[Iowa-dx] Not Beating My Own Drum

[GreenParty Ron]

I am not in the least intending to "beat my own drum" for my own
egocentric pride in saying this, however, in the past half week, I
have spoken at two radio-broadcasted book readings wherein I
mentioned Green Party in asking my question.

The first was three nights ago, at 7:00 PM on November 12, 2007.
I attended the=A0on-radio book review of U.S. Congressman
(Washington) Jay Inslee's new environmental energy book,
APOLLO'S FIRE.=A0 The author's book reading-review=A0was held at
the Prarie Lights Book Store in on=A0south=A0Dubuque Street, here
in=A0Iowa City, Iowa, with about two to three dozen people in the
audience.

The first audience question to Congressman Inslee was from me,
and I prominently referred to Green Party in asking my question.
I hope everyone who hears this broadcast will approve of how I
represented myself as a member of our Green Party over the
radio waves.


This program is called "Live From Prairie Lights", and will be
broadcast at 8PM sometime on=A0a future Saturday=A0on WSUI,
whose frequency is 910 AM in Iowa City, and=A0as a member of
Iowa Public Radio, this program probably (usually) is also
broadcast=A0on other=A0Iowa radio stations.=A0 More on WSUI in a
moment.

Tonight,again, at 7:00 PM, I attended the same IPR radio
program, this time held at Englert Theater on Washington
Street here in Iowa City.=A0 Julie Englander very wisely
held this night's reading in the 1912-built movie theater, rather
than upstairs=A0in the small=A0Prarie Lights=A0Book Store,=A0because
of the expected large turnout for their nationally-known guest,
Paul Krugman, who gave a dissertation on his new book "The
Conscience of a Liberal".=A0 Indeed, the theater was nearly
filled to capacity in the lower level,=A0with the upper balconies
being closed off.

Again, I got to the front of the line.=A0 This time, Julie Englander
traded question time with the audience, so I was third in line
to ask my question, again, beginning by identifying Green
Party's key values including grass roots democracy to pose
my question.

So twice this week, Green Party has made its presence be
known in public, to the theater audience=A0and at the same
time, will also make a presence be known=A0over=A0Iowa Public
Radio at a future date, although within about three days of
each event, it is made available on the WSUI website through
mainstreaming.

I hope that I have presented the image these past nights that
we must all provide to our fellow citizens and natizens as
Green Party members: that we will, indeed, all=A0make the
presence in public that Green Party is here and we are here
to stay and THAT WE ARE!=A0 That we are very intelligent,
knowledgeable, dedicated, and that as we do make legitimate,
responsible public interaction, we prove that Green Party is a
legitimate political entity that deserves everyone's associating
themselves with us.

Being as WSUI is a member of Iowa Public Radio, many
"Live=A0From Prairie Lights"=A0programs are rebroadcast over
other public radio stations as far away as Souix City, so
your area may have a duplicate broadcast.=A0 If you are
interested, check your local IPR station on the internet for
the broadcast time and topic of Live From Prairie Lights,
hosted by julie Englander, and look for a) Congressman
Jay Islee and his book Apollo's Fire, and b) for Paul
Krugman and his book The Conscience of a Liberal.

Here is a brief recap of tonight's presentation by Paul
Krugman, and, although I did not see John Deeth in the
audience (I was deliberately third into the theater and sat
in the second row center aisle by the audience microphone):

Paul Kruger said this book is an echo of a previous=A0book by
Barry Goldwater (Republican Arizona U.S. Senator and
presidential candidate wannabe), titled The Conscience of
a Conservative.=A0 What Goldwater wrote was the start of a
new tragic direction in US politics, the take-over of the
Republican Party by right-wingers.

There were two themes in Paul Kruger's book:
1)=A0 The fall and rise of economic inequality: the "second
Gilded Age" of the 1920s:
1a.=A0 inequality of income
1b.=A0 Greenwich Connecticut mansions too large to be
maintained economically being bought up and torn down to
be replaced by even bigger mansions by the upper rich class;
1c.=A0 a growing new society of enormous inequality, where the
industrial leaders previous 40-times-average-working class
income grew to 240-times-average-working class income.

2)=A0 The creation of "Movement Conservativism" - where the
Republican Party is taken over by right wing extremists,
linked by a common agenda and common funding sources
of greatly wealthy family foundations.
1a.=A0 What they cared about most is economics - undoing the
New Deal (now I think he referenced Howard Jarvis in a quote,
but his name does not appear in the index of his book, only
Jacob Javits who I do not think made the quote referencing
the philosophy of shrinking government down to a size where
it can be drowned in a bathtub.)

Today's elections are fought over divergent issues: national
security and defending morality.=A0 The election of 2004 was
not typical, and both the 2002 and 2004 elections were both
based on phony issues of national security and suprficial
issues on morality.=A0 But much of the 2002 and 2004 elections,
and even back to the Nixon election, were actually based on
racial issues most of all!=A0 Underlying all of the campaign issues
was a theme that was based upon minority race wellfare abuse
and middle class exploitation of wellfare provisions for the poor.

One of the key indicators of how the Republicans managed to
grow is in the process of how they won elections.=A0 Look at how
white males voted:=A0 (these figures may not be faithful to Mr.
Kruger's oration):
in 1952 52% (?) of white males outside of the deep south voted
Democratic Party
in 2002 40% (?) of white males outside of the deep south voted
Democratic Party.

The Republican message was racially oriented against minorities:
the message was indirectly in reference by inuendo=A0about urban
riots (black racial strife) and crimes which were linked
ultimately to race (all minorities).

Reagan began his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia and Florida,
speaking of "States Rights" over federal protective oversight.
This was the sign of when the radical right wing took over the
Republican Party.

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman failed to get national
universal health care because southerners were afraid of
forced integration, and so we were on the verge of having
national health care but lost it.

Over the past decade, public opinion is increasingly leaning
toward progressiveness, because the people is aware of the
need for universal health care and of the inequality of wages
because:
a) big business gets whatever it wants in Washington D.C.
b) big government has forgotten the middle class.

Today Mr. Kruger sees similarities with the Guilded Age:
When Democratic Party candidates and incumbents did
succeed, it was because they were indistinguishable from
"the other major party": they were labled "More Than
Democrats";

As I went in line for the audience quesitions, I stopped
taking notes.  Here is Live From Prairie Lights' own
information:


How to Listen to Live from Prairie Lights=20
=95=20
Tune into WSUI AM910 to listen to readings=A0taped during
the week. Broadcast times are Saturday from 8-10 p.m. and
Sunday from 7-8 p.m. You can also stream the program
using Real Audio here.
=20
=95 Attend the readings at Prairie Lights Bookstore in
Downtown Iowa City. The complete reading schedule is
available here.=20
=95 Listen to the readings live on the internet. Internet
streaming is provided by the University of Iowa Writing
University website here. You can access direct streaming
using almost any streaming audio player here.=20
=95  Listen to archive readings of the program, usually
posted on this webpage within a few days of the actual
reading time. Archives for earlier years of the programs
are provided by the links in the left column of this
webpage.=20


Ronald Kinum
a.k.a. Libris Fidelis




--=20
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