Jeff Swift's List: Political

• The democratic ideal represents “a demand to be realized,” Dewey said. It holds that “each individual shall have the opportunity for release, expression, fulfillment, of his distinctive capacities, and that the outcome shall further the establishment of a fund of shared values.
• Third, there is a growing emphasis on collaborative learning, as opposed to individual learning
• Lippmann advanced the idea that most people, no matter how well educated, were open to manipulation.
• In The Public and its Problems -- Dewey’s only work of formal political philosophy -- he outlined an elaborate program of truly participatory democracy, one built around face-to-face interactions in “neighborly communities.”
• democracy was an inherently participatory ideal

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• could have
• could have
• could have
• The speech was an opportunity for President Bush to exceed low rhetorical expectations, to rise above his record of thoughtless words and canned statements of the obvious.  Many hoped he would surprise his critics that day with a wise and eloquent statement of the Bush doctrine and a vigorous engagement of the charges against his administration.  The moment was right.  But the man was either unable or unwilling to rise to meet it.
• Of course there are two sides to all such arguments but only if the debate is engaged.
• could have
• Obama articulated a vision of deliberative democracy for a troubled time.
• But it was a good speech, not least because it deployed the very rhetoric of engagement it advocated, a rhetoric designed to face and respond to the differences between and among citizens in a democracy.

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• And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity - diversity of thought, of culture, and of belief.
• Unfortunately, finding that common ground - recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" - is not easy
• even bringing together persons of good will, men and women of principle and purpose, can be difficult.
• As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?
• when we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do - that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.
• Understand - I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away
• the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.
• The lighthouse that stands apar
• the crossroads is where "...differences of culture and religion and conviction can co-exist with friendship, civility, hospitality, and especially love."
• crossroads
• lighthouse
• You will hear talking heads scream on cable, read blogs that claim definitive knowledge, and watch politicians pretend to know what they're talking about. Occasionally, you may also have the great fortune of seeing important issues debated by well-intentioned, brilliant minds.
• Be unafraid to speak your mind when those values are at stake. Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey. Stand as a lighthouse.
• But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt.
• This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, and cause us to be wary of self-righteousness.
• And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles,
• Remember that in the end, we are all fishermen.

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• New technologies have also made it impossible for states such as Egypt’s to retain the information monopolies they once enjoyed.
• They have been treated as subjects, rather than citizens.
• Dismay over police cruelty has also risen, especially after an incident in June when plainclothes agents in Alexandria beat to death a young internet aficionado, Khaled Said, spawning a Facebook campaign that prompted silent vigils across the country.
• Two new factors seem to have tipped the balance. One was the emergence of loosely related groups pressing for reform, run via the internet by youths of generally secular outlook but no particular ideology.
• The second factor was Tunisia. It was not only the speed and success of its revolt that convinced many Egyptians that their regime might prove equally flimsy.
• The Facebook page for solidarity with Mr Said, the victim of police brutality, was what drew the widest audience for the idea of a “day of rage” to be held on January 25th.
• Demonstrations on Friday January 28th prompted him at last to break his silence. Protesters were numbered not in tens but in hundreds of thousands, including people from all walks of Egyptian life.
• Despite the continued suspension of the internet and text-messaging, and the blockage of rail and road links into Cairo, a crowd of nearly half a million crammed into Cairo’s centre on February 1st, overspilling Tahrir Square onto adjacent streets and bridges. As many as 100,000 also marched in Alexandria.
• In the posh district of Zamalek, one volunteer manning a citizens’ roadblock at night gleefully displayed a photo he had taken with his mobile phone, showing his patrol demanding to see the driving licence of a police officer whose car they had stopped. In such ways, Egyptians have begun to establish themselves as citizens of their own country.

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• Nasser Weddady, a civil rights outreach director for the American Islamic Congress who has been closely monitoring events in Tunisia, believes that while social media didn't cause the popular uprising, its most important role was to inform the outside world of the protests, the number killed in clashes with police, etc.

• it’s no wonder that Americans are invested in the fights for freedom in Egypt and its neighboring dictatorships only up to a point. We’ve been inculcated to assume that whoever comes out on top is ipso facto a jihadist.