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Destruction of DemocracyRacial Politics

The Trump Show… and What It Means for the Rest of Us

Photo above: Donald Trump and his Laughing White Men's Supreme Chorus back when they thought they were celebrating the removal of you and your children from affordable health care in the U.S. It's been a bit comforting to hear more and more conservatives and liberals speak out on the threat the Trump administration poses to our democracy. Progress! But I find we continue to dance around the issue of race and skin color. Hard right Republicans and their conservative media, per their playbook, have shamed the press and the Democrats into not ...

metadadablog on September 18, 2018

Recent Posts

Radical CentrismRole of the Citizen

Has the Time Come to Mandate Universal Service?

Photo above: John F Kennedy meeting with early participants in the Peace Corps, a program of people to people outreach in foreign countries. Radical Centrism: Remaking Citizenship Part IIIn my last post I promised a more detailed follow up on a key idea about rebuilding citizenship in the U.S. — mandatory universal service to country. Some will say it's easy for me to advocate universal service to country since, of course, as a 71 year old curmudgeon, I'd be exempt from such service. But I did come of age during the days ...

metadadablog on September 9, 2018

Recent Posts

Radical CentrismRole of Government

What Can We Do — What SHOULD We Do — for Our Country?

Radical Centrism Papers: Remaking Citizenship I "Ask not what your country can do for you... Ask what YOU can do for your country!" So John F Kennedy inspired us almost 60 years ago in his electrifying inaugural address.  But since the idealism he unleashed with that statement, it seems we've been just been doing a lot of forgetting. Politicians, presidents, political parties, preachers and pundits have sort of been just letting us off the hook.  Right? The weakening of our democratic republic and debasement of our civic values seems to continue unabated. Not ...

metadadablog on September 6, 2018

Recent Posts

Destruction of DemocracyInternet Age

WWIII May Have Already Started… Here’s What It Looks Like on the Ground

I made a bit of a mistake in my Thank You Comrade Putin post — a very American mistake — of believing that what happens in the U.S. is some kind of special history, when in fact, these days, everything must be taken in a global context. So here's a well-researched article by Michael Carpenter that appeared in The Atlantic recently detailing Putin's use of fringe groups to further his war on democratic governments around the world.  It is important to understanding the vast scope of Putin's ambition. Here's that link again. Please click ...

metadadablog on August 30, 2018

Global Corporatismmorality

Global Corporations; Global Solutions

Radical Centrism Policy Papers 2   I'm sure my three week absence of posts about politics, history and culture has been devastating to my devoted audience. My deepest apologies to both of you. My darkness of the last few weeks was due to the loss of my closest cousin, Sadie. Our love for each other, fostered ...

By metadadablog on January 28, 2018

authoritarianismCulture

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us…

Radical Centrism Papers: It's War. No Less Pt 3 My last two posts HERE and HERE, about fighting against the breakdowns in our political dialogue and institutional crises in our country have drawn a lot of comment and criticism, especially on Facebook. I have decided to handle that in a "Reader Feedback blog" in my ...

By metadadablog on January 7, 2018

Advice for DemocratsAdvice for Republicans

Saving the Republic: Choosing and Winning Our Battles

Radical Centrism Papers: It's War. No Less - Part 2 See my Fierce Patriotism  post from last week for the introduction this three part blog series. The concluding post in the series is scheduled for the end of this week and is called We Have Met The Enemy, and He Is Us. It will be a reflection on how each ...

By metadadablog on January 3, 2018

Civic ConversationCulture

What Does Morality Even Mean Anymore?

Radical Centrism Papers: 2Doesn’t it seem like our nation used to have a true moral compass? That the gathered mass of our people had a more common sense of purpose and destiny? The nation had fewer laws, but it brought individual values into political and business decisions — the quiet web of morals and manners ...

By metadadablog on December 7, 2017

Advice for DemocratsAdvice for Republicans

Open for (Small) Business

Radical Centrism Policy Papers 1 I start these ramblings with a critique of the way the left and the right view American business: both appear to see business activity as a monolithic economic function. What this perspective misses are the vast differences between small business and large corporations. These are not — in effect and ...

By metadadablog on December 3, 2017

ElectionsFacts and Fake Facts

What the Russians Did Very Well

Above: Just one of the many Russian fake news stories (this one about a pedophile sex ring involved with the Clintons and run out of a pizza shop in Washington D.C.) that found traction on social media, including being reposted by many of my neighbors!  The story of what the Russians actually accomplished in the 2016 ...

By metadadablog on November 17, 2017

Civic ConversationPolitical Parties

A Modest Proposal: Radical Centrism

Amid the battlefield that has been created for us by inviting us to bait and battle our political opponents, I fancy myself striding, gladiator-like, into a no-man’s land below the fireworks to lay down a modest proposal for the rest of us. I’m calling it Radical Centrism. Radical Centrism (RC) recognizes the humanity of all sides, ...

By metadadablog on November 14, 2017

Civic ConversationComments and Responses

Takers and Makers? Our Readers Respond…

We are especially grateful when our readers and followers take the time and effort to thoroughly respond to our various posts.  One of my fervent hopes is that, even with politics as they are, in this space we can engage in passionate, but respectful, exchange of ideas. So I'd like to post a recent exchange ...

By metadadablog on November 10, 2017

authoritarianismCulture

A Lesson in Citizenship and Politics

  https://youtu.be/M7M4iB_d690 This is a worthy perspective from someone who has suffered greatly under the authoritarian regime of Vladmir Putin in Russia. Interviewing with Lawrence O'Donnell, Nadia Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot makes comparisons with Trump’s urges toward discrediting the media to what she experienced in Russia as Putin was taking the first steps in building his ...

By metadadablog on November 8, 2017

IssuesKeynesian Economics

Boomerville, USA

Mom and Dad Create the World, Part III My experience growing up was like a lot of kids, I suppose.  Though I don’t remember it, my first home after the Arkansas home of my mother’s parents, was in Selah, a small suburb of Yakima, Washington. With my parents and my older brother, we had arrived ...

By metadadablog on November 6, 2017

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