All My Party People Gonna Do What?*
David Weigel | March 24, 2008, 1:19pm
I don't know how the
"name that party" meme got started. I want to say it started when news reports failed to identify Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson, he of the famous freezer, as a Democrat. Rush Limbaugh and a number of conservative/libertarian blogs started pouncing on reports of political corruption that fingered a Democrat but didn't mention his party—unfair, because it always seemed like the Larry Craigs had their party affiliations trumpeted again and again and again.
But if it ever had a purpose, it's gotten really stupid. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has
been charged (by the Wayne County prosecutor who might succeed him) with perjury and misconduct in office. Kilpatrick is a fiend, as anyone who saw his State of the City address (where he blamed a "lynch mob" for his problems and claimed "in the last 30 days I've been
called a nigger more than any time in my life"). The righty blogosphere response is... bitching about how no one says he's a Democrat! Don
Surber:AP discloses everything about the charges against Detroit’s mayor — except his party.
John
Hinderaker: If only the AP had been similarly reticent about Mark Foley!
Captain
Ed:In an Associated Press report on a perjury indictment for Kwame Kilpatrick, reporter Corey Williams leaves a little something out of the story. Guess which political party Kilpatrick represents?
I'll guess. The mayor of Detroit, whose name is "Kwame," and whose city is
82 percent black and
gave 92 percent of its vote to John Kerry in 2004, is
probably a Democrat. Alleging conspiracy on the part of AP wire editors is just loopy, unless you see party-naming—as Hinderaker seems to—as a moral question, the kind of thing that affects the way Americans think of their to parties.
Still loopy. Mark Foley's political affiliation was played up because 1)it's not automatic that a Florida congressman is a Republican and 2)Foley's party status had a role in the scandal. It was fairly quickly
revealed that Foley's betters knew that he had problems and kicked the story underneath the carpet. His betters were people like the speaker of the House and the head of the committee that funded Republican campaigns to the House. Kilpatrick, by contrast, is a boor whom his party tried to
defeat in a 2005 primary. The all-Democratic city council has
asked him to resign. So let's stop conflating tight edits with a vast conspiracy. Come on, already.
UPDATE: If you're a
Wire fan, you'll get a kick out of this picture from Kilpatrick's re-election bid. Check out the slogan. Keep in mind he was running against another
black Democrat, albeit a more fair-skinned one.
*The answer is "get buck."
J sub D | March 24, 2008, 3:03pm | #
I hadn't posted much here about Hizzoner Kilpatrick because it is a local issue, not really relating to the libertarian leanings of most reasonoids.
This is corrupt big city politics at its best (worst). Just to bring y'all up to date,
here is Kwame's mother's website. His bodyguard contingent, larger than most mayors, is comprised primarily of his high school buddies. Cronyism, nepotism and ham handed corruption has been the norm here since the "Hip Hop Mayor" was elected.
Kim Worthy, a black woman, is the Wayne County prosecutor. As such, she is accountable to the
county (majority white) residents. She is a Democrat like almost all politicians in Wayne County.
The perjury that Kwame Kilpatrick is charged with is obvious to the most partisan of Dems, and Ms. Worthy really had no choice but to indict.
City council voted 7-1 asking for his resignation, but have no authority to impeach. The governor, Jennifer Granholm (D), can remove him, but I'm uncertain if she has to wait for a conviction to do so.
Bye, bye Kwame. He talks a very good game, he's a skilled politician who has done some positive things for the city, but as we see so often, hubris is his downfall. Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr.(D) becomes mayor
if when Kwame Kilpatrick resigns or is removed by the governor.
J sub D | March 24, 2008, 4:54pm | #
So, J Sub D, since you're a local and seem to know what's going on, what's the deal with the Tamara "Strawberry" Green angle? Think there's anything credible about a connection between this stripper's death and Mayor Kilpatrick?
Oh Jeez, Tamara Green. The story that refuses to die (unlike TamarA, who was killed in a drive by).
I sinncerely apologize for the length of this post.
Early in the Hip Hop mayor's first term a rumor emerged that a wild party, complete with strippers, was held at Manoogian Mansion, the mayor's residence. The rumor included the titillating detail that hizzoner's wife walked in on the party and assaulted Tamara Green, the alleged stripper. The rumors also include allegations that a Detroit Police Officer is the gunman, silencing a witness in the great stripper party caper. Vehement denials from the Kilpatrick camp ensued.
The Michigan Attorney General, Mike Cox (R)investigates and determines that the party is "an urban myth", seemingly laying the rumor to rest.
But wait, there is more.
From a local TV news report
According to the Local 4 News report, Green was reportedly working as a dancer at the rumored mansion party and allegedly got into an altercation with the mayor's wife.
Green was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting after the alleged party, and her family believes it was a deliberate attack to keep her from talking to officers who were investigating the rumored party.
The lawsuit, according to Local 4 News, is on behalf of Johnathan Bond, Green's 14-year-old son. The lawsuit alleges Kilpatrick and members of the city's police department tried to block the investigation.
The lawsuit is stumbling forward with (ta da!) text message subpoenas and the associated legal hullabaloo.
Tamara's murder is officially considered a drug related homicide. Lord knows they occur somewhat regularly here. The fact that the mayor was a liar when testifying in a different case, also involving sexual conduct (with his Chief of Staff), just adds fuel to the fire.
I don't think hizzoner took out a hit on Tamara Green. I also don't think that the cops are putting a whole lot of effort into solving the crime. She is obviously not a popular person in the administration.
I'm hoping that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit do get ahold of all of the text messages that they asked for, if for no other reason than the entertainment value. If there is some nefarious doings revealed, or even hinted at, in the messages, you'll see it on the network news.
As I see it, Kwame Kilpatrick has acted with such arrogance since getting elected, people are willing to believe the worst.
The Detroit Free Press is probably the best source if you want to follow the continuing unfolding scandals of the Kilpatrick administration.
One last note - A couple of weeks ago,
The Metro Times, our "alternative weekly" had a main story referring to the mayor. "JUST GO!" was the cover of that leftist rag.
Fluffy | March 25, 2008, 1:19pm | #
There is nothing in a descriptive model of how things work that corrupts that process.
This is true for physical processes [perhaps not at the quantum level, but why quibble?] but not for mental processes. I would think the reasons for this would be obvious, but I suppose they aren't.
Psychoanalysis is one excellent example of a case knowledge of a particular model of how the mind works will inform the way a subject perceives their own thinking. People think differently about their own thinking if they accept a model which includes an unconscious. How different is the interior life of someone who believes in the id, instead of believing in sin, for example?
Any descriptive model of how things work will
become part of the process, when we're talking about mental processes.
But none of that indicts the actual word "meme," which -- in common usage, at least -- simply describes an idea that penetrates, then circulates within, the culture.
I don't think the common usage entirely escapes the implications of the full theory, as is shown very neatly by the voice of your sentence here. Memes "penetrate" and then "circulate".
this is marketing and manipulation. It's not necessarily an indictment of the "meme" concept
If the meme theory is correct, there is no form of human expression which is anything other than marketing and manipulation.
Others here are simply making descriptive statements: that "meme" means X, and X exists, and "meme" is thus a perfectly reasonable way to signify X.
But the description is only apt if meme theory is correct. And if we also want to talk about common usage, I have noted that the word "meme" is often employed in a "descriptive" way when the intent of the description is disparaging: "Oh, are they still pushing that meme?" But the usage itself disparages all ideas.
Meme theory can be used to argue against ideas that have taken root only because they are attractive. It can help shine a light on dissembling and manipulation. Understanding how that manipulation happens can help individuals and societies to protect themselves from it.
I know what you are trying to say here, but if it's valid to talk about memes in the first place, we have nothing to replace one meme with but another meme. And that other meme will be just as callow and manipulative as whatever meme we've already got by definition, because memes don't possess merit - they possess survivability.
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