Who We Are

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We met as college and graduate students at a large American University. Some of us are long-time friends; some never met before we started our political work. All of us are disgusted by America’s cynical, corrupt, hyper-partisan, brain-dead politics. 

Hi. My name is Zebulon Webber. My connection to our Revolution is public knowledge, because I was outed in a school newspaper article. Other members have decided, for the moment, to shield their identities – the wisdom of which was reinforced by an unpleasant street altercation with far-right extremists I had recently.

Our core group is diverse politically – ranging across the spectrum from the libertarian right through “great power” Teddy Roosevelt Republicanism and Franklin Roosevelt progressivism to Great Society Democrats and Socialist communitarians on the left. 

Our two members at the farthest opposite edges of the political spectrum described each other’s politics to me as “crony oligarchy” and “wiccan communalism” respectively, but their exaggerations reflect their competitive bickering more than they do reality. In practice, most of us are moderate in ideology and temperament (“although still really pissed off,” as one of my colleagues just reminded me). 

We come from big cities, suburbs, and small towns, hailing from every region of America. As a group, we’re diverse ethnically, religiously, and in terms of sexual orientation. We do not claim diversity as an automatic guarantee of value, but it is a symbol that our movement is open to everyone of good will. You will properly assess the worth of our arguments, whatever our backgrounds. We think most Americans will agree with our critique and our reform proposals. 

We call ourselves “the Rabble.” It started as a joke, and stuck.

People are sometimes surprised to hear my politics are not reflexively left-wing. On crime, foreign policy, fiscal policy, some regulatory issues, and gun rights (yes, this African-American female believes the Second Amendment protects private ownership of certain firearms), I have in the past supported positions considered mainstream Republican.

But, hoo boy, today’s Republican Party is not that. 

The hatred is not the most remarkable thing about the Trumpublicans. I’ve seen racism and its foul philosophical cousins before. Two things are more shocking than the hate: that Trump and his accomplices (looking at you Mitch McConnell and William Barr) have been willing to engage in traitorous behavior in the open and apparently without shame; and that Trump supporters are so obviously proud of their deep and abiding stupidity. 

It’s like the Republican party did all its recruiting for the new millennium at KKK rallies but only accepted those with an IQ between 26 and 50. 

The GOP may not survive its embrace of America’s Orange Julius Caesar. And if not, it will deserve it. No treason without consequences. That’s part of what 21CAR is about. 

Personal stuff: I’m an entrepreneur with a thriving business, now back in grad school pursuing an MBA to learn how to take my start-up public. Proud daughter of Baton Rouge. Celebrator of the warm embrace of creole food, music, and culture. Also like monster truck rallies. Seriously.

Among the Rabble, I’m known as a hyper-Capitalist. People who don’t know me well assume I’m heading to Wall Street to become Master of the Universe. Neither is correct.

I believe the free market is the most efficient means of distributing scarce goods, creating wealth and opportunity, and improving human welfare more broadly. But a perfectly free market is a fantasy, due to (among other things) weaknesses in human decision-making and ability to process information, the impossibility of incorporating all externalities in transactions, and the constant attempts by those with political power to rig the game.

Those who understand this have two choices. They can use that knowledge to leverage wealth and influence for themselves, whatever the costs to the people they defraud, or they can build and defend institutions and mechanisms that regulate aspects of our economy that would otherwise spiral out of control. 

Over the last generation, there has been a catastrophic ethical and professional breakdown, during which many in business and finance chose the first option. I choose the second.    

k.d. asked us all to put personal details in our bio. I’ll make it quick: Missouri born (St. Louis) and raised; just graduated as a Finance major, but deferring business school; semi-serious tennis player. Head the Rabble’s Constitutional Reform project and do other odd revolutionary jobs. 

Everybody calls me “Glick.” It may be that some Rabble members learn my first name only when they read this.  

(Note from Rabble Web Mistress: An earlier version of this post contained a suggestion that k.d. might seek to locate the person responsible for leaking her membership in the Rabble “and rearrange his facial features.” For law enforcement and campus administrators, that was hyperbole and not a threat of imminent violence. It’s just how k.d. talks. We’ve taken steps to ensure language that could be interpreted as threatening does not appear on this website.)  

When we launched the website, I was on record saying I thought posting bios was stupid. I agreed to what was -- other than me -- a unanimous Rabble request because my identity was already public. (I had left my name on the digital file of our updated Declaration – web-rookie mistake.)

But it all subsequently worked out. At first, Zeb was the only public face of 21CAR, and I worried he might convey a Wonderbread and mayonnaise version of the Rabble that is inaccurate. (I also continue to maintain that Zeb needs to be spared too much heroic adulation or he gets insufferable.)

OK, this is me, short and not always sweet: LGBTQ, South-Asian-American (last name might have been a clue); grew up in Waco; Art History major, senior thesis on Mapplethorpe and Da Vinci; fairly successful YouTube channel (cooking, actually, check it out); politically, I’m Progressively Progressive. I have exacting standards and don’t take any crap, so I also serve informally as baby-sitter to a couple of the Rabble’s self-conceived comic geniuses. Denied my preferred revolutionary title of “Goddess of Violent Retribution,” I am the Rabble’s Minister of Communication, which means I oversee our social media engagement and help the Web Mistress with this site. 

My parents came to the U.S. just before I was born. Typical immigrant story: I love this country and want to protect it. I also want it to be better than it is at present, and think it can be. I despise Benito Trumpolini because he is hurting America and dividing Americans. Removing him from power is, for me, personal.  

I’m Libertarian, generally distrustful of centralization of government power and suspicious of claims programs will solve complicated societal problems. I loathe Trump not just because of what he is doing, but because of the unlimited authorities he claims for the executive branch. 

Where other Rabble members think first of checks and balances, I tend to look outside government for countervailing forces. (The willingness of gutless congressional Republicans – Justin Amash excepted – to prostrate themselves before the Golden Trump-Calf confirms my skepticism, I believe.)

Though my politics are most similar to Zeb’s (or maybe Angela’s) among the Rabble, true Libertarians are not right-wing. I’ve made clear to Zeb that, one day, if he is President, I’ll be as critical of his “Great Power” Teddy Roosevelt conservatism as Trump’s sado-populism.

Pursuing a Math PhD. If you want to know the real philosophical schism in our revolution, you should hear the Rabble engineers (Peter and the webmistress) and I make fun of the liberal arts Rabblers. 🤣  (That said, I took Philosophy and PoliSci classes in undergrad and they were almost as challenging as some of my math classes. Almost.) 

I’m the only member of the Rabble who is an Evangelical Christian. Pretty disgusted by the Evangelical embrace of our very un-Christian President.

Grew up outside of Pittsburgh, in what some would call Trump country. (Though that’s a lazy description of a demographic that has been both pro-union and pro-gun, skeptical of overweening government and exploitative business, battered economically but also making the transition to the new economy.) My family is now in Florida, which is as bizarre a place as everybody thinks it is. 

Most Americans would agree we have a “free market” economy. It’s what we learn in school. It’s reinforced by legions of corporate and political propagandists. But it’s a lie – not just inaccurate, but intended to mislead. 

Counter-evidence is ubiquitous. At a micro-economics level, you and I almost never purchase an item that is the highest-quality-at-lowest-price available. We satisfice, because attention and time are finite, relevant information is difficult to ascertain, human decision-making suffers under complexity, and we are as consumers predictably non-rational. Moving from micro toward macro has us stumbling across sticky heuristics, negative externalities, barriers to entry, economies of scale, and many, many other distortions of classical theory. At the widest angle – the U.S. economy as a whole – we find rampant corruption and white-collar crime, regulatory capture, monopolistic business practices, and oligarchical governing structures. 

In short, the present economy is rigged. Un-rigging it is not just the temporary task of this era, but the permanent task of every era. 

I tend towards Marxism analytically, since I believe political arrangements derive from economic ones. But I depart from it proscriptively, having nothing but disdain for Leninist dictatorships dressed up as “vanguards of the people.” 

Fun facts: Black belt in Taekwondo (which sent me to the national collegiate championships). Devastatingly handsome (plus, humble to a fault). Raised in New Orleans’ Garden District. Believe that the Big Easy, for all its historic tragedies and current flaws, provides a recipe for how humans might better live together in a crowded, dangerous world. Think the city will survive only if it can be made to float.

I just finished up as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, so I am particularly concerned by President Trump’s attacks on journalists. No journalist is perfect, of course, and no media organ should be immune to criticism. Threats by Trump and his allies, however, imperil the physical safety of reporters. They also undermine the freedom of the press that America’s Founders thought so important they included it in the first article of our Bill of Rights.

Attacking journalists is the first step of every dictator. Even if the President had committed no other crimes, his clear and repeated disrespect for freedom of the press would be sufficient for me to support his removal by impeachment and trial. 

I grew up in Milwaukee (Go Brew Crew!) but my parents immigrated from Mexico. I support common sense immigration reform, including enhanced border security, but not the chaos and purposeful cruelty of the last two years. “Dreamers” grew up as Americans. They should be given the opportunity to help build this country.

I tend toward the progressive wing of the Rabble, along with k.d. and Peter, but arguing with Zeb, Glick, and Kevin (and sometimes Angela – sorry, girlfriend!) has restored my faith in the potential for America to re-establish a principled center-right party after Trump wakes up in the dumpster of history.

I’ll be handling press relations for the Rabble (natch) and coordinating our website “Frequently Asked Questions” section.

Personal stuff: not terribly exciting (reading, cooking, crying during Rom-Coms), although when I was fifteen I won a drag race in the parking lot of an abandoned shopping center, driving a modded Mitsubishi. 😉

Hi, I’m Peter.

Rabble members are my friends, and as you come to know them, I know you’ll be inspired by them as much as I am. 

I’m from just outside of San Jose. My parents are software engineers who now do consulting and venture capital. I’ve also chosen to be an engineer, but my degree will be in civil engineering. (I’m a bridge builder in every way.)

I was born in California, but my parents immigrated from Taiwan. Being Chinese-American, I don’t take for granted the opportunities I have in this country. When I was young, my parents took me back to what was described as our family’s ancestral village in China. It was eye-opening, but the experience made me feel even more strongly American.

k.d. has started calling me the Minister of Public Works, but really I write a lot of Rabble content (including substantial portions of our “Declaration of Mutual Dependence”). My political views are probably closer to k.d.’s than Zeb’s, although I’m not Progressive on every issue. 

Um, let’s see. My faults. I wear flip-flops a lot, even in winter. I would like to be a bit taller. My so-called best friend sometimes calls me “Chuna the Tuna,” which I hate. I’m in reality funnier and less annoying than k.d. thinks I am. 

I truly believe America deserves a better President than the one we have now.     

While slightly more Rabble members are liberal than conservative, I consider myself politically center-right. I’ve voted mostly for Republican candidates in the past, but not for Donald Trump (or anyone who supports him). 

I grew up in a small farming town in south-east Colorado. I was raised LDS (i.e., Mormon) but chose to enlist in the Marine Corps rather than go on mission. Out of the Marines, I’m now a 26-year-old college senior. My parents, I am sorry to say, don’t approve of what I’ve done with my life. (They also don’t surf the web.)

I’m far from the smartest member of the Rabble, and we don’t want a single leader anyway, so we make decisions together. (And, yes, sometimes, that is difficult. But since our goal is to unite 300 million Americans around a political reform agenda, getting a dozen people to agree doesn’t seem especially onerous.)

Yes, it is a strange name. Yeah, I was already pretty sure the only other Zebulon you’ve ever heard of is Zebulon Pike. No, I wasn’t named after him. No idea, and I asked them, believe me. 

Follow on twitter @ZebulonWebber