I HOPE Jesus is nothing like the vindictive and ill-informed Christian broadcaster and one-time Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson, who makes the case that Haiti has suffered throughout its history because of a supposed “deal with the Devil” slaves made in order to defeat their French overlords. I love how Robertson neglects these tidbits of Haitian history:

• The U.S. played both sides in the slaves’ revolt against the French, giving supplies to both.
• The French, who under Robertson’s theory must’ve had God on their side since the Haitians had the Devil, violated a truce in order to kidnap the rebels’ leader and had him sent back to France where he died in prison from maltreatment. Way to go, Christians!
• In the 19th century, the U.S. obstructed substantive support to the newly freed nation of Haiti because slaveowners in the South didn’t want their own slaves to get any ideas about revolting. Southern whites lived in dread fear of having an independent black state so close to their shores.
• France tried repeatedly to take Haiti back by military force. Unsuccessfully. But their eventual peace agreement with Haiti required the country to pay France for its freedom, which Haiti could only do via high-interest loans happily given by the United States. It took Haiti until 1947 to pay back these loans.

Haiti’s poverty is directly linked to the shabby and opportunistic way the United States has treated that country. America needed an example to other blacks, especially its own slaves, of how they would be unable to govern themselves.

For more about Haiti’s sordid history, thanks to the U.S. and (naturally) France, you can read this illuminating retrospective from the Times Online (UK).

Something’s rotten in America, if you believe Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. All the things that used to be right about the nation have been upended. By Adam Lambert, no less.

Yes, that pesky homosexual has breached the tacit cultural compromise that Noonan, Ronald Reagan’s former speechwriter, argues has kept the folks in the flyover states from rising up in revolt. Or maybe just revulsion.

At the heart of her argument is a recent poll that finds 55 percent of the public believe the country is on the “wrong track.” Despite the fact we’re in the worst economy since the Great Depression, Noonan believes this poll result must be about more than the economy.

And while 55 percent is not a figure we should be happy about, it doesn’t compare to the 80 percent who thought that in April 2008 under George W. Bush’s presidency, and that was before the bottom dropped out of the economy in fall 2008 during the presidential campaign.

To be fair, she admits the economy might have something to do with Americans’ recent turn to pessimism:

The economy has always had an impact on the general American mood, and the [NBC-Wall Street Journal] poll offered data to buttress the reader’s assumption that economic concerns are driving pessimism.

About ‘Other Things’

But let’s set that aside, she says, because:

Something tells me this isn’t all about money. It’s possible, and I can’t help but think likely, that the poll is also about other things, and maybe even primarily about other things. … Various polls [demonstrate] that those things may dwarf economic concerns. Americans are worried about the core and character of the American nation, and about our culture.

Never mind that Noonan doesn’t specify what polls discuss those ‘other things,’ nor does she specify what those polls actually demonstrate. Instead, she opts for the vague worry about the “core and character” of America and its culture. What better springboard for an attack on what she calls “the cultural left” than a non-specific anxiety that has likely been present during every economic downturn?

Indeed, when we abandon what all the data indicates is the greatest proximate cause for Americans’ worries, Noonan is left with a wide open field to cast about for whatever convenient straw man she cares to name. This time it’s the cultural tyranny imposed on “real” Americans (in Sarah Palin’s parlance) by the cultural left in the Big Cities — home, apparently, to all the fake Americans.

Next: We don’t care what you do in New York …

WTF, Netflix?

Technically, Netflix’s choices are more about me than about them, but seriously, Netflix, why would you include these two movies on the same recommendation screen? Superman: Doomsday — a cartoon for whom children are the intended audience (which I have actually seen) — beside X-rated Caligula?

Would Jesus be so Spiteful?

In the wake of the District of Columbia’s city council’s passage of an ordinance allowing gay marriage in Washington, D.C., the Catholic Church plans to retaliate in a most un-Christian manner: Threatening to deny its charitable services to the poor and needy in the nation’s capital. Bad form. Even if you believe Jesus hates the homos, he’s certainly on record as being pro- the needy (Matthew 25:31-46):

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

President-elect Barack Obama and prospective Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Prop. 8 opponents protest in chalk at L.A.’s Mormon Temple.

New Yorker photo by Platon moved Colin Powell to want to support Barack Obama.

Young Republicans want to shake up their party using this public beta Web site for their manifesto for GOP transformation.

In the face of last week’s crushing defeat at the polls, a group of prominent young Republicans has challenged the Republican National Committee to truly transform itself, with technology an important focus.

This makes a lot of sense but as I read their manifesto on their Web site, Rebuild the Party, it became painfully aware to me that they aren’t really focusing on transforming the GOP in substantive and strategic ways, but in merely tactical ones that sidestep the ideology and divisiveness that turned so many voters against them. Here’s what they say:

[Without change,] the Democrats’ structural advantages, including their use of the Internet, their more than 2-to-1 advantage with young voters, their discovery of a better grassroots model, will be as big a threat to the future of the GOP as the toxic political environment we have faced the last few years.

This is the first indication that these folks only see the structural and tactical as what needs to be transformed. And that tossed-off reference to the “toxic political environment” of the past few years completely ignores the GOP’s own contribution to the toxicity, and how that turned voters against it.

Priority No. 1 – The Internet

In a fitting analysis, the neo-Republican coalition declares:

Barack Obama and the Democrats’ ability to build their entire fundraising, GOTV [get out the vote], and communications machine from the Internet is the #1 existential challenge to our existing party model.

And it says that taking back the electorate depends on:

• Recruiting 5 million new online Republican activists.
• Holding local campaigns and parties accountable for winning their own districts and counties.
• Opening up the GOP’s technological ecosystem to entrepreneurial outsiders.

These are all good ideas but they avoid the issue of what it is these new online activists are supposed to advocate for. The Republican platform is merely about opposition; people need something to be in favor of. And the traditional Republican issues — smaller government, fiscal responsibility, strong foreign policy, keeping government out of people’s private business — have all largely been abandoned in the wake of the Bush administration’s craven lust for executive power and its obeisance to the social priorities of the radical Right.

Power to the People? Really?

The coalition notes that Obama’s campaign showed the power of “mass connectedness,” bypassing traditional power-brokers. Putting faith in the Internet requires a revitalized GOP that puts its faith in networked individuals by

• Using a volunteer-to-volunteer approach to build the grassroots.
• Raising funds from a network of millions instead of raising millions from a network of a few rich people and corporations. “Right now, we cannot compete with the Democrats’ scalable online fundraising machine and if this is not corrected our party will face a long-term financial deficit.”
• Recruiting 25,000 high-level activists — a few thousand to run races and the rest embedded throughout the country to keep the GOP “strong and relevant in local communities.”
• Reorganizing the RNC so that e-campaigning is an integrated part of its operations, not a mere add-on.

Again, this analysis focuses on improving the party’s framework without getting at what’s at the heart of Republican defections. The coalition hints at this in this passage, however, but unfortunately goes no further:

Moreover, our candidate recruitment should focus less on a candidate’s ability to collect $2,300 checks or to self-fund than on the strength of their message.

The critical question remains, what is it the Republican Party, post-2008, is going to stand for?

Not New Ideas, New Candidates!

“Without inspiring candidates with clear messages to rally around,” the coalition says, “all the strategies and tactics in the world will be for naught.” Unfortunately, its plan only focuses on the candidates, not the clear messages.

The party needs to consider no seat a safe one and run a 435-district, 50-state race. It also needs to build the strength of its back bench by recruiting good (and young!) candidates for state legislatures.

Here’s the problem: The Republicans successfully built local infrastructure through the 1980s and 90s by recruiting candidates for key local races, especially school boards, where conservatives tried to chip away at sex education, evolution and other dangerous things for young people to know about.

That tactic worked (and could still work) only with right-wing Christian fundamentalists because, again, these people know what they’re fighting for. The party itself needs a coherent, positive message, and this coalition isn’t providing one.

Oh, and By the Way, It’s All About The People

As an “afterword” (of all things!), the coalition urges the GOP to embrace a “Politics of ‘Us’”:

Obama tapped the Internet successfully because he made it about “you” and “us” not “me” and “I.” You were invited in. You were a key part of his campaign/movement. … Because of the Internet, “us” becomes a force more powerful than any in politics. The ability to donate or volunteer instantaneously online gives the millions of “us” more leverage than even the most connected group of insiders.

This is an important departure for Republicans, who have long touted themselves as the party of “individual liberty,” except, of course, where it contradicts fundamentalist Christian thinking. But will the GOP really give up the money from big business and donors that it accepts in exchange for giving them political power and access? That may be a bigger trade-off than the party is willing to make right now.

And in a final fit of irony, the coalition makes the mistake of assuming Obama is just another dreaded tax-and-spender, and that’s where they continue to miscalculate what is Obama’s appeal.

Obama’s victory could be a blessing in disguise for conservatives. … Obama as President would act in ways that contradict the bottom-up culture that fueled his campaign. In the campaign, it was “Yes We Can.” In the White House, it will be “Yes, Government Can.” Obama’s top-down government control of the health care and the economy will give conservatives an opening to once again recapture the mantle of distributed citizen activism. Obama campaigned against the establishment, and now he is the establishment.

Obama didn’t campaign against the establishment. He campaigned against how George Bush had twisted and usurped the establishment. He campaigned on a return to the constitutional principles that undergird and strengthen our society.

Consider the irony that the “top-down government control” of the economy the neo-Republicans decry was instituted by a Republican administration. And that a majority of the public wants the government intervening in what’s clearly been the failure of a barely regulated financial structure.

This coalition should beware of drawing today’s Democrats with yesterday’s crayons, as simply wanting top-down government control. We believe in dynamic markets and strong civil society, too; we just think government — accountable to the people, unlike profit-driven private-sector institutions — should play a leadership role, too.

Sidebar

Who Are These Neo-Republicans?

❖ Erick Erickson, managing editor, RedState.com (Macon, GA)
❖ David Kralik (San Francisco, CA)
❖ Mindy Finn, former eStrategy Director, Romney for President
❖ Patrick Ruffini, former Republican National Committee eCampaign Director & co-founder,The Next Right
❖ Mark Harris (Pittsburgh, PA)
❖ Phil Musser, former executive director, Republican Governors Association
❖ Michael Turk, former Republican National Committee eCampaign Director
❖ Justin Sayfie, former spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
❖ Charlie Smith, Chairman, College Republican National Committee Chairman
❖ Blake Harris, Co-Chairman, College Republican National Committee Chairman
❖ Peter Torkildsen, Chairman, Massachusetts Republican Party
❖ Matt Lewis, Townhall.com
❖ Brian Donahue, Jamestown Associates
❖ Mike Krempasky, co-founder RedState.com
❖ Jon Henke, co-founder, The Next Right
❖ Ben Domenech, co-founder RedState
❖ Kristen Soltis, The Winston Group
❖ Hugh Weber, former RNC Political Education Director
❖ Soren Dayton, co-founder, The Next Right
❖ Albert Maruggi, former RNC Press Secretary (St. Paul, MN)
❖ Scott Dismuke, AkinsCrisp Public Strategies (Nashville, TN)
❖ Robert Willington, Executive Director, Massachusetts Republican Party
❖ Joe Galli, former College Republican National Committee Chairman (Flagstaff, AZ)
❖ Clint Murphy, Georgia State Director, McCain-Palin 2008
❖ Christopher A. Keber (New York, NY)
❖ Dan Bayens, Strategy Group Media
❖ William Grayson (San Francisco, CA)
❖ Scott Graves, RedCounty.com (Orange County, CA)
❖ Sean Doughtie, Taproot Creative (Tallahassee, FL)
❖ Alex Brunk, Wilson Research Strategies
❖ David Mastio, RightyBlogs.com
❖ Tim Cameron (Atlanta, GA)
❖ Katie Witt, 2008 candidate for Colorado State Senate (Longmont, CO)
❖ Clayton Wagar, co-founder, RedState.com
❖ Dan Spencer, RedState.com
❖ Adam Schmidt, AdamJSchmidt.com
❖ Nick DeLeeuw, RightMichigan.com
❖ Matt Briney, Emotive LLC
❖ Aaron Marks, NextGenGOP.com
❖ James Clarkson, NextGenGOP.com
❖ Billy Valentine, former director, Students for Brownback
❖ Vince Galko, former executive director, Pennsylvania Republican State Committee
❖ Madeline Gorman Holbrook, RNC Communications, 2002-2003
❖ Matt Moon, contributing editor, The Next Right
❖ J. Peter Freire

“The Oval Office” by Thomas Demand, NY Times Magazine.

President-elect Obama meets a young supporter.

This will just have to do…

• OBAMA WEB SITE READY Obama’s transition team is ready to go with Change.gov, a Web site explaining the president-elect’s agenda and offering information about the inauguration and even how to apply for jobs with the new administration. Wow. Transparency. What a concept.

Check out change.gov, the incoming administration’s new Web site.

• iPHONE WINS! The iPhone beat Blackberry in J.D. Power & Associates survey of business users. They preferred the iPhone’s ease of use, design and features. Apple’s smartphone led sales in that category last quarter; Blackberry plans new models to fight back.

• SARAH AIN’T SO SMART After the election McCain campaign staff reveals how woefully unprepared Sarah Palin was to be vice president. Cases in point: She thought Africa was a country not a continent; she couldn’t name the three countries that are parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Hint: They’re the countries in North America.

• DO THEY GRADE ON A CURVE? Twitter Grader compares your Twitterificness with other users. Earlier today, my score was 55 out of 100. Now it’s up to 60. I plan on getting better and the badge below is updated in real time.

• KUDOS TO SOUTH PARK for turning around a new episode that featured the election results within 24 hours of Election Day.

• OBAMA SPAM It’s a good thing I (a) tend to ignore spam, even when I’ve signed up for it from the Obama campaign, and (2) have a Mac. Why? Because evildoers took advantage of all the viral Obama victory speech videos floating around the intarwebs to attach malware to emails with subject lines like Obama win preferred in world poll and return addresses like news@president.com.

• GUN NUTS GO NUTS over what they believe is inevitable new gun controls from the Obama administration. The New York Times reports gun sales surge on buyers’ concerns.

• OTHER SHOPPERS, NOT SO MUCH Double-digit sales declines last month don’t augur well for the holiday season as the recession well and truly sets in. Retailing analyst John Morris told the Times, “You walk the mall and consumers look like zombies. They’re there in person, but not in spirit.”

• PROP. 8 WORSE FOR ECONOMY THAN RECESSION The gays’ über-fabulous weddings are over in California, leading those in the marriage business to worry about the economic impact of embedding discrimination in the state’s constitution.

• INSIDE THE TENT PISSING OUT That’s my vote on what to do with turncoat Joe Lieberman. The recovering Democrat who nearly (some say should’ve) became McCain’s running mate is not high on his former party’s popularity polls. Even so, with a sub-cloture majority in the Senate, the Dems should keep him on their side (Lieberman had been caucusing with his former party even though he’s officially an independent). Think of it like Reconstruction.

• OK FOR TROOPS TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BUT not exercise it. The Pentagon restrained Stars & Stripes (an independent newspaper) from reporting on troops’ public reactions to the election.