Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Empowering the grassroots

This is an interesting proposal, long overdue and in keeping with the democratic reforms made by the party in its candidate selection process over the years. The superdelegates have been defended as a way of resolving close races, but they really are nothing more than a hedge for the party insiders to ensure that the party’s grassroots cannot take over the process.

The fear is that the Democrats could have a repeat of the 1972 primaries, the first in which the primaries actually mattered, and nominate a new George McGovern. That fear, of course, is overblown and ignores the historical record — as I wrote in 2004 and David Sirota wrote in his book Uprising. Nixon won that election for a lot of reasons, but not because McGovern was some kind of crazed lefty. He won because he was an incumbent that ran a smart race against a fractured Democratic Party and a candidate that made more than his share of mistakes. The Democratic establishment was as much to blame for what happened as the McGovern campaign.

The Democrats, as the 2008 election showed, are at their strongest when the grassroots is empowered and engaged. Altering the rules makes sense for the party.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The year in music 2009, A to Z

Once again, I offer my review of the year in music, alphabetically:

  • A: Art Brut releases a great third disc (Art Brut v. Satan); Arctic Monkeys misfire a bit (with Humbug).

  • B: Another Beatles resurgence – as if they ever went away- driven by Rock Band and the release of the American version of their catalogue.

  • C: Elvis Costello goes folk/country on his latest (Secret, Profane and Sugarcane) and turns talk-show host for the cooler-than-cool “Spectacle.”

  • D: Disappointment, as in “Bruce Springsteen releases a disappointing disc” – and so do Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Jay-Z, the Monsters of Folk, Weezer, the Flaming Lips among the many.

  • E: Easy listening tops the charts (Susan Boyle?!?!?) – and nauseates me in the process.

  • F: Franz Ferdinand has an excellent disco adventure on Tonight.

  • G: Girl power – Ida Maria and the Screaming Females (from New Brunswick) were among the female punkers and hardrockers to issue outstanding discs.

  • H: The Heavy’s The House that Dirt Built, is edgy, fuzz-drenched and, well, heavy.

  • I: “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black-Eyed Peas ranks as one of their best singles – even if the use of “Mazel tov” seems, well, a bit odd.

  • J: David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain lead a reconstituted New York Dolls through a continued resurgence with Cause I Said So.

  • K: Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night is better than its hype, even if Art Brut has a little fun during their shows at the band’s expense. (The disc came out in 2008, but bumrushed the charts in 2009.)

  • L: Lily Allen’s It’s Not Me, It’s You is one of the best things to cross the Atlantic.

  • M: The Millers, Buddy and Judy, put out the year’s best county disc, Written in Chalk.

  • N: Nellie McKay shows off her infatuation with Doris Day on Normal as Blueberry Pie.

  • O: Offspring – as in Roseanne Cash (great disc of covers, The List), Justin Townes Earle and Dhani Harrison (Thenewno2).

  • P: P!nk releases the best divorce album (Funhouse) since Springsteen’s Brilliant Disguise (another 2008 disc that got most of its play in 2009).

  • Q: Alicia Keys proves she’s the queen of modern R&B – apologies to Mary J. Blige – with another fabulous disc (The Element of Freedom), perhaps her most consistent.

  • R: Rihanna surprises with an album (Rated R) of depth and emotion, nothing like the light weight dance/pop she’s known for.

  • S: Michael Franti and Spearhead release All Rebel Rockers, among the best albums of the year.

  • T: 21st Century Breakdown proves that Green Day’s expansive view of pop-punk first demonstrated on American Idiot (one of the decade’s best) was no fluke.

  • U: U2’s No Line on the Horizon is better than its predecessor, the exceptional How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

  • V: Townes Van Zandt returns with Steve Earle’s impressive reinterpretation of his catalogue, Townes.

  • W: What was Bob Dylan thinking? A Christmas disc? With strings and a choir? In all seriousness? At least it was for charity.

  • X: Ex-members of Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar – Tweedy (Wilco’s Wilco (The Album)) puts out maybe the best album of the year, while Farrar (Son Volt’s American Central Dust) easily makes the top 10.

  • Y: Yeah Yeah Yeahs join Franz Ferdinand on the disco dance floor to great results on It’s Blitz!

  • Z: The soundtrack to the History Channel’s program, “The People Speak,” a dramatization of Howard Zinn’s important “A People’s History of the United States,” is political and poetic and powerful.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.