Jesus. I go to Sweden for two weeks (I voted absentee) and the whole country falls apart. My first reaction, like that of nearly half the voters in this country, was total despair. Profound, far-reaching, so-huge-you-can-hardly-recognize-it despair. These past four years nearly gave me a heart attack. How can I, and how can the country, survive another four? Well, we've got to get off our lazy asses and work harder.
I'm not a political strategist, so my suggestions for concrete action are limited, especially while I'm still mourning. Admittedly, these preliminary thoughts might not have a lot of zing, but damn it at least I'm trying. So here goes:
1) Drive less. Conserve More. If we didn't need so much goddamned oil this Iraq situation would never have happened. We can make oil less important. If and whenever you can - take the bus, ride a bike, walk, or carpool.
2) Buy local. As much as every politician (Democrat or Republican) is guilty of feeding the mouth that bites us, so are we. Of and whenever possible, stop supporting mega-corporations and buy the things you need from businesses whose owners actually work at the store and not in some corner office in a high rise. For as much as the Bush administration gives lip service to small business, mom and pop shops, vintage clothes stores, non-chain restaurants, small cinemas and record labels, independent mechanics and hardware stores, and dozens of other types of non-corporate merchants are going to be hit hard over the next four years. And the more they disaapear, the worse it gets for all of us.
3) Make policy sexy and interesting. There have been several university studies showing that Bush supporters are largely misinformed about the plain facts like whether or not Iraq was involved in 9/11 and whether or not Iraq had WMDs. This administration thrives on widespread miseducation and ignorance. If the average joe citizen knew as much about policy as he or she did about local sports teams and celebrities, you can bet your sweet ass we'd have better folks in high office. So as vague as this instruction is - talk about politics, but not like a shrill harpy. Do it as an excited participant. A cool and sexy one. Politics should not be some uncouth subject that is politely avoided socially, it should be something we all wrestle with daily to forge better ideas for how to make out world work. But we can't do that if the only way we talk about it is boring or annoying. I myself, obviously, have as much if not more work than anyone on this particular issue. My apologies.
4) Vote in local elections. If all the wonderful people who sweated their asses off for the pro-Kerry and anti-Bush forces in the last year poured even 1/4 of that effort into local elections, the results would be phenomenal. Our democracy was built to work from the bottom up, but in the wake of huge population increases, industrialization, and the information age, we've let the presidential election - the one over which we as individuals have the least potential to affect the outcome - become the primary focus, to the near exclusion of all others. The fact of the matter is that one citizen can make a huge difference in a local election, and local elections as much as any determine one's quality of life. Ethical, intelligent, forward-thinking city council members can hold the mayor accountable to the people; mayors can then hold the state representatives accountable to their city councils; and together, state representatives can then hold the president accountable to everyone. It can't happpen over night, and it's a grueling never-ending process, but if we want it to work for us, we have to work for it. Period.
Admittedly, those four points are longwinded and vague. But it's hard to strategize when you've seen tens of millions of middle and low income people put on the execution line and inexplicably voiced in unison, "PLEASE, LET US PAY FOR THE BULLETS!" Like I said, I'm still in mourning over here.
I'll be more coherent and concise in a few days. Until then, let's get to work. Far too many of us have been sitting on our asses coasting on the successes of the civil and women's rights movements for too long, just expecting the worlld to work properly regardless of our participation in politics. We were wrong.
Posted by Mr. Perkins at November 5, 2004 08:07 AM