The Better Rhetor |
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In Search of the Good Person, Well Spoken
Take a stroll in The Forest of Rhetoric What is The Better Rhetor? Click Here Not Yet Down the Memory Hole: Recent Postings What You Need to Know From Spin to Strut Contours of Debate One War, Two Languages Bait & Switch: Rhetoric of Make Believe Prepping Us for War Shock & Awe/Build & Heal Shuttle Columbia Bomb Plagiarizers! The Rhetoric of Thomas Friedman Dump John Ashcroft! Are You Feeling Safer Yet? The MVW Awards:
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Saturday, January 11, 2003
(To the Back of the Bus!) On the same day that the president decided to renominate Charles Pickering to the federal appeals bench, California's highest-ranking black Republican spoke out about persistent racism in the party of Trent Lott. Shannon Reeves, the GOP party secretary who resides in Oakland, is furious about the apparent Confederate sympathies of vice chairman Bill Back, a hard-right activist who is now running for state chairman. In an e-mail to state GOP board members that is quoted at length in the Contra Costa Times, Reeves writes: "Black Republicans are expected to provide window dressing and cover to prove that this is not a racist party, yet our own leadership continues to act otherwise." Clearly Reeves feels stung by the controversy over an electronic newsletter sent out by Back in 1999, which carried an essay suggesting that America would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War. Back has rebuffed a demand by Reeves that he drop out of the race for state chairman against a moderate candidate. In the same e-mail, Reeves tries to educate his fellow Republicans about the indignities he has endured during his years of working for the GOP. "When I travel to speak at Republican conferences and events around the country, wandering through hotels, convention centers and social clubs, as I approach the rooms where I'm scheduled to speak, I am often told by Republicans that I must be in the wrong place," he wrote. For the whole story, check out Joe Conason. For excellent reading on Charles Pickering’s "courageous" testimony against the Klan, check out, via the invaluable Atrios, Nathan Newman’s good, good work . On Pickering the perjurer, Media Whores Online and Joe Conason should be read by every member of the judiciary committee. Ah well. Thank goodness the "new" Republicans are on the job. Just in time! What did Yeats say, "The beggars have changed places but the lash goes on." Gets it exactly right: If coal miners can work miles underground, choking on coal dust everyday, and firefighters can rush into burning buildings, then the Democrats can rally to defeat right-wing judges.. Go Liquid for more. For all you Deadheads still out there (you know who you are) here is a bit of daily bread. I want to stop thinking about racist judges and apologists for slavery long enough to read this book . Thursday, January 09, 2003
Looks Like the Old Face Well, that was quick. The Bush Administration’s re-nomination of Charles Pickering to the United States Court Of Appeals for The Fifth Circuit disabuses any lingering fantasies one might have had about the "new" GOP. Meet the new boss: Same as the old boss. Mr. Pickering’s record, as a nicely stinging New York Times editorial makes clear (registration req’d), includes bravely intervening to reduce the sentence of a convicted cross-burner, disparaging the Voting Rights Act, and soliciting the help of a segregationist outfit, the Mississippi's Sovereignty Commission, for help in monitoring labor unrest. For detailed review of the good judge’s record, check out People for the American Way. I am essentially an optimist, but let’s face it: We are being played for saps. The Bush people and their henchmen in Congress rush before the cameras, apres Trent Lott, high-fiving one another and mouthing pretty words of tolerance and inclusion. No sooner are these out, however, then they resume the race-baiting ways that have defined them since Nixon. Bill Frist may be the New Face, but the Old Face—and the soul—of the Republicans can be found in their embrace of segregationist dinosaurs like Charles Pickering. This is the GOP way of speaking out of both sides of the mouth: For mainstream America, a sunny disposition and pretty phrases about a "new Republican party. For angry Whites still nursing the Old Grievances, a set of calculated actions and code phrases. In this way does the GOP assure its "base," another strangely sanitized term, that the Old Ways are with us yet and the Old Hatreds still prevail. At least in the Republican Party. Write your senators to protest the masquerade. Let them know you’re paying attention, and you want an end to the cynical double-dealings. Then write to demand that John Ashcroft, noted apologist for slavery, be fired without delay. Every day he remains in office is a fresh insult to American people. Click here for more. Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Welcome back to The Better Rhetor, the blog in search of the Good Person, Well Spoken, i.e., the Better Rhetor. Here we search the vast landscapes of contemporary discourse for rhetoric that will inspire, hearten, heal, and make strong. Yet we are equally likely to encounter in our travels a nostalgia for slavery, the lust for power, stratagems for inequality, and the usual motley of fools, tools, weasels, and outright charlatans. More than ever, we are in need of Better Rhetors. The Dump John Ashcroft movement has been heartened by responses from Better Rhetors around the country who have provided links, advice, and better letters. Here is a Better Letter from Bonnie McFadden in Hawaii to Bill Frist: Dear Senator Frist: I am writing to you in your likely capacity of Senate Majority Leader. Your predecessor, Trent Lott, was Deposed from that leadership position due to expressed sympathies with the segregationist policies of Strom Thurmond’s in his 1948 presidential run. The Republican Party seemingly viewed Mr. Lott’s sympathies as inappropriate for a leader of the Republican Party. The Republican Party has more work to do before it can honestly claim for itself the mantle of Lincoln. John Ashcroft, who holds a very high office in this Republican Administration, has also expressed his sympathies with Confederate, pro slavery values and, as governor of Missouri, led many fights to stop school and housing integration. Mr. Ashcroft also Expressed his respect for, and agreement with, the policies of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), as did Mr. Lott. Mr. Ashcroft also spoke publicly at Bob Jones University, which then prohibited inter-racial dating, and which has denounced Catholicism in a similar vein to its anti-integrationist policies. In short, Mr. Ashcroft has associated himself with segregationist, reactionary and Divisive organizations and philosophies. He should not be serving as the Attorney General of the United States. For details of Mr. Ashcroft’s reactionary statements and associations, please see http//betterrhetor.blogspot.com/2002_12_29_betterrhetor_archive.html#90139182. If the Republican Party is serious about welcoming Afro-Americans and other peoples of color to its membership, it should Remove from leadership positions all those who, like Lott, Ashcroft and many others, espouse un-American beliefs I request that you lead the Republican Senate and call upon President Bush to request Ashcroft’s resignation as Attorney General and to appoint an unbiased individual who will enforce all of the human rights laws of the land for all of its citizens. Yours truly, Bonnie McFadden We couldn’t have said it better and, in fact, we didn’t. Thank you, Bonnie. Send your Better Letters here and I will post them on Better Rhetor. (The Streamlined Version) Several people wrote to say that letters to elected officials should be brief and to the point. We are nothing if not prolix, but we take the point. Here are sample letters to Democratic and Republican senators that are briefer and, we hope, more direct. For the longer, slightly hysterical versions, click here and scroll down. And for the whole twisted story, click here. Sample Letter to Republican Senator Dear Senator: When Senate Republicans replaced Trent Lott as majority leader, they sent a powerful message: Those who seek to exploit racial hatred for political gain are not fit for positions of leadership. Now it is time for Senate Republicans to follow up by sending another, equally powerful message. I am writing to ask that you call upon President Bush to fire John Ashcroft without delay. If there is no place for Trent Lott in a position of national leadership, then surely there is no place for John Ashcroft. Mr. Ashcroft’s history of racially divisive politics is well known. Both in Missouri, where he served as attorney general and governor, and in the U.S. Senate, Ashcroft fought school desegregation, worked to gut affirmative action programs, opposed federal hate crimes legislation, and distorted the records of minority nominees for the federal judiciary. More, John Ashcroft has a history of sympathizing with segregationist and neo-Confederate organizations. He spoke at Bob Jones University, which at the time prohibited inter-racial dating; he maintained contacts with the White Supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), the same organization tied to Trent Lott; and he publicly praised, as did Mr. Lott, the work of Southern Partisan, an openly racist and pro-slavery journal. These are not the values of the American people, and Mr. Ashcroft’s affinity with such values should disqualify him from a position of political leadership in the twentieth century United States. It is time for Mr. Ashcroft to go the way of Mr. Lott. Please call upon the president to fire John Ashcroft without delay. Thank you. Sample Letter to Democratic Senator Dear Senator: When Senate Republicans replaced Trent Lott as majority leader, they sent a powerful message: Those who seek to exploit racial hatred for political gain are not fit for positions of leadership. Now it is time for Senate Democrats to make an equally powerful statement. I am writing to ask that you call upon President Bush to fire John Ashcroft without delay. If there is no place for Trent Lott in a position of national leadership, then surely there is no place for John Ashcroft. Mr. Ashcroft’s history of racially divisive politics is well known. Both in Missouri, where he served as attorney general and governor, and in the U.S. Senate, Ashcroft fought school desegregation, worked to gut affirmative action programs, opposed federal hate crimes legislation, and distorted the records of minority nominees for the federal judiciary. More, John Ashcroft has a history of sympathizing with segregationist and neo-Confederate organizations. He spoke at Bob Jones University, which at the time prohibited inter-racial dating; he maintained contacts with the White Supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), the same organization tied to Trent Lott; and he publicly praised, as did Mr. Lott, the work of Southern Partisan, an openly racist and pro-slavery journal. These are not the values of the American people, and Mr. Ashcroft’s affinity with such values should disqualify him from a position of political leadership in the twentieth century United States. It is time for Mr. Ashcroft to go the way of Mr. Lott. Please call upon the president to fire John Ashcroft without delay. Thank you. And Do It by Phone! A Better Rhetor writes to suggest that communications with elected officials be made by telephone rather than through letters: Dear Better Rhetor, People in DC who lobby for a living (for progressive organizations) tell me that phone contact with Congressperson's offices (DC and back home) is better than mailing letters. Post 9/11, the mail gets fried when it's inspected and the fax machines are jammed. If people have expertise on specific issues (i.e., lawyers on legal issues), they should identify themselves as such and offer to make themselves available to their Reps and Senators as sources of expert comment. Hooking up with advocacy organizations and offering this expertise also is a good idea. I have wondered about this: letters or phone. And what about e-mail? Does one medium have any psychic weight over another? Anybody know about such things? As a new blogger, we learn that Links are Life. In calling for the ouster of the nefarious John Ashcroft, we are in debt to those who have taken the time to link to us and helped this effort along. We thank all. Sunday, January 05, 2003
(And Be Quicker About It!) Some of you (ok, two of you) have written to tell me that the sample letters to senators (click here and scroll down) are too long. Staffers not senators read these letters, you have pointed out, and so the message should be short and to the point. I plead guilty. Too much vehemence; too little pith. I’m working on shorter version of these letters, which I’ll post as soon as I can. Too Much Logic has suggested that letters about Ashcroft also be sent to the media. This makes perfect sense, as they are the ones who might ultimately help send Ashcroft the way of Trent Lott. I’ll post a sample letter shortly for anyone who’d like to use one. By the way, for good advice on writing to the media and other forms of media activism, check out FAIR’s Media Activism Kit. Thanks to Ignatz and Too Much Logic for showing me to create a link to my own stuff. New to the blogosphere, I am trying to use its powers, as they say, not for evil but for good. It helps to know how to turn the lights off and on. Recent discoveries here include The Hauser Report, Ignatz, Interesting Times, Liquid List, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, and Too Much Logic. We also continue to learn invaluable things from Politics, Law, Autism, as well as Wampum. There are other famous blogs listed on the left side of the page, and I assume you already know about them. Send me links to other Better and Best Blogs, and I’ll post them here. By the way, Media Horse has returned, for which the Republic should be grateful. |
