on the news last night, it was mentioned that as we know that the Obama campaign is bottom up rather than top down, and that at his headquarters in Chicago Obama's top campaign managers work together in the same place as all of the other campaign workers. Here's my letter.

Dear Barack,

I am a staunch supporter of yours in Chico California. I have written to you before.

On the CBS Evening News on Saturday, it was mentioned that John McCain is going to play much dirtier from here on out until the election, including the debate on Tuesday. As I know that you also heard, in the debate and in his speeches McCain is going to mention Ayres who was once involved in the Weathermen and also the Pastor. I know that you will keep your cool. What I am suggesting is that throughout the debate and throughout the remainder of your campaign, but especially in the debates, that you pound on McCain, Bush, and the Republicans about the terrible shape of the economy and the high unemployment. You tell the American people that IF THEY THINK THAT THE DIRT THAT McCAIN IS TALKING ABOUT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE TERRIBLE ECONOMY AND THE HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT, AND IF THE PEOPLE ARE SATISFIED WITH THINGS AS THEY HAVE BEEN UNDER BUSH, THAT THEY SHOULD GO RIGHT AHEAD AND VOTE FOR McCAIN! THAT'S WHAT YOU CONTINUOUSLY SAY THROUGHOUT THE DEBATE. You can also say that McCain lacks the character to hold the high office of President of the United States by resorting to dirty tactics.

I hope that you see my message before the debate, and I will greatly appreciate a response from you that addresses the advice I gave to you. I believe that you and the Democrats are headed for a great victory on November 4th.

Posted by Walter Ballin at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During recent months I received emails asking me to sign petitions that would admit Ralph Nader, the Green Party and other minor parties into the debates. I think that the minor parties have a problem which is their refusal to take steps to build up from the ground up. In this blog I will focus on the Green Party which I was a member of for a time.

Although I have been active in volunteer liberal Democratic politics for over 40 years, for a time between 1997 and 2004, I was registered in the Green Party. In 2001, I moved from San Francisco, where I lived all of my life, to Chico California. I served on the Butte County Green Party's County Council from 2001-2004. The reason that I left the Democrats during that period, was because I was very disappointed at President Bill Clinton for his failure to deliver universal health care, his signing of the awful Welfare Reform legislation of 1996, NAFTA, his failure to stem corporate mergers resulting in worker layoffs, and other issues. Our Democratic Governor at the time, Gray Davis, was also a disappointment and incompetent, which is why we had the re-call in 2003 and ended up with Schwarzenegger. During the past few years that I lived in San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown who was supposed to be a liberal Democrat, sold out to the landlords, developers, real estate interests, and other corporate interests. So, I became a Green. I voted for Ralph Nader for President in 1996 and 2000.

Now, had I known that 'Dubya' Bush was going to be as bad a President as he is, and in fact much worse than his father, and had I resided in a state in 2000 where the election was close, I would have voted for Gore.

Early in 2004, I expressed my view to the Butte County Green Party's County Council that the Green Party must not support Ralph Nader for President in that year, nor should the party run a Presidential candidate. The party leadership here disagreed with me and stated it's intention to actively campaign for Nader again. This was despite the fact that the national Green Party nominated an unknown candidate, David Cobb, who ran a "safe states" campaign. So, I left the Green Party and became a Democrat again and I supported the Kerry-Edwards ticket. However, I will say that my departure from the local Green Party was amicable.

Before I left the Green Party, I made a couple of suggestions as to what the party could do to make themselves a more viable political party. I suggested that the Green Party should stop running candidates for President, U.S. Senator, and other statewide offices, but target U.S. House of Representative and state legislative districts where they would have a chance of electing someone, and running candidates in those districts. The Green Party has done a terrific job of electing local non-partisan officials, but has elected very few if any candidates to partisan offices. So, the Green Party has officials who hold local offices who have a base and could get elected to partisan offices like the Legislature. Santa Monica California is an example where Greens serve on the City Council. I also stated that running candidates for the higher offices that I mentioned, would be a distraction from the effort to elect more candidates to the lower partisan positions, and also would be divisive if the Greens adopted my idea. Unfortunately, the local leadership didn't see all of this the way I saw it.

Another point that I want to bring up is that there are some people who join the Green and I suppose other third parties, who have racist, sexist, and homophobic and judgmental views, and of course I'm not saying everyone. There is one man in particular who expresses some of these views to me. This man happens to strongly admire Ralph Nader. He supports Single Payer health care, opposes the Iraq War, war spending, bad trade deals like NAFTA, the power of the corporations, and wants big money taken out of politics. This gentleman often criticizes the Democrats for not being good enough on some of these issues and most recently criticized Barack Obama. However, he has also expressed homophobic views. He refers to women who out of necessity have abortions as "baby killers." He even opposes the government educating people about birth control and supports teaching "abstinence only" in our schools. The man I'm talking about actually became a Decline to State a couple of years ago, but today he told me that he gave money to the American Independent Party, which is the party that the late Alabama Governor George Wallace ran for President on in 1968. Wallace was known for standing in the door of the University of Alabama in 1963 in a futile attempt to block the admittance of Black people who wanted to study there. This fellow once belonged to that party. When I pointed out to him that the AIP opposes programs that he supports like Single Payer health care, and Social Security and Medicare which he benefits from, he got very angry. He said that he doesn't really support the the positions of the AIP but that he likes to contribute to 3rd parties, just for the sake of 3rd parties.

Some time ago, I was also told by a reliable source that there were a couple of other Greens who were holier than thou in speaking out against the Greens supporting any liberal Democrats even for local offices, but who made racist remarks against Blacks and Latinos. Now, those particular Greens stated in 2004 that any Green who would not support Nader for President, should get out of the party.

In stating this, as far as the Green Party is concerned, I know that the views of all of those particular individuals run contrary to the positions of the Green Party. My point is that when the Green Party fails to take the necessary steps that I suggested above to make themselves a more viable political party, while it attracts some very intelligent and well meaning people who seek to make this a better country and who want a better world, it also attracts people who simply want to be non-conformists or what I might call "Minor Political Party Shoppers." Another point that I want to mention is that the Greens and many of the people on what I'll call the left fringe(I'm not knocking the left, as I'm on the left myself) can't even agree among themselves. On this year's ballot the left fringe has 2 candidates, Ralph Nader and former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. So in view of what I said in this blog, before I sign any petition to admit the minor parties to the debates, I say let them get their act together and build from the ground up.

Posted by Walter Ballin at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)