• cynicism
• political rhetoric
• polling

A recent Facebook exchange got me thinking about a cynicism feedback loop and political rhetoric.

Last week, I posted a Washington Post story to Facebook about support for the public option. The story quoted some poll numbers that indicated that a majority of Americans support the public option. A friend of mine from college commented on this post, and the following change ensued:

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• health care
• political rhetoric

To bridge the two blog posts of the evening...

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• class
• political rhetoric

I'm currently revising an essay on Obama as the apotheosis of New Class (Professional-Managerial Class) ideology. Some thoughtful work from Walter Benn Michaels, and from the ever-interesting Michael Lind. American politics is now reducible to internal class warfare among elites.

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• causes and effects
• political rhetoric

There is probably some vast scholarly literature out there that I'm missing, but here's my research (and discussion) question for the day. Race/ethnicity, region, and socioeconomic class/status are pretty good predictors of political affiliation (although the flight of the highly educated and wealthy from the GOP since 2006 confounds things a bit). In election years, I often ask my students if they plan to vote for the same, say, presidential candidate as their parents.

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• political rhetoric

hat tip to Brady Creel

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• political rhetoric

There was a moment in the late '60's when Daniel Patrick Moynihan almost persuaded LBJ and Nixon to move the US closer to social democracy, on family allowances and on employment. He did so out of concern for the plight of black men, but the ideological climate of the time named him sexist and racist, and the moment was lost. More here.

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• exceptionalism
• obama
• political rhetoric

This is about a week old, but I thought it was worth a post here.

The question:

Do you believe in American exceptionalism? If not, can you explain how your view differs from that of your predecessors?

The answer:

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• political rhetoric

Who said this? --I have been watching an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern. I am referring to the over-the-top hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president, which distinctly reminds me of the “Bush Is Hitler” crowd on the Left.

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• political rhetoric

Michael Steele needs your help (in so many ways). Here's a link to his survey,giving you a direct voice in creating the future of the Whig--er, Republican--Party.

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• political rhetoric

I have been meaning to post about the White House's Rush Limbaugh strategy of late but hadn't gotten around to it. Nate Silver has had some great analysis (incidentally, 538.com might have actually gotten better since election day).

Luckily, Doug Eskew has posted some thoughtful (and, dead on) remarks about how Obama is setting up a situation where you are either with "Obama" or you are with "Rush." And yes...we should consider whether this kind of tactic maps onto the "with us or against us" axis of evil rhetoric. And we should ask whether this is "politics as usual."

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