The Optimistic Progressive
Member of PDA-PARC, Temecula Valley DFA, Moveon.org, the Democratic Party, the ACLU, Sojourners, the Sierra Club and more.
The Post:
Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/19/193532/535
CA-44: Opposing the Bush "Old Deal" Social Contractby Louis Vandenberg
Tue Sep 19, 2006
Greetings, Kossacks. I'm Louis Vandenberg, the Democratic nominee in the CA-44 congressional district (http://www.vandenbergforcongress.com ).
I have been told of several diaries here which referenced me, my district and my opponent, Ken Calvert. One recent diary, by UCRJames (http://ucrjames.dailykos.com ), generated enough buzz to make me curious to check out DailyKos for myself. You could spend all day and all night here. It seems that many do. Some thoughts below the fold. . .
My Republican opponent, Ken Calvert, has been in office since 1992. He's had a pretty easy time of it, since this district has been gerrymandered to favor the Republican Party, producing a twelve and a half point difference in party registration.
But there's more at work in his otherwise vacuous and hopefully soon-to-be-terminated, tenure than just that. Despite the 44th's proximity to Los Angeles (fifty miles east, halfway between LA and Palm Springs), this district is a pretty fair representation of the "What's the Matter with Kansas?" phenomenon. (To be fully accurate, it should be noted that the most recent district redraw ( http://www.vandenbergforcongress.com/... ) did take in a sliver of Orange County, including the lovely city of San Clemente, which is certainly coastal.) The demographic in what is known as the "Inland Empire" is largely working and middle-class, and as Thomas Frank wrote about Kansas, people here also vote against what must reasonably be considered their own interests.
What beguiles the working people of the Inland Empire to vote for Mr. Calvert year after year after year? Rationally they shouldn't, because Mr. Calvert has, in his own very under-the-radar manner, unquestioningly supported the whole failure-is-success Orwellian Bush worldview, which does nothing for them in any practical sense.
Readers here don't require an exhaustive rundown, but basically, if Bush wants it, Calvert--a willing tool--votes for it: the endless Iraq war for a dubious Mullah-driven "democracy" that grows more distant and illusory daily, the injurious Patriot Act, domestic spying, a bankruptcy bill written by credit-card companies, a MediCare bill written by pharmaceutical companies, No Child Left Behind, and so on...
And being a well-paid fully-fledged life member of the Republican puppet show hasn't been enough for Mr. Calvert. According to a front-page above-the-fold story in the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Calvert's earmarks have "enhanced" the value of property he purchased and sold profitably in a suspiciously timely fashion. His emoluments have also been covered on the CBS Evening News, local papers, a variety of websites, blogs and here on DailyKos.
I've lived here in the IE more than two decades, at first merely observing Inland life's rich pageant and then becoming active in the '90's. What I've seen unfold here is part of a larger phenomenon, regionally and nationally. In the state of California, the blue-red/liberal-conservative divide in California used to be north-south; no more. Now, it's coastal-inland. The red in this otherwise blue state is now on the inside.
People who live in the Inland Empire are not idle-rich country club Republican types. Many are former Reagan Democrats who never came home. They work hard and don't have much time to read the newspaper, surf the net, etc. Most of the information they get is received during their long daily commutes.
Commutes? Yes. Many people who live here do so for the cheaper housing. They can live in bigger, better homes than they could ever afford in Orange, Los Angeles or San Diego Counties, but they pay with time spent on the I-15, or 91 and 60 freeways.
When Ronald Reagan eliminated the broadcast Fairness Doctrine in 1987, these commuters became captive prey for the demagoguery and propaganda of Rush Limbaugh and his ilk, who creating a sub-genre of talk radio that took off to great success beginning in 1988. From then to now, the right wing saturated the popular mind in radio talk shows from coast to coast, hosted by a rogue's gallery of bloviators, pulling huge ratings and creating a mighty wurltizer of disinformation. The gravitational pull they created in the media market caused a tectonic political shift to the right in all media.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
