Deliberation, Norman Rockwell, and Marco Rubio

At The Wall Street Journal, Bob Greene writes about Norman Rockwell's famous "Freedom of Speech" painting.

If you’ve ever seen the painting, you know what I mean. The setting is a town meeting. One man, in work clothes, has risen from the audience to speak. There is nervousness, and courage, in his eyes; Rockwell makes it evident that the man is likely not accustomed to talking in public. Other citizens of the town, the men in coats and ties, are in the seats around him. Their eyes are focused upward, toward him. They are hearing him out; they are patiently letting him have his say.

His eyes, their eyes…that is the power of the painting. We, of course, have no idea what is on the man’s mind, or whether the other townspeople agree with him or adamantly oppose him. But as he talks they are listening, giving him a chance. They know that their own turn, if they want it, will come. For now, they owe him their full and polite attention.

...
You contemplate the tableau in “Freedom of Speech,” and the meaning of those eyes hits you. Rockwell understood: Only when we look each other in the eye can we begin to solve our problems. It is easy to eviscerate someone whose eyes yours have never met; it is easy to harangue someone, to make him feel insignificant, if you don’t have to see him. When Rockwell was distilling America’s aspirations into his Four Freedoms paintings, there was no internet, there were no social media, television sets had not yet taken over the country’s homes. He took it on faith that when men and women rose to speak, they would of necessity greet each others’ gazes.

On the Senate floor, Marco Rubio said last week:

Turn on the news and watch these parliaments around the world where people throw chairs at each other, and punches, and ask yourself how does that make you feel about those countries? It doesn't give you a lot of confidence about those countries. Now I’m not arguing that we're anywhere near that here tonight, but we're flirting with it. We're flirting with it in this body and we are flirting with it in this country. We have become a society incapable of having debates anymore.

In this country, if you watch the big policy debates that are going on in America, no one ever stops to say, “I think you're wrong, I understand your point of view - I get it. You have some valid points, but let me tell you why I think my view is better.” I don't hear that anymore. Here’s what I hear, almost automatically, and let me be fair, from both sides of these debates. Immediately, immediately, as soon as you offer an idea, the other side jumps and says, “The reason why you say that is because you say you don't care about poor people, because you only care about rich people, because you're this, or you’re that or you’re the other.” And I'm just telling you guys, we are reaching a point in this Republic where we're not going to be able to solve the simplest of issues because everyone is putting themselves in a corner where everyone hates everybody.

Ryan, Rubio, and the Republicans

From The Economist:

FOR months the Republican Party has seemed more like a casting agency for pantomime characters than a serious political force. Its presidential primary race has been dominated by two men who have never held elected office. One is a bragadocious bully whose most celebrated idea is the construction of a “a beautiful wall” along the country’s southern border; the other is a Bible-thumping neurosurgeon who believes America is living in a “Gestapo” age and has a “psychopath” for a president. In the House of Representatives a small group of arch-conservatives, for whom compromise is apostasy, defenestrated their Speaker for refusing to shut down the government in order to stop public funding for Planned Parenthood, a health-care organisation that also provides abortions.

Yet in the past couple of weeks something has changed. Serious people are on the rise. Paul Ryan, the newly installed Speaker, is both widely admired among conservatives and known for his policy expertise. Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida, is climbing up the presidential primary polls, leading the field on prediction markets and picking up endorsements from other politicians and backing from donors apace. Plenty could still go wrong, but one year from election day, many Republican grandees have a new spring in their step. They reckon that a non-crazy candidate could become their party’s nominee. And with a plausible presidential candidate and strong leadership in Congress, a clean sweep in 2016—winning the White House and retaining control of both Houses of Congress—might be possible after all.

Rubio, Religion, and Captain America

Time's cover story on Senator Marco Rubio has a provocative headline:

Though the story is generally favorable, it creates a problem for Rubio.  Time has a liberal editorial bent, and each side of the spectrum is suspicious of praise from the other.  And the "savior" language may strike some Christians as borderline blasphemy.  So Rubio has a very effective and clever response:

Rubio seems to have adapted this line from the 2012 film The Avengers.

Black Widow: These guys come from legend. They're basically gods.
Captain America: There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that.

Wikipedia and the Vice Presidency

Micah Sifry writes at TechPresident:

The act of observing something can sometimes change the thing being observed. Case in point: myobservation on Monday that we might be able to get useful clues as to the identity of Mitt Romney's vice president pick by watching for a surge of edits on their Wikipedia page.

Not any more.

Last night, Stephen Colbert played a snippet of a Fox News report noting the jump in last-minute edits to Sarah Palin's page four years ago, and then he went to town. Assuming that Wikipedia edits were the tip-off, he declared, "We could be looking at Vice President Season Six of Buffy-the-Vampire Slayer. So, Nation, let your voice be heard in this history decision. Go on Wikipedia, and make as many edits as possible to your favorite VP contender." He then proceeded to mime editing Tim Pawlenty's page. (You can find the segment at about 8:40 minutes in, here.)

Well, Rob Portman's page has had 112 edits since Sunday, against 52 for Marco Rubio and just 18 for Pawlenty. But as of last night, the Pawlenty page was locked to protect it from vandalism. In addition, the Portman and Rubio pages have been "semi-protected" by site administrators, which means they can only be edited by registered users. The same thing has been done to the pages for Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, and David Petraeus (who got a burst of attention yesterday because of an item on the Drudge Report). That means that only people who have already been on Wikipedia for at least four days and previously made ten edits to other unprotected pages can edit these pages.

Disability Treaty

Our chapter on national security and foreign policy discusses the making of treaties. The Hill reports:

Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) joined the 10 Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to pass the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has the support of advocacy groups across the country. Proponents say it would merely require the rest of the world to catch up to the United States' high standards created by the Americans With Disabilities Act while protecting Americans with disabilities abroad, but opponents — including a number of home-schooling groups — have raised concerns about international standards being imposed on America.

The treaty, said panel Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), “raises the standard to our level without requiring us to go further.”

Abortion was the only issue to divide lawmakers along partisan lines.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) proposed language saying the treaty “does not create any abortion rights.” All nine Republicans on the panel voted for it.

But Democrats said that would have allowed treaty signers to discriminate against people with disabilities — refusing to provide the full range of family planning services under domestic law — in violation of the spirit of the treaty. Instead, Kerry offered an amendment saying the treaty does not address “the provision of any particular health program or procedure,” meaning the treaty doesn't create any new abortion rights beyond the duty not to discriminate against people with disabilities.

The anti-abortion rights Susan B. Anthony List however said abortion itself is often a form of discrimination against people with disabilities.

"Ironically, when special needs children are identified in the womb, they often become a prime target for abortion," SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. "Over 90% of children diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero have their lives abruptly ended. Abortion in no way promotes the rights and dignity of people with disabilities."

Hispanic Americans

The Pew Hispanic Center reports:

Among the 50.7 million Hispanics in the United States, nearly two-thirds (65%), or 33 million, self-identify as being of Mexican origin, according to tabulations of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. No other Hispanic subgroup rivals the size of the Mexican-origin population. Puerto Ricans, the nation’s second largest Hispanic origin group, make up just 9% of the total Hispanic population in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

...

• Nearly three-in-four (74%) Hispanics are U.S. citizens, compared with 93% of the entire U.S. population.
• Those born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth, and fully 99% of Puerto Ricans hold citizenship. Cubans (74%) and Mexicans (73%) have the next highest shares of U.S. citizens.
• Hondurans (47%) and Guatemalans (49%) are the only groups among the 10 most populous Hispanic origin groups in which less than half of their populations are U.S. citizens. Hispanics of Salvadoran origin (55%) are the third least likely group to be U.S. citizens.

A datum relevant to Marco Rubio's vice presidential prospects:

Cubans are the third-largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for 3.7% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2010.

Space and Politics

CBS reports on the economic impact of ending the space shuttle program:

The Pew Research Center reports:

On the eve of the final mission of the U.S. space shuttle program, most Americans say the United States must be at the forefront of future space exploration.

Fifty years after the first American manned space flight, nearly six-in-ten (58%) say it is essential that the United States continue to be a world leader in space exploration; about four-in-ten say this is not essential (38%).

Looking back on the shuttle program, a majority (55%) say it has been a good investment for the country.

However, this is lower than it was in the 1980s; throughout the early years of the shuttle program, six-in-ten or more said the program was a good investment.

Majorities in nearly all demographic groups say it is essential that the U.S. continue to be at the vanguard of space exploration. And partisan groups largely agree that American leadership is vital, although this view is more prevalent among Republicans.

Two-thirds of Republicans (67%) say the nation must continue to play an international leadership role in space exploration; smaller majorities of Democrats (54%) and independents (57%) say this.

Rubio's Maiden Speech

In his maiden speech on the Senate floor on June 14, Marco Rubio (R-Florida) discussed two themes from his campaign: American exceptionalism and immigration:



"America began from a powerful truth," he said, "that our rights as individuals do not come from our government. They come from our God." That line recalled a passage from JFK's inaugural: And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe-the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

Politico reports that Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) criticized the speech:

Gutierrez has heard Rubio give variations of that speech before, and he agrees with the message. But he's baffled why the young senator continues to back tough immigration policies while opposing the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to legalization for young illegal immigrants who go to college or join the military.

"[Here's] a man whose family has benefitted, who's here because of the generosity of our immigration system, the welcoming of our immigration system," said Gutierrez, who’s embarked on a nationwide tour promoting the DREAM Act. "So I just think that's a darn shame."

Rubio's office offered a defense of his immigration policies.

"Senator Rubio is doing what seems to be a novel idea to some in Washington: he’s firmly upholding the campaign promises he made to Floridians," Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos said in a statement. "Whether it was in town halls or even a Univision debate, as a candidate, Senator Rubio repeatedly and consistently stressed border security and E-Verify would be his immediate priorities to ensure that America is not the only nation on earth that doesn’t enforce its immigration laws.

President Obama and American Exceptionalism

Some critics have said that President Obama is insufficiently enthusiastic about American exceptionalism. Two articles suggest that, whatever his rhetoric may be, he actually embodies the idea.

Carl Cannon writes at RealClearPolitics:

"His worldview is dramatically different from any president, Republican or Democrat, we've had," chimed in Mike Huckabee. "To deny American Exceptionalism is in essence to deny the heart and soul of this nation."

But there is something discordant about this critique, just as there is about a black scholar using the lingo of the 1960s to attack the first black president of theUnited States. It's actually a classic form of cognitive dissonance, a point underscored this week by the thousands of adoring Irish citizens who came to see the U.S. president. In other words, whatever Obama says or does not say about American Exceptionalism, he is its living embodiment.

"Standing there in Moneygall, I couldn't help but think how heartbreaking it must have been for that great-great-great grandfather of mine, and so many others, to part -- to watch [the] Donegal coasts and Dingle cliffs recede, to leave behind all they knew in hopes that something better lay over the horizon," he said Monday.

"When people like Falmouth boarded those ships, they often did so with no family, no friends, no money, nothing to sustain their journey but faith -- faith in the Almighty; faith in the idea of America; faith that it was a place where you could be prosperous, you could be free, you could think and talk and worship as you pleased, a place where you could make it if you tried," Obama added.

"And as they worked and struggled and sacrificed and sometimes experienced great discrimination, to build that better life for the next generation, they passed on that faith to their children and to their children's children -- an inheritance that their great-great-great grandchildren like me still carry with them. We call it the America dream."

Shelby Steele writes in The Wall Street Journal:

What gives Mr. Obama a cultural charisma that most Republicans cannot have? First, he represents a truly inspiring American exceptionalism: He is the first black in the entire history of Western civilization to lead a Western nation—and the most powerful nation in the world at that. And so not only is he the most powerful black man in recorded history, but he reached this apex only through the good offices of the great American democracy.

Thus his presidency flatters America to a degree that no white Republican can hope to compete with. He literally validates the American democratic experiment, if not the broader Enlightenment that gave birth to it.

He is also an extraordinary personification of the American Dream: Even someone from a race associated with slavery can rise to the presidency. Whatever disenchantment may surround the man, there is a distinct national pride in having elected him.

…

How can the GOP combat the president's cultural charisma? It will have to make vivid the yawning gulf between Obama the flattering icon and Obama the confused and often overwhelmed president. Applaud the exceptionalism he represents, but deny him the right to ride on it as a kind of affirmative action.

A president who is both Democratic and black effectively gives the infamous race card to the entire left: Attack our president and you are a racist. To thwart this, Republicans will have to break through the barrier of political correctness.

In this light, expect Republicans to talk about Senator Marco Rubio as a potential vice presidential nominee. Like Obama, he embodies the American Dream, and he has spoken eloquently about American exceptionalism.