Right now I’m writing a paper in one of my classes on ‘The Authoritarian Personality’. You know of them quite well – easily submit to authority, fearful and suspicious of the ‘other’, etc.  Many conservatives most defnitely fall into this category. The study of the authoritarian personality first broke ground with ‘The Authoritarian Personality’, a Berkeley study by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson and Sanford, in 1950, while the dark shadow of fascism and the Holocaust was still fresh on peoples’ minds. It’s a pretty dated book if you read it today, but there’s a lot of truth to be found in it.

Fast forward to the mid-90’s. University of Manitoba’s Bob Altemeyer writes ‘The Authoritarian Specter’, a more modern and exhaustive statistical analysis, with the concept of the ‘Right Wing Authoritarian’ scale (RWA) introduced, a gauge of how strongly one fits into that concept. John Dean referred to it often in his recent ‘Conservatives Without Conscience’ book in reference to the Bush administration and its sheeplike supporters.

Anyways, Bob Altemeyer has recently released a great, free e-book called ‘The Authoritarians’ that you can download and read, which distills the major themes into a more brief, concise volume. It’s a great read, and I encourage you to download it here, and get a better perspective into the minds of what we’re up against. Take the RWA test yourself, and see how you score.

I’m one of those people who’s participated in quite a few marches in my lifetime, and with the exception of one that landed me in jail, I always leave them with an empty feeling, that although there was a ‘support group/community’ feeling to be gained from it, the reality is that the people in power could really care less about us marching in the streets. And half of the time, many on the left have a bit of a focus problem, in that instead of staying on task with a single-minded objective, we get the Free Palestine/Mumia/The Whales/Go Vegan/insert-liberal-cause here crowd, and it dilutes the message. So I’ve resolved not to do it anymore. Sure, I’m jaded. I’m not saying you shouldn’t continue to do it, it’s just not for me anymore.

One complaint we’ve heard is that Iraq protesters don’t really go far enough. Some people have singled out the people who vigil in front of the Federal Building in Montpelier every week. Although I thoroughly respect the people who do it, and would never say they shouldn’t, I am inclined to agree with the critics in terms of its lack of any real effectiveness.

It’s a much different world than it was thirty years ago. The idea of civil disobedience, of really laying one’s body on the line, sometimes at the risk of bodily harm was something that, up until recently, has had a rich tradition in the United States, and you don’t have to go back to Henry Thoreau to see it. Just go back 30 or 40 years.

Well, anyways, thankfully, some people haven’t forgotten. Enter the Occupation Project. The O.P. is a coalition of several anti-war organizations such as Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, CODE PINK, and many others, whose objective is :

“a campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience aimed at ending the U.S. war in and occupation of Iraq. The campaign will begin the first week of February 2007 with occupations at the offices of Representatives and Senators who refuse to pledge to vote against additional war funding.”

And to those of you who are hungering for a more direct, somewhat confrontational activism, the Occupation Project has targeted Peter Welch’s office, this Wednesday, March 21st. They’ll be meeting at at the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington at noon, where they will then proceed to Peter Welch’s office. Anyone of our readers that attend, please post a diary with your experiences, if you feel so inclined.

Note: I realize I’m going to catch some hell for this from some people. My posting this is simply because there are people that think Welch hasn’t gone far enough, and would be interested in this. I personally think Welch has done okay on the war, but could definitely be more visible and strong, so spare me the tongue-lashing. It’s definitely VT political news, and therefore appropriate.

crossposted on EvolvingPeace(http://www.evolvingw…)

Amongst the films of the Green Mountain Film Festival was a film titled “Our Daily Bread.” As described by many who have seen the film, the film reveals the disturbing elements of the current factory food system. The majority of human population is so far disconnected to their food source that most are unaware of how our food is produced. This film highlights the shocking realities of what is rarely seen.

In Vermont, there is movement of people who are trying to eat local processed and produced food and due to the commoditization of food it has become very difficult to sustain oneself. Under the false pretenses of public health restrictions have been place on small scale producers and restricting your diet to local foods is a mere impossibility. The rise of factory farms throughout the world has displaced the small scale family farms and has created a food system that is unsustainable.

The rise of factory farms has made it impossible for small scale farmers to compete and throughout its advent regulations have been imposed that favor the large scale farms. Regulatory agencies have made it even more restrictive for the small scale farms to sell their products directly to the consumers. A case in point, this last summer in Waitsfield, Vermont American Flatbread Pizza was restricted from using poultry raised on the farm that was directly across the street. Due to supposed health concerns, the Department of Health restricted the practice. What is wrong with a food system that does not allow a restaurant to use meats raised from a farm in its own backyard?

Under the guise of public health, the practice is restricted, but as a consumer I would prefer to have products that are raised or grown from within sight of my home. As an action the Vermont House Agriculture Committee passed a bill(HR 522) that would ease up those restrictions and allow reputable business to sell locally raised meats. This bill is supposed to be debated on the House Floor on Wednesday and I sure hope it passes. Consumers should have access to local processed foods and small scale producers who are the fabric of the rural communities need easement of those restrictions.

As for the point of the film, we as humans are so far disconnected from our food sources that many of us do not know where our food comes from. My partner was a schoolteacher in suburban New Jersey and shockingly she had to instruct her fifth grade students that milk came for a cow. How has it become that we as a culture are so far removed from our food that kids can rattle of statistics of their sports heroes but to know were there food comes from gains blank stares.

Due to ethical and personal reasons I have chosen a vegetarian diet, but as I further progress working on and studying of food supply I am shocked at the lack of public awareness. In large scale factory farms, animals are raised in confined quarters and are given no grasp of fresh air and are fed unnatural diets to increase profit margins. As a vegetarian, I choose not to eat meat; however I feel that an industry that is treating animals in an inhumane manner needs to be changed. Small scale farming is the solution to the problem, local farmers raise there animals in a more hospitable manner and do not just look at animal as a mere commodity. At a recent House Agriculture Committee meaning, a Vermont based slaughter house facility owner revealed that he treats the animals with as much compassion as possible (everything except reading bedtime stories). It is when there is local produced system that the most humane treatments are achievable. While, yes the animals are still slaughtered for consumption the reality is that the human species are carnivores.

There are multiple reasons to further encourage local food production in addition to the ethical treatment of animals. The prevention of super bugs, diseases like the bird-flu, mad cow disease or e-coli contamination are easier within local food systems. Having local produce food immediately removes the causes of nation wide epidemics. As we had recently seen with the e-coli contamination of spinach or the recent story about contaminated dog food. If an illness is created by a local farm, we will instantly know the roots of the problem and act accordingly. As for environmental reasons, keeping a local based food system removes the need for vast usage of fossil fuels in shipping and refrigeration of products. Large scale factory farming also create environmental degradation by accumulation of large manure pits that drain into the water supplies.

While the film “Our Daily Bread” highlights the disconnect we have from our food supply there are individuals and organizations working hard to create a system that is environmentally sustainable and treats animals in an ethical manner. I hope that this latest measure from the Vermont House proceeds to the Senate and governor and it allows for a more locally produced food supply. As well I hope as well that these measures do not just stay in Vermont, but spread out to the rest of the American countryside. If you support measures like this contact your elected officials and help plow the way for more environmentally sustainable agriculture.

Peace
Robb Kidd

“Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation, in turn, becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on to the future.”  Charles A. Lindbergh

( – promoted by JDRyan)

Sometimes Vermont’s press corps just confuses me. Take yesterday’s Free Press article from Remsen and Hallenbeck that was lauded by Freyne:

Douglas speaks a special language when he talks about his political vision; he has names for everything. Jason Gibbs, his spokesman, said the terms often develop spontaneously during policy discussions. Gibbs described several “ah-ha” moments when a group of words suddenly became a useful way to describe a policy.

Sort of paints a picture of a political master with an inherent genius for rhetoric that speaks to the people, eh?

What I read things like this, I just scratch my head and wonder if reporters ever spend much time on google. Douglas is a political master all right, not because he’s always inventing the wheel, but because he knows when not to waste his time re-inventing it. Let’s look a little closer at the “glossary” of legendary Douglasisms provided by Remsen and Hallenbeck…

Agenda of Affordability: According to the Freeps, this one first popped up in Vermont at Douglas’s 2006 State of the State Address. What they don’t mention is that the term is hardly a Douglas original. The first instance I can find is Jon Corzine of New Jersey’s “affordability agenda” back in 2005. It’s been picked up in other places, for example at the same time Douglas was unveiling the shingle in Vermont, Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle presented his own “affordability agenda” in his State of the State address.

More on the flip…

Promise Scholarships: Check out www.promisescholarships.org and you’ll find that this one been in circulation for a while, too, as West Virginia has been at something with the same name since well before its Freeps-presented 2006 State of the State genesis. They have a nifty acronym for it too: Providing Real Opportunities for Maximizing In-state Student Excellence. Idaho’s had something by that name for a while, as well as other states.

Plan for Prosperity: The Freeps identifies this as the name Douglas bestowed on his 2002 agenda, but if you google a bit, you’ll see that everybody’s got one of ’em – and many predate the Governor’s, running as far and wide as Washington DC to  Jordan.

New Neighborhoods Initiative: Here’s a New Neighborhoods Program proposed in California in 2001. Nebraska has launched its own New Neighborhoods Initiative. The Freeps again tags its genesis in 2006.

Third Way – Vermont Way: Oh come on, I can’t believe they even listed this…

My point is kinda twofold; first, that the real story is not the idea that Douglas is a brilliant, original pitchman that has invented his own political lexicon. He’s not, and the article’s thesis is misleading in that way. The point is that Douglas has his radar out and his finger to the air enough to know that he doesn’t have to come up with clever names and notions when there is plenty of unused, agenda-driving, market-proven rhetoric sitting around.

It’s also the case that Vermont Dems are often convinced that the Green Mountain state is somehow so completely different from everywhere and everyone else that they spend a lot of time either re-inventing the wheel or turning their nose up at communications strategies and approaches that – like it or not – work on people. And by people, yes I mean Vermonters too. We aren’t some seperate species.

Douglas keeps his eyes open, and when there’s something he can use, he picks it up and puts it into the media. Once again, Dems would be well advised to learn from his example.