THE DAY
Let’s start with the good news. This evening, The New Yorker came out with a really great piece about Oscar Underwood, an Alabama senator who was a Democratic candidate at a brokered convention back in 1924.
There were a mind-boggling 103 ballots before the Dems settled on John Davis who went on to lose. (By contrast, FDR got the nod on the 5th ballot in ’32.) But what I really liked about the piece was the focus on Underwood’s very principled stance and his determination: “… Underwood had come from Alabama with the goal of forcing the Democratic Party to confront the rising power of the Ku Klux Klan, by pushing a plank in the Party’s platform that would condemn the group by name.”
Because the Dems were too wimpy to do it without that push.
So you have to admire that.
You also have to wonder where all those fiery, social justice Southern politicians went.
Actually, believe it or not, that’s sort of easy to answer when you consider that the Democrats were the Confederacy. The Union was, after all, the creation of the party of Lincoln, a Republican. After the war, the Republicans swooped down, as any occupying army would, to make sure the South behaved. So the simmering tensions between Dems and Republicans were always there and remain today. You wouldn’t get such heated arguments about Confederate emblems (and, yes, Alabama’s flag isn’t an exact replica but the idea’s the same), or people taking such pride in their Confederate heritage. In so many ways, the resentments are still here, and so is the divide.
But that’s a discussion for another day.
Suffice to say that, in this instance, Alabama has something to be really proud of. In his day, Underwood was a maverick and outlier. His opponents for the nomination did not go so far as to condemn the KKK. But Underwood sure tried, and it cost him his senate seat. He retired, knowing he’d never get re-elected. But he took a principled stand.
So I have often wondered where all those fiery Southern Democrats went. Well, in a way . . . it’s no mystery. It was Vietnam and Johnson (and, by extension, all those knee-jerk liberal Democrats from the South) that began to force the sea change via the Republican Party and, more specifically, Goldwater’s candidacy, that shifted the South’s course, leading it back to its highly conservative, segregationist roots. There was, of course, lingering resentment, too, from all the entitlement programs that Roosevelt, a Dem, started in motion, but that, too, is another post for another day. Suffice to say that the South is kind of returning to its roots, just with a different party, that’s all.
But here, they got it right.
I wish I could say the same for this next bit because there is this, a riff in The Onion about the AL State Board of Education’s decision to insert a disclaimer about the validity of evolution (in case you can’t guess, they call evolution both a “theory” and “highly controversial”).
Okay, for the record: the existence of a god is a theory. (Belief and spirituality are probably the result of an elaborate stew of neurochemicals that can be replicated with drugs and in the lab. Now, what’s more fascinating is to wonder at the adaptive value of such a mood state–but, again, another post for another day.) In fact, there is about as much evidence for a god as there is for Spiderman . . . but I think I’ve pointed that out before.
So, anyway, yes, this is satire, but let’s think about this for a second.
First off, what the headline says is true. The State Board did vote to retain that disclaimer, and that information is here: http://wkrg.com/…/alabama-textbooks-to-keep-disclaimer-tha…/
So, this is funny…but not really. Say what you want about the schools or maybe it is that, out of the entire state, you’re lucky enough to be in a progressive district. But this certainly doesn’t recommend the state as a whole. Remember, these clowns are calling the shots, and according to a 2015 Pew Research Report, “the general population and members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) both see U.S. K-12 education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields as “average” or “below average” compared with other industrialized countries.” ( http://www.pewinternet.org/…/what-the-public-knows-and-doe…/)
This is only one reason why. It is, in fact, symptomatic of another meme making the rounds: i.e., that all those predictions about climate change have so far been wrong.
Fair enough. But there is a difference between observable, quantifiable facts and predictions, particularly when not enough time has passed or there are too few data points from which to extrapolate patterns. Predictions are guesses. Some guesses are more educated than others. Some guesses will be wrong. But accelerated melting, shifts in ocean currents, rising temperatures, earlier fire seasons, diminishing aquifers, and increasing levels of species extinctions due to habitat loss . . . those are all facts. What they mean for the long run . . . scientists can only guess. But only the truly willfully ignorant and/or those who cling to their denial would suggest that any of this is good.
So, for my money–and funding the clowns at the State Board of Education is, indeed, where my tax money is going–they fail, miserably.
On to the second example of Alabama’s progressive ideological stance and government:
So Governor Bentley slashes money for parks, bans cities from raising their minimum wage, cut troopers, licensing bureaus . . . you know, in essence, deprives tax-payers of services . . . but nearly doubles his staffers’ pay. The full article is here.
What can you possibly say about something like this?
Right. I didn’t think you’d find the words either. But how do these guys stay in power?
DEAD MOUNTAIN (placeholder title)
Day 1: 1500 (outline)
Day 2: 0 (outline)
Day 3: 0 (outline)
Day 4: 0 (outline)
Day 5: 0 (outline; soon, I swear, soon.)
Day 6: 0 (yeah, yeah, yeah; articles)
UNTITLED SF BOOK
(Previously had 1500 in outline)
Day 1: 2400 (outline)
Day 2: 2400 (outline)
Day 3: 2000 (outline)
Day 4: 2000 (outline)
Blog Post: 1010
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What I’m Watching:
Mental Dental Floss . . . er, Shades of Blue.
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What I’m Reading:
A very interesting chapter on Chinese prostitution in the 19th century. Another interesting, first-hand account of San Francisco in the same time period.
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What I’m Listening to:
The NCAA, out of one ear. The only team I wanted to win that actually did was Indiana. But I’m not sure I really care.
