[Buddha-l] Buddhacrats [was: the 22 vows]

[Richard Hayes]

On Friday 22 June 2007 13:52, Tom Head wrote:

> Didn't the Truman civil rights platform of '48 also contribute to
> this, though?  It delivered my beloved home state of Mississippi to
> Strom friggin' Thurmond, after all.

You're right, Tom. Strom Thurmond, running for president in 1948 as a States 
Rights Democrat (informally called Dixiecrat) carried Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Alabama and South Carolina, plus he somehow picked up one electoral vote in 
eastern Tennessee that year. The State's Rights Democrats got 7.5% of the 
electoral vote, compared to 35.5% for the Republican Dewey and 57% for the 
Democrat Truman. George Wallace, also running essentially as a racist, did a 
bit better in 1968, carrying Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, 
Georgia and western North Carolina, thereby getting 8.4% of the electoral 
vote. Interestingly enough, Wallace got almost 13% of the popular vote, while 
Thurmond only got 2.5% of the popular vote in 1948. I suppose part of the 
difference is due to the enormous success of the civil rights movement in the 
early 1960s, which created a much larger backlash in 1968 than the backlash 
to Truman in the 1940s. (I hesitate to use such logic in a public forum; it 
reminds me too much of Dick Cheney's reasoning that the dramatic rise of 
suicide bombers in Iraq is a sign of the enormous success of American 
policies there.)

A theme running throughout Joshu-roshi's talks at the seminar on Buddhism this 
month was an advocacy of what he calls Mahayana Democracy. What he apparently 
has in mind is a democracy in which people vote for what is good for all 
sentient beings, rather than voting only for what they think is good for 
themselves--a democracy based on love and compassion rather than on greed, 
hatred, delusion and fear. (Good luck getting Americans to go for THAT! My 
guess is that the Buddhacrat Party will not get many votes from the National 
Rifle Association or from the xenophobic pseudo-patriots who listen to Lou 
Dobbs' fulminations against illegal aliens.)

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico