Here are results from a 2003 survey of American global justice activists, most of whom filled out questionnaires during the protests surrounding the Free Trade Area of the Americas ministerial conference in Miami late that year. (The findings were previously posted on the site as a PDF file, but this format should be easier to read.) For more background about global justice activism, you can read my article here.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

Recently I read an essay by the late, great Civil War historian William E. Gienapp (a former teacher of mine), which made me think of the so-called “culture war” now besetting America. In his essay, Gienapp shows how the unique structure of American democratic government exacerbated the conflict over slavery and made war likely, if not inevitable. For example, the Republican Party, America’s first successful sectional party, could win the presidency because of the rather undemocratic workings of the electoral college, which (as it was put into practice) granted all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate with the most popular votes. Thus, anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln could receive 98 percent of the North’s electoral vote even though he won less than 54 percent of the popular vote in that part of the country. He could win the presidency even though he had no support in the South and only 39.9 percent of the nation’s popular vote. (A different electoral system — with states of smaller sizes, for instance, as Founding Father Thomas Jefferson once proposed — might not have given Lincoln enough electoral votes to prevail.) The fact that a candidate with the backing of just one part of the country could win the presidency had profound consequences. With such a divisive figure as Lincoln in the White House, radical Southern leaders felt they had no choice but to secede, Gienapp writes. They did — and brought the nation into an awesome conflict that rooted out, once and for all, the evil of slavery. A nation divided against itself could not stand, and America would eventually become all one thing — and not the other.

Flash forward a hundred some-odd years. A look at the presidential election map from 2004 shows that the two parties have increasingly become sectional parties, with only a few swing states in play. This does not mean that Americans themselves are deeply divided. Their views on gender roles, racism, homosexuality, crime, and  other hot-button cultural issues have not grown more polarized over time — in the population as a whole or across social classes, races, religious groups, or even the notorious red/blue state divide, as this book by political scientist Morris P. Fiorina shows (abortion may be the one exception, though it depends on which study you believe). In fact, in many cases, political attitudes have converged: in the last few decades Americans across the board have become more liberal on gender issues and more conservative on criminal justice issues, for example.

On the other hand, the two major parties — and the activists who lead them — have become more polarized in their attitudes and beliefs, Fiorina argues. The majority of America’s moderate voters are not really divided on the issues, but rather ambivalent, forced to choose between starkly opposed options. In this sense, America in 2005 is not much different from antebellum America, where radicals on either side had come, by the eve of the Civil War, to dominate the national political debate and the two major parties. Rather than strengthening the moderates and weakening the extremists among their ranks, the leaders of both parties chose to inflame sectional animosities, Gienapp notes. “It was they who politicized issues and framed the choices before the electorate, and it was the leaders, not the voters, who made the crucial policy decisions” that led the country to war.

I certainly do not think that Americans will fight another civil war anytime soon. But it is clear that the two major parties are engaged in an increasingly intense ideological conflict, one with other kinds of casualties — namely, the civility and unity of our nation. The fact that the Democrats and Republicans have essentially transformed themselves into sectional parties, too, means that the national political crisis that began with the 2000 election debacle will likely repeat itself again and again, because our electoral system tolerates the election of presidents without truly national mandates. Whoever wins in 2008 — or 2012, or 2016 — the result will inevitably be rancor on the losing side and increasingly strident calls for further battle. One wonders whether a house divided against itself can stand for much longer.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

Whenever national calamity strikes, the same group of disloyal Americans starts to sow seeds of disunion in this country. Rather than searching for who is really responsible for the ills afflicting our nation, they blame their fellow Americans. They refuse to show compassion for the suffering of innocent men, women, and children. They point fingers and accuse the very victims of the perpetrated crimes.

Who are these shameless, unpatriotic Americans? I call them the “Blame Black People First” crowd.

New Orleans, ground zero for the government’s belated and botched hurricane relief effort, is predominantly African American. It also has a poverty rate almost twice as high as the national average.

As usual, the subversive element in this country has not stooped from singling out these suffering Americans as the perpetrators of their own misfortune. Somehow, they always blame black people first.

Some examples:

1. Media commentators self-righteously decry the outbreaks of looting in the devastated city — forgetting that some people might like food and clean clothes after being left to fend for themselves in a flood zone for several days. Says Julianne Malveaux of BET.com:

When hungry folks take food from flooded grocery stores, that’s called survival, not looting.  When people, who are strapping cardboard to their feet because all of their possessions have been swept away, go into a store and take shoes, that, too, is called survival.  The calls for zero tolerance for looting were absurd, and the images of Black people “looting” (along with the more benign images of White people “finding” food) fanned the flames of every racial stereotype there is.  Then rabidly conservative talk show hosts — Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson among them — piled it on by foaming at the mouth about looters while ignoring the conditions even George Bush called “unacceptable.”

2. Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly berates the city’s poor for not applying themselves during the disaster. (I agree. Whenever I see people drowning, I tell them to just buck up — there’s no use whining about it, save your breath!) Says Nikki Finke of LA Weekly:

FNC’s Bill O’Reilly, who spent last month verbally abusing the grieving mother of a dead Iraqi war soldier, then whiled away the early days of Katrina’s aftermath giving lip to New Orleans’ looters and shooters and then basically blamed the hurricane’s poorest victims for expecting any government help at all. “First, the huge, bureaucratic government will never be able to protect you. If you rely on government for anything, anything, you’re going to be disappointed, no matter who the president is,” he scolded. And, “If you don’t get educated, if you don’t develop a skill, and force yourself to work hard, you’ll most likely be poor. And sooner or later, you’ll be standing on a symbolic rooftop waiting for help…. Chances are that help will not be quick in coming.”

3. Sen. Rick Santorum suggests that the government fine hurricane victims. In an interview over the weekend about Hurricane Katrina, the Republican from Pennsylvania said: “You have people who don’t heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” (After he was criticized for his remarks, Santorum said that he actually didn’t mean to include people who lacked cars among those who should be fined. They, instead, would get a tax credit on the purchase of a new hybrid car.)

A long time ago, Harry Truman said, “The United States has become great because we, as a people, have been able to work together for great objectives even while differing about details.” How much our country has changed. In this time of national tragedy, how is it possible that these people are resorting to such divisive, un-American rhetoric?

But then, they always blame black people first.

The American people know better. They know that black people built this country with their sweat and blood. They know that African Americans have contributed heroically to America’s art, literature, science, and way of life. They know that it’s dangerous to blame a group of victims for terrible problems that they did not cause.

You would think that the Blame Black People Firsters would be ashamed of what they say. Don’t they know how much these people have suffered? Didn’t they watch “A Concert for Hurricane Relief”?

But then, they always blame black people first.

Black people will never seek a permission slip to defend their security. If they need to invade a neighboring store to advance black people’s interests (i.e., not starving), then this is their right as God-fearing, freedom-loving Americans. If they feel the need to criticize out-of-touch leaders in that far-off land of Washington, then other Americans will stand by them in their struggles to spread democracy.

Let us put an end to the blame games, the blame gaming, and the blaming games. This unpatriotic, treacherous element should not be allowed to spread its false accusations. It must be rooted out of our government, our way of life, and our 24-hour cable news channels.

The “Blame Black People First” crowd is a threat to this country. Americans will not be safe until we rid ourselves of this Red menace.

(With apologies for my blatant plagiarism from Jeane Kirkpatrick’s 1984 speech at the Republican National Convention.)

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

The Onion — for those moments when you don’t know whether to laugh, or cry, or throttle your nearest elected representative.

The headlines:

God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again

Louisiana National Guard Offers Help By Phone From Iraq

Government Relief Workers Mosey In To Help

Refugees Moved From Sewage-Contaminated Superdome To Hellhole Of Houston

White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters

Another Saints Season Ruined Before It Begins

Shrimp Joint Now Shrimp Habitat

And this one about sums it up:

Bush Urges Victims To Gnaw On Bootstraps For Sustenance

WASHINGTON, DC—In an emergency White House address Sunday, President Bush urged all people dying from several days without food and water in New Orleans to “tap into the American entrepreneurial spirit” and gnaw on their own bootstraps for sustenance. “Government handouts are not the answer,” Bush said. “I believe in smaller government, which is why I have drastically cut welfare and levee upkeep. I encourage you poor folks to fill yourself up on your own bootstraps. Buckle down, and tear at them like a starving animal.” Responding to reports that many Katrina survivors have lost everything in the disaster, Bush said, “Only when you work hard and chew desperately on your own footwear can you live the American dream.”

Last but not least:

Bush Appoints Some Guy From Horse Group to Head Nation’s Disaster Relief

Whoops, that one is actually real news …

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

The News & Observer, a paper based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has an article on Dr. Gregory Henderson, whose email dispatch from New Orleans was mentioned in my post last week. (Snopes.com has also concluded that the original email message was authentic.)

Henderson sent out an update on Saturday to his original email:

I am replying to all of your letters of prayers and support in this way in the interests of time.

1. thanks for all your letters of support and prayers and offers to help.

2. i am safe, and now based at the Sheraton hotel where we have a new makeshift clinic established.

3. the situation at the convention center is urgent and disastrous = 10-20 thousand people in dire need of health care from minor to severe. A small MASH unit was established there last night. I will be joining them today – I desparately need the help of as many medically trained individuals as possible to triage these patients, treat if necessary, and evacuate – only the most serious will be seen at the MASH

4. i need to figure out how to set up a morgue. there are several dead at the convention center

5. some supplies are ariving today courtesy of Fred Eschelman and PPD Inc of north carolina – I will get these supplies to the convention center as soon as they arrive.

6. i need mobile dialysis units – thousands haven’t been dialysed in over a week.

7. i can be reached pretty well on my cell phone at [number deleted]. now is the time to act – i need help – i haven’t found any other physicians in the field yet and i can only do so much

9. Ochsner is the only fully functional facility in the city – they are effectively taking care of all of their patients and offering extrordinary help, an lots of supplies – i am proud to be part of this organization.

Greg Henderson

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen