The genesis of the idea for the Coffee Party Movement and its purpose is best explained by the video above. It all started with documentary filmmaker Annabel Park venting her frustrations on her Facebook page about media coverage that made it seem that the Tea Parties were representative of the “real America.” She vehemently disagreed and her comments on Facebook got a lot of feedback from people who similarly felt pent-up and frustrated.
Their name the “Coffee Party” directly references the Tea Party movement and presents itself as an alternative. Park argues elected officials who represent us should work towards positive solutions to the problems the country faces instead of adopting obstructionist political tactics that play on peoples’ fears and which are driven by deliberate misinformation.
This compilation of resources combine my interests in new media technology and citizen-centered political advocacy. Reading about, exploring, and using these resources have been educational to me in learning how to be an effective advocate, how best to harness the latent power of ordinary citizens for social and political change, and what tools are available on the Internet to help an individual be an active, engaged citizen.
I made a political New Year’s Resolution this year to develop the “can-do” spirit and positive outlook that is always stressed as key to success in career issues and job-hunting and apply that to politics, activism and social issues. Specifically, the role that ordinary citizens can play in a democratic political system to affect the way politics is practiced and policy is made by our political elite and representatives.
For far too long, I have been stuck in an “I am against this” mode. The government does and says something and enacts some piece of policy which I think is bad and I won’t waste time tearing it down and making an argument why this is a bad idea, bad policy, bolstered by bad reasoning and made in bad faith. As a blogger, it is very easy to get and remain in that mode. The government or corporate elite does and says something, I go and blog about it.
The more I stayed in the mode, the more I got tired and burned out about politics and the political process. Is this all that ordinary citizens can do — to speak their minds in the public blogosphere and have their arguments disappear into the ether? If they are lucky, perhaps they get a media hit here and there?
I recently read Joe Bageant’s book Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War. I highly recommend this book. If you are at all interested in lyrical prose, politics, and social class this is a book not to be missed.
Bageant combines great writing with razor-sharp insights that only one descended from the white, rural, American working class can make. The book is preachy, angry, sad, outraged, poignant, funny as all hell in parts and a sophisticated analysis of the politics of the American class and caste system—all at the same time.
The book explains the phenomenon of working-class people who seem to—in droves—display political behavior against their economic interests by consistently voting Republican in elections and adopting conservative attitudes. Bageant dives deep into the subject by retelling the story of moving back to Winchester, Virginia, his hometown, and hanging out and socializing with his childhood friends and neighbors.
Rather than take the easy way out of condescending to his subject matter, Bageant shows compassion and understanding in explaining working class political beliefs and behavior in Winchester, Virginia. He cites the narrow worldview, lack of education and latent racism of his subjects as contributing to the state of affairs. But he reserves his roundest condemnation to middle class Democrats and liberals who seem to have abandoned small towns and rural folks like the ones in Winchester.
Bageant argues that Democrats and middle-class, progressive liberals do not really have any meaningful social contact with working class folks. They operate in totally different social spheres which often do not cross. Despite Democrat and liberal claims to represent the interests of the common man, most people who consider themselves progressive look down on the values and culture of Winchester folks and do not make a serious effort to engage rural, working class whites politically. And that is a mistake. According to Bageant:
The fact is that liberals and working people need each other to survive the growing economic calamity delivered to us by the regime that promised to “run this country like a business.” Sooner or later, despite the Democrats’ wins in the 2006 mid-term elections, the left must genuinely connect face-to-face with Americans who don’t necessarily share all of their priorities and especially with Americans who have not been voting, if the left is ever to be relevant again to working America. If the left is not about class equity, what is it about? (page 15)
All in all, Bageant’s book is an excellent primer for anyone who is interested in working class culture and its potential for progressive politics. To this Asian-American, middle-class liberal, much of what Bageant had to say were eye-opening and it would not be remiss to say that I have much to learn if I want to be part of an effort among progressives to reach out the white working class as political allies.
Sometimes I run across a blog post on politics that is well-written, thoughtful, intelligent, and reflects wisdom and a concern for humanity and peoples’ intelligence. Posts such as this from Paul Krugman on political coverage in the media; and this one in Open Left about using referendums as a strategy to challenge the powers that be in government on the war. Or critiques like this one from Mirror on America about the silence in the white Progressive blogosphere on the Jena 6 issue.
When I read posts such as these I start thinking to myself that there is hope in this world for serious, intelligent dialogue to happen among people and the Internet holds a tremendous promise to facilitate and spread such conversations and insights to a wide audience.
That is, until I start reading the Rants and Raves section of Craigs List. For those of you who don’t know, the Rants and Raves section of the Craigs List bulletin board (one exists for each city that Craigs List has a board) is there for discussions on various topics between posters. Sometimes you will find amusing anecdotes on everyday life. Sometimes people letting off steam on this or that issue. And sometimes—a lot of times—people venting their anger towards one another over various issues related to politics.
Most of the time, these exchanges can get quite nasty with name-calling, racial insults, and using pornographic photos to boot to drive home their points. A constant pattern that I observe is race. Always there is some sort of racially-driven nasty argument and name-calling going on between individuals. This is true with Rants and Raves in almost every city that I visit.
What is the point you may ask? Why call out the Craigs List Rants and Raves? If you don’t like it why keep reading it? Why waste your time on it if it offends you so much?
I keep reading Rants and Raves despite my objections to much of the content to remind myself of the reality of the world and people in it, especially the relations between different racial groups. Rants and Raves is a perfect vehicle to learn how people really think uncensored and without any filters of politeness or normal courtesy that you would employ in everyday life. And much of the time, the nasty racial insults and political arguments predominate because, I would think, that is really the way people think. That is really the way certain groups regard other human beings and the past several decades of advances in race relations since the 1960s haven’t changed that.
Rants and Raves forces me to be realistic and more cautious about the state of human nature than I otherwise would if I were to only fill my head with the best writings. Sometimes you need to wallow in the gutter to be able to really appreciate the reality of how people can really be despite the civilized front that they might use to present themselves to the world in everyday life.
spirit and positive outlook that is always stressed as key to success in career issues and job-hunting and apply that to politics, activism and social issues. Specifically, the role that ordinary citizens can play in a democratic political system to affect the way politics is practiced and policy is made by our political elite and representatives.
I recently read Joe Bageant’s book Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War. I highly recommend this book. If you are at all interested in lyrical prose, politics, and social class this is a book not to be missed.
Rants and Raves
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Rants and Raves
Sometimes I run across a blog post on politics that is well-written, thoughtful, intelligent, and reflects wisdom and a concern for humanity and peoples’ intelligence. Posts such as this from Paul Krugman on political coverage in the media; and this one in Open Left about using referendums as a strategy to challenge the powers that be in government on the war. Or critiques like this one from Mirror on America about the silence in the white Progressive blogosphere on the Jena 6 issue.
When I read posts such as these I start thinking to myself that there is hope in this world for serious, intelligent dialogue to happen among people and the Internet holds a tremendous promise to facilitate and spread such conversations and insights to a wide audience.
That is, until I start reading the Rants and Raves section of Craigs List. For those of you who don’t know, the Rants and Raves section of the Craigs List bulletin board (one exists for each city that Craigs List has a board) is there for discussions on various topics between posters. Sometimes you will find amusing anecdotes on everyday life. Sometimes people letting off steam on this or that issue. And sometimes—a lot of times—people venting their anger towards one another over various issues related to politics.
Most of the time, these exchanges can get quite nasty with name-calling, racial insults, and using pornographic photos to boot to drive home their points. A constant pattern that I observe is race. Always there is some sort of racially-driven nasty argument and name-calling going on between individuals. This is true with Rants and Raves in almost every city that I visit.
What is the point you may ask? Why call out the Craigs List Rants and Raves? If you don’t like it why keep reading it? Why waste your time on it if it offends you so much?
I keep reading Rants and Raves despite my objections to much of the content to remind myself of the reality of the world and people in it, especially the relations between different racial groups. Rants and Raves is a perfect vehicle to learn how people really think uncensored and without any filters of politeness or normal courtesy that you would employ in everyday life. And much of the time, the nasty racial insults and political arguments predominate because, I would think, that is really the way people think. That is really the way certain groups regard other human beings and the past several decades of advances in race relations since the 1960s haven’t changed that.
Rants and Raves forces me to be realistic and more cautious about the state of human nature than I otherwise would if I were to only fill my head with the best writings. Sometimes you need to wallow in the gutter to be able to really appreciate the reality of how people can really be despite the civilized front that they might use to present themselves to the world in everyday life.