Annual Essay Contest

Inspired by the historical 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Demockracy has decided to launch its First Annual Essay Contest. In addition to a substantive prize for the winner, it is our hope that this contest will help further our vision of a nonprofit online policy and politics magazine based upon open dialogue, in-depth analysis and intellectual honesty. As such, although there will only be one grand prize winner, we plan to publish and recognize the work of several runner-up submissions.

Essay Topic:

Four years ago, no one could have imagined that Barack Obama would become the 44th President of the United States. This should be a lesson to us all that a lot can change in four years. As such, Demockracy.com would like you to look forward to New Year’s Day 2013 and speculate about what changes the world is likely to see in the next four years.

Guidelines:

• All essays must be submitted via the form below no later than Friday, January 2 at 5 pm EST.
• All essays must be between 1,500 and 2,500 words.
• Essays can focus on politics, policy, and/or culture. However, we encourage essays to have a primary area of focus (e.g., changes in international affairs, health policy, gay rights, other rights or issues, etc.).
• The unit of analysis for essays can be the world, a nation state, or a group of individuals.

Winners:

• The first place winner will receive a $100 gift card to his or her online store of choice and will have his or her article published as a featured article at Demockracy.com.
• Additional entries may be published at the discretion of Demockracy editors.

Questions? Contact Us.

Submit Your Essay:

Hot Rod, Sweet Caroline, and Preacher Rick

When the highlights of the last few weeks are wiretaps, profanity, political dynasties, and invocation speakers, you know you’re in political dead season. As the awkward transition from fear to hope continues, here is my view of some of the highlights:

• Hot Rod on Tape
  

Yes, Mr. Ego himself, Hot Rod Blagojevich, was allegedly caught trying to sell the U.S. Senate Seat being vacated by President-elect Obama. To be honest, this wasn’t much of surprise to me. Blagojevich has long been known in my state of residence as an alleged opportunist crook. I know many who know the governor, and I honestly cannot attest to anyone ever offering good words about him as an individual. He has been a laughing stock, even among Democrats, for years. Before this scandal, he was said to be leaning toward taking his 18% approval rating into a run for a third term in 2010. There are not many good things that came out of this scandal, but at least we’ll be spared of that. Unfortunately, Blagojevich is showing no intentions of resigning, so this mess should drag on a little longer.

• Sweet Caroline’s Ambition
  

Caroline Kennedy, the once reclusive daughter of JFK that we knew so little about, is actively lobbying New York Governor David Paterson for the appointment to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.  Caroline finally came out of the her self-imposed political exile this past year, co-chairing President-elect Obama’s VP selection committee, and now has apparently caught the family political bug. This lobbying effort has apparently put Governor Paterson and another political legacy, Andrew Cuomo, in a real bind. Cuomo apparently believes the seat is rightfully his. Outside of these two front runners, there are several very qualified candidates, including representative Nydia Velazquez , the chair of the House Small Business Committee and first Hispanic woman to ever chair a full House committee. Although I would prefer someone like Velazquez, if Paterson is going to go with a big name to represent a state used to having big names to represent it, Ms. Kennedy and the Kennedy charisma make more sense than Mr. Cuomo.

• Preacher Rick and the Angry Left
  

And the left goes crazy… Many on the fringes of the left-wing blogosphere are already one step shy of calling for a primary challenge to President-elect Obama in 2012, in part because of who he selected to give the prayer at his inauguration. This ideological purity litmus test garbage is appalling.  In the aftermath of this election, we’ve seen that there are just as many zany political purists on the left as there are on the right. Would Rick Warren as Secretary of HHS be nuts? Of course. But this, in my opinion, is a benign gesture to the millions of younger evangelicals who bucked the wishes of their parents and voted for President-elect Obama.  Obama has stated from the beginning of his campaign that he would work with everyone. If you agree with him on 1 out of 10 issues, he’ll work with you on that one issue that you happen to agree on. As such, I don’t understand why so many on the far left are so surprised at this gesture. Obama has always been honest about wanting to do things exactly like this.  Were people too caught up in the Obama mystique that they weren’t even listening to what he was saying?

I understand the need by many on the left to “get even” after all the harm that has been done to this country by ideologues on the right over the past eight years. However, seeking revenge for the sake of revenge is no way to make this country better.  President-elect Obama is inheriting the worst domestic and international situation of any president in at least three generations. He’ll need the help of many on the other side of the aisle to adequately face these problems. Is health care reform worth a small gesture such as a prayer? It sure is in my book. As Kenny Rogers once said, “you have to know when to hold them…”  It seems that President-elect Obama will do his best to build up goodwill among a wide array of Americans and save his political capital for more important issues. If you’re looking for someone that you’ll agree with on everything, Barack Obama is not your man. In fact, he never claimed to be.

The Mission and Vision of Demockracy

My column will take on a different look today. Instead of the week in updates, I’d like to give our loyal readers an update about Demockracy–where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.

As some of you may know, Demockracy was founded just a few short months ago.  Starting out in the middle of the crescendo of the 2008 election, the site naturally took a strong politics and news focus. However, as the last screaming Chicagoan headed out of Grant Park on election night, we decided that it was time to refocus and reevaluate who we were. In the past month, we have taken one step back and properly defined our mission and vision before going two steps forward:

The mission of Demockracy is to create intellectual discourse and thoughtful discussion on the policy and political issues of the day through the lens of top quality analysis and informed opinion.

The vision of Demockracy is that of a nonprofit online policy and politics magazine that thrives as a virtual intellectual community of scholars through open dialogue, in-depth analysis, intellectual honesty, and a plethora of quality writers.

As such, we’ve implemented a few new policies and will try our best to live by our golden rule:  Above all, quality over quantity.

As part of this policy, we’ve made a concerted effort to recruit new writers who will meet the standards of our current contributing editors and columnists, Mark Wilson and Dave O’Gorman, who earned these positions through the quality of their work.  So far, we’ve been fairly successful in bringing in a new crop of writers from a wide array of backgrounds. Two of these new writers have already posted articles, including this great piece by Tony Smith.  Expect to see plenty more in the coming weeks and months.  Since quality writing takes time, and all our authors volunteer their time and have full-time day jobs, it will obviously take a few new quality writers to get to the point where we can have a daily stream of quality work. Right now, perhaps it should be “quality, served fresh every few days.” However, we believe that in the next few months, you will begin to see top quality content practically every day. If you would like to join our team or know of anyone whom you think would be a good fit for Demockracy, contact me directly.

What will this new Demockracy look like?

1. More columns.

2. Original video content.

3. More in-depth politics and policy pieces.

4. More comprehensive featured pieces.

5. A wider variety of topics, including more of a focus on policy and international politics.

6. More diversified political commentary that goes beyond reporting the news.

If you’ve been reading recently, you’ve already seen the seeds of many of these changes. As the weeks and months go by, you will only see more.

Thank all of you for reading, and I’ll be back soon with my take on the world.

12/1 Roundup: Cabinets, Contractions, and Peach Pie

• President-elect Obama announced his national security team this morning. In light of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, this announcement couldn’t have come any sooner. Although the attention needs to be on President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, and the rest of the current administration, it is important that there is a team ready to take over in six weeks. The last thing this country needs is a power vacuum in international relations. On this point, I think keeping Robert Gates on at Defense is a good move. Gates seems to agree with Obama on much of Iraq and Afghanistan policy. Although the current talk is that Gates will stay for only one year, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was longer.  Gate’s new number two at the Pentagon will be important, as it is my understanding that Obama will be appointing new top deputies as a condition of Gates staying on. Gates is the only Republican cabinet designee so far. Hopefully, President-elect Obama will name at least one more Republican to a semi-high-profile position. Of course, it should be noted that many appointees, such national security adviser Jim Jones and many on the economic team, are not partisan figures.

• The Senate still stands at 58 D-40 R with Minnesota and Georgia yet to be determined. The recount continues in Minnesota, where Norm Coleman hangs on to a slight lead. The runoff in Georgia will occur tomorrow.  Saxby Chambliss leads Jim Martin by a few percent points in most polling, but it is impossible to predict what turnout will be like. Although the Obama campaign sent hundreds of its paid volunteers to Georgia for one last hurrah before most find themselves temporarily unemployed and searching for what to do next, President-elect Obama has not actually campaigned there himself. This is somewhat disappointing. Yes, Saxby Chambliss probably holds on to this seat regardless of any appearances by the President-elect, but Obama could at least make one or two appearances there as good with many of his campaign workers giving one last go at it.  I understand that he doesn’t want to have this loss on his hands and is trying to stay above politics in this transition period, but like it or not, he will be linked to the outcome of this race regardless of whether he campaigns in the peach state. Making an appearance there would be the right thing to do in my opinion.

• In Senate appointment news, lightweight Ted Kaufman will be appointed to keep Joe Biden’s seat warm for Biden’s son, Beau. There is still no word out of Illinois, except that the appointment will come before the end of the year.  As I’ve mentioned before, I think that something similar should be done in Illinois, sans the nepotism.

• According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the United States has been in a recession since December 2007. It’s interesting that most in the media were clueless to any slowdown until the financial crisis hit this fall. If the recession in fact started in December 2007, we are already approaching the longest such contraction since World War II. The early 1980s and mid 1970s saw 16 month recessions. (However, it should be noted that the 1981-1982 recession was proceeded by another 6 month recession the year before.)

11/24 Roundup: Recounts, Bailouts, and Lizard People

• The Minnesota Senate race is still up for grabs.  Norm Coleman’s lead has ranged from anywhere between 100 and 200 votes over the past few days. However, the actual vote total is misleading since it does not count ballots that were challenged by either side.  Since we have no clue if one side or the other is challenging more questionable ballots than the other side, we don’t know all that much. People like Nate Silver are trying to speculate on the outcome based upon challenged ballots, but I think his methods are questionable at best. You’d be better off flipping a coin. Read more about some of the questionable ballots, including double votes for “Lizard People” here.

• Obama’s financial team is now in place. More about that here. In other cabinet news, Hillary Clinton looks to be a safe bet for Secretary of State. Although with the Clintons, never say never.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more drama before this was final.

• The Treasury Department will inject at least $ 20 billion of capital into Citigroup. In addition, the federal government will in essence be providing catastrophic insurance to Citi on any losses in excess of 40 billion dollars. However, any bailout of the Big 3 automakers is looking very unlikely in the near future. My response to that? Good. The executives and the UAW have much blame to share in this disaster. If they’re not willing to make some real sacrifices and lay out a real plan for turning things around, then nothing should be done for them in my opinion. There needs to be some accountability. No more free rides. The hypocrisy by many labor-files who opposed the financial sector bailout is striking.

11/21 Electoral Update

• Missouri was officially called for Senator McCain yesterday. He won the state by only around 3,000 votes. I guess this can finally put an end to pundits chirping about how Missouri always goes with the winner. By the way, those of you who voted for Missouri to be the closest state in the Demockracy poll of battleground states deserve a pat on the back. (I know what you’re thinking, but Nebraska’s second congressional district does NOT count as a state!)  In fact, a majority of our readers picked The Show Me State in this poll.

• As for real prizes, now that all states are finally accounted for in the Presidential race, Demockracy would like to announce the winners our of 2008 Electoral Votes Contest:

Paul G. of Illinois finished in first place and will receive his choice of the first or seventh season of The West Wing. Greg G. finished second and will receive a copy of the most recent National Lampoon book donated by author Adam Winer. Greg also got the popular vote exactly right. Here’s a look at how Paul and Greg’s guesses fared with the actual result and my own prediction:

	Obama Electoral Votes	McCain Electoral Votes	Obama Popular Vote	McCain Popular Vote
Actual	365	173	53%	46%
Paul G.	353	185	55%	45%
Kevin V.	349	189	52%	46%
Greg G.	338	200	53%	46%

Congratulations guys!

11/17 Roundup: Fireside IM’s

• President-elect Obama continues a tradition started by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, albeit in with a 21st century twist, in his new weekly You Tube chats. Everyone is encouraged to take their laptops and curl up by their fake fireplace to rekindle the ghosts of socialists past:

• Speaking of the mandate for socialism, Senator Max Baucus of Montana has proposed a new universal health care plan that includes mandates and other important cost controls. I argued this past week that mandates will be necessary for any successful plan, so this is music to my ears. Baucus is chairman of the all-powerful Senate finance committee, so his opinion matters a great deal. Read more about Senator Baucus’s forward-thinking plan here.

• Although only NBC has called the state of Missouri, the final electoral vote tally looks all but official–Obama 365–McCain 173. To everyone’s surprise, Senator Obama won 1 electoral vote from the state of Nebraska. Nebraska and Maine both divvy up their electoral votes by congressional district (with the winner of the state as a whole getting the other two electoral votes). Although this is novel in theory, this is the first time that either state has ever in practice not given all their electoral votes to one candidate. Although McCain won the state as whole  (2 electoral votes) and the other two congressional districts (1 electoral vote each) very comfortably, Obama won the popular vote in the 2nd congressional district.

11/14 Roundup: Alaska, Hillary, and Joementum

• Remember all that Election Night news about the convicted felon (Ted Stevens) being reelected in Alaska? First Alaska gives us Sarah Palin and then this. Well, for Alaska’s sake, it appears that Senator Stevens might not have won reelection after all. As of this Wednesday afternoon, he had over a 3,000-vote lead. However, after a round of previously unaccounted for ballots arrived on a dog sled Wednesday afternoon, Anchorage mayor Mark Begich took a three, yes three, vote lead. After the Wednesday evening counting, Begich’s lead expanded beyond the size of the average American family, and now Mr. Begich leads by slightly more than 800 votes. There are apparently 35,000 votes still left to count. One round of counting will occur on Friday and another early next week. If the final margin is less than .5% (or around 1500 votes), there will be an automatic recount. Stayed tuned….

• The current hot rumor is that Hillary Clinton is being considered for Secretary of State. This one certainly seems to have come out of left field. Although it would seem to make more sense than Supreme Court Justice if she hopes to run in 2016, I’m not sure if this would be any better for her future than Senator. Although, I suppose if her legacy is what matters, you couldn’t find a better role. Other than President that is. She’d certainly have much more influence in this role than she would have as Vice President.  David Paterson, the blind African American governor of New York who took over for Eliot Spitzer is a Democrat, so her Senate seat would remain in Democratic hands. Come to think of it, this would actually make more than a modicum of sense.

• The Democrats apparently are ready to fully capitulate to the demands of Traitor Joe Lieberman. This charge to let Lieberman keep his plum national-security-related chairmanship positions is unfortunately led by President-elect Obama. Hey Barack, isn’t this the same guy who said over and over again that you were not qualified to be president, but yet vouched for Sarah frieken Palin? I understand the whole campaigning for his friend deal, but defending Sarah Palin proved to us that Joementum apparently lost his honor and principles along with the 2006 primary. I understand the desire to be bipartisan, but how can Obama keep a straight face while advocating that such an opportunist be the main man in charge of potential investigations in the Senate. I’m all for him staying in the caucus and keeping his plum assignments on domestic committees, but this goes a bit too far.

11/11 Roundup

• Howard Dean is out as DNC Chair after four very successful years. Dr. Dean is the unsung hero in Obama’s electoral landslide. Without the groundwork done by Dean and his folks at the DNC, such a victory would have been impossible.

• It looks like 50-state strategy, as we know, will be gone as well. However, I think those who are kicking and screaming about this should settle down. Yes, they’re replacing some of the lead employees. However, based on how Obama ran his presidential campaign, it would be naive to think he would be in favor of getting rid of the ideals of the program. I think this is just symbolic of letting the new DNC head (Obama’s appointment) pick his or her own people to carry out his or her own legacy. The last thing you want to do is bind a new leader with the past leader’s top lieutenants and strategic vision, no matter how successful the previous leader may have been. And besides, there are thousands of Obama campaign workers currently looking for employment that would fit in very well at the new DNC.

• The Oregon Senate race was called for Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley at the end of last week. The Democrats now have at least 57 seats in the Senate. They are still counting votes in Alaska (Ted Stevens is still up), the Minnesota race has narrowed to a Coleman advantage of around 200 votes and is headed to a long recount, and the Georgia Senate race will have a runoff in early December. The Dems look unlikely to get 60 seats in the Senate, but they have a good shot at 58 seats and an outside shot at 59 seats.

Grant Park Rally Photos and Video

These Grant Park rally pictures are directly from one of Demockracy’s loyal readers. After the pictures, we’ve included a short video of the crowd at Grant Park in Chicago on Election Night. This video is from when it was announced that Senator Obama was officially elected the next President of the United States.

Enjoy!

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