Many members of the netroots community have been angry, upset, or uncertain about Jim Webb of VA. His record is not what you expect from a Democratic Senator. He is an Annapolis Grad and a former Marine. He was Secretary of the Navy under Reagan. He started out as an Democrat, changed to the Republicans, and has returned to the Democrats.
Today, in the Wall Street Journal, Senator Webb has an op-ed piece. Webb has gone to the paper of record for corporate power, where he has clearly and forcibly stood up for the people against that same corporate power. Read the entire editorial. It’s worth your time. I’ve snipped out some prime pieces below.
Class Struggle
American workers have a chance to be heard.BY JIM WEBB
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
The most important–and unfortunately the least debated–issue in politics today is our society’s steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America’s top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country.
In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future.
<snip>At the same time, medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase comes from wage-earners’ pockets rather than from insurance, and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all.
This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind.
The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of “God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag” while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet. But this election cycle showed an electorate that intends to hold government leaders accountable for allowing every American a fair opportunity to succeed.
With this new Congress, and heading into an important presidential election in 2008, American workers have a chance to be heard in ways that have eluded them for more than a decade. Nothing is more important for the health of our society than to grant them the validity of their concerns. And our government leaders have no greater duty than to confront the growing unfairness in this age of globalization.
Sen. Webb develops this theme, and others, in his excellent book, Born Fighting.
What do you think? I’m excited about him. He is man of substance.
I am encouraged by his words. It is at the same time sobering to realize that even when “we” win, we are not sure what is behind door #1 until the passage of time reveals the true political personality of the candidate that the voters chose. Some real election reform might change this situation.
It wouldn’t make money for the media networks, but I’m for free ad time for political candidates in a very compressed time frame. Ads would actually be the mechanism through which the candidate clarified their stance on major issues, period. I could see the month of October being political ad month in election years. No signs on the highways, no negative ads about the opposition, no bills to pay for the ads that would come in chunks of time long enough to allow the candidate to say something definitive. The networks lose the $$ but that would be their price of doing business. The public wins, because politicians would not spend the bulk of their time fund raising. What do you think?? While we are at it,take on lobbying reform at the same time.
Election reform needs to be a part of a larger reform of all aspects of the electoral process. Everything from setting congressional districts, to counting the votes, to funding elections, to selecting candidates, the whole package. Simply put, we must strengthen our Democracy.
Oooh me too! I’m so excited, just thinking about him voting to deny me my inalienable rights in the Senate gives me goosebumps.
And please just know we gays LOVE the back of the bus, truly it’s all we deserve and we’re so happy that Webb understands that. Those gay teenagers, you know the ones who are 6 times more likely to commit suicide, I’m sure those kids know Webb has their best interests at heart as he votes to oppress them, and justifiably so!
Webb is a man of substance, manure.
Webb has the same right to his beliefs about homosexuality as you or I do. What he does not have the right to do is to write his beliefs into laws that restrict ours. I do not think Webb will do this. He has a independent streak that is not inclined to look to the government to enforce morals. In his campaign, he spoke against the use of gay marriage and other “moral issues” to avoid the real issues facing America. He did not fulminate against the NJ Supreme Court decision, for example.
I will not condemn Jim Webb solely on the grounds of his beliefs, although I’m not even sure of his beliefs in this case. He should, and will, be judged on his actions. During his campaign, he opposed the Virginia’s Marriage Amendment. He also said he would not support a Federal Marriage Amendment. If Webb does vote for a “Marriage Protection Amendment” or similar homophobic measures, I will join you in condemning him.
If you have examples of things he has said or done that are offensive to you, please share them. I’m not an expert on Jim Webb.
Webb is just one more Republican in Democrat clothes and his (and Casey’s et al) votes will show us soon and those votes will show their contempt for liberal values.
I’ll leave you with something from his book to show what a hair-brained idiot this man is:
The culture so dramatically symbolized by the Southern redneck [is] the greatest inhibitor of the plans of the activist Left and the cultural Marxists for a new kind of society altogether.
From the perspective of the activist Left, [rednecks] are the greatest obstacles to what might be called the collectivist taming of America, symbolized by the edicts of political correctness. And for the last fifty years the Left has been doing everything in its power to sue them, legislate against their interests, mock them in the media, isolate them as idiosyncratic, and publicly humiliate their traditions in order to make them, at best, irrelevant to America’s future growth.
–from Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America,
by James Webb (2004)
You should keep reading. He also shows how the Southern redneck is and has been manipulated by the elite power structures of the South and the conservative movement. His point is that rednecks resist authority in all forms. Rednecks have suffered greatly under the corporate regime represented by BushCo. Instead of preaching at them, we would do better making alliance with them against corporate power.
Oh, check out Louisiannan Randy Newman’s “Rednecks.” It is an interesting take on the redneck point of view. (I’m stealing Kidspeak’s thunder here.)
My paternal grandparents immigrated from Scotland in the 1920’s. I know from Scots’ stubbornness.
Let’s make a deal. Let’s watch Webb. If he turns out to be what you fear, I’ll support whoever you suggest to run against him. If he turns out as I hope, you’ll give rednecks a second look. Deal?
It’s not like I have a choice in the matter 🙂
He’s in power for the next 6 years like it or not.
I’m always willing to be surprised but have been let down far too many times by politicians and he certainly hasn’t given me reason to hope he’s the next Bobby Kennedy.
By the way I grew up in Texas and all my siblings still live there so I know quite a bit about southerners.
I hope you’ve noticed my hands-off approach to Webb. But there is something interesting in this idea of making a populist pitch to rednecks (Webb’s term, not mine). I’ve been advocating that. Setting aside the cultural wars for a moment, it should be fascinating to see how Webb’s pitch plays out. It sure beats Allen’s approach.
i have noticed.
“Rednecks” are one of my oppressor groups as a gay man so everyone will have to forgive me for not jumping up and down with glee here.
I don’t know how to resolve this impasse. I suspect it will only be overcome by communication between gays and rednecks. (And I’m certain there is some degree of overlap in those two groups.) I’ve known very conservative Texans who have changed their views on homosexuality when one of their children or friends has come out the closet. Sadly, I’ve also known gays cut off from their families and cruelly disowned when they came out.
Understood.
What I want is a ruling majority that is leftist, with a progressive majority within the Democratic Party (and perhaps supplemented with a few Republicans). To get there I don’t insist on ideological purity, I insist on a secure and enduring power base that does what we need done.
That is where I keep butting heads with the LSF crew. If we can make inroads with ‘rednecks’ on populism then we won’t have to keep voting on culture wars shit because we will have majorities. We’re making progess on that.
Perhaps the homophobia is the new Jim Crow. It’s a topic we should flesh out because it is a critical element in dealing with establishing the ruling majority I envision. To what degree can we benefit from these centrist southern democrats and is there any hope for cultural progressives to make a comeback in the northern and left coast GOP?
the problem is that the “rednecks” demand that feminists and GBLT citizens be thrown overboard. I’m not being a purist … THEY ARE. I’m supposed to “respect” their hate and bigotry, while there is NO demand that they “respect” the basic humanity of people they hate.
Seriously, I don’t get that.
I’m not taking a side here, but opening up a discussion. You always like to hearken back to New Deal days as this glorious past that we have lost, but the Dixiecrats were an indispensible part of that ruling majority. And that gets us into uncomfortable territory, doesn’t it? Because in the end that ruling majority ended Jim Crow AND passed most of the really relevant progressive legislation of the 20th-Century.
So, we have to think carefully about how we deal with the issues we face today and where we have to draw sharp lines and where we have to draw faint ones.
sure, but there were dixiecrats like Robert Byrd who learned the error of their ways.
If Webb is willing to do that, then that would be great, but I don’t see it. I’m willing to be surprised.
I’d love for a real populist to appear. I think it would be powerful for a “redneck” like Webb to repudiate that ugly history of the Dixiecrats, of George Wallace and Scoop Jackson … I would LOVE to see that, but those hatreds and prejudices are so deep-seated …
Hell, I come from a long line of rednecks. I’m the first of my rednecks to finish college in my family. Many people sacrificed a lot to get me where I am, but I know they would be enriched if they would let go those petty hatreds to actually confront the wealthy who exploit them AND the people who represent the hated minorities.
the possibility is there, if someone would step up, but nearly his entire history argues that Webb isn’t that man.
Again, I’m willing to be surprised.
interesting. See, I never forgave Byrd. I can’t.
But Webb never did anything that approaches what Byrd did.
There are a lot of things I like about Webb. I kind of am grooving on the outsider status of Tester, Webb, and Sanders. Even Brown came from nowhere, really. If I want to be really generous, even Casey is something of a Washington outsider. When I compare it to Jersey machine Menendez it gets me a little excited.
In PA we elected four new reps that have never held public office before. I like that.
I don’t know. Maybe Webb will be someone that acts a bridge between alienated communties. We can hope.
I don’t get that either. If I vote based on my personal values, Iget called a ‘purity troll’ by some, while the gun-toting gay-hating misogynists are to be respected and appeased by the democratic party. How screwed up is that?
exactly
It reminds me a Howard Dean’s comments about going after the Gun Rack in the pick up vote. And the response from the left was about the same.
Where you from? My family lives in Plano and North Dallas.
raised in Houston, college in Austin, spent lots of time in Dallas.
Hate Houston (can’t stand the humidity), college in Lubbock (2 different times, no less. What a loser.), family in Dallas still. I lived in Austin for a few months in the late ’80s. I could handle Austin, but I don’t like Texas weather or politics.
i loved austin when i went to school there because it was smaller and very laid back. i’ve never been to Lubbock, it’s the one city in Texas i’ve never passed through for some reason (i’ve even driven through texarkana and amarillo and beaumont more than once).
i wouldn’t live in Texas again but i like visiting my family for a few days at a time (but not in summer!). Politically it was so different 25 years ago when i left, Texas used to consider itself the Southwest and voted Dem but then it allied itself with the Deep South which it still does today. It is so much more racist there now than when i grew up there, hard to believe it’s the same place.
You don’t want to go to Lubbock. Think of Roadrunner cartoons without the mesas. On day, a tumbleweed blew down the hallway of my dorm. I’m not kidding, a tumbleweed.
Anyway, I married a UT grad and we headed North. We’re in Detroit now. Southeast Michigan is more racist than Texas. It is the most racially polarized I’ve ever lived.
I went to Detroit for the first time a year ago and just thoroughly enjoyed it. My old roommate married a man from there and they loved it and said my boyfriend and i were the first visitors they had who embraced it, everyone else just saw the empty lots.
They did tell me that there are alot of white supremicists in Michigan which up until then i didn’t know.
I’m glad you had a nice time. It is a interesting place, but is stuck in death spiral unless some real changes are made. There is a dearth of leadership to make those changes. Too many people, white and black, playing race games to keep themselves in office. It’s sad.
I’ve enjoyed talking with you tonight, but it’s past my bed time. See you later.
That’s news to me, but when I think about it it’s doesn’t surprise me. They probably like Michigan for the same reason they like the Pacific Northwest — lots of room, few neighbors, and they figure they can pretty much do whatever they want.
Well, I’m impressed, but only because the tumbleweed got into your dorm room. I grew up in the desert of eastern Washington. We had regular windstorms that would blow tumbleweeds through the streets. When I was a kid I didn’t think anything of it, I figured it happened everywhere.
You and I (and Wilfred) may have crossed paths at some point. I lived in Austin from ’83 to ’91. Left there fifteen years ago this month in fact, for the glorious utopia that is Seattle*.
I lived and worked in South Austin for all but the last six months there, though, so I seldom crossed paths with the University crowd.
Small world, ain’t it. I often wonder if I knew any of the Philly bloggers when I was growing up. Probably not, as I think I’m older than them.
Oh, I forgot to add the footnote referenced by the asterisk:
* Yeah, right.
I lived in Austin from ’80 through ’87. Mostly in grad student-affordable tiny squalor sort of near the university. Fortunately this was before Bush make UT so costly by raiding the PUF.
(Side note. My view of what would happen to Social Security is what has happened to the PUF fund once it was “privatized”: Bush’s cronies became the fund managers, his friends made out like bandits, and the fund shrank at a time other university endowments were growing at unprecedented levels. End result: tuition rose precipitously.)
to withhold judgement until we see those votes?
I’m somewhat suspicious myself – there are serious dangers to the populist political line being followed by some of the newly elected Democrats, not least of which is the cultural backwardness and bigotry that you are accusing Webb of cleaving to.
I see why you make the accusation, and share the suspicion.
But I am willing to wait and see – if Webb (and the others) are of the “MYOB” school of populism, I do not see much of a problem.
and Trent Lott has every right to his beliefs about blacks. Doesn’t the Bible say slavery is okay?
Bigotry is bigotry, whether you submit to it out of fear, self-loathing or religion. Hate is hate.
Yes, he can believe it. He can say it. And I can, and do, condemn him for it. But he can’t pass laws to enforce it. Freedom of thought is for everyone, not just people like us. That’s why the ACLU defended the Nazi’s in Skokie.
if he had the stones to publicly repudiate his earlier racism, homophobia & misogyny … EXPLICITLY … then maybe I’d be more willing to believe him.
Hell, if someone like him was willing to embrace the POV that Joe Bageant, willing to admit the EAGERNESS with which his people embraced their bigotries (I refuse to give them the out that they were anything other than WILLING tools), then I’d be more open. As Bageant says:
If he could own up to that, THEN I’d be impressed w/ his protestations of this brave new populism, but based on his past behavior and statements, his eager abandonment of the Democrats as a Reagan Democrat, I can only call “bullshit”.
He would and could become a transformative figure if he could repudiate the racism, homophobia and misogyny EXPLICITLY, the way RFK became great by reaching out to the Civil Rights Movement after his brother’s murder.
He has to SHOW me … until then, he’s no different in my eyes than William Jennings Bryan, another populist willing to sacrifice “lesser” people to elevate his own humble, Christian and white own.
Madman, I understand you point and your concerns. I try to respond to all comments made on diaries I post. I think we have reached the point where we are repeating ourselves. Let’s see what happens with Webb. Please don’t be offended that I stop replying to the same arguments with the same arguments. Don’t interpret it as retreat either. We’ve said our pieces. I hope I’m right, as it would be better for both of us if Webb turned out to be what I hope he will.
fair enough.
I’m open to being surprised. I hope I AM surprised.
We are reaching a point where we will swing toward a REAL populist, or a demagogue. We’ll see what happens …
addresses both economic and “emotional” issues…
Webb states pretty clearly that he feels that the “God, Guns, Gays, Abortion and the Flag” gambit is nonsense, should be exposed for the dodge that it is, and is really not the business of government to enforce, regulate, or interfere in.
The rhetoric and ideals put forward in that article are admirable.
The key question is whether the article is simply words, or whether Webb will vote, act, and propose legislation in accordance with his admirable words, or not.
I would imagine that if Webb legislates the way he writes in that article, that a lot of folks, including yourself, would be pretty happy about it.
True?
I’m totally jazzed about Jim Webb.
Being an Annapolis grad myself, I admit to a certain thrill of seeing a progressive energy from that bastion. I think he’s been handling himself beautifully . . . using his new bully pulpit to great advantage.
Thanks for writing this.