As 2011 draws to a close, many political pundits and prognosticators are assembling their year-end lists for the best, worst, and most important political events of the year. I was thinking of doing the same, but, lazy sod that I am, I decided it would be easier to have you do it! 😀
So this is your 2011 year-in-review open thread. What really got your goat this year? What important stories were overlooked, here and elsewhere? What else is on your mind on this Boxing Day 2011?
Please share widely!
JimC says
I know Occupy will take top slot, but I nominate the hacking.
Think about it: a professional news organization was (allegedly) engaged in systematic law-breaking. Given their incredible reach, one has to assume other news organizations at least suspected something. So that raises the question of whether other, non-News Corp organizations were offered the same technology, and then of course whether they used it.
It’s the ultimate “Who will watch the watchdog?” scandal and has no parallel in the modern history of journalism. It should have been the biggest story of the year — if for no other reason than to prove it was contained at News Corp. The press — perhaps because it’s dying — is a strange point: collegial in an unhealthy way. Less professional, less ethical, but protective.
For the record I’m not accusing anyone local, or even the New York press, but it astounds me that they don’t see themselves as tainted by this and aren’t working 24/7 to disinfect themselves with sunlight.
michaelbate says
Fox “News” and the Murdoch media empire have no desire to tell the truth to the people. These are propaganda outlets, just like Hate Radio. No surprise that they have contempt for the law and for basic decency. They have made that clear for many years.
I agree with your criticisms of other genuine news organizations.
jconway says
I think we have seen the beginning of the Democratization decade and it will pose the severist challenge to the post-Cold War neoliberal world order since Al Qaeda. Arab Spring, Jasmine spring, campaigns for civil reforms in India and Russia. The fall of Ali, Mubarak, Qaddafi, and soon Saleh and Assad. Elections in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Burma unthinkable a year ago. Wikileaks and the internet will spark the next wave of Democratic change. The writing is on the wall. This is linked to Occupy and the Eurocrisis as well and I think this is the year that shapes the rest of the decade. The old antagonists will be swept away by a new populist order: one more representative of the people but possibly less stable and less committed to traditional liberal institutions good and bad.
sabutai says
I think it’s a bit soon to put into context many 20th century events, much less those of 2011.
Most important: I think that the “Arab Spring” will mark a major turning point in geopolitics more than anything else. It may end up with the democratic embrace of hardline theocratic politics, a milder Turkish version (Turkey’s and India’s rises are the most important geopolitical story of the year), or something else. I’m not convinced Egypt will be a democracy ten years from ow, or Syria will be stable, but it will be different.
Nationally, Occupy was an interesting reaction to me because it marks the beginning of the end of widespread belief that the Democratic Party’s interests on finance are notably different than those of the Republicans. I don’t anticipate real reform from the donkeys due to it, or the rise of a left-wing party to match the Republicans and pull apart the Democrats. However, the political system in the US has clearly lost much of its popular legitimacy and is increasingly matching that of China’s — if you all have enough stuff, maybe you want awkwardly demand freedoms.
Locally, Massachusetts got a little more squalid and corrupt thanks to Deval’s seizure of the false promises of gambling. But since we’ve run off three indicted Speakers, it won’t make a huge day-to-day difference. Other than that, it was the same boring maneuvering that excites junkies but won’t make much of a difference fifteen years out.
SomervilleTom says
I’m convinced that the draconian aspects of SOPA are a direct and thinly veiled response of the Feds to Wikileaks. I predict that we face a concerted effort by the unholy alliance of corporatists and the Feds to hobble the internet.
I further note, with sadness, that the rag-formerly-known-as-the-boston-globe editorialized in support of this dangerous legislation. I’m a bit surprised that the disappointing piece wasn’t mentioned in the front page thread about SOPA, but perhaps everybody else is a busy as me in this post-holiday interlude.
I think it is precisely because Wikileaks and the internet is so likely to spark continuing change that powerful forces here will do everything in there power to hobble it.
hubspoke says
It is a resurgence of meaningful civic engagement – and for me, hope – in an apathetic country. That so many people in so many places, led by the young but with involvement by varied segments of the 99%, were willing to put their bodies on the line in civil disobedience is heartening. Time magazine had it right in choosing The Protester for Person of the Year. All over the world, people are saying a big, full-throated “NO” to being oppressed and exploited. And I’m proud that the United States both was inspired by, and gave inspiration to people in other countries.
Trickle up says
with predictable results: they win.
Will it happen again?
Mark L. Bail says
Our Dems lack the season of all leadership: guts.
It’s not an event, but I think 2011 marks the continuing decline of the Republican Party. The Republican Primary has been an ugly striptease of political pathology. Has there ever been a worse slate of candidates?
sabutai says
I think about half the Democratic leadership has guts (Schumer and Pelosi), but have learned that it’s pointless to exercise them if the other half will undermine you with regularity (Obama, OBama, Obama, and Reid).
Mark L. Bail says
Actually I agree with everything you wrote.
JimC says
The Tea Party gets an awful lot of coverage, but I feel like no one really says what it has become: a second right-wing party that has become a problem for people like John Boehner.
Or, for that matter, a problem for Mitt Romney.
usergoogol says
The most important news stories have been outside of our little country. The Arab Spring has been pretty important, although it’s already been mentioned. The Eurozone crisis is also a pretty big deal: to a large extent even the 2012 election over in our neck of the woods is largely going to be decided by what Merkel and Sarkozy and Draghi do, since if they screw things up they’ll drive the rest of the world into a double-dip recession which will hurt Obama no matter whether it’s his fault. The death of Kim Jong-il is probably going to be pretty important too, although it kind of depends on what exactly Kim Jong-un does in 2012 and beyond, so it might have to wait until next year to really qualify as one of the most important news stories of the year.
michaelhoran says
What do you see?
Not snow. Not frozen tundra. The biggest story was, once again, a non-story:
“Under the Durban agreement, governments will now spend four years negotiating how far and how fast each country should cut carbon emissions.”
If “the scientists” are correct, two decades from now we won’t be second-guessing SOPA or NDAA or the administration’s stance in re the Arab Spring. We’ll be looking back and wonderng what all we were thinking.
The political process and damn near all of our “leaders” are failing us, and dramatically, in this regard. And we are failing our children by failing to hold them accountable.
My number 2: the continuing rise of alterna-political movements. I’m loving Occupy, and I pray we have legs; but if it’s not Occupy it’s Ron Paul, it’s the increasing number of fringe candidates for President–it’s universal disgust. On the plus side, I suppose there’s some small chance The Democrats might respond to this by espousing a post-millenial politics, though I’m sure not seeing it; the downside is the potential for the kind of thoughtless radicalism espoused by the Pauls–and the Cantors and Ryans and Paul jrs.
JimC says
2011 may be remembered as the anticlimactic year, but still.