The Future of America's Political Parties

Sometimes my 9-5 work and my graduate work line up together in beautiful ways. The month of April is a month where there are two events that do just that.

The Henry Salvatori Center at Claremont McKenna College will be hosting a one-day conference April 7th. The subject of the conference, and the tagline of this post, is "The Future of America's Political Parties." Yes, I know that CMC is an undergraduate college, but I go to Claremont Graduate University 25 steps away from CMC and take classes from CMC professors from time to time.

The CMC event will have speakers adressing, not surprisingly, the health and strategies of the two major political parties in the upcoming elections. Speakers for the Democratic side are Peter Beinart of The New Republic, Professor Elaine Karmark of Harvard University, Professor Samuel Popkin of UC San Diego, and Dr. Ruy Teixeira of the Center for American Progress. Essentially two intellectuals and two "pundits."

What I like about the mix is that the two pundits represent what I see as the split in current Democratic politics. Peter Beinart represents the Wilsonian Social Liberal. If you don't know what that means you had better rush to the newstand to pick up last week's New Republic. But to quote Peter,

In 2001, Mead published a book titled Special Providence, in which he argued that four traditions comprise U.S. foreign policy. Wilsonians believe America must make the world safe for liberty. Hamiltonians believe America must make the world safe for commerce. Jeffersonians fear that both of these crusades threaten liberty at home. And Jacksonians believe in destroying America's enemies and defending America's sovereignty, no matter what the rest of the world thinks.

Mead described Bill Clinton's foreign policy as a coalition between Wilsonians and Hamiltonians. Wilsonians saw the post-cold-war world as a golden age for democracy. Hamiltonians saw it as a golden age for free trade. When human rights and moneymaking clashed--over China, for instance--the Wilsonians and Hamiltonians split. But they agreed on something fundamental: The best thing for America was to make the rest of the world as much like us as possible.

BTW, Peter has been very good to the non-profit I work for by speaking at a number of our events. His is generous of his time and sincere in his beliefs, something his critics don't often give him credit for being. An acquaintance once commented how "The liberal New Republic" was something of a joke among "progressive" circles, but I assure you that TNR is anything but a joke. It is a thoughtful and well written magazine with a long history of liberal politics. Sure, Walter Lippmann (an early TNR Editor) might disagree with some of their current arguments, but he would admire their sincere love of liberal politics.

On the other end of Democratic politics, at what is often called the "progressive" end, is Dr. Ruy Teixeira. Dr. Teixeira writes the Public Opinion Watch column at the CAP website. Dr. Teixeira, and the CAP, are perfect examples of what I think of as the Wisconsin-Madison brand of modern liberalism. From the Winter Soldier hearings to today's anti-war movement the northern Mid-West has played a significant role in American progressive politics, a brand of liberalism that is more socialist than that advanced by TNR.

On a side-note, the fact that the more socialist left uses the term "progressive" I find mildly ironic. After all, Wilsonian Progressivism was created as a response to socialism/socialist movements in the United States and some of the most heated "redbaiting" was during Wilson's administration. I think that might also explain some of the tension between TNR and CAP liberals.

On the Republican side of things the speakers include Michael Barone of US News and World Report, Professor Andrew Busch of Claremont McKenna College, Professor John Green of the University of Akron, Hugh Hewitt (Radio Host) of Chapman University Law School, and William Kristol of the Weekly Standard. I look forward to hearing from Barone, Green, and Busch, but am leary of Hewitt and Kristol.

Though the Republican panel features one additional speaker, I don't think it will much affect the substance of discussion. Hewitt will paint Republican politics with rose colored pro-Bush glasses. Hewitt's raison d'etre seems to be defense of Republican Presidential policy without criticism, not Republican politics generally, just Presidential. And for those who want to expose the dark conspiracy at the heart of PNAC, Bill Kristol anxiously awaits your conspiracy theories.

My one criticism of this panel is that while it has its "partisan hack" (Hewitt), it doesn't well represent the split in Neo-Conservative politics. While the panel includes William Kristol, son of Irving Kristol (an early Neo-Conservative and student of Leo Strauss), it doesn't include Francis Fukuyama. I think any discussion of modern conservatism necessitates a debate over the the "neo-conservative rift." Fukuyama may have theorized that the End of History was all nations becoming free democracies, but he has been critical of the forceful promotion of that end since before the Iraq war. Kristol believes that one can militarily promote democracies while Fukuyama sees any democratization as the long working out of History (the capital H is for the Hegelian use of the word). Hopefully either Professor Busch or Green will bring up that position.

Later Panels will include discussions by Professor Nelson Polsby of UC Berkeley and Professor William Mayer of Northeastern University.

Needless to say my inner PoliSci geek is weeping with joy.

The second event is an event being hosted by Southern California Grantmakers on April 10 and is about "Supporting Nonpartisan Voter Mobilization" with a panel that includes the Elvis of Modern Mobilization research Dr. Donald Green of Yale University. I look forward to listening to his ideas, especially considering this is an off-year for elections so increasing turnout is badly needed.

New Games in 2006

This past week was GAMA's annual trade show which is the gaming equivalent of E3 or the ShoWest. At this event, the various gaming manufacturers make announcements regarding the products they will be releasing this year in the hopes that local hobby stores will carry their merchandise. There were some pretty exciting announcements this year, though none as major as Fantasy Flight Games' announcement of the World of Warcraft boardgame at last year's show.

Without further ado, here are some of the offerings.

BLACK INDUSTRIES
Black Industries has announced the long awaited production of a Warhammer 40k Roleplaying Game. 40k's first incarnation, Rogue Trader, was a semi-rpg miniatures game which has made longtime fans fantasize for decades about the posibility of a true 40k rpg. Games Workshop has had many products that continued the desire, games like Space Hulk, Inquisitor, and Necromunda combined with the detailed background of the 40k wargame universe make this one of my most anticipated games of the year. Black Industries will continue to support the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game that is currently available.

FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

FFG had the surprise announcement of last year's trade show, they announced a board game version of World of Warcraft (the popular Massive Multiplayer RPG). The announcement was huge, but so was the game when it finally released last November. It was a solid game by a solid company. This year's announcements by FFG look like they are continuing to build their reputation as possibly the leading American boardgame manufacturer.

A complete list of their offerings this year can be found at their rant page in the 3/13 listing. But I am particularly excited about the following.

The Mutant Chronicles Collectible Miniatures game. Mutant Chronicles was an RPG that satisfied my hunger for a 40k rpg for sometime. You see, unlike 40k, Mutant Chronicles started as an RPG and then became a miniatures game called Warzone. It looks like the IP is returning in the form of a pre-painted miniatures game. If the figures are of the standard of most pre-painteds coming out today, I'm in.



Building on their success at adapting Blizzard computer IP into boardgame format, Fantasy Flight will be releasing Starcraft as a boardgame. The Starcraft computer game is one of the most successful computer games in the history of computer games and Fantasy Flight has shown they are capable of making enjoyable and challenging games based on PC IP. I can't wait to blow up zergs with my Terran marines.


2006 will also see the release of some games announced by FFG in 2005. FFG may make quality games, but their production schedule does leave something to be desired. I have been waiting with baited breath for the release of the Marvel Superheroes board game and it looks like I will finally get my hands on a copy this Summer.



FFG will also be releasing new editions of their Drakon and Cave Troll games. These are games, along with the exceptional Twilight Imperium, that helped establish FFG as an American company capable of producing quality and "newbie" friendly boardgames. It also appears that they have finally found the proper look and feel for their enjoyable Mag-Blast card game. John Kovalic's artwork looks like a nice addition.


In addition to new games, and new editions of older games, FFG will be releasing expansions for some of the excellent games they released in 2005. Look forward to additional sets for Arkham Horror, Battles of Middle Earth, Game of Thrones, and World of Warcraft.


This weekend I will post information about some of the other games coming out this year. I am still overwhelmed by the FFG announcements. No massive "new" announcements, but I am drooling so hard over their potential games that I might shut down my computer.

My Generation Was Ripped Off!

In a non-media related post today over at Cathy's World, Cathy Seipp finished her piece with a paragraph that reminded me how much Generation X (among others) was cheated out of all the "muckety-muck" we were due.

He suggested I have my dad, who turns 77 next month, handle it: "Have him show up in a raccoon coat, holding a pennant, saying, 'Back off -- Maia and I have been dating for six months!"

I know, the quote is out of context and doesn't really make any sense. So what, within this quote, triggered my ire? Thanks for asking.

The description of Cathy's father "in a raccoon coat, holding a pennant" reminded me of what I thought college was going to be.



Between Goofy and Warner Bros. cartoons I was certain that my college days would be filled with raccoon coats, pennants, model T Hot Rods, the works. I spent a great deal of my childhood dreaming of these trivialities as if they represented a fantasy world of wonder, success, and contentment. And for someone whose parents had to live in a motel or in another family's RV, among other struggles, visions of such petty bourgeoisie were what made doing homework possible.

I don't know if you have ever imagined what it would be like to live with a "kitchenette" in your motel room, and have that be a step up from the crazy free-base addict who rented your family a room before, is like. Motel rooms aren't exactly the best study environment, especially given the "creative project" focus that a lot of Elementary and Middle School education contains. "I'm sorry Ms. A, but I was unable to build a ginger bread version of the Walls of Troy because we don't have a baking tray at home" isn't something your average 5th grader is ready to admit openly.

So the raccoon coat wearing, happy go lucky, whimsical view of college that Disney shorts displayed, and the struggling "poor" college student of the Kurt Russell films, gave me hope that there was a better world. Sure Animal House came out when I was a child, but it didn't refute that college had these things, it just made fun of them. I could handle that. Little did I know that my visions of college had been tossed into the dustbin of history, abandoned by those who found them trivial and demeaning. As Samuel Blum describes...

SB: Oh, they were phenomenal. Tremendous. For one thing, all the freshman junk went out the window. The dinks. You don't remember that. Freshmen wore a dink. He wore a green tie and he tucked it in. He wore white hose and he tucked his trousers into his socks. He had to carry matches should an upperclassman stopped him for a light. And if whistled at on Queen's campus, he had to run. You carried your stuff in a shopping bag. You wore a button with your name. With these G.I.s coming back after the war, in '46, '47, do you think they were going to do any of these things? They'd laugh at you. You couldn't do it. It went out the window. It just was completely different. And the new guys that came in, ... many of them were guys who in '38 ... couldn't afford to go to college. And that was good. The G.I. Bill was a great leveler and a great thing. I can't say anything bad about it. And I think it was a great thing for the country ... It gave men who never before would have had an opportunity a chance to go to college. Now, college was also something very different. The '20s and early '30s, things like the raccoon coat kind of baloney, and the proms and all was passe.

KP: But a lot of that went out. You could see, that went out.

SB: Right away it went out. Even when I was an undergraduate Rutgers wasn't that kind of a school, they had the freshman
silliness, but I didn't sense anything like the raccoon coat Ivy League stuff. It just wasn't that kind, because it was a more
plebeian school. People came from ordinary circumstances. Look at all the guys you're interviewing. How many of these guys come from rich people? Very few. Ordinary. In that sense, ordinary. But not ordinary in another sense. I'm sure that ...
anybody that sent his kid to school in the '30s had to sacrifice to do it. And that was a commitment and something they believed in and it was good.

Before I was even born, the beanie, hazing of Freshmen, and graduating Seniors carving their names in the belltower had all gone the way of the dinosaur. Gone was the possibility of my dream of "burying the hatchet," and thus ending the war between the Freshmen and Sophomore class, at the end of my first year of college.

In fact, the things that gave me motivation to go to college weren't a part of college at all. I wanted to read Chaucer and was given Bakhtin before I ever saw a page of Chaucer. I wanted to read The Federalist Papers and I was given a standardized Introduction to Politics text. I wanted to go to an "introductory dance" only to endure a formal and processed orientation which discussed the dangers of alcohol and notified us of what constituted sexual harassment.

My Freshman year was a disappointment and a shock. It was no wonder that, for many reasons, I left school for a period of time before returning to college with the desire for learning as my only motivation. The "college culture" I had desired didn't exist, but at least I found out that good professors weren't abandoned like so many of the things I had expected.

Number One...No More!!!!

For the time being I will be posting under my real name rather than under my classified program name. There are a couple of possible reasons for this...

1. I have escaped the village.
2. I have gone insane.
3. I have a huge ego and want full credit for all words I write.
4. I have joined a blog related to my work and the administrator still has the settings set to publish the nickname of the author rather than the real name.

Please forgive any confusion and understand that there NEVER WAS A NUMBER ONE any memory you have of one is a fiction. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. The computer is your friend and your friend wants you to be happy.

Any future changes back to Number One, followed by remembering this post, are a sign of your own mental illness.

An Opportunity to Meet an Icon

As everyone may have guessed, I am a big-time William Shatner fan. So this announcement is big news to me. The History Channel is offering a chance to "meet" William Shatner at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. I, naturally, entered the sweepstakes, but I must say that I am less than excited for more than one reason.

• First, the "meeting" is at a Star Trek convention. I have never and will never go to a Star Trek Convention...Comic Book and Gaming Conventions only please.

• Second, since the meeting is at a convention the likelihood of it being "intimate" is unlikely. If I want to meet with Shatner, I want it to be a casual meeting over coffee and not some wierd public deal.

• Third, the event is in Las Vegas. I know everybody thinks Vegas is cool. But like Rob, who posts here, I was a 21/craps dealer as an undergrad in Reno. Gambling has about as much appeal to me as going on a vacation to fill potholes does for a Caltrans worker.

• Fourth, meeting William Shatner should be about more than Star Trek. It should be about meeting someone who has entertained you in a variety of media, and who became more endearing when he finally presented himself in a more human light.

Still, I applied and so should you. Just click on the picture below.

Contentment and Loving in Glendale

As you all know, my wife and I moved from Crenshaw to Glendale at the first of this month. What you may not know is that we had somewhere in the realm of 100 boxes of books accompany us. Needless to say this made our move slightly backbreaking, and given my aging knees we had to have a large amount of assistance bringing our stuff up to our second story apartment. In all honesty, my wife an I had to stop and hire some movers to finish the job. We did 70%, but that last 30% was too much. Being a bibliophile-boardgame lover who owns 400+ DVDs and who was a catcher/soccer player when they were young is not a combination that is nice to the knees, especially when both your apartments are upstairs.

So we are in our new, 2-bedroom, apartment and have begun unpacking our boxes of stuff, and boy is it a lot of stuff. I can't believe that we still have this much, especially considering how much we gave away to libraries/used bookstores/local kids/(insert recipient here). My wife has kindly purchased three more bookcases for the second bedroom, now termed "the office." Though I have to admit "den of distractions" would be a better name. The room is filled with board games, comic books, fantasy/SciFi novels, role-playing games, and RPG related magazines. As an aside, I now hate myself for keeping 6 years worth of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. That high quality stock paper they use makes for quite a load, but I do like to go back and review the articles from time to time.

At least now I can segregate our books so that the living room contains all the books we want people to know we read. So all our Political Science, Philosophy, English Literature, and Film related books are in the living room and all the guilty pleasure stuff is in "the office."

It's nice to live a place that can fit all our stuff and still feel roomy, and that describes our new place accurately. It's very comfortable. In fact, my experience in Glendale has been somewhat "dreamy" to be honest. Most of my childhood was spent in poorer neighborhoods, and as a college student I lived in places that struggling students can afford. From houses shared with 5 roommates to Crenshaw with my wife (had to be close to USC and still have affordable housing) my adult residences have left something to be desired.

So far Glendale has been a land of chocolate rivers and marshmallow trees. I am certain I have seen little orange men running around singing. I know, I know, Glendale is just another suburb/town, but so far I love it. My wife and I even saw a squirrel eating nuts outside our front door this morning, a far cry from the crows who welcomed me home in other places.

I am still waiting for my new place to feel like home. I still feel like I am visiting someone else's apartment.

Who knows...maybe when we are finished unpacking I will invite you all over for a game of Killer Bunnies, Britannia (review to be posted on Monday), Kingmaker, or Scene It?

Fantasy Films For the Compleat Gamer Part 1

Hawk the Slayer-- Game Grene has a review of this quintessential cheeseball fantasy film. No one who played roleplaying games in the 1980s hasn't seen this movie. Flying swords, machine gun crossbows, rapid fire arrows, "giants", elves named Crow, and Jack Palance. Need I say more? Two, very generous, stars. A must see for roleplayers.

Best Quote: "I am no messenger, but I will give you a message. The message of death!" --Crow

Krull-- A world lightyears beyond your imagination. Like Hawk the Slayer this film is another of the roleplayer must see fantasy films. Also like Hawk this film comes from the vast fantasy wasteland that is the 1980s. I don't know what it was about the 80s and cheeseball, low-budget, fantasy films, but it seems a mainstay of the decade. Earlier decades got classics like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and the 80s gets Krull. Liam Neeson, kidnapped princesses, teleporting fortresses, magic vs. technology, and the Glaive! After watching this film, I wanted all my D&D characters to have Glaives, but then I read what a real glaive was and changed my mind.





Memorable Quote" "I am Ergo the Magnificent! Short in stature, tall in power, narrow of purpose, and wide of vision and I do not travel with peasants and beggars, good bye!"--Ergo the Magnificent.