Highbrow Magazine - george w bush https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/george-w-bush-0 en Movies and Politics Collide in Jim Shepard’s ‘Tunnel at the End of the Light’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8669-movies-and-politics-collide-jim-shepard-s-tunnel-end-light <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 12/03/2017 - 15:22</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1tunnelbook.jpg?itok=rQGA4trJ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1tunnelbook.jpg?itok=rQGA4trJ" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>The Tunnel at the End of the Light: Essays on Movies and Politics</strong></p> <p><strong>By Jim Shepard</strong></p> <p><strong>Tin House Books</strong></p> <p><strong>272 pages</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Anyone who reads short stories on a regular basis is probably familiar with Jim Shepard’s work. In story collections like <em>The World to Come </em>and <em>Like You’d Understand, Anyway, </em>Shepard has carved out a unique storytelling niche with fiction set in specific historical moments or as flights of fancy most other writers would never even consider. These stories feature fluid prose, an array of beguiling first-person voices and detail-rich narratives that often prove unsettling to read, but equally impossible to put down.</p> <p> </p> <p>In <em>The Tunnel at the End of the Light, </em>Jim Shepard, a professor at Williams College, exercises a different set of muscles. These essays, written for <em>The Believer </em>during the George W. Bush administration, closely explore a handful of iconic American films for insights they can shed on American ideas of individuality, power and imperialism.</p> <p> </p> <p>Shepard isn’t shy about naming the wrongdoers and political leaders who led the US into unwanted wars and a pernicious global recession: “… a clutch of carrion-eaters in charge of our political and corporate landscape who appear positively ebullient in their rapacity, and who appear more and more openly and shamelessly to understand that now, finally, in ways only dreamed of before, the gloves can <em>really come off …</em>”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2tunnelbook.jpg" style="height:560px; width:368px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>By focusing on films like <em>GoodFellas, Chinatown, Aguirre, Wrath of God </em>and several others, he explores how Americans think about ourselves—as expressed in the films we watch—and how our collective self-image often leads to trouble.</p> <p> </p> <p>His central thesis is best exemplified in the opening essay, “<em>Badlands</em> and the ‘Innocence’ of American Innocence,” one of the strongest of many strong essays in this book. He describes the nihilistic acts of violence in Terrance Malick’s 1973 film, acts perpetrated by two teenagers in love, Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek), and then expands the cultural lens to take in a nation at war, c. 2003:</p> <p> </p> <p>“<em>Badlands</em> as it proceeds becomes more and more interested in another of our preoccupations, in terms of our self-image as Americans: our insistence upon our essential innocence. Part of the reason we’ve been willing to accept being stereotyped as not very sophisticated is because of the way <em>unsophisticated </em>nestles right up against <em>innocence … </em>we may screw up, we may blunder about, but we always mean well. Any harm done to others is either unforeseen or couldn’t have been avoided … And one of the smartest and subtlest aspects of <em>Badlands</em> is just how slyly Holly’s voice throughout the movie plays to that desire we have for ourselves.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Shepard offers a perceptive and knowledgeable analysis of these films, along with using them to illustrate a broader point. It’s where his love of cinema shines through—as does the careful thought and skeptical enthusiasm he brings to each movie under discussion.</p> <p> </p> <p>On <em>Saving Private Ryan: </em>“During that spectacular set piece of an opening, <em>Saving Private Ryan </em>feels like it was made by someone who’d actually been in the Normandy invasion. After that, it mostly feels like it was made by someone who's seen a lot of war movies.”</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><em><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3tunnelbook.jpg" style="height:368px; width:586px" /></em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>Aguirre, Wrath of God</em>, “like the rest of [Werner Herzog’s] movies, alternates between a sloppy chaos that feels documentary-like and a highly stylized still life.”</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s an occasional overreach here and there. Shepard makes what seems a tenuous connection between highly self-assured cinematic figures like Lawrence of Arabia and the aforementioned Aguirre, and George W. Bush, with his early self-pronouncement as a “wartime leader.” Except that, for Bush, there was always the sense that, as president of the United States—you could see it in his eyes that terrible morning of September 11, 2001—he was in way over his head.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s also the sickening irony that, as outrageous and malevolent as the Bush Administration proved to be, there was no way to know when these essays were written, that a different, more appalling menace lay ahead. Shepard acknowledges as much in the introduction to <em>The Tunnel at the End of the Light, </em>castigating “a regime that presents as its public face hacks and sociopaths who have no trace of shame about lying directly in the face of contradictory evidence.” Amen to that.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fans of Jim <a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a>Shepard’s wonderful fiction will be further entranced by the range, scope and emotion of his nonfiction work.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Lee Polevoi, </em>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic</em>, <em>has completed a new novel, </em>The Confessions of Gabriel Ash.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jim-shepard" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jim shepard</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tunnel-end-light" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tunnel at the end of the light</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george w bush</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nonfiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nonfiction</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 03 Dec 2017 20:22:36 +0000 tara 7844 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8669-movies-and-politics-collide-jim-shepard-s-tunnel-end-light#comments For Trump, Words Are Stupid Things https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8614-trump-words-are-stupid-things <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 14:42</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/trumpandmay_wikipedia_commons.jpg?itok=zBN8pU0O"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/trumpandmay_wikipedia_commons.jpg?itok=zBN8pU0O" width="480" height="402" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>This article was originally published in <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-language-words-are-stupid-things/">BillMoyers.com</a></strong>:</p> <p>                                    </p> <p>In Britain late last week, Conservative Member of Parliament Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, described Donald Trump as a “daft twerp.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Not quite the soaring rhetoric of his illustrious forebear but succinct.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump does have a way with words. Unfortunately, it’s a gruesome way. His way is to use them as a blunt instrument to bully and belittle opponents. The rest of the time — when he’s not reading prepared remarks from a teleprompter — his way with English is fumbling, incoherent, reckless and untruthful.</p> <p> </p> <p>Soames rightly was objecting to a Trump tweet that tried to link a 13 percent rise in the crime rate in England and Wales to radical Islamic terrorism, a notion that the president may have picked up from a conspiracy website. The UK Office for National Statistics that issued the actual crime numbers denied there was any connection, leading many other British politicians to denounce the presidential tweet, including former Tory prime minister David Cameron, who described Trump’s words as “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Words. “I have the best words,” Trump famously proclaimed during the campaign, and just the other day he told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News how “well-crafted” his goofy tweets are. The same man announced from the White House lawn on Wednesday that “I’m a very intelligent person” — words that sounded more self-deceptive than presidential.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump does have a way with words. Unfortunately, it’s a gruesome way. His way is to use them as a blunt instrument to bully and belittle opponents. The rest of the time — when he’s not reading prepared remarks from a teleprompter — his way with English is fumbling, incoherent, reckless and untruthful. Look no further than the contretemps that began with his false claim that unlike him, “most other presidents” didn’t make phone calls to the families of military killed in action, which then rapidly nosedived even further, using the dead as a political football, then insulting the widow of a dead Green Beret hero and a Florida congresswoman.</p> <p> </p> <p> “Ham-handed,” historian, retired officer and Gold Star father Andrew Bacevich said of Trump’s phone call to the wife of slain Sgt. La David Johnson. “The president’s inability to use the English language is really without precedent in American politics.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The president’s negligible grasp of his native tongue may be part of the reason we’ve been so taken the last couple of weeks by eloquent speeches from former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush as well as Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, all of whom articulated — without mentioning Trump’s name — deep concern about the current state of the nation and the planet.</p> <p> </p> <p>McCain:</p> <p> </p> <p>To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain “the last best hope of Earth” for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1churchillandorwell.jpg" style="height:345px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Bush:</p> <p> </p> <p>We know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed; it the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy… Our governing class has often been paralyzed in the face of obvious and pressing needs. The American dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind in a changing economy. Discontent deepened and sharpened partisan conflicts. Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.</p> <p> </p> <p>Words matter — an obvious notion but one that particularly strikes home not only because of those speeches and the constant reminders of Trump’s benighted language skills but also from having just finished Thomas Ricks’ book <em>Churchill &amp; Orwell</em>, a thought-provoking reflection on the lives and work of Britain’s wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and George Orwell, author of the fable <em>Animal Farm</em> and the dystopian <em>1984</em> — source of “Big Brother is watching you,” thought police, Newspeak (“War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery”) and the vision of a world in which truth is subverted to the state, inconvenient facts relegated to the “memory hole.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The connection between the pair may not be obvious — the men came from opposite ends of the political spectrum; one was flamboyant and public, the other more circumspect and private — but they were two of the 20th century’s great rhetoricians. Each had “the same qualities and tools,” Ricks explains. “Their intellects, their confidence in their own judgments even when those judgments were rebuked by most of their contemporaries, and their extraordinary skill with words.”</p> <p> </p> <p>… The heart of both men’s stories is in the same crucial period from the rise of the Nazis until the aftermath of World War II. In this period, when so many gave up on democracy as a failure, neither man ever lost sight of the value of the individual in the world, and all that that means: the right to dissent from the majority, the right even to be persistently wrong, the right to distrust the power of the majority, and the need to assert that high officials might be in error – most especially when those in power strongly believe they are not.</p> <p> </p> <p>During the war, Churchill’s words rallied Britain and the United States in the fight against fascism. At the end of his life, George Orwell produced two masterpieces warning that despite victory over Germany and Japan, totalitarianism remained a clear and present danger, as it still does today, closer to home than in decades. “Many people around them expected evil to triumph and sought to make their peace with it,” Thomas Ricks writes. “These two did not. They responded with courage and clear-sightedness.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Orwell especially never stopped trying to see clearly through all the lies, obfuscations, and distractions. Instead of shaping facts to fit his opinions, he was willing to let facts change his opinions.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Orwell believed “Good prose is like a windowpane,” but in his essay, Politics and the English Language, warned, “[P]olitical language… is designed to make its lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.”</p> <p> </p> <p>And so we have Donald Trump, who even in his muddled syntax and circumlocution still manages to convey a message that fosters anger and fear while eschewing the facts. Orwell lays it out in <em>1984</em>: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” All is fake news.</p> <p> </p> <p>When Trump became president, he moved back to the Oval Office a bust of Winston Churchill. Doubtless, he regards the sculpture as a symbol of intrepid conservatism and resolve, or at least someone told him that. In any case, it’s funny to think that Trump has in his eyesight a world leader who once insisted, “The man who cannot say what he has to say in good English cannot have very much to say that is worth listening to.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In some respects, a bust of George Orwell might be more appropriate, a reminder that this president already has brought to life some of the author’s darkest fantasies. In Trump’s Newspeak world, a climate denier is put in charge of the EPA, a foe of proper public schooling heads the Department of Education and unfortunate truths are wiped from official websites and tossed into the memory hole.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Trump is a reductive force,” journalist Peter Ross wrote in a recent superb article about Orwell and <em>1984</em> for <em>Boston Review</em>. “He wants everything to be as small and mean as his own heart, and he has made a start with words.” Daft twerp.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers &amp; Company and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelWinship.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This article was originally published in <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-language-words-are-stupid-things/">BillMoyers.com</a>.</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/theresa-may" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">theresa may</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/winston-churchill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">winston churchill</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-orwell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george orwell</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/english-language" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">English language</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jon-mccain" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jon mccain</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george w bush</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Michael Winship</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Images From WhiteHouse.gov (Wikipedia Commons); Google Images (Creative Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 29 Oct 2017 18:42:06 +0000 tara 7783 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8614-trump-words-are-stupid-things#comments NAFTA’s Failures Finally Get Air Time https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5874-nafta-s-failures-finally-get-air-time <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 06/19/2016 - 18:44</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1nafta.jpg?itok=Sm62eucF"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1nafta.jpg?itok=Sm62eucF" width="480" height="296" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/06/naftas-failures-finally-get-air-time-thanks-to-trump.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>The last time Mexico took center stage in American politics was Sept. 6, 2001, when George W. Bush watched Mexican President Vicente Fox address a joint session of Congress in the nation’s capital.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bush and Fox were friends, ranchers, businessmen, and came from the same rugged landscape that made their working together a done deal.</p> <p> </p> <p>Both men were determined to take the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the next step by addressing the limitations and flaws in that agreement. The limitations were political (no free movement of people across borders) and economic (no single currency for the United States, Canada, and Mexico).</p> <p> </p> <p>George W. Bush envisioned an administration that would work to make the United States, Canada, and Mexico more competitive on a global scale.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s important to recall why NAFTA was created in the first place: as a response to the European Union (EU). The EU sought to make Europe an economic powerhouse: economic coordination, a single currency, the laissez-faire movement of labor across borders.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>As someone involved in the discussions surrounding NAFTA, I understood that there would be market failures: Without a development bank, how would displaced American workers be retrained for new jobs in the IT economy? Without comprehensive immigration reform, how would a porous border be made to operate in a way that responded to needs of people and seasonal economic fluctuations?</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2004, I wrote a book that offered policies to mitigate NAFTA’s shortcoming. The book, <em>NAFTA'S Second Decade: Assessing Opportunities in the Mexican and Canadian Markets</em>, was well-received. But none of its recommendations were ever implemented.</p> <p> </p> <p>What happened?</p> <p> </p> <p>Five days after Vicente Fox received a standing ovation in the halls of Congress, terrorists struck on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bush’s ambitious NAFTA plans were scrapped as the United States launched a War on Terror. Throughout 2002, the United States rallied support for war. In March 2003 the United States invaded Iraq. When my book came out, greater integration with Canada and Mexico—which implied loosening borders—was the last thing anyone in Washington cared to consider.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now, 15 years later, NAFTA’s market failures and structural limitations have festered sores that Donald Trump has masterfully pointed out.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump’s rhetoric against Mexico—building walls, deporting millions, seizing remittances—have caused alarm among Mexican officials. An “Emergencia Trump” has been declared: Mexico’s president replaced its ambassador in Washington, sending in a tough, no-nonsense diplomat who is expected to speak up against Trump, an advertising campaign to improve Mexico’s image among the American public has been launched, and politicians are scrambling for “what if” plans should Trump enter the White House.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/vicentefox.jpg" style="height:307px; width:546px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>But Trump has also started a conversation about what is good about NAFTA, what is bad about NAFTA, and what needs to be changed.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a discussion that George W. Bush could not entertain because of his War on Terror. It is a topic that Obama, ineffectual and indifferent, did not express any interest in pursuing.</p> <p> </p> <p>The reality is that the festering market failures of a limited NAFTA cannot long continue. Specifically:</p> <p> </p> <p>•           A North American Development Bank: The EU has an institutional mechanism to ameliorate labor disruptions occasioned by free trade. When Trump complains about Whirlpool, Ford, and Nabisco shifting production to Mexico, the real issue is the absence of a mechanism to retrain American workers. In today’s globalized economy, production goes where labor is more efficient. No yelling is going to bring those jobs back and international agreement prohibit the implementation of tariffs, unless a trade war is Trump’s goal.</p> <p> </p> <p>•           Building a wall is a reflection of frustration with a broken immigration system. Our immigration system divides families, frustrates employers, and creates bureaucratic nightmares. The onerous immigration system and the general deterioration in the quality of life in the United States since 2001 are two reasons we are witnessing a reverse migration: Mexicans living in the United States are leaving. And when Trump speaks of “porous” borders, he alludes to the what some see as the real border crisis: Mexico’s inability to secure its own southern border with Guatemala, a route used by millions of Central Americans fleeing gang-related violence. The “illegals” are mostly non-Mexicans entering the United States after they cross illegally into Mexico. Canada and Mexico have an immigration agreement for seasonal workers that functions as a model.</p> <p> </p> <p>•           War on Drugs: The proposal to address the drug crisis by legalizing some drugs (marijuana) and decriminalizing others (cocaine) would begin the process of ending drug cartel violence in Mexico and drug addiction in the United States. Tens of thousands of innocent Mexicans have been killed over the past decade in an endless war on the cartels. An even greater number of Americans have died from drug addiction, overdose, or violence. An integrated approach, perhaps based on the experience in Portugal or the Netherlands, would set the stage for a rational approach to drug production, consumption, and addiction.</p> <p> </p> <p>•           Unintended consequences of NAFTA’s economic dynamics: One unintended consequence of NAFTA has been a health crisis. The proliferation of highly-processed foods and greater workplace stress have changed how people in all three countries eat. When NAFTA was implemented in 1994, no one thought that, two decades later, the United States would be confronting an obesity epidemic and Mexico a diabetes crisis. How globalization affects the health of the people who live in the NAFTA nations is a public health issue that needs to be addressed.</p> <p> </p> <p>Perhaps it’s time to tackle the unfinished business of NAFTA. Addressing the imperfections and market failures is something that everyone should welcome.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/06/naftas-failures-finally-get-air-time-thanks-to-trump.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nafta" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nafta</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mexico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mexico</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/united-states" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">United States</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/canada" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Canada</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george w bush</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vicente-fox" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vicente fox</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Louis E.V. Nevaer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 19 Jun 2016 22:44:11 +0000 tara 6998 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5874-nafta-s-failures-finally-get-air-time#comments Gary Rivlin’s ‘Katrina’ Portrays a Destroyed City and Its Painful Recovery https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5299-gary-rivlin-s-katrina-portrays-destroyed-city-and-its-painful-recovery <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 10/14/2015 - 18:58</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1rivlin.jpg?itok=P08j23r7"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1rivlin.jpg?itok=P08j23r7" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>Katrina: After the Flood</strong></p> <p><strong>Gary Rivlin</strong></p> <p><strong>Simon &amp; Schuster</strong></p> <p><strong>480 pages</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Two moments seem emblematic of the squalid presidency of George W. Bush. On May 1, 2003, soon after launching the war in Iraq, Bush stood in a flight jacket aboard the aircraft carrier <em>USS Abraham Lincoln</em> and addressed troops under a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished.” On September 2, 2005, at the Mobile, Alabama Regional Airport, Bush praised FEMA Director Michael Brown for coordinating disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”—while thousands of Americans were fighting simply to survive.</p> <p> </p> <p>But as Gary Rivlin’s new book, <em>Katrina: After the Flood, </em>amply demonstrates, when it comes to analyzing the failure to rescue a major American city at its time of greatest need, there’s plenty of blame to go around.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Katrina </em>opens with a compelling set piece that encapsulates many of the book’s themes—the chaos after Katrina made landfall, the lack of emergency coordination among local officials, dire situations made worse by crippling issues of race. On August 30, a group of predominantly black residents, seeking to escape flooding and destruction in their neighborhoods, crossed a bridge spanning the Mississippi for the relative safety of suburban Gretna, a predominantly white community.</p> <p> </p> <p>As Rivlin reports, the exodus was halted by a police barricade and refused entry:</p> <p> </p> <p>“The second and third buses pulled up, and they, too, disgorged their passengers there at the Gretna bus terminal. There, on this large patch of sidewalk under a highway overpass, the police pointed shotguns and other long guns … Gretna, a town of eighteen thousand whose official motto is ‘Small City, Big Heart,’ had lost electricity, but still had plenty of food and water on stock. Its roads were passable, providing people a path to safety. [Sharon] Paul said she heard one cop yell, ‘Get on the curb <em>now </em>or we’re gonna shoot,’ but she couldn’t take the command seriously. ‘They cocked their guns,’ Paul said, ‘and then everybody paid attention …”</p> <p> </p> <p>This frenzied confrontation was in many ways an omen of what was yet to come.</p> <p> </p> <p>Last August marked Hurricane Katrina’s 10-year anniversary. It would be nice to believe the devastation in New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward has been repaired and relations between rich and poor restored, but Rivlin’s thorough reporting indicates such is not the case.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2rivlin.jpg" style="height:451px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>A former <em>New York Times </em>reporter, Rivlin conducted interviews with hurricane survivors (those who stayed on in New Orleans and those forced by circumstances to move elsewhere), and others from the many-layered economic substratum in that class-ridden city. His sobering tale is leavened by a tone of disappointment that, in the weeks immediately following the disaster, so many well-meaning people could get things so wrong.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the earliest days, after Category 3 winds and rain pummeled the region, the wreckage was nearly unimaginable:</p> <p> </p> <p>“A permanent stench infected New Orleans, even parts that had remained dry—like the seaside community near the end of summer, except that the brackish smell was mixed, not with the odor of rotting alewives, but with hints of oil, sewage, rancid meat, and death. Decaying human bodies were cooking in the intense New Orleans heat along with those of cats, dogs, and other animals that had been caught in the flooding.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The most inspiring moments in <em>Katrina: After the Flood </em>come from a handful of people who tried meeting the challenges of recovery head-on. Alden J. McDonald, president of New Orleans’ largest black-owned bank, and businessmen David White and Joseph Canizaro, among others, fought bureaucratic red tape and other obstacles to hasten recovery. Their efforts were often as not unsuccessful, but they emerge from these pages as heroic figures wanting to help wherever they could.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ray Nagin, the city’s then-Mayor, is portrayed in a less flattering light. According to Rivlin, he was from the outset woefully ill-equipped to handle the overwhelming challenges of his office. Squabbles with local and federal officials (not excluding the President of the United States) hampered his efforts to secure emergency funding and keep critically needed repairs on track. Nagin did little to mend the schisms between blacks and whites at a time when some form of unity would have been invaluable.</p> <p> </p> <p>At times, the book bogs down in procedural descriptions of committees and commissions set up to plot the city’s recovery. In the end, however, <em>Katrina: After the Flood </em>succeeds as a lucid and sympathetic account of a vital American metropolis crushed by natural forces and beset by issues of race and class in its ongoing attempts<a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a> to recover.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Lee Polevoi is </em></strong><strong>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/katrina-after-flood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">katrina after the flood</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/gary-rivlin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gary rivlin</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-orleans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new orleans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hurricanes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hurricanes</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george w bush</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 14 Oct 2015 22:58:36 +0000 tara 6409 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5299-gary-rivlin-s-katrina-portrays-destroyed-city-and-its-painful-recovery#comments Why ‘American Sniper’ Applauds the Soldier But Condemns the War https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4983-why-american-sniper-applauds-soldier-condemns-war <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 05/04/2015 - 10:53</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1americansniper.jpg?itok=VVokBqqv"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1americansniper.jpg?itok=VVokBqqv" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>A handful of protests last month against university showings of “American Sniper,” director Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated portrait of Iraq War veteran Chris Kyle, are just another reminder that it has become a lightning rod in a polarized society. Regrettably, voices on both sides of the aisle have used the film – which resurrects deep wounds from the George W. Bush era and resonates with the current debate about American engagement in the Middle East – to reinforce barriers. But as with many controversies today, the truth about “American Sniper” may reside somewhere in the middle. </p> <p> </p> <p>The film profiles the military and civilian life of Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL, whom many describe as the deadliest sniper in American history. Kyle survived four tours in Iraq and went on to write a best-selling memoir. He was killed in 2013 when a fellow veteran Kyle was trying to help with PTSD fatally shot him and a friend, Chad Littlefield, at a Texas gun range. Kyle left behind a wife and two children. </p> <p> </p> <p>As with perspectives on the war and the Bush presidency, reactions to the film have varied. In one corner sit the diehard patriots who applaud this tribute to a great American hero and refuse to apologize for his efforts to keep America safe and free. Some at <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2015/01/20/chris-kyles-friends-react-liberal-hollywood-attacking-american-sniper/">Fox News</a> agree. Others condemn it as racist propaganda that ignores the truth about America’s occupation. A particularly scathing piece in <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/american-sniper-is-almost-too-dumb-to-criticize-20150121"><em>Rolling Stone</em> </a>comes to mind. Perhaps the only common ground between its proponents and critics is that they are fixated on grounding “American Sniper” in the nation’s politics and culture wars. </p> <p> </p> <p>Regrettably, these Americans refuse to see the film for what it is. To be sure, “American Sniper” is a personal narrative about a tough-as-nails soldier’s harrowing experiences. But it is just as much about the widespread and immeasurable costs of his obsession with a futile, unjust war that has no end in sight.</p> <p> </p> <p>The film depicts the immense courage members of the US military possess, as well as the profound personal sacrifices they make in pursuit of what they believe to be a noble goal. And it gives voice to veterans dealing with PTSD and the broken homes they leave behind. At the same time, this intimate look at an American soldier in the midst of an unwinnable conflict – one who is singularly focused on protecting his brothers-in-arms to the detriment of everything sacred in his life – sends a cautionary message. Indeed, it often seems that the only way out of the panic-inducing quagmire is by death or disfigurement. </p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2americansniper.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In this way, “American Sniper” applauds the soldier but condemns the war. And director Eastwood eschews hammering a message that fits comfortably into the agendas of Americans on the right or left. The film is at once pro-warrior and anti-war. Eastwood himself has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/17/clint-eastwood-american-sniper-anti-war_n_6884966.html">described it</a> in a similar fashion. </p> <p> </p> <p>For instance, much has been made about the way the film supposedly links 9/11 to the Iraq War. It is true that Eastwood depicts Chris Kyle’s justification for the war with the familiar televised image of planes hitting the World Trade Center. This post-9/11 call to arms undoubtedly strikes a chord with many Americans who were motivated by the same events. Yet, while the film portrays this viewpoint – after all, this version of Kyle’s story is based on the veteran’s memoir – Eastwood does not try to make a case for it. There are no speeches from Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld suggesting links between 9/11 and Iraq or scenes of a president rallying the masses against the bad guys and those harboring terrorists. And there is no anti-American al Qaeda rhetoric to justify the invasion and calm consciences.</p> <p> </p> <p>Rather, Eastwood’s approach highlights the glib rush to judgment that brought America to war. Chris Kyle’s emotional reaction to 9/11 and his unwavering conviction about the Iraq War underscores its hollow premises. His act of hubris is particularly tragic when juxtaposed against the ensuing horror that Kyle, his family, fellow soldiers and Iraqi civilians endure. And the film makes no attempt to hide these sacrifices.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3georgewbush%20%28WhitehouseDOTgov%29_0.jpg" style="height:372px; width:550px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This brief but seminal moment becomes a dividing line between Kyle’s domestic sphere, illustrated by his budding romance and growing family, and the gruesome world that he encounters in combat. It magnifies the despondency that accompanies the unraveling of the lives of a father, his wife and two small children (not to mention the lives of countless innocent Iraqis). In this way, we see Kyle’s actions for what they truly are -- heroic and well intentioned, yet entirely misplaced and misinformed acts that come at a great cost to humanity.  </p> <p> </p> <p>In the end, Eastwood’s intentionally cautious treatment of the topics in "American Sniper" begs the question: can’t we all agree that Chris Kyle is exactly the type of courageous and infallible warrior we want fighting for America, while at the same time acknowledge that the Iraq War was a profound mistake with dire consequences for everyone involved? Difficult as it may be for either camp to make concessions, this approach may be the only way to make sense of the Bush era and its aftermath. In “American Sniper,” director Clint Eastwood skillfully and subtly nudges us in that direction. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Annie Castellani is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine. <em>Follow Castellani on Twitter: @TheSustainCapit</em></strong>    </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-sniper" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american sniper</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george w bush</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dick-cheney" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">dick cheney</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-rumsfeld" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">donald rumsfeld</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iraq-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq war</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/afghanistan-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">afghanistan war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/9-11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">9-11</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Annie Castellani</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 04 May 2015 14:53:10 +0000 tara 5967 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4983-why-american-sniper-applauds-soldier-condemns-war#comments The Rise and Fall of the Republican Party https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3210-rise-and-fall-republican-party <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 09:26</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1Republicans%20%28House%20GOP%20Leader%20Flickr%29_0.jpg?itok=Zw8vlQT5"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1Republicans%20%28House%20GOP%20Leader%20Flickr%29_0.jpg?itok=Zw8vlQT5" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Open with: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan watch on as Obama is sworn in. Cut to: Republican strategists pour over election results and label 2013 a much-needed rebranding year. Cut to: An autopsy report is released on the GOP brand encouraging Republicans to lose the "stuffy old men" image. Cut to: Young college Republicans perform an autopsy report of their own. Respondents criticize the Republican party as bigoted and essentialist. Cut to: Nevada GOP leader saying 2014 will be a good year for Republicans because minorities and young voters won't turn out. Cut to: Ted Cruz reading <em>Green Eggs and Ham</em> to his kids while the government shutdown looms. Cut to: Government shutdown and a Republican party at war with itself. Cut to: A tan and battle-worn John Boehner standing at the pulpit wearing a salmon-orange tie with circle-and-a-dot patterns distributed in white. Finish with: 2013 and the year of the Republican civil war.</p> <p> </p> <p>The history of the Republican Party isn't as stagnant as today's representatives indicate. Like most (well, some) political movements, the GOP began with good intentions. At its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29">genesis</a>, the Republican Party coalesced in opposition to popular sovereignty, Stephen Douglass and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Populated by Whigs, Free-Soilers and anti-slavery coalitions, the Republican Party, once formed, became the North's foil to the Southern-backed Democrats. Within five years, the yearling party was in control of a staggering majority of Northern state and federal offices on the platform of "free labor, free land, free men" and within six years time, the party had their first president in the White House: Abraham Lincoln.</p> <p> </p> <p>As the Civil War came to an end and post-bellum reconstruction no longer carried political weight (and fell subject to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system">corruption</a>), the Republican party mobilized to support the massive industrialization underway in the North, pushing for fast growth with laissez-faire economics. Their support of the fast economic expansion and high wages continued through (and <a href="http://uspolitics.about.com/od/economy/tp/what_caused_great_depression.htm">helped bring about</a>) the Great Depression, which brought Republican momentum to a screeching halt. Quickly thereafter, the GOP succumbed to a revamped Democratic party and FDR's New Deal, introducing a realignment of each party's ideologies. In response to their ousting, Republicans condemned the New Deal as poorly veiled socialism and gravitated toward a new domestic policy of conservatism.</p> <p> </p> <p>The platform stuck with American voters and conservatism became the party's new rallying flag. By intermingling their pro-business roots and right-wing social policies, the Republican Party indoctrinated the now aging vanguard of the GOP's constituents, the renowned Greatest Generation. Today, the Republican Party still supports big business and social conservatism, but the party defines their brand more frequently through social policies, an agenda that is beginning to fall out of touch with the younger Republicans and American public opinion. The disparity between party agenda and public interest led to the now famous (infamous?) <a href="http://growthopp.gop.com/%E2%80%8E">autopsy report</a> after Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryan's defeat.</p> <p> </p> <p>Post-Romney/Ryan defeat, Republicans ordered an autopsy report on their '12 campaign season. The report, entitled the <em>Growth and Opportunity Project</em> exposed several large anachronisms and rifts in the party. To quote directly from the report: "These are voters who recently left the Party [sic]. Asked to describe Republicans, they said that the Party is 'scary,' 'narrow-minded,' and 'out of touch" and that we were a Party of 'stuffy old men.' This is consistent with the findings of other post-election surveys." The report continues, encouraging the "Party" to reconsider its position on immigration, gay marriage and corporate welfare, all positions the party has taken staunchly conservative and vocal positions on. The autopsy reporters don't outright criticize the party's backward politics but the message is clear: Change or get left behind.</p> <p> </p> <p>The autopsy extensively studied the relationship between young voters and Republicans, urging Republicans to not ignore young voters. In response, the Young College Republicans took it upon themselves to find out what it would take to staunch the young voter hemorrhage. Their <a href="http://images.skem1.com/client_id_32089/Grand_Old_Party_for_a_Brand_New_Generation.pdf">report</a> (<em>Grand Ole Party for a Brand New Generation</em>) is equally critical of the current status of the GOP and advocates as radical (if not more so) a transformation.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Seducing the youth</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The Republican party suffers consistently from its inability to update their policies in sync with the social zeitgeist. While Democrats are conveniently positioned to write off any of its <a href="http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/joebiden/a/bidenisms.htm">Biden-esque</a> outbursts as impassioned, filled-with-the-spirit-of-civil-liberties idealization, Republicans’ outspoken foot-in-mouth occurrences submit the party to accusations of exclusivity, bigotry, and sexism. The social mantle that Republicans appear hellbent on upholding has wedded their policies with that of the oppressor, making moments like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Davis_%28politician%29">Rick Perry vs. Wendy Davis</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/us/politics/todd-akin-provokes-ire-with-legitimate-rape-comment.html?_r=0">Todd Akin on rape</a>, or <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/25/nevada-republican-2014-will-be-great-for-us-because-minorities-wont-vote/">Pat Hickey on minorities</a> and young voters so injurious to the party's image and a reflex foe of the educated youth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Romney/Ryan lost the young vote by <a href="http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php">5 million</a>, an impressive number when considering the popular vote was decided by &lt; 5 million. In response to this deficit, the Republican party quickly pledged to rework the party's appeal and entice young voters back to the fold. From the autopsy: "This is not a unique take—the general view of Republicans is that Obama’s success with young voters is a product of some intrinsic “cool” he possesses. If the GOP can mimic that cool, the argument goes, then they’ll make inroads with young people." Something about "stuffy old men" learning how to "mimic that cool" from America's black president strikes a pleasant note on the funny bone. Coolness might be a Sisyphean feat for Republicans; however, young Republicans are confident their party can "make inroads" by amending some of their more antiquated policies. And for many young Republicans, this means a radical shift on social issues.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2Republicans%20%28DonkeyHote%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="height:323px; width:650px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Alex Smith, National Chair of the College Republican National Committee, was asked by party leaders to <a href="http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/07/once-strident-college-republicans-now-seek-moderate-tone-for-the-gop/">meet and discuss</a> committee findings as detailed in Grand Ole Party for a brand new generation. She reports that she found her party's leaders to be receptive, but hesitant to change their platforms at the risk of losing their core constituency. However, college Republicans, said Smith, quickly took to the new direction and echoed the desire for their party to practice tolerance in regards to social issues such as gay marriage, abortion and cannabis legalization. For these young Republicans, the party needs to explain "what we are for and not just what we are against." The Republican party tendency to self-define through negation (Republicans are often referred to as the "party of no") doesn't provide a clear message for young voters. Smith believes that by removing emphasis on social issues and introducing more diversity into the party while maintaining nonsocial conservative platforms (fiscal conservatism, namely), Republicans would begin to close the 5 million youth vote gap.</p> <p> </p> <p>Republicans received the autopsy in March 2013 and the College Republican follow-up in June, which resulted in widespread party dialogue about reworking the brand image according to the findings in both reports. Now, nearly half a year later and a year out from mid-terms, the Grand Ole Party status quo prevails.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>The Republican race against time </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>A large consortium of Republicans’ core constituency falls under (or is fast approaching) the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/23/1216898/-Demographic-winter-Republicans-ensuring-their-own-demise">65 and older demographic</a>, retirees concerned with the solvency of entitlement programs that identify with the socially conservative platforms Republicans touted for many years. Needless to say, these foundations are a bit fragile and don't strengthen the Republican party’s prospects in the future. The other core group, hardline Christians, hinders Republican rebranding by refusing to yield on subjects such as gay marriage or abortion. If candidates opt to pander to evangelicals (as many 2016 GOP hopefuls <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-12/politics/39210844_1_rand-paul-younger-paul-ron-paul">already have</a>) and aged Foxed News enthusiasts (ditto) then they run the risk of seeming too conservative to moderates, a voter demographic no presidential candidate can afford to ostracize themselves from.</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition, the Republican party must mind their donors and constituency. Since campaign donors and constituents predated both the autopsy and YCR report, changing social policy may mean losing campaign dollars and votes (something, frankly, many Republicans cannot afford). Like venture capitalists choosing a profit-turning startup over an undeveloped startup with higher potential, Republican representatives are more apt to opt for the pre-established constituency instead of risking a potentially high-yielding voter demographic (the Hispanic vote) at the expense of alienating their base. While continuing to rely on the core constituency and creative gerrymandering (an outdated term, maybe Bachmanning is more appropriate) suffices for Republican policymakers currently in office, it does a tremendous disservice to the generation looking to follow in their footsteps.</p> <p> </p> <p>And so, the Republican party finds themselves at a grim rebranding crossroads, where Inactivity seriously harms the future prospects of the party.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Republican Party, Tea-Stained</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The largest thorn in the considerably pricked Republican party machine's side has to be the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement">Tea party</a>. The Tea party grew out of proposed budget cuts for Medicare in 2009 (or out of the ashes of Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign) and has morphed into a party that enjoys pitting the rights of the aged against the rights of the youth among various other snipe-style political stunts. Tea party members ape libertarian ideals of limited government and spending (yet they ardently fight for Medicare and senior entitlement programs) but otherwise lack any solid identity, posing more as a decentralized movement than a party adhering to a strict agenda. What the various splinters of the Tea party do agree on is governance in harmony with the Constitution and unspoken qualifications for membership: White, male, god-fearing, married and over the age of 55.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumcruz_0.jpg" style="height:325px; width:650px" /></p> <p>The Tea party is conventionally viewed as the small, more radical component of the Republicans, but lately, Tea party members are pitting themselves against the Republican establishment with candidates of their own and they have some significant financial backers. Now, Majority Leader Boehner and the established Republican party members face an additional obstacle when it comes to keeping up the longstanding prominence of the Republican party. Large corporations are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/us/politics/in-alabama-race-a-test-of-business-efforts-to-derail-tea-party.html">stepping in</a> to assist with the battle against the rabid Tea party faction, but this rift within the party is sparking major concern in younger party donors who fear omens of a house divided. Now, as the party begins to show signs of volatility at the doorstep, many regular Republican donors are <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/06/republican-donors-government-shutdown_n_4054958.html">balking</a> or hedging their bets</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Heritage action defects</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Since the Reagan administration, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heritage_Foundation">Heritage Foundation</a> functions as a policy influencing vehicle for conservative corporate agendas; it continues in this capacity today. As of late, the Heritage Foundation assumed a more conservative stance, attacking Republicans who were (purportedly) too close to the center and not representative of true Republican conservatism. To the surprise of no one, the Heritage Foundation and their advocacy branch, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Action">Heritage Action</a>, have recently aligned themselves with the Tea party, placing one of their most vocal members, ex-Senator <a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/jay.../12/.../jim-demint-tea-party-champion-leaving-senate/%E2%80%8E">Jim DeMint</a>, at the Foundation's helm in 2012.</p> <p> </p> <p>To add to Boehner's Republican woes, the Heritage Action has resorted to <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/the-fall-of-the-heritage-foundation-and-the-death-of-republican-ideas/279955/">smear campaigns against Republicans</a> that haven't observed the Heritage's metric for adequate conservatism, especially in regards to Obamacare. More than 100 house Republicans found themselves in the Heritage's crosshairs, an act which, for many GOP staffers, borders on party insurrection.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, not all Republicans suffer under Heritage Action's bullying. According to the Heritage Action scorecard, several hyper-conservative Republicans receive top marks. On top of the scorecard sits Tea party mascot Senator Ted Cruz, with a perfect score (4 percentage points higher than the other 2016 hopeful, Rand Paul). Whether Sen. Cruz dictates the Heritage Action's scorecard or Heritage Action dictates Sen. Cruz is fodder for Maddow, but what does rate, however, is the serious backing given to an oft-swatted gadfly like Sen. Cruz, a political figure whom many write off as a charlatan without any presidential contender clout (of course, many others point at the showdown between Cruz and Boehner as the reason for the expensive government shutdown).</p> <p> </p> <p>Heritage Action's power play is another omen of inner-party strife. Not only is the Tea party threatening to bring down the Republican establishment from within, one of the Republican party's most famous and most influential backers has defected to join the ranks of their destroyers. The Heritage/Tea party assault turns rebranding into a gamble if one considers that a Republican rebranding (and inevitable break from the Tea party) may result in losing their core constituents to Cruz and company, effectively splitting the conservative vote. It's quite the dilemma: How can Republicans avoid losing their base to their more conservative counterparts and still garner enough support to overcome the Democrats?</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumteaparty%20%28Jackie%20M%20Barr%29_0.jpg" style="height:600px; width:404px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Is this goodbye?</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>What remains certain as Senator Ted Cruz props himself up during the 21st hour of his filibuster, preparing his anti-Obamacare closing statements and basking in the ire of his party members, is that the Democrats are in control. Blame for the government shutdown shifted onto the Republicans and while Democrats quietly toe their party lines, Republicans are venturing dangerously close to a boiling point. Although the Democrats aren't without their flaws (unpopular movement against Syria and NSA leaks have flung the Dems into their share of political imbroglios), the Republican party is too immersed in suturing their own inner-party rifts to benefit from Democratic failures.</p> <p> </p> <p>Five months after the two reports were released and the Republican party finished licking their 2012 wounds, the GOP has not adjusted to the prognosis of their advisors, strategists and youth. Instead, Boehner seems to be steering his party into the center of the square, with the Tea Party and Heritage Foundation pulling on the party's legs and old donors and youth pulling on their hands. If the Republican party doesn't find some way to fight those that pull and reassemble the troops, they may find themselves quartered.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong><br /> <em>Tyler Huggins is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Photos: House GOP Leader (Flickr); Donkey Hote (Flickr); Jackie M. Barr (Flickr).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republican-party" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republican Party</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/gop" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">GOP</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/romney-2" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">romney</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paul-ryan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Paul Ryan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abraham-lincoln" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Abraham Lincoln</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ronald-reagan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ronald Reagan</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-w-bush-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george w bush</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-boehner" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john boehner</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ted-cruz" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ted cruz</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tea-party" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tea Party</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Tyler Huggins</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 21 Nov 2013 14:26:12 +0000 tara 3884 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3210-rise-and-fall-republican-party#comments