JFK and the Avoidable Tragedy of Vietnam

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Friday November 22, 2013 · 8:40 AM PST

2013/11/22 · 08:40

A half-century has elapsed since that cold Dallas day when President John F. Kennedy was murdered. Even now, these events continue to capture our imagination. Why? Surely some of it stems from the energy and charisma of the young President himself. Few things shock us more than seeing someone cut down in their prime, their great promise unfulfilled.

Much like 9/11 for Americans of this century, Kennedy’s seemingly inexplicable murder inspired an almost existential sense of national and individual vulnerability. But it also marked a profound change in our national story. One rarely finds anyone who lived through the events of November 1963 that does not think that something profoundly changed in their wake.

The next five years brought a remarkable expansion of equality and freedom, including an end to racial apartheid in the South. Kennedy’s successor was ultimately better suited to help with this extraordinary change. But those five years also included a brutal and unnecessary war, an exponential increase in government dishonesty, and a blunt and still-unresolved confrontation with racial inequality in the urban North.

And then in 1968, the two public figures that seemed most capable of redeeming the national promise of peace and justice followed JFK to the grave in bloody fashion.

msantow

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Monday June 24, 2013 · 10:18 PM PDT

2013/06/24 · 22:18

A political prisoner changed my life.

That man, now free -- always free, really -- wore number 466 at Robben Island prison in South Africa. Today, he is slowly dying in a hospital bed in Pretoria. I know Nelson Mandela won't have the opportunity to read this. But I do need to write it.

He was, in the end, my favorite college professor.

The photograph of me above was taken in spring 1987, when I was a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Like thousands of college students in the United States and around the world, I saw myself in the struggles of South Africa's anti-apartheid movements. And like many Americans, I saw the original sin of my own nation echoed in that country's system of racial oppression, and was appalled by the unwillingness of so many of my elders -- from the Chancellor and Trustees of my university, to the President of the United States -- to use their power to lean in for justice.

msantow

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Thursday January 10, 2013 · 9:51 AM PST

2013/01/10 · 09:51

Back in October 2012, New York Times writer Scott Shane described the idea of 'American exceptionalism' as an "opiate,“ inducing a kind of hubristic national stupor that prevents us from seeing things as they truly are.

The idea that God or history has uniquely blessed the United States, justifying a proselytizing posture toward the rest of the world, is an old one. It returned to our national discourse in the last couple of years, when conservatives accused President Obama of backsliding in his belief that Americans are the 'chosen people.'

As Shane argued, the idea that American identity is a kind of calling can have positive consequences: “this national characteristic...may inspire some people and politicians to perform heroically, rising to the level of our self-image." But it can also be deeply dysfunctional, as politicians of all stripes trip over one another to reassure Americans "that their country, their achievements and their values are extraordinary," while profound problems are left unaddressed.

American patriotism has always -- and uniquely -- had this 'Stuart Smalley' taint to it, but as we collectively whistle through the graveyard of apparent national decline, it seems to have over-ripened a bit. If John Winthrop's idea of America as the 'city on a hill' drawing the "eyes of all people" was to be more than just an expression of jingoism, it demanded (and demands) a delicate balance between description and aspiration. When it morphs into mere self-affirmation, however, we Americans become a danger to ourselves -- and to others, who increasingly keep their eyes on us for fear of what might happen if they don't.

Sadly, as a recent international health study bracingly remind us, most of the ways in the United States is exceptional today are negative.

msantow

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Tuesday January 08, 2013 · 5:41 PM PST

2013/01/08 · 17:41

This year, for the first time, the Tainted Five of baseball's Steroid Era are eligible for the Hall of Fame: Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmeiro.

And Royce Clayton is on there too. This article is not about Royce Clayton.

The arguments below were handcrafted late one night in Providence's venerable Ivy Tavern, with cloudy headed input from Brad and Mason, and intellectual performance enhancements provided by the always lovely Rob Duncanson. By the end of the evening, I had somewhat surprised myself by arriving at the following conclusion:

Clemens, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro and Bonds should all get in the HOF.

Clemens and Bonds should be first ballot and unanimous Hall of Famers.

Here's the argument.

msantow

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Saturday December 15, 2012 · 6:53 AM PST

2012/12/15 · 06:53

I really don't know what to say about the events in CT today, so close to where I grew up, at precisely the time my own children were in school. Tragic events like this are, in the end, inexplicable -- but much like the 9/11 attacks, to simply describe what happened as a consequence of 'evil' is, frankly, a moral cop-out.

We live in a society that lays claim (sometimes a unique claim) to loving our children. But we don't. Not really. We love our own, yes. But not other people's children. Our children will learn and practice love when we provide them with institutions, laws and communities that reflect and reinforce it. We are cruel to the children of the poor, the undocumented, and the incarcerated, more so than any other developed nation. We tolerate -- even revel in -- breathtaking levels of violence and inequality, giving our young people a sense that using other human beings as a means to our own ends is OK. Its Ok in our foreign
policy. Its OK at work. And its OK in our relationships.

Silenced by a patriarchal culture that reproduces and rewards male aggression, and that devalues and denigrates humility, doubt, interdependence and vulnerability, we underfund the treatment of mental illness while living in a society that produces it in great quantities. We continue to allow the free flow and use of firearms, far beyond any reasonable definition of self-defense and constitutional protection, ensuring that our children -- especially our poorest children -- will grow up experiencing daily stress and insecurity, perpetuating almost everything I've described above.

I don't know what lessons we're supposed to draw from the events in CT today. But I do know that the cruel and bitter edge of American society, there at its very slave-owning birth as a kind of original sin, seems to have become even sharper in the last two decades. Cruelty is all of a piece, woven together, constricting all of us, even the most privileged and safe. But love is all of a piece, too. And it simply isn't enough, in the end, for us to hoard it, household by household, like one more zero-sum game we're trying to win. Once we commit to loving ALL of our children, the society we construct out of that love will finally make this country -- finally -- a source of great hope in the world.

Ned Flanders, Mitt Romney, and Liberal schadenfreude

msantow

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Friday November 09, 2012 · 1:23 PM PST

2012/11/09 · 13:23

"The billionaire donors I hear are livid ... There is some holy hell to pay. Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do ... I don't know how you tell your donors that we spent $390 million and got nothing," - A "Republican operative," to HuffPo.

In a 1991 episode of "The Simpsons," Ned Flanders opened a store at the mall selling everyday objects for left-handed people. His next door neighbor Homer, typically, hoped the store would fail. When it did, Homer's daughter Lisa sought to stretch her father's emotional intelligence a little bit:

Lisa: Dad, do you know what schadenfreude is?

Homer: No, I don't know what 'shaden-frawde' is [sarcastic]. Please tell me, because I'm dying to know.

Lisa: It's a German term for 'shameful joy,' taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

Homer: Oh, come on Lisa. I'm just glad to see him fall flat on his butt! [getting mad] He's usually all happy and comfortable, and surrounded by loved ones, and it makes me feel...what's the opposite of that shameful joy thing of yours?

Lisa: Sour grapes.

Homer: Boy, those Germans have a word for everything!

msantow

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Monday November 05, 2012 · 9:54 AM PST

2012/11/05 · 09:54

Could the 2012 presidential election result in a tie in the Electoral College?

Yes, and the scenario -- while unlikely -- isn't wildly improbable either.

msantow

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Monday November 05, 2012 · 8:53 AM PST

2012/11/05 · 08:53

Two anti-Obama articles by progressives have gotten quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere recently: Matt Stoller's piece on Salon, and Conor Friedersdorf's article on the Atlantic Online website.

Both call for people on the left to refuse to vote for Obama.

I disagree, and strongly.

msantow

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Monday October 22, 2012 · 2:30 PM PDT

2012/10/22 · 14:30

First: if you think this debate is Obama's to lose, because of his experience, his knowledge, and his successes -- I think you are mistaken. Romney is the one with the advantages here. A bigger man would hesitate to exploit some of those advantages, for reasons of national security.

Romney is not that man.

Second: I think that by and large, Obama has had the most successful foreign policy of any American president in decades. I expect everyone on the right to disagree with me on that -- but I also expect many of my allies on the left to disagree, too.

Why do I think Romney has the advantage tonight?

msantow

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Tuesday August 28, 2012 · 9:13 PM PDT

2012/08/28 · 21:13

Call me crazy, but watching the GOP over these past few years (and tonight) seems to be inducing a bit of self-hatred in me.

I am pretty much all done with privileged white men.

My god, what a whiney group of narcissists. OK, if you're a bit panicked at the thought of becoming a numerical minority in the US in a few years, I think I get that. But do you really need to take over the Party of Lincoln and TR, and bring the whole damn temple down with you?

Personally, THIS privileged white man is looking forward to the new, young, and diverse America that the GOP is so desperate to vilify, indenture lock up and lock out. Perhaps then, this nation can finally redeem its soul, and -- to paraphrase Langston Hughes -- let America be America again.

George Romney Knew Better: School Inequality & the Continuing Significance of Racial Segregation

msantow

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Friday August 24, 2012 · 7:44 AM PDT

2012/08/24 · 07:44

Nationally, black and Hispanic/Latino public school students are now more segregated from whites than at any point in the last four decades. Most policymakers and activists on all sides accept the fact that our metropolitan areas are segregated by race as well as class, and work within its confines. In this age of greatly diminished expectations – the ‘twilight of common dreams,’ as Todd Gitlin once put it – it is assumed either that these patterns aren’t terribly important, or that the practical and political obstacles to changing them are too overwhelming. Today, Democrats and Republicans alike unashamedly promote efforts to “gild the ghetto” with charter schools that are more segregated than regular public schools, and with compensatory education programs that have little chance of truly compensating. But the black-white academic achievement gap is unlikely to narrow much further without revisiting the imperative of residential integration in our metropolitan areas. George Romney knew better.

msantow

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Thursday June 28, 2012 · 9:31 AM PDT

2012/06/28 · 09:31

You know, part of my joy today is about the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act -- but I think its deeper than that.

Its rooted in my sense that the legitimacy of a core American institution (the Court) wavered, even shook, but ultimately remained in place.

I remember the acid in my stomach after the Bush v. Gore decision, and anticipated having the same feeling this morning. The nihilism that American conservatism seems to have adopted seems bent on devouring standards, institutions and processes that have served this country well for a very long time -- like some sort of civic auto-immune disease.

As James Fallows recently wrote, "liberal democracies depend on rules, but also on norms -- on the assumption that you'll go so far, but no further, to advance your political ends. The norms imply some loyalty to the system as a whole that outweighs your immediate partisan interests."

It was out of such loyalty that Gore stepped aside after the Court stopped the vote count in 2000, as much as many of us wanted him to fight. It was in violation of that loyalty that the Bush campaign sought to stop the vote count, and in violation of that loyalty that the Supreme Court's narrow majority upheld Bush's strategy.

It was in support of that loyalty that Chief Justice John Roberts, however reluctantly, ruled today. Perhaps there still are a few true conservatives left among the bomb-throwing crazies, who would undo in the name of patriotism all that makes that patriotism morally justifiable.

Sir Thomas More, as quoted in "A Man for All Seasons":

"And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, ...the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down..., do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"

And to my friends on the left, I say: ALL positive change is incremental. There is no other way. Remember: pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will!

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JFK and the Avoidable Tragedy of Vietnam

To Nelson Mandela, my favorite college professor

The real American exceptionalism: our lives are stressful, unhealthy, and short

The needle and the damage done? PEDs and the baseball Hall of Fame

Newtown, and the Wages of American cruelty

Ned Flanders, Mitt Romney, and Liberal schadenfreude

Crazy election scenarios, Part 1: an Electoral College tie

Not the year for 'none of the above'

Obama is our most successful foreign policy president in decades...and may still lose debate tonight

The RNC, and an end to the days of whine and poses: my exhaustion with white privilege, already

George Romney Knew Better: School Inequality & the Continuing Significance of Racial Segregation

The System shook, but stood: the ObamaCare decision