Certainly, the far right is out there trying to shape this civic anger in ways that will benefit their narrow-minded view of the world. And if they are able to take back the House or gain enough seats in the Senate in the midterm election in November -- which they could do if there is no countervailing organizing effort from the left -- you can just imagine the horrendous damage they will cause in everything from global warming denial to a further diminution of civil liberties to putting troops on the ground in Yemen. The progressive left has to respond. We have to rid ourselves of obsessively focusing on our own little issue and interest-group and join forces to create an enormous coalition much like "The Movement" in the '60s. We have to organize the anger and show our fellow citizens (using what we've now learned) who the real villains are and how to send them packing.
That may mean running for office, actively helping choose and support good candidates, organizing locally around local issues, contributing money, taking our money out of the half-dozen largest banks and investment houses and putting in into local community banks and credit unions (read about Move Your Money:www.democracynow.org/2010/1/4/move_your_mo...), founding bartering societies and community gardens, launching affinity groups, writing letters and articles, organizing creative demonstrations, using the internet to communicate political ideas more widely, beginning to think seriously about the founding of a broad populist-democratic party, whatever.
If we're truly serious about what we believe, we cannot be politically active once every four years and assume since "our" candidate won that the dangers have passed. Nobody gets a free pass, not Democrats and certainly not Republicans. ("Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -- Lord Acton) Democracy requires participation all the time -- especially in the face of the reckless extremists on the right who would like nothing better than to return us to the horrendous robber-barons era of the 1890s.#
That may mean running for office, actively helping choose and support good candidates, organizing locally around local issues, contributing money, taking our money out of the half-dozen largest banks and investment houses and putting in into local community banks and credit unions (read about Move Your Money:www.democracynow.org/2010/1/4/move_your_mo...), founding bartering societies and community gardens, launching affinity groups, writing letters and articles, organizing creative demonstrations, using the internet to communicate political ideas more widely, beginning to think seriously about the founding of a broad populist-democratic party, whatever.
If we're truly serious about what we believe, we cannot be politically active once every four years and assume since "our" candidate won that the dangers have passed. Nobody gets a free pass, not Democrats and certainly not Republicans. ("Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -- Lord Acton) Democracy requires participation all the time -- especially in the face of the reckless extremists on the right who would like nothing better than to return us to the horrendous robber-barons era of the 1890s.#
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government...amp; international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked as a writer/editor with the San Francisco Chronicle for two decades, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (http://www.crisispapers.org). To comment:...gt;> crisispapers@hotmail.com...lt;< .
Copyright 2010 by Bernard Weiner.
First published by The Crisis Papers (...gt;>www.crisispapers.org/essays10w/veils.htm<<)
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