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Advertising, Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Culture, Economics, Economy, History, Poverty

Boosterism, ’30s Style

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Although the Roosevelt Administration was (whatever its other mistakes) candid about the economic conditions it faced, there was in the ’30s, as there has been over the 2010s in Wisconsin, a delusional impulse to happy talk – regardless of economic conditions – among some politicians and some business groups. Margaret Bourke-White‘s Kentucky Flood depicts the…

America, Bigotry, History, Mendacity, Politics, Race, Wisconsin, WISGOP

WISGOP Treasurer Brian Westrate ‘Well Understands’ Nothing

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A horde of ignorant, but racially motivated, men infest the Wisconsin GOP.  Brian Westrate is a good example of playing to this bad condition: in an attempt to discourage racist Republicans from displaying Confederate banners at a protest, he erroneously (and outrageously) contended that he did “well understand that the Confederacy was more about states…

America, History, Impeachment Trial

Every Completed Senate Impeachment Trial in American History Has Had New Witnesses

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An analysis from the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington reveals that every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House: Every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House, according to…

America, History, Television, Wisconsin

On the American Experience: McCarthy

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Tonight, on the American Experience on PBS, an episode on Sen. Joe McCarthy: McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast conspiracy threatening America…

America, Blogging, History

But We Never Went Away…

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Writing at NiemanLab, Joanne McNeil offers a prediction for 2020 in A return to blogs (finally? sort of?): One reason we might see a resurgence of blogs is the novelty. Tell someone you’re starting a new newsletter and they might complain about how many newsletters (or podcasts) they already subscribe to. But tell them you’re…

America, History, Holiday

A Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863

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The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail…

America, History, Liberty, Never Trump, Politics, Trump

After This Conflict Is Won

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These last years have been difficult, and one can reasonably expect worse from Trumpism before that ideology is consigned – as it will be – to the political outer darkness. A necessary condition for optimism is an understanding of the present from which one can build a better future. (Local boosterism and babbittry are failures…

America, Blogging, History, Newspapers, Press, Press Release, Public Relations

Sullivan on Public Officials as Reporters

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Editors of small-town newspapers sometimes lack the judgment (and self-respect) to remain independent of government.  During these lapses of decision-making, one finds that elected or appointed officials become, themselves, reporters on their own stories.  (For a case like this in Whitewater involving a school board member, see Public Officials Should Not Be Reporters.) Margaret Sullivan, of the…