A Press More Bumbling Than the Dead Prez
If Gerald Ford was trying to live down his image as a bumbler, he made a curious choice of dying right after Christmas when most of the half-way decent reporters must be on vacation. On a good day, the New York Times annoys the crap out of me, but a couple of doozies slipped in that have really driven me nuts.
In a television column that itself comments on how substitutes are reporting the news of Ford’s death, reporter Alessandra Stanley notes:
On “Today” the NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell mentioned that she last spoke to Mr. Ford in California last February, “when he came over to see me, and we had lunch.” (It is hard to imagine a former president in his 90s going out of his way to meet a television reporter, so it was hard not to suspect that Mr. Ford was going out of his way not to invite Ms. Mitchell over to his house.)
How clever? What a fucking idiot! Either she doesn’t know that Andrea Mitchell is married to the then-Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, or else she was intentionally obscuring how cozy journalists and official Washington can get. Either way, it’s outrageous.
More outrageous is Sam Roberts’ attempt to exonerate Ford for his role in New York City’s fiscal crisis. Yes, it’s technically true that, just as Marie Antoinette never said “Let them eat cake,” Ford never told New York to “Drop Dead,” but their actions and policies made clear the contempt that was summed up in the better copy that the journalists of their day (far better than this sorry lot) screamed in headlines. His defenders may insist that he “liked New York,” but insisting that the city raise the subway fare (part of the completely separate and solvent MTA budget), raise CUNY tuition, end rent control and hack away at public hospitals, museums and social services showed real – I’ll say it again – contempt for what New York stood for politically and for its heroic effort to be more than a playground for the rich and famous.
Roberts finds a number of people to praise Ford’s neoliberal hatchet job, mostly the politicians who subsequently turned New York into a playground for the rich and famous, but makes no attempt for balance. There is no questioning the wisdom of drastic cuts in public spending, nor the dubious “fact” that the crisis was the product of “inevitable hemorrhaging inflicted by bankrupt liberalism” (rather than a conspiracy of a handful of big banks that encouraged the city’s debt and then without warning demanded their money back).
The only voice of dissent slips in, almost by accident, from 30 years ago in DC37 chief Victor Gotbaum’s witty complaint that the Ford administration aimed to shrink government down to just police and fire protection, “and he’s not sure about fire.”
Frank Zeidler, Greatest Living American, Is Dead
Frank Zeidler, former Mayor of Milwaukee and Chairman Emeritus of the Socialist Party USA, died last night at the age of 93. Frank occupies a unique place in history as the last bona-fide Socialist mayor of a major American city, serving three terms between 1948 and 1960. To the rest of the country, Milwaukee in the 1950’s seems so bland, so middle-American and middle-class that it was the setting of the tv sitcom “Happy Days.” The most political that “Happy Days” ever got was that Richie Cunningham voted for Adlai Stevenson while his father supported Ike. Meanwhile, their Socialist mayor was holding regular press conferences on the steps of City Hall to denounce the state’ red-baiting Senator, Joseph McCarthy.
The Socialists were a major political party in Milwaukee in the first half of the 20th century, electing numerous state legislators, city council members, a Congressman and two mayors before Frank. The first Mayor, Emil Seidel, served a brief term in 1910 focused on cleaning the city up, closing brothels and gambling parlors, establishing a fire department and improving sanitation and plumbing. The revolutionists of the era, and the “scientific” Marxists of today, scoff at this “sewer socialism,” but it did inspire voter loyalty and keep the party in power.
The Democrats and Republicans teamed up to vote Seidel out of office, but the Socialists returned to office in 1916 with Dan Hoan, who served a staggering 24 years as Mayor. Hoan focused on running an honest government and improving electricity, transportation and sewage. He did succeed in building the first public housing in the country in 1923, but otherwise the more progressive elements of his political agenda were frustrated by a moderate city council until the changed political climate of the 1930’s gave him room to experiment with jobs programs and public ownership.
Hoan was finally defeated for office in 1940 by the Democrat Carl Zeidler, who was Frank’s brother. Carl died “in office” while fighting in the war in Europe. Frank ran to fill out his term and came in fourth in the election.
Frank Zeidler joined the Socialist Party in 1922, when he was 20. Starting in the late 1930’s, he had been running as the party’s candidate for offices as varied as state treasurer, Congress and Governor of Wisconsin – winning a seat on the Milwaukee school board and the position of county surveyor. In 1948, the Socialist Party again asked Frank Zeidler to be its candidate for Mayor. The combination of the Zeidler family name and the Socialists’ still-impressive street organization resulted in Frank’s victory over a field of four candidates, including Dan Hoan who had abandoned the SP for the Democrats.
Zeidler’s administration was challenged to respond to post-war urban development, particularly “white flight” from the city. Zeidler’s masterstroke was the annexation of Milwaukee’s outlying areas, doubling the city’s size and shoring up its tax base to ensure that the city remain solvent and continue to provide services to all its residents. Zeidler was proud of the 3200 units of public housing he built, and the great expansion of the library and parks systems. “The most difficult problem,” Zeidler noted of his administration in a 1997 interview, “was defending the right of individuals of whatever race or ethnic stock to have equal opportunity in this city.” Faced with a reactionary coalition that planned a race-baiting campaign against a fourth Zeidler term, Frank sought to avoid such divisiveness and chose not to run again, citing health reasons.
He actually was in poor health. Frank was always in poor health. He actually dropped out of college because of heart problems. He had a quadruple bypass in 1997 that gave him a new lease on life, but he still maintained a dark, fatalistic humor about his health. If you invited him to any event, he would usually reply that he’d be glad to go if he was still alive.
Frank Zeidler remained a constant presence around Milwaukee, constantly lecturing and attending meetings and always available to the press for a quote. Kinda like Ed Koch, but pleasant. The Socialist Party’s street organization, though a shadow of its former self, remains and that, combined with the legacy of the Zeidler and Hoan administrations, makes the party still a contender in Milwaukee politics as in 2001 when its candidate, Wendell Harris, polled 20%, forcing a run-off. The press treated that election like a fluke that was more a vindication of Frank Zeidler (who remained a party stalwart despite declining fortunes) than of the idea of socialism. So beloved in Milwaukee was Frank that when I was doing publicity for the party’s 100th anniversary conference, a reporter from the Journal-Sentinel asked me what most party members thought of him and I replied that we all think that Frank is a really great man. That somehow was quoted as “the greatest living American,” which flattered and embarrassed Frank.
Frank remained a stalwart of the party. He rallied the party loyalists into a reorganization in 1973 when most of the “scientific” intellectuals marched into the Democratic and Republican parties. He ran for President in 1976 with the mission of saving the party. That campaign recruited the people who would staff the organization for the next three decades. He chaired the party for a number of years before stepping back to the more honorary position of Chairman Emeritus. Ever the Jimmy Higgins, he could often be found sweeping the floors at the party’s office on Old World Third Street.
Frank’s memoir of his years in office, “A Socialist in City Government,” was finally published last year. Bizarrely, the publishers retitled it “A Liberal in City Government,” wagering that readers would find the thought of a liberal in power so unique and fascinating that it would sell more. Go figure.
That book is still sitting on my “to read” pile, under all my school books. Maggie Phair had forwarded it to me a few months ago, during my brief tenure as editor of “Socialist” magazine, suggesting it as good source material for an obituary (which we didn’t think would be so urgently needed). Frank’s epitaph should be his socialist convictions. Speaking on the 100th anniversary of the Wisconsin party, he said, “The basic concept of socialism…still remains and illuminates a dark world. That concept is of a world of commonwealths cooperating with each other for the betterment of all peoples.”
Jim Hurd, 1955-2006
It is a special peculiarity of our time that it is possible write an obituary for a friend that you have never met. I think I first heard about Jim Hurd, the Hoosier Socialist, from Jen Ray bitching about him (Hell, she bitched about everyone, so why not him?) ten years ago. Jim was a gadfly on the Socialists Unmoderated mailing list and a member of the Socialist Party. Jim quit the party over some stupid sectarian pronouncement of our National Committee and joined the CP, and he advanced – along with the internets – from listserves to blogs. He was an occasional commentator on this blarg (his most recent comment a quip in response to my “Being “Wrong” in the Socialist Party” piece that referenced Mark 6:4), and a gadfly blogger in his own right.
It’s a punch in the stomach to read that Jim Hurd died a week and a half ago after a long struggle with depression and alcoholism. With our tiny band of reds spread far and wide, it’s not unusual to meet a comrade through the internets. Eventually, you’ll meet at a conference or a rally. I never met Jim, though, even though he repeatedly reached out to me through e-mail and this website. And for that, I am truly sorry.
There will be a memorial for Jim at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bloomington, IN on Saturday, June 10th.
The Death and Life of Urban Planning
Hearing of Jane Jacobs’ death, I am reminded that Elana borrowed my copy of “Death and Life of Great American Cities” and never returned it (and people wonder why I’m stingy about lending out books and CDs). She does work in policy, and I’m just a union organizer. I would like to read it again, though.
When I was in my final semester at Queens College, I was able to indulge a budding interest in urban planning with a few courses on the subject. Within that stale air of academic urban planning – with baroque architecture, the White City of the Chicago World’s Fair, garden cities and Le Corbusier – Jacobs’ writing still is a breath of fresh air. Her simple theses about the “eyes on the street,” diversity of use and how success can drive out success remain such a useful way for viewing street life. I still think about these ideas when driving around on lawnguyland, with its lifeless cul de sacs, sterile office parks, smoggy highways and antiseptic shopping malls.
But I’m also sympathetic to Le Corbusier and the idea of high rises and green space. It’s socialist, albeit the variety of socialism puts academic planning ahead of how people actually live their lives. And Jane Jacobs is so anti-socialist, particularly the convoluted plan for corporate welfare that she proffered as an alternative to simple, public housing (form does not follow function; publicly-owned housing doesn’t have to be cheap, drab and ghettoized – that’s just what capitalist politicians did to it).
Moreover, Jacobs’ simple observations missed the obvious points that not every street can be Christopher Street, and that no one wants to live in the tenement apartment building next door to the hog fat rendering plant. Some planning is required.