Agree to Disagree: Sarah Palin

This topic is like, so last week, but Norm Leahy and I joust over the merits of Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential choice in this month’s “Agree to Disagree” for Richmond.com.

For the record, I think Norm did a very good job with his side of the argument!

One tidbit I wasn’t able to include in the column: I actually have been to Anchorage, Palmer, and Wasilla, and actually spent the night in Wasilla when Palin was mayor there.

Beautiful part of the world if you like snow (I went in late November). But I didn’t see Russia, or even any Russians while I was there.

I’ll have to look harder next time.

Can the Democrats Win in Dixie?

I published a review essay on this topic in the Independent Weekly of Durham, NC last week, focusing on the books “Blue Dixie” and “Whistling Past Dixie.” For what it’s worth, pollster.com now lists North Carolina as well as Virginia as toss-up states, as well as Florida.

Exchange With James Crupi in Style Letters Section

Style Weekly has printed an exchange between myself and Jim Crupi concerning a piece I published in Style last month titled “Powerless.”

In that piece I wrote that

“Looking at power in this second sense thus leads us to a perhaps startling conclusion: Perhaps all the esteemed powerful people on Style’s list aren’t so powerful after all. They don’t have the capacity to help Richmond address its most fundamental and obvious problems; hence they are powerless.

This isn’t a novel conclusion. A critique of this sort is shot through the celebrated Crupi report released in November.

And that is not surprising, for the report was itself riddled by a fundamental contradiction. Consultant Jim Crupi offered a harsh critique of the culture of leadership in Richmond in its shortsightedness, inability to capitalize on existing strengths, insularity, unwillingness to innovate, and so forth. But then he turned around and offered a set of proposals and recommendations predicated on a model of a business-led change. The expectation apparently was that by virtue of reading the report, the business community might suddenly become something it never has been: a model of innovative, progressive, farsighted leadership.

Crupi’s report thus reflected the common but flawed assumption that the current top dogs are the people we should turn to address Richmond’s deepest problems.”

To be honest it’s a little surprising Crupi took such issue with my characterization. I think his critique of Richmond’s existing power structure is very good and very useful. Here’s a PDF (courtesy of Style) of the whole report (which, for the record, I read very carefully before writing my article.)

But most of his recommendations revolve around the business elite needing to be more proactive, inclusive, etc. On the subject of education, for instance, Crupi recommends that “the business community” form a task force to figure out how to address education for kids aged 0-5; regarding the James River he calls for a “Downtown Development Authority” with strong business representation; establishment of a Sports, Entertainment, Tourism Authority, again to be led primarily by business folks. One of the last chapters (from which Crupi’s letter quotes) is titled “The Business Community Needs to Step Up and Step Out.”

In short, it’s hard not to read the Crupi Report as a call to arms for Richmond’s business community to get its act together.

While many of Crupi’s specific ideas deserve consideration, I think real change isn’t going to come from Richmond suddenly gaining more enlightened business leaders. Rather it’s going to come (if it comes) from active citizens getting politically engaged and demanding change. The kinds of grassroots community organizations I have in mind simply aren’t in Crupi’s picture of Richmond’s future.