“Uncritical Exuberance?” by Judith Butler
This essay has been circulating over email. I can't find the original source, so I'm re-posting it here.
Uncritical Exuberance?
Judith Butler
Very few of us are immune to the exhilaration of this time. My friends on the left write to me that they feel something akin to "redemption" or that "the country has been returned to us" or that "we finally have one of us in the White House." Of course, like them, I discover myself feeling overwhelmed with disbelief and excitement throughout the day, since the thought of having the regime of George W. Bush over and gone is an enormous relief. And the thought of Obama, a thoughtful and progressive black candidate, shifts the historical ground, and we feel that cataclysm as it produces a new terrain. But let us try to think carefully about the shifted terrain, although we cannot fully know its contours at this time. The election of Barack Obama is historically significant in ways that are yet to be gauged, but it is not, and cannot be, a redemption, and if we subscribe to the heightened modes of identification that he proposes ("we are all united") or that we propose ("he is one of us"), we risk believing that this political moment can overcome the antagonisms that are constitutive of political life, especially political life in these times. There have always been good reasons not to embrace "national unity" as an ideal, and to nurse suspicions toward absolute and seamless identification with any political leader. After all, fascism relied in part on that seamless identification with the leader, and Republicans engage this same effort to organize political affect when, for instance, Elizabeth Dole looks out on her audience and says, "I love each and every one of you."
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: election, Obama, politicsProp 6 protest in Los Angeles
Great looking flyer!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: election, Korea/Diaspora, los angeles, politicsKorean American moms for Obama
Thanks to my friend Grace -- here's a great little endorsement.
My favorite moment:
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: election, Obama, politicsKorean-style electioneering
The Hankyoreh reports that in a major upset, Moon Dae-sung, a Korean taekwondo Olympian and now a "professor of taekwondo," was elected to the Athletes’ Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Korea Times also reports that the heavyweight gold medalist in 2004 Athens Games became the first Asian Olympian ever to be voted to the 8-year-term IOC athletes' commission and the second Korean IOC member alongside Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee.
Frankly, I was kinda skeptical about this. Who is this guy, and is it really newsworthy? But I guess it's a pretty big deal because big names were shut out. Even the Chinese track star Liu Xiang and the Belgian tennis player Justine Henin didn't make the IOC.
An official Olympic website confirms that Moon Dae-Sung was elected with 3,220 votes out of 7,216 total votes, followed by the Russian swimming legend Alexander Popov (1,903 votes), German fencer Claudia Bokel (1,836 votes), and Cuban volleyball star Yumilka Ruiz–Luaces (1,571 votes). Incidentally, the new members will be officially introduced at the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Games.
The secret? The AP says, and I quote:
Athletes and officials said Moon's big victory was the result of persistent campaigning. He stood outside the athletes' dining hall during much of the Games to promote his candidacy.
"The Korean taekwondo guy has been there rain, hail or shine," Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates told Australian reporters. "He's put in a sterling effort. He deserves something. He stops everybody and talks."
The Hankyoreh says that Moon relied on "Korean-style electioneering" -- going far and wide to campaign, dressed in his white taekwondo uniform, and basically door-knocking (athlete-knocking?) 13 hours a day in his halting English. During the campaign, he says he had to put up with a lot of "unpleasant things said" about him. Probably racist epithets and "stop pestering me" kind of thing. Good for him.
But why is this "Korean-style" electioneering? Isn't this what election campaigns are usually about? If he went driving around Beijing in an amped up, megaphone-equipped mini-van blaring propaganda -- now, that might be considered Korean-style.
But an article (about a New Zealander loser) suggests that "dirty tricks" were involved, and another article says:
Both Moon and (Claudia) Bokel were warned by the IOC for breaching rules governing candidate behaviour... The vote was beset by dirty political tricks, with other instances of pre-election indiscretions uncovered at the Games, one by the powerful United States Olympic Committee, which on Monday apologised for offering $50 vouchers to US Olympians in an attempt to get them to vote.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: election, Korea/Diaspora, olympicsvoting = crime
There's a long history in the US of disenfranchising "undesirable" voters, including Black, immigrant, etc. And as others have noted, the outcome of the upcoming election will be seriously affected by not only voter turnout, but who turns out to vote.
And seriously, voting can be considered a major crime -- and a deportable offense, I think. One of the first questions I was asked during my citizenship interview last year (in addition to, "why is a beautiful woman like you still single?" Asshole.): "Have you ever registered or tried to vote in federal or local elections in the United States?" Answer "yes" to that, and the path to citizenship is permanently derailed.
Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship
New York Times
05-12-2008The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. [...]
Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: election, illegal immigration, politics, votingCategories
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