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In the wake of the Brown-Coakley disaster, an interesting development has occurred today on the social news site reddit. About noon Eastern time, a post appeared on the "politics" sub-reddit which said this:
As it turns out, there is already a U.S. Pirate Party (go figure), so the name was quickly changed to The American Pirate Party. And a skeleton platform was presented:
- Internet neutrality and progressive legislation regarding technology.
- Legalization and taxation of drugs, prostitution, and all other activities we currently classify as "consensual crime."
- Fiscal conservatism, social liberalism.
- An end to corporate personhood.
- A Public Option health care system.
- Reducing the power of filibuster by restoring it to its original place in Senate procedure, requiring simple majorities to pass laws.
- Eschew professional politicians in favor of politically knowledgeable citizens interested in political positions.
- Campaign finance reform that prohibits corporations from giving money to a political candidate in any form. Only contributions from private citizens.
Almost immediately, the post took off. As of this posting just 10 hours later, it had collected more than 4200 upvotes and 2600 total points. Soon after, a sub-reddit called "AmericanPirateParty" was created, and it already has more than 850 subscribers. Also, there’s a Facebook group with 140 members and a Digg submission with 71 diggs. All of these totals are quickly rising.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the American Pirate Party phenomenon is that most of the joiners seem to be quite young – many in high school or even younger. Even if this particular movement ends up going nowhere, it’s encouraging to see a new generation getting so worked up about progressive politics. Perhaps there’s hope yet!
What’s on your mind tonight?
21 Comments
The conventions would be the coolest. Where is my wench costume?
Yes! I’m looking for my bandana and my eyepatch as we speak.
Your just parroting their talking points. However, I support their planks, and will walk them. Will Aarghianna Huffington join?
Oh, can I perch on the mast?
the public option in competition with private insurance is stupid neoliberal policy – not progressive.
fiscal conservatism is not just conservative, not just stupid, it is deadly – not progressive
cheers for the people doing this, if they add faith in the fsm i might be tempted join. every day could be talk like a pirate day!
but please, please don’t call policies progressive that are manifestly not progressive. the word is going to have no meaning soon, if it doesn’t already.
thank you.
I aghree on the fiscal conservatism part, and the leaders have already refined it to “fiscal efficiency.” Just read enough of what is being said at these links, and you’ll see that it is more or less progressive.
thanks. am glad the fiscal bit was changed. from what you listed, i liked a lot of it (not the filibuster thing, which imo is being abused by the Ds) and thought most was progressive too.
but it seriously pains me that the dem establishment has been able to move the whole hcr discussion right by selling a stupid neoliberal policy (public/private insurance competition) as a progressive policy when it is just not.
if you haven’t read it already, i highly recommend lakoff’s (with glenn smith who posts at fdl), The Logic of the Health Care Debate. conservative, neoliberal and progressive thinking on healthcare explained.
They’re more-or-less anarchists. Part of the convergence, I think. And, hey, electoral reform is on their agenda!
I’m not sure I buy the meme that high school and younger understand these issues.
I’d guess they think the Pirate Theme is kewl . . . . but it’s a fun read, Jim, and thanks for it.
Upon closer exammination, it seems that only the Facebook page is primarily that young. The reddit group, which is the bulk of the movement at this point, appears to be a mix of ages. So who knows?
Will Johnny Depp lookalikes be the frontrunner in their primary contests?
Yup, qualifications that selise expressed. Even raising the issue of fiscal efficiency is a real danger sign in this corporate brainwashed culture. Kids got the energy, old guys *sometimes* got the wisdom. As long as the young’uns take the time to follow the comment thread history then we ARE getting somewhere. But this is a VERY good sign! O R G A N I Z E
Hell, I’m for it, except the third party part.
It’s unclear where this is heading, if anywhere. Perhaps it would work best as a non-affiliated group that, instead of trying to do the arduous work of actually forming a party, just picks and chooses candidates and issues to throw its support behind. I think that could be very effective in waking up some folks in Washington.
I just would like to say Thank you to Jim Moss for covering us.
Thanks,
DaTaco
No problem, DaTaco. I like the energy and enthusiasm that the movement is showing, and I’m eager to see what becomes of it.
Hello, and thank you.
I want to thank you for your publicity, and I want everyone to know that this really kind of blew up in our faces. The response that we reddit mods have been getting is phenomenal, and I think that we’re onto something. I saw this link in the americanpirateparty subreddit, and I felt obligated to comment here, as a mod for the thread. We are going to try to get some groundwork laid tonight, so that we might eventually be able to get this thing moving in a more tangible direction. Again, thank you for your support – stay tuned, and keep checking in. Lots of us work, and will be working on this in our free time, and doing what we can, when we can. So please, just be patient for now, and we mods will get this thing going, and hopefully start to do some good in the world.
Thanks again,
Tej.
Matey!!
Thank you.
thanks tejmin!
what can i/we do to help?
let a thousand parties bloom, arrgh!
from Clay Shirky, talking about disruptions in print media, but applicable to the dam breaking going on politically right now:
Keep checking the sidebar on
http://www.reddit.com/r/americanpirateparty/
Also, we have a facebook page,
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?tid=1362845230739#/group.php?gid=264911830998&ref=ts
As of right now, get yourself an IRC client, it will be an invaluable tool for real time discussions. Show up monday at 9p CST #theamericanpirateparty on irc.freenode.net