I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, there were very bad riots then.
That said...if some kind of dialogue doesn't happen, it could get worse before it gets better. "Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia
I think when a society is in crisis, riots (especially if they don't kill people as the French riots so far seem to have done) are a good thing.
Hell. what was the French Revolution?
The LA riots led to a much needed reform of the LAPD and other stuff.
I'm appalled that African-Americans didn't riot en masse after Katrina, everwhere. I would have set a car or two on fire myself if I was 18 and lived in DC.
The French rioters (for this is what they are, not Muslims or foreigners) of today are as alive as those of 1968. Not necessarily a bad thing.
The Americans seem dead, spiritually crushed. Read the frontpage post on Kos on Bush's latest blow aggainst the poor.
It is not the French riots which are the news, it is the ABSENCE of American riots, like the dog who didn't bark in the night.
Perhaps part of the problem in France is having essentially zero minority representation in government? I don't know the statistics.
Regardless of what you think about American policies, we do have a pretty good record of finding minorities to fill important positions. For example, one does not need to look very hard to notice the highest ranking cabinet post, and fourth in line to be "the most powerful person in the world," is a black woman. And there are obviously a number of Hispanics in government. Ralph Nader, an important (although never elected!) politician, had Lebanese parents.
It seems to me that rioting is sort of a last ditch attempt to make a statement, and the lack of recent violence in America may reflect the availability of other methods to voice one's opinion.
Ben P
The problem with dailyKos is that there are a couple of dozen sensible front page posters who are overwhelmed by tens of thousands of idiots. The site gets huge amounts of traffic and is obviously one of the principal political sites on the web. Unfortunately, the idiots have taken over and as a result, DK is in my opinion now a force that damages the liberal agenda in America.
Basically, it's a mob. "Get out the pitchforks and stick them in Joe Lieberman!" "Burn Rove at the stake!" "Hillary must die!" "THIS crisis will FINALLY be the END of BUSH and his NAZIS!" It's idiotic.
The result is that productive, long-standing liberal policies like Gerrymandered voting districts to insure minority representation, get unthinkingly painted with the same tarbrush as the Iraq war. Note the complete lack of participation by elected officials? That's because when one of them sticks his head into the room for a minute to see what's going on, the beer bottles come crashing down on his head. Barack Obama being a recent example: He puts in a very well thought out, sensible position statement and the mob throws it back at him for not being extreme enough. No elected official will put up with such nonsense.
It's not a productive environment, it's a place where the mob is whipped into a fury against the establishment. All it does is make it harder for reasonable people--including officials who have actually been elected to office--to make a practical effort to make progress on liberal issues. Kos has gathered a mob, it's out of control, and it is a divisive force in the liberal community and the Democratic party.
I pop in there once in a while when the debate is about a technical topic that I'm interested in, like hybrid cars or wind power, but the widespread "Burn the Vichy Dems at the stake" sentiment leaves me cold.
Kos needs about a hundred full-time moderators and a clean sweep of the nutcases.
