So what have we learned from all of this?
I learned that my fellow countrypersons are afraid. Afraid of terrorism… afraid of change… but most of all, afraid of each other.
This was a campaign based on fear. The Republicans preached fear from their spin-room-pulpits, doing their very best to convince the public that the biggest threat to America came in the form of ideologies in conflict with their own. And in this they were largely successful.
But the fear wasn’t exclusive to them. Not by a long-shot. The Democrats preached their own form of fear… fear that four more years of this administration could prove to be the undoing of the very fabric of democracy as we know it. I should know, because I agree with this statement.
In the end I think that the public made a decision to not believe that things could possibly be as bad as they are… opting instead to support the candidate who, in his arrogance, at least put forward the one face that they so desperately wanted (needed!) to see: that of power and righteousness. No matter that it’s all just another lie… no matter that it was this administration that instead of protecting us made things even more dangerous… it’s the spin that counts. Why bother actually studying the issues when you can just watch the bling?
To quote from Chas’ journal (who was actually paraphrasing a quote from Janeane Garofalo) “anyone who voted for Bush suffers from a major character flaw”. That flaw is giving in to fear… perfectly human… and decidedly toxic.
We are living in a country where a sizable chunk of the states have just voted to ban gay marriages. The Republican controlled House and Senate are in a good position to help the Bush administration in his neo-conservative campaign to swing this country even farther to the Right in order to satisfy their own religious and socio-economic agendas. Women’s reproductive rights are now in danger. The victories that the GLBT movements have achieved are likewise in peril. The mechanism of the current government is poised to continue the imperialist ideologies that have led us into the current global situation. Most of the world hates us now... and who can blame them? Who shall we invade next?
All this means is that we have much more work to do.
So what exactly do we do now? We vent. We lick our wounds. And then we re-group. We cannot afford to give in to fear… not anymore. That luxury is beyond us now, for there is far too much at stake. The work that we need to do is certainly going to be harder now… but as Victor Anderson once said, “Anything worthwhile is dangerous”. We need to ask ourselves if the work is worth it.
I say that it is… we need to be vocal. We need to be visible… and we cannot allow ignorance and intolerance to go unchallenged. We need to educate people left and right. We need to write letters to our local newspapers. We need to write to our Congress-people and hold them accountable. But most of all we need to live our lives. Openly and unabashedly. We need to align our Triple Souls and polish our Black Hearts and simply be who we are. Because that is the most important political statement that we can ever make. In the end the politics of the moment give way to the evolution of a culture. It is our job to be conscious participants in that evolution. We must remember that in nature evolution happens only when environmental forces become extreme and inhospitable. This observation more than any other gives me hope that we are in the beginning stages of the evolutionary process.
So, we must remain hopeful and not give in to despair. We must keep our sights on what is important, and remember to pray. For we are a powerful force. And we are not going away.
Goddess Bless America.
Goddess Bless the World.
4 comments:
You are right on here . . .
. . . I had the same thoughts going into the election. Too much of our major decisions are governed by terror, and more so the terror of ourselves and each other as Americans then of terrorists. This terror has, unfortunately, also alienated much of the left from precisely the group of people it needs to convince of the moral rightness of our position.
See, in the end, this came down to a question of morals for people--especially in the midwest where I grew up. But I know those people. Although some of them are deeply committed to a conservative morality, the vast majority are not. But what they are committed to is a moral vision. The left has captured the hearts of the midwest (especially places like Ohio), but presenting a moral vision--a vision that says we cannot be a country that subjugates the rest of the world, that we cannot be a country that leaves our own people in poverty, that we cannot be a country that builds social policy out of hate. That vision states that this kind of injustice makes us a people lacking any real spiritual heart--whether that heart manifests in us as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, Humanists, or any other way. We need to start convincing people that voting for people like Bush is a moral failure, a spiritual failure, and not simply a bad idea.
Grassroots movements (like Moveon and others) have recognized this, but unfortunately the DNC has yet to pick this up in any broad way. Perhaps in the coming years we can mobilize ourselves to take back the DNC to a vision of building a just society.
The republicans didn't gain this conservative base over night.
The only way to break it is by building a base the same way they did. national politics is okay but a distraction from where the real work lies. That work lies locally, in city council, in township committees, in mayorial offices and school boards. That's exactly where the republicans grew their support and candidates.
Everyone makes a big noise over the general elections but where are they when it's a local election? Moveon is hardly grass roots, real grassroots is right at your doorstep, right on your street.
That's where your vote can really count for something, at the local level. That's where change starts.
That's where fear can be beat. Not from outside but from the inside.
"I say that it is… we need to be vocal. We need to be visible… and we cannot allow ignorance and intolerance to go unchallenged. "
Let's do it.
Thank you:)
Yes, and talking to people in your life, like to coworkers over lunch. Sometimes that can be more difficult for me than marching in the streets.
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