The Counterpublic Papers vol. 2 no. 23

There’s nothing like starting off the morning reading that the U. S. Department of Education misspelled W. E. B. Du Bois’ name in a tweet. Who does that?

Don’t answer.

…..

A colleague of mine has been working to uncover what happened to OFA. I’ve written about it here before—if OFA was still here, it’s possible that instead of losing 1030 seats the Democratic Party would’ve been able to keep them and then some. His piece finally came out in The New Republic this week. 

If you’re serious about politics, about progressive politics, read it. In combination with this and this. Then read it (and them) again.

….

Lord knows political science studies a lot of subjects pretty poorly. But in comparison to other social sciences, and in comparison even to multi- or trans-disciplinary projects like American Studies or even Black Studies in some instances—there are a few things that political science does pretty well. I think it has a pretty good handle on the two-party system for example. Now we know that both political parties are bankrupt. In different ways mind you—the world would have to totally change for the Democratic Party to even nominate its own version of Donald Trump, much less get that person elected. But they’re both pretty problematic. 

The two parties, though, are what we have. And the two-party system itself is pretty hard-wired into our system of government at almost every level. This means that any attempt to create a new set of political priorities, a new governing mentality, has to somehow go through one of the two parties we have. There is no “let’s create a third party that can take the left” game in the US. In a parliamentary system, certainly. Not here. It isn’t happening. At best we can create some type of third independent force that can then be used to shift one of the two parties (best case scenario shift both of them—there’s a reason not even the Republicans can touch social security). Political scientists understand this.

I think political scientists also understand that political interests matter and these interests can’t solely be boiled down to economics. Eli Broad is one of the biggest charter school proponents in the world. We can’t turn to economic interests to understand why he wrote a letter against Education Secretary Betty DeVos (responsible for the brilliant tweet above), because Broad likely stands to make more money under DeVos. Similarly we can’t necessarily turn to economic interests to understand why the Koch Brothers spent millions of their own money trying to defeat Donald Trump—again they stand to make a lot of money under his administration given his stance on climate change. 

Finally, and there are more examples I’ll end on one.

Voting matters. Some folk write about the importance of “voting with your pocketbook” as if a single vote was the equivalent to a single dollar. It isn’t. The accountability mechanism a vote reinforces is very very different than the market-driven accountability mechanism a dollar reinforces. (In the US at least, we only get one vote.) The research is pretty clear. Voting systems matter—compulsory voting appears to reduce income inequality. In the US case the Voting Rights Act matters—in North Carolina, on city councils, and in increasing participation rates among linguistic minorities, among other areas. In fact although the data isn’t really out yet we probably need look no further than the 2016 election. Voting isn’t the only thing, and in fact on an individual level it really is a minor thing. But aggregated, voting continues to matter. 

…. 

Last year the Turkish president Recep Erdogan sent a letter to almost 1600 university deans, every single dean in their university system….firing them. A short time ago, they fired 300 additional faculty. One of the best political science departments in the nation (Ankara University’s political science department) is now decimated with over 20 courses left teacher-less, and 50 graduate students left adviser-less. Perhaps not coincidentally Ankara University sits in the nation’s capital. Perhaps not coincidentally its political science department has historically trained the best of the civil service sector. Perhaps not coincidentally its long history has enabled it to stave off “interventions” by the Turkish government designed to make it more amenable to state rule.

This is TRANSNATIONAL.

….

Last week I was at Hamilton College. In a few hours I go to Dickinson College. "Trump, Race, and the Slow-Death of American Democracy". (I’m getting better at titles.)