Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Reps, Dems and Ethical Bipartisanship,

February 23, 2009, 4:58 pm
Does Bipartisanship Matter?
By The Editors

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/does-bipartisanship-matter/?hp&apage=9#comments

New York Times copyright
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My Comment# 206. February 24, 2009 12:44 pm Link

Ethical Bipartisanship

Bipartisanship is a valuable strategic option for President Obama as he tries to implement a cohesive response to the economic mess created by the Republicans. He must be persistently bipartisan, probably multi-partisan, like successful democracies in Europe and the Global South.

The Republicans are already focused on trying to win back the White House and Congress in 4 years. That’s is the core objective in defying bipartisan overtures by the President.
Well, Obama can play that game too. He is also intent on winning again in four years. So, keep offering bipartisanship opportunities to the Republicans, no matter how many times they say ‘No.”

Then, four years down the road Obama can prove that the majority of Republicans are ideologically against bipartisanship. They appear to be driven by ideology rather than pragmatism.

The majority of Republicans and some Democrats lack pragmatism of what constitutes policy and programs to maximize the Greater Collective Good.

That’s what ethical democracy is mostly about.

Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
— Chithra KarunaKaran
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50th Anniversary 1959-2009: MLK in the Land of MKG

50th Anniversary 1959-2009 MLK in the Land of MKG

This year Black History Month has especial significance. The White House used to be the WHITES' House. Three hundred years of resistance and struggle have propelled a Black President into leadership of the United States. Obama is 50% white and 50% but such is the power of the "one-drop-rule" of racialized white supremacacism that he cannot possibly stand up and say "Hey I'm Black-white or White-Black." The most he can say, and he did say was self-deprecatingly "a mutt like me."

Without the blood sweat tears of those three hundred years of persistent struggle, such a historic moment might have been even further delayed. Today, during Black History Month in the United States, I am marking for special mention the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's historic visit to India to the several places of Gandhi's activism, assassination and cremation.

Ethical Democracy as Lived Practice is about examining and reflecting upon such ethical moments. Self-in-Society-Studies focuses on this visit and its implications and repercussions.
More to come...