[NLA] but wait, there's more--USDE web site

Wed Dec 4 12:39:06 EST 2002

To George D., MCarver and Colleagues:

I caught this on C-SPAN on Monday:  in an upcoming
article in Esquire Magazine, a person who was involved
from the beginning of the faith-based initiatives of the
current administration left because, as it was quoted,
the people running the show were like, "Mayberry
Machiavelli's."  (I did not catch his name--it was live
and went by too fast.)

The movements across the board are not exactly like
a cancer, and one cannot jump from the USDE internal
note, to Mayberry, to columns like Paul Krugman's in
the NYTimes about tax assaults on the poor--who usually
represent many of the undereducated we advocate for--
for a certain connection, but there certainly is enough
to raise some serious questions about the swing to the
hard right and its negative effect on what is already a
difficult AE advocacy road.

Here is the webaddress for the Krugman article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/03/opinion/03KRUG.html?ex=1039934708&ei=1&en=
c0c5c51038d500b3

Regards,

Catherine King

----- Original Message -----
From: Mary Lynn Carver <mlcarver at nsls.info>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: [NLA] but wait, there's more--USDE web site

> AAA-Mennnn!!
> MLCarver
> Gurnee, Illinois
>
> "George E. Demetrion" wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 27 Nov 2002 13:27:56 -0500 "Debbie Yoho" <dwyoho at earthlink.net>
> > writes:
> >
> > But my point was that in American politics the system is designed for
one
> > point of view to prevail--for a time--and for better or worse. The trick
> > is to insure the system protects the rights of those who have points of
> > view that are "on the outs" at the moment. But I don't look to the
> > reigning party for that protection. I may differ from some on the list
> > who,
> > like me, would call themselves liberal, but at age 51 I still have some
> > cockeyed
> > >faith in both my fellow citizens and the political system we live
with.
> >  Another day will come. In the meantime, I have to consider myself
among
> > the loyal opposition--unhappily opposed, but nonetheless loyal, at least
> > to the
> > >process.
> >
> > Debbie and others:
> >
> > I see your point here, though I'm troubled by a politics that is far
from
> > as usual these days.  As I recall the Clinton administration, that
> > represented anything but the domination of democratic liberalism.  One
> > thinks in the early days of Clinton's backing off of the issue of gays
in
> > the military and the nominee of Lanie Gaunier for Atty General, where
> > Clinton pulled both of these in response to Republican pressure.  One
> > also thinks of the failure of his early domestic reform--the emphasis to
> > be placed on job training as the quid pro quo for globalization and
> > welfare reform.  And then the incompetent fiasco of his health care plan
> > which did more than anything else to usher in the 104th Contract  With
> > America Congress, which threatened to eliminate adult literacy education
> > as we have known it.  Then, Clinton's rightward turn in 1996 on what is
> > euphemistically referred to as "welfare reform," which also gave us the
> > Workforce Investment Act.  Then, finally, all that impeachment furor
over
> > that Monica stuff.  Let's say that throughout the Clinton
administration,
> > conservative forces more or less effectively checked any liberal agenda
> > that might have issued forth from the "New Democrat," William Jefferson
> > Clinton."  From a more detached point of view, one might interpret such
> > stalemate as the typical checks and balance operative through much of
the
> > relationship between the Presidency and Congress.
> >
> > I think we're in a fundamentally different mode at this time, and that
> > any analysis of what might be perceived as politics as useful needs to
be
> > carefully sifted through the ideological forces that are currently
> > operative in the political culture.  The most fundamentals factor as I
> > see it is a very intentional and methodical right wing agenda which
> > dominates the White House and has sufficient power (now) in Congress to
> > freely impose its will on the nation.  This will soon be followed by a
> > federal court system that will be heavily weighed toward the
conservative
> > agenda and its impact will be felt for years.
> >
> > The Hartford Courant reported today that major corporate financial
> > support in the industries of the pharmaceuticals and insurance (and
> > others) are shifting their contributions much more decidedly to the
> > Republican Party, where up now it had been more equitably distributed
> > between the two parties.  Then there is the nightly rantings of
> > conservative television news programs (and not just Fox TV), drawing
> > millions of viewers and playing a major role in shaping the agenda of
> > what gets perceived as news and right thinking.  Night after night, the
> > drumbeat of the conservative agenda, combined with bashings of the "far
> > left" and claims of liberal bias in the media, and by this they mean
> > Peter Jenning!!, gets aired, with nary a centrist, never mind a "far
> > left" counter voice of any substantial proportion.
> >
> > Thus,with such a potent source of political power in place, the
political
> > fundamentalism of the Bush administration has attained a powerful
> > hegemony which spans the gamut of right thinking (double entendre
> > intended) from phonics to geopolitics.  Given this power, the Hartford
> > Courant has also reported that the GOP conservatives intend to push
their
> > conservative social agenda very far, which will include some major
> > restrictions on abortion and, as I gather,. some major public funding
for
> > faith based initiatives.  If I have this right, some time ago, the Pat
> > Robertson foundation was awarded a major grant.
> >
> > So the question becomes where are the checks and balances either within
> > the government itself, within the fourth estate (the press), or in
> > citizenry grass roots activism from below?  In 1964 Barry Goldwater said
> > extremism in the cause of virtue is no vice.  Now we have such extremism
> > in the White House, in the dominant forces in Congress, in the federal
> > courts, and on cable television news.  Rather than politics as usual, I
> > see this as politics in a new, virulent key, where the Administration's
> > capacity to effectively stifle, marginalize, and repress public dissent
> > over the President's Iraqi policy is symptomatic of a broader political
> > intention to destroy any  vestiges of progressivism (or apparently even
> > centriism) as a contemporary political force and to impose right
thinking
> > on the nation in the areas of education, culture, religion, social
> > issues, civic responsibility,  and foreign policy. While they're not
> > likely to attain their full agenda, there's very little on the horizon
by
> > way of check to blunt the full impact of a very powerful effort to
> > reshape culture and politics as we have known it in the United States.
> > And this will be done in the name of patriotism and imposing leadership
> > and bringing back respectability to the President.
> >
> > May I hear an a-men!
> >
> >  And to top it off, such ideology is buttressed by the allegedly
> > anti-ideological stance of scientific based research in the areas of
> > health, education, and God knows what else as a tool to impose the Bush
> > agenda on the American people, many of whom seem quite willing to
embrace
> > it--as they can really hear no other message.
> >
> > An essential part of the process of US democratic politics is vigorous
> > dissent when it is warranted.  The times they are before us.  Even if
the
> > logic of my thinking leads me to exaggerate at time or even if at times
I
> > get it wrong, better to speak up, I say and self correct on the fly
> > rather than to keep silence in the face of this hegemonic onslaught of
> > conservative ideology.  A stout defense of the First Amendment and the
> > vitality of US democracy itself demands such a stance.
> >
> > >In terms of advocacy for the AELS, there's nothing like an ogre on the
> > horizon to unify the troops. Perhaps in the next few years the NLA
> > will>truly develop into a force to be reckoned with. We've made a start.
> >
> > That's certainly my hope too.  After reading the Action Alert on the
AERA
> > web site, one wonders to what extent NIFL will allow unfettered free
> > speech on the listservs it hosts.  That's something to keep an eye on.
> >
> > George Demetrion
> > sophocles5 at juno.com
> > >Debbie
> > >
> > >Deborah W. Yoho
> > >Co-moderator, NIFL-Health Listserv
> > >President, SC Adult Literacy Educators
> > >Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council
> > >2728 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205
> > >803-765-2555 Fax 803-779-8417 dwyoho at earthlink.net
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> >
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