Superdel update: Obama closes gap, Dean lays out new date.

[SirNitram]

First, Obama picked up six superdelegates recently, five who hadn't yet committed, and one who had previously committed to Clinton. This tightens the Superdel margin to a mere 19.

Following the horrific atrocity of a debate this week, Dr. Howard Dead laid out a new deadline for the Superdel choices: Not July 1st. Now.

The reasons are clear. Clinton has begun a metamorphasis into a Republican, using McCain's attacks, benefitting from Republican-created questions, and so forth. He needs a delegate so they can start hitting McCain and hard. Allowing Clinton to hand McCain ammunition for the General is detrimental to the party.

This will likely affect the three 'types' of Superdels differently. While elected Superdels(Which Obama either leads or ties with) are relatively free of DNC control, they do need Dean's nationwide push for their re-elections. 'Appointed' Superdelegates from the DNC risk really pissing off the boss.

The last group is hardest. They aren't notified they're Superdelegates yet. Dean's clearly hoping settling the first two will make them rather moot, or close enough that Clinton drops out.

As an amendum, this eruption at Obama is because he gets dangerously, perilously close to the real Third Rail of politics. Oh, the media bleats that it's Social Security... This is to cover their Republican heroes from having to do anything about it.(Don't think they're in bed together? 'Aqua Velva' + 'Fred Thompson', then hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky'. Be prepared to vomit at Matthew's openly crushing on a balding guy.) The third rail is..

Economic class.

Even in public or private, discussions of it bring rolling of eyes. But the gap between Have and Have Not has skyrocketed.. And the most destructive leaps have been under Republicans(The only recent Dem to have it leap up was Clinton; heavily conservative himself(He signed the DoMA, ferchrissakes), and saddled with a GOP congress). But Obama is getting close to talking about it by talking about how bitter people are about being swept under the rug.

[frigidmagi]

Your pardon Nitram but can you post a link to your source?

As to economic class, the common American belief, or the American Dream if you will is that with hard work and determination anyone can make a decent life for themselves and more importantly pass a better one on to their children. Whether that is a myth or something that is actually true, I think is best left to another thread.

What cannot be denied lately is that it has for some reason gotten harder to achieve that Dream. Our society, where mobility was at least supposely prized is getting more ossified. The various layers are settling and it is getting harder to move up or down. Things are for lack of a better word, getting stale. Either as a result of this, or for other reasons, the uppermost class of the US is making more money from less effort then they have at any point in our history. Even the Robber Barons had to do a little work. On the flip side the average American is working harder and getting less. Americans take less vacation time then European, Canadains or Australians. They put in more overtime. They work more holidays. Their buying power is shrinking faster then a lake in the Sahara desert in summer.

Don't think your average American isn't noticing this. Don't think grumbling isn't happening and people aren't questioning. There is a reason why 83% of Americans recently said they think the country is on the wrong track. That reason being they are paying attention.

For some reason though, it is forbuten to discuss this. It is wrong to say, hey, I think something has gone wrong in the recent decades, something has gone wrong with our economic system.

[rhoenix]

For some reason though, it is forbuten to discuss this. It is wrong to say, hey, I think something has gone wrong in the recent decades, something has gone wrong with our economic system.

Excellent points - and it does seem very odd that it seems taboo to discuss how America's economy is eagerly shoving its head up its own ass at the moment. I mean, with gas prices soaring to stomach-unsettling heights in just the past four years I thought there would be riots in the front lawns of the White House by now - but the grumbling is still muted, still mostly bandied about with friends in living rooms over intoxicants, not in city halls surrounded by hundreds of people shouting in agreement.

Sadly, I think its primarily because people think there's no real hope of improvement; no hope of positive change. I think this explains the less and less cautious optimism of those supporting Obama now as time goes on, and why we as the American people haven't had the momentum to start recalling Senators and Congresscritters for being spineless money-grubbing self-interested idiots. People shrug, and think "Well, all politicians are corrupt," and let it go at that.

This is fucking America, people! The land where the dream is that we take the best of a given culture, distill away most of the traditions that don't fit, and bring it into our mainstream culture. We have chefs who specialize in Cantonese/Mandarin cuisine putting their heads together with chefs who specialize in Mexican/Latin cooking, and creating entirely new dishes as a result. We have fashion designers who're influenced by cultures all over the world creating hybrid trends in clothing. We have writers, philosophers, and scientists who learn the disciplines and schools of thought of others, and use them to create new ways of viewing the world.

Even with that, it seems like we're stagnating, or even eroding, and have been over the past century, despite the dramatic impact of the Internet. Government, Civics, and Economics aren't required classes in high schools anymore, churning out class after class of teenagers who don't know how to properly budget, can't name how the different branches of our own government interrelate and balance one another, and can barely even find their own country or its neighbors on a map.

All in all, I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else, despite the things I see that could stand improvement. Even so, when I'm an old man and have the privilege and honor of telling stories to my grandchildren about what life was like when I was growing up (before the Internet!), I'd like to have the same pride in my voice as I talk about the country as I knew it growing up as my grandfather does when he talks about his childhood.

...Well, without the "I grew up during the Depression dammit, when a dollar was worth a dollar!" speeches. I'm sure I'll have my own rants by then.

...And speaking of rants, this post turned into one. So I'll end things here, and place some of the blame onto the rare Mountain Dew I drank today due to feeling like I'm dragging ass.

[Cynical Cat]

Almost all Americans describe themselves as middle class. The working class and the lower parts of the upper class are included in this. It isn't that Americans haven't been noticing that the working class has been getting the shaft, the middle class has been getting squeezed tighter and tighter, and the working poor have been getting the bone is that Americans don't like to think in terms of class conflict. The mythology that everyone who works hard can make it that frigid mentioned has often been truer in America than in most other places.

But Americans aren't blind either. The widening gap between the mega rich and everyone else hasn't gone unnoticed. The disappearance of good manufacturing jobs that can allow a working class family to live a middle class lifestyle sticks in the craw of millions of Americans. Americans know they're getting the shaft and the rich are making money. As reluctant as they are to talk in terms of class, that barrier is taking a beating.

[frigidmagi]

Which is frankly a nightmare for nationalists.

Let me explain, I consider myself a good sane nationalist. Others but disagree but fuck em.

Now every sane nationalist has to recognize something about nations... They're made up. Not in the sense that they don't exist but in the sense that they are an identity that exists pretty much only in our heads and hearts. There is no sacred line between France and Germany for example. There is not that huge a difference culturally speaking between Canadians and Americans (big enough for me to want to keep Canada out of the USA club, but side issue, besides most Canadians don't want into the club so it's a dead issue). Yet they are all separate nations, why? You can talk about military victories, languages, enthic groups but in the end nations exist because the people in them believe in them and want them to exist more then they want to be part of another nation. Kosovo for example. This doesn't make them invalid or unimportant. Most of human culture is made up, created in the hearts and minds of humanity and we're not about to reject that are we?

What every good nationalist wants is the promotion of a common national identity above any other incidental identity you might have. Black and White? Not has important has being American (racism is the bane of American Nationalism and its deadliest of enemies). Man or Women? Again being an American is more important. Democrat or Republican? Being an American is more important. Economic or Social class? American is more important.

What do I mean by that? Not that you should forget your race, gender, class or political beliefs but that the common citizenship in the United States should be more important and have a greater pull on your loyalities then any of the above. You swiftly come to realize that this will only work if everyone is treated more or less the same and has a chance for success, or believes that they are/do. The best way is to make sure that they are treated the same before the law and have chances to succeed and better themselves. The easier way (that tends to work only in the short term if at all) is to lie to them and try to make them believe it even if this is not the case. I want to note that the lie never works. It always gets found out and creates enemies to the common identity of the nation. It is the cup of poison you should not drink. Its also morally wrong but that's never stopped politicians and social engineers before.

Combine the two and you get the fact that the most important thing you want to promote... Is the one thing that is the hardest to get everyone to believe in if they start having reasons not to. Especially in a nation like the US that cannot use an enthic group myth to shore it up. The last thing you want is group conflicts that could overshadow the common loyalty and bond. In that lies the seeds of the nation's polarization in enemy camps and in the end of that road it's destruction. So you must work to avoid it, you must work to ensure that everyone gets a cut fo the pie and that one walks off with more then they have really earned. I regret to report that it is in my view that we have in every level and count failed to do so in anyway that really matters. Yes we have made great strides forward in terms of race and gender, but not enough to make people push those identities to the background.

Here we are courting splits along political ideology, class, and a long list of others. This is a result of more then just the last 8 years. It's result of the last 30 if not more.