Chris Matthew Says: "You Hold The Flag As Your Party Goes Down In The Northeast"

The Chris Matthews Show on MSNBC.
I am watching it as I type.
No surprise that he is like Keith Olbermann yet on Sunday.
Every line item on the show today has the purpose of making sure leg continues to tingle.

This post is not centrally about Chris Matthews though. It is about how political operatives effectively have people focusing on their party as a "team sport" rather than focusing about their permanent interests.

In cutting to a commercial Chris Matthew said to the Republican consultant who was a part of the debate on "The Birthers": "You Hold The Flag As Your Party Goes Down In The Northeast".

For most people they would see that this segment on The Chris Matthews show did a good job in attacking the South. 33% of the people in the South said that they question if Barack Obama was born in the United States. (For the record - I believe the short form birth certificate which says that he was born in Hawaii. Beyond that I it irrelevant. His mother is an American and thus he is an American because of it).

Matthews then shows that the majority of people in the other three areas of nation do believe that Obama was born in the USA. The inference was "Southerners are dumb and this is why they did not vote for Barack Obama".

Here is what I obtained out of Chris Matthews' show which continues the tradition of the lack of credibility of the MSNBC network as show by its low viewership numbers:

Get people to focus on their party's condition rather than the condition of their own interests and they will think THEY ARE WINNING AS THEY ARE LOSING.

• How Are Your Schools?
• What Is The State Of Your Public Safety?
• How Is Your Local Economy? Is The Employment Base Growing Or On The Decline?
• What Is The State Of Health Of Your People? Are You The Source Of The Red Push Pins On The CDC Web Site

I can point to several large cities in the Northeast in which all of these points are key points of grievance by the voting masses. I have reported about the social promotion policies in place in the School District of Philadelphia which allows people lacking basic skills to graduate as the administration pressures teachers to change a "63" (F) into a 65 (D) and thus pass the person. We all know about the economic and political corruption problems with Detroit. The Baltimore/DC area has the fastest growing rate of HIV infection rates. Despite these facts the masses are happy with their PARTY'S ascension at the national level. This being the Democratic Party.

When it coems to the South - where I live - those who are operatives resent the fact that this region represents a solid conservative block in America. The notion that "the South is where stupid people live" has been put forth by those seeking to explain why "those people" don't think as the commenter think they should.

Side note: I have pointed out many times that if we do a "zipcode" level comparison then we would see that the White liberals who make such attacks (and the Negroes that take the message and run with it) are really attacking areas that have a large amount of MINORITY populations. The bigoted White liberal would be attacked if they were to say "Black people are stupid - look at the numbers". If they said "the poor are ingorant and this is why they are poor" this also would be politically incorrect. Instead they attack an entire region and they get away with it. I happen to live within the confines of a school system that is rated 9 out of 10 on the "Great Schools.net" web site. My original hometown schools in the more "enlightened" city of Philadelphia, by comparison - have a rating of 3 out of 10.

I KNOW YOU ARE WORKING HARD BUT WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?

Recall after World War II the big fear that Whites who maintained the system of White supremacy here in America were filled with fear over what they were seeing. They sawthe Blacks who were returing from the battlefield in defense of Amerca or who were given access to jobs domestically that they were bashished from prior to the White males who normally filled them before going off to war demanding their RIGHTS. Their previous doubts where not of their own competencies. It was only an issue of what THE SYSTEM would allow them to have access to.

Today there is a great fear among the White liberal bigots. The fear is that the masses will disconnect from their national party focus and begin to look LOCALLY. When they look locally they will note that they have ALREADY PURGED THEIR ENEMY from their local institutions. That the present "nationalization" of their focus comes in the context of the FAILURE of their favored party and ideology to deliver as promised. The promise was: "If you put us in power over this local {fill in the blank} institution that we will improve your life and you will be better for it".

What we have seen since the time of the promise and election victory was an "expanded problem domain". What I have called "Expanding the police tape beyond the crime scene". As they face the fact that they cannot, in fact, deliver as promised yet knowing that they have a loyal mob behind them - the decision was simple. Keep the mob focused on VICTORIES FOR THE PARTY rather than the grievances that they have in the original domain that their aggregate actions play the biggest part in shaping. (Which I label: "Focus the masses on the victory had in climbing upward to the next platuea instead of managing the platueas that they already have control over")

It is clear that both parties have a thorough understanding of human/group behavior and they exploit it thoroughly. For me as an African-American this creates a bigger indictment of the Black Establishment because they have linked up with one side yet despite this party/ideologies total domination of the Black Community, the majority of the political chatter taking place within Black America is framed as "Why are conseratives STOPPING certain policies and thus hurting Black Interests?". If I hear another Black person vocalize his belief that Ronald Reagan HURT BLACK EPOPLE when he cut Jimmy Carter's Government Jobs program I am going to scream.

More jobs were lost in northern areas with high concentrations of African-Americans via the antics of the organized labor movement drive which substantially increased the cost of production than anyone could make the case that Jimmy Carter ever produced in the way of a "social maitenance job" from the government. Please recall the New York Times article that I posted which detailed how the Black community in Detroit has had to adapt in the wake of the fall of the Big 3. So let me frame this properly: A sound Black middle class of property owners were formed as a result of the Big 3 having their operations established in Michigan and Ohio. We hear far more frequently, however, that the Crack trade started in earnest in Black America once 'Ronald Reagan cut the government jobs'. Black people, hungry to put food on their table - did what they needed to do to put food on the table. (I wish I was exagerating this folks. I wish you could accuse me of building a strawman only to tear it down.)

The first story about the Black middle class in Detroit (and ohter areas) is a story of a specific means of how a community had been enriched with the presence of an economic system that allowed them to express their industriousness, that served as the framework for their pursuit of education, that provided them with health care. As it has collapsed so has this standard that was built up.

In the second story about the cuts of the Jimmy Carter jobs programs what we have is a story of OUTSOURCING. Whereas the Big 3 produced jobs based on a market demand for a tangible good, the Jimmy Carter jobs program was done as part of a transaction to give employment to people because society sought to express their value of them. When these jobs were "taken away" chaos took over in the wake.

The marketplace "took away" the Big 3 jobs in that these products were seen as low in quality, and over priced (GM, for example had 10 retiree benefits to pay for every 1 present worker). Many young progressives who are pro-union chose not to purchase union made cars.

The changing political tade winds "took away" the Jimmy Carter jobs program jobs. What was created with respect to the whims of the presiding powers in the present were taken away in the same way. The market value of these jobs were a secondard or terciary focal point.

In my view our community does not do enough analysis to consider "the costs of the prevailing policies that are in place within our communities". The establishment media machine works hard to shape the messaging that is sent to our community about a particular issue. This is why those who's policies worked to cut government "make work" jobs is to be damned more than those policies that ultimately destroyed Detroit, Baltimore, Akron and other cities in the North.

Back To Chris Matthews

Where as some Democratic political operatives say that "the worst thing that we can do as a Black voting populace is to split our vote across two or more political parties and thus dillute our Black voting strength" (These are the words of Democratic operative Dr Ronald Walters). I must reject this.

Such a stance promotes UNITY over EFFECTIVENESS and "asking questions about the leadership". It is a breeding ground for the "sellout behavior" that we presently see - despite its popularity.

Despite all of the denials - "All politics is indeed local". We want our children's schools to be the best possible. We want our houses to be safe. In as much as we can do the same for others yet not compromise upon our own interests - we will do so. At some point when the local machine has us to fight an external battle with the goal of our local interests - their departure from the local battle stations insure that the local issues will continue to be unresolved.

Fundamentally this is an issue of the lack of EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT at the local level rather than the need to stay UNITED. Unity at a time when your machine has power can only lead to a departure from your permanent interests as you decide to "stay friends".