One Father For Dean
A Father and His Politics....

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Mountain Men, Minutemen, Grange Men and Union Men: Where Is the Common Cause? 

This is an idea that I've percolated for awhile...

If you map the (male-oriented) matrix:

         |   Independent   |   Communal
-----------------------------------------------
Urban  |   Minutemen   |  Guild / Union Men
-----------------------------------------------
Rural    |  Mountain Men  |  Farming / Grange Men

...I think this tells a tale...

As the agricultural and manufacturing waves have swept and receded across our country , the independent archetype has taken hold in the mind of the majority... as there has been no directly obvious communal economic hierarchy to replace those of the past. It has become "every person for themselves", instead of a balance between this and "everyone for the good of the community".

Now, if you have plenty of land to hunt and are adept at survival...or are a small business owner in a growing community...then the Mountain Men / Minutemen can thrive. We as a society labor under a partial delusion that we are all Bill Gates - possible? yes. are we all capable? not currently....and we don't all need to be to reap the benefits of the risk taker.

As you increase the size of a community (in the years of America's founding), communal forces start to build, so that the growth of the settler and worker archetypes eventually takes a lead from initial independent archetypes. This became the hotbed of populism and social democratic forces, which now are in decline since the switch to a service-based economy (and, only recently, the service unions who organize them).

The continuing great liberal movements (women's rights, civil rights, etc.) have created some longstanding communal structures, but they have not been based on economics per se (equal wages aside). I think it nothing short of prescient that service and white-collar unions coming to the forefront in the near term are establishing a revival of the concept of communal economic self-interest...with which the other liberal communal structures can be bridged...and re-start the conversation of moral community (as opposed to a community of morals) in America.


Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Meetup Referrals 

From the Meetup website, the latest statistics on Meetup referrals:

"Meetup Topic --- # of "Tell-A-Friend" emails sent -- (Systemwide Rank)

dean2004 --- 38,752 -- (1)
clark2004 --- 6,255 -- (2)
kerry2004 --- 3,035 -- (5)
kucinich2004 --- 2,977 -- (7)
edwards2004 --- 510 -- (51)
bush2004 --- 279 -- (100)
moseleybraun2004 --- 229 -- (116)
gephard2004 --- 103 -- (217)
lieberman2004 --- 51 -- (351)
sharpton04 --- 23 -- (593)"

As a total of Meetup membership for the top four, you find a referral percentage of:

Dean - 27.6% (140,244)
Clark - 14.3% (43,753)
Kerry - 19.9% (15,347)
Kucinich - 17.0% (17,554)

Interesting to note that three of these candidates (Clark, Dean, Kucinich) also have the lowest average contribution to date, per the FEC (thanks to Atrios).


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