The recent rash of regionalism diaries & comments, in particular the ones blaming the South for this mess that this Bush administration has made, is perhaps the most insidious argument we could possibly be having at this time - and dangerous to the well being of this community as a whole. I would simply like to state for the record that those among us who would consider the efforts of Southern Progressives to be nonexistent, or irrelevant, have extremely short memories, and no understanding whatsoever what being a progressive is in the face of true opposition, other than having to preach to the choir. At least that's the impression you're leaving with your comments.
Ideologically speaking, we have been in enemy territory, holding back the tide of Republican radicalism from the inside out. For many of us, when WE talk politics with our friends and neighbors, we're in the minority, and we're the ones who have minds to change - fresh meat so to speak. It has been in rare havens, like for instance a screening of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004, right down the street from George's house in Crawford, where we can find others who are like minded. Those places, and places like Daily Kos. I can't speak for other southerners, but I'm beginning to wonder if we're welcome here. Oddly enough, for many of us, the tide has turned in our home towns finally. You can go to the grocery store now and hear people grumbling about Bush, blaming him the high price of milk, due to the high price of oil. It's a sad and unfortunate turn of events that our successful efforts in our towns has been accompanied with our own online community questioning our worth. This, after Dean's success with the 50-State strategy.
I recently finished making an animated documentary, "Doolittle Raiders", about the opposition to Bush from within "Bush Country" (ahem, Texas), comparing and contrasting the overlapping, and yet sometimes diametric efforts of Democratic activists and war protestors. The movie begins with a simple question posited by Al Franken, at a party thrown by his longtime friend, Molly Ivins. "So, I come down to Texas, I live in New York, and I've just got to ask you, how did you let this happen?". People yell back.... "Karl Rove!!! Karl Rove!!!". Al responds sarcastically, "One thing you here in Austin should know is that Karl Rove is not a good man. I've come down from New York to tell you that." I don't spend any of the movie explaining how we got here, because frankly, it doesn't matter. Instead, I spend the ninety minutes of the feature length movie documenting what we did afterward, working from the inside out for change.
One of the threads of the movie follows Dean supporters from Texas up to Iowa to blockwalk proceeding the primaries. It is one of these Dean supporters that gave me the title for the movie, by likening the actions of Dean supporters in Texas to that of the "Doolittle Raiders" in World War II. From Wikipedia....
On April 1, 1942, following two months of intensive training, 16 highly modified North American Aviation B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, their five-man volunteer crews, and maintenance personnel were loaded onto the USS Hornet at Alameda, California. Each plane carried four 500-pound bombs (three high-explosive and one incendiary), two .50-caliber machine guns in an upper turret, a .30-caliber machine gun in the nose, and extra fuel tanks. Each B-25 was also fitted with two dummy wooden machine gun barrels mounted in the tail cone to discourage Japanese air attacks from that direction. The planes were arranged and tied down on the Hornet's flight deck in the order of their expected launch. The Hornet left the port of Alameda on April 2, and a few days later joined up with the carrier USS Enterprise and its escort of cruisers and destroyers in the mid-Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. The Enterprise's fighters and scout planes would provide protection for the entire task force in the event of a Japanese air attack, since the Hornet's fighters were stowed below decks to allow the B-25s to use the flight deck. The two carriers and their escorting ships then proceeded, in radio silence, towards their intended launch point in enemy-controlled waters east of Japan.
Compared to the devastating B-29 Superfortress attacks against Japan later in the war, the Doolittle raid did little material damage. Nevertheless, when the news of the raid was released, American morale soared from the depths to which it had plunged following the Pearl Harbor attack and Japan's subsequent territorial gains. The raid also had strategic impact in that it caused the Japanese to recall some fighter units back to the home islands for defense. They did not understand how American planes could attack from such a distance, assuming that America had developed a new extremely long-range airplane (when in reality, American forces knew it would essentially be a one-way trip). These reassignments subsequently weakened Japan's air capabilities against the Allies at the Battle of Midway and later Pacific Theater campaigns.
He knew we were not going to win Texas. That wasn't the point. The point was to act as a morale boost to the rest of the country, that if we, here in Texas, smack in the middle of "Bush" country, made our voices heard as loudly and as forcefully as possible, it would in time make some red states further north easier Democratic pickups. The mission here in Texas was never victory, it was the softening of targets.
Around the same time, I first heard about a couple from Dallas who had quit their jobs, sold their Dallas home, and bought a house smack dab in the middle of Crawford, Texas, for the expressed purpose of making George W. Bush's brush clearing vacations a little less comfortable. At the time, some of their positions seemed a little extreme: Bring The Troops Home Now, No Blood For Oil, George Lied - People Died: now common vernacular on the topic. The first protest I attended and filmed there had just under thirty or so people in attendance, with satellite trucks from everyone from CNN to Univision. These few people, who despite local and national ridicule, changed the conversation in this country about the Iraq War. This was well before Casey Sheehan became a household name, or Cindy had even heard about the place.
Those outside of Texas may not realize that "Don't Mess With Texas" actually was the catch phrase of an anti-littering campaign from the eighties, and has absolutely nothing to do with hubris, that was the result a few renegade T-Shirt & Bumper Sticker makers lifting the phrase out of context. Most Texans know better. George W. Bush messed with Texas, and many Texans felt it their duty to try to clean up the litter he left in his wake. More than a few even chose to get in cramped vans and drive across country to protest at the Republican National Convention in New York City. I rode in, and filmed the passengers of, one of these vans. During the protests, it seemed that many of the most vocal participants there were not from NYC or the surrounding areas, but from red states, traveling long distances by hook or crook just to make their voices heard.
The same could be said for the makeup of Howard Dean's "Perfect Storm", the orange hat wearing, door to door operation up in Iowa. Busses and busses came in from across the country, and Texas was a represented forcefully. Successful or not, it spoke volumes to hope for the country as a whole. Hope that has now been realized, although in my opinion, not yet fully. The fact is, our recent victories were team efforts, and we were part of that team - and not riding the bench, either. If we are to have more success in the future it is going to depend on the continued team effort, with everyone playing their appropriate positions.
At any rate, if any of you are interested in either seeing my movie, or even hosting a house party screening as a kick off fundraiser for the primary campaign of your choosing, check out my trailer here....
Doolittle Raiders
I hope we can put all of this squabbling behind us, realize our collective importance to the tasks ahead, and quit this circular fire squad crap. We won, for chrissakes. If we're going to win again, it sure isn't going to be by alienating half of us. Fact is the North can't win without the South, and the conversely the South can't win without the North.
UPDATE: There is an error on the email sign up at the website, due to the site imploding after a radio interview earlier in the week (on Alex Jones, believe it or don't). If you're on My Space, you can add the movie at....
http://www.myspace.com/...
Otherwise, just drop me an email at todd at ducttapefilms dot com, and I'll make sure you're added.
Off to enjoy the beautiful 80 degree weather!!!