Fourth Party Politics

March 4, 2009

Politics are in my blood. My maternal grandparents were active and vocal supporters of Eric Williams and the venerable PNM Party in Trinidad & Tobago. I was raised in a home where political debate and argument was an integral part of family discourse. I knew my wife and I were meant to be when I visited her in Los Angeles and realized that her African-American family values literacy and political awareness as much as my Afro-Caribbean family does. (Funny – the things that ultimately become important)

All that said, I am neither a registered Republican nor Democrat but an independent, currently unaligned citizen. I am too cynical about individual politicians to be a political party loyalist the way my grandparents were. More than my cynicism, the tepid inadequacy of the American political parties is keeping me staunchly independent.

The Republican and Democratic parties are essentially shodows of each other. They typically stake out opposing positions on key issues ranging from taxes to reproductive rights and education reform to military spending. They engage in expensive and elaborate public debates on the issues, touting their programs and prescriptions while deriding their opponent’s. In the end, a lukewarm remedy is typically enacted that is the product of genuine compromise and/or outright deal making.

My major gripe is not with the process by which our two major parties ultimately arrive at solutions. The alternatives of governing by military coup or institutional bribery are wholly unattractive. My beef is with the generic set of ideas and suggestions that get placed on the table at the beginning of the debate.

Both parties are constantly pandering to the imaginary “center” of American politics. They yearn for the approval of those Americans in Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere who apparently look like Ward and June Cleaver and supposedly personify the core attitudes, values and opinions of America. Never mind that more Americans live in San Francisco and New York City than in some states in the Union.

When the Patriot Act was “debated” and passed under the cover of darkness, both parties, with the exception of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, avoided any real discussion of the bill and the tremendous powers it was conferring to President Bush. In fact, Congresswoman McKinney was subsquently redistricted out of Congress for her temerity.

The ongoing debate on the troublesome banking system focuses on middle of the road regulation tinkering and has not honestly explored more radical programs of nationalization that have actually worked extremely well for countries like Sweden.

The entire country would be served by the creation of at least one other major party culled “extreme” wings of both parties. A culturally conservative and fiscally progressive party might stand a chance…

Whatever the permutation, more ideas need to see the light of day on a national stage. If more “fringe” or “radical” economists had been given a fair hearing, these banks might not have gotten so far up the block with our cash… And those tree hugging libertarians appeared clairvoyant after we found out that the NSA was eavesdropping on us… all of us.

Even if elections for President stay dominated by the two major parties, municipal congressional elections need more variety. There are more than two valid opinions on every subject in American political life and its time our representative government expand its horizons and embrace the complexity of ideas that a free society like this one supposedly encourages.

All in favor of a political party who will push both Democrats and Republicans to get to work…

A. Baraka Scott (… brother from another)

What Heaven Looks Like

March 3, 2009

A wise and thoughtful young attorney recently commented on one of my blogs. I am eternally grateful not only because he took the time to share but because his keen insights and counterpoints helped focus my attention on what I believe the world should look like.

Common said, “…if you believe in heaven, why is your choice hell?”

I say Heaven on Earth is as good a goal as any…

To paraphrase, my colleague cautioned against vapid patriotism fueled by race pride and hyper-emotionalism related to President Obama’s ascension. A student of history, he further counseled that an Obama-Era world view that forgets the Middle Passage, the Trail of Tears and Operation Condor would be a front for the old world colonial oligarchy. His words were like iron sharpening iron.

After considering his sober analysis the first thing I did was run out and buy a throwback “Stars & Stripes” with the thirteen stars in a circle.

Without African people (here from before its foundation) the United States would not be the military, technological and cultural superpower that it is today.

Crispus Attucks is the first martyr of the American Revolution. Salute to all Tuskegee Airmen massive.

Benjamin Banneker was the first astronomer to posit the currently held theory that the universe consists of solar systems which in turn comprise galaxies like our Milky Way. Garret Morgan, Lewis Latimer and Dr. Charles Drew know Nikola Tesla better than he knows himself.

All American music is traced to African roots — big up Muddy Waters, Louis Armstrong and Jimi Hendrix…

So what does heaven look like in a world where Barack Hussein Obama is President and African-Americans, only 12% of the United States population, are a shamefully conspiratorial 44% of all prisoners in the United States?

The public schools across this land would be cathedrals of higher learning with a laptop for each child; loving, supportive and handsomely compensated teachers at the head of every class; and comprehensive curriculums that offer advanced math and sciences along with American history, world history, world literature and a minimum of two foreign languages.

The criminal justice system would get a good scrubbing with every police officer, prosecutor and judge required to live in the neigborhoods where they dispense justice. A wise man once told me that people do what you inspect not what you expect. The Department of Justice would expand its vaunted Civil Rights Division to thoroughly investigate and prosecute every single alleged case of abuse and misconduct. All of the men and women doing time for non-violent crimes related to drug addiction would transition from prison to treatment and counseling. Police officers who shoot unarmed black men in the back would get put under the jail, period. The term “white collar crime” would be abolished because a crook by any other name still stinks.

The banking system would be laid bare for the whole world to examine and restructure. All of the secret transactions between the rich and powerful, all of the clever instruments that allow the wealthy to leverage capital and maintain position would be made public. If the banking system truly is a house of cards, we will all, prince and pauper, deal with the consequences of creating a new system together, on equal footing and with full disclosure. Knowledge is power and it is high time that the gate keepers give up the keys and let the masses inspect the palaces that have been built with their blood, sweat and tears. Cream rises to the top so there should be no need to rig the game.

Yes, a true meritocracy based on hard work, thrift, ingenuity and a little luck…

Heaven looks like America trough the eyes of Americans who know that this country is not perfect; Americans who know that this country has done horrific and damnable things in our name. Americans who know that the promise of America can not be hijacked by the wicked who share our birthright but must be defended and perfected daily with the perspective of Americans who know what heaven looks like.

Americans like Crispus Attucks and Benjamin Banneker and Jimi Hendrix and Barack H. Obama and Kenneth Montgomery, Esq. representing this country every day and in every way looks like a good start.

A. Baraka Scott (…brother from another)