Washblog

At the same time, I'm working with people who are getting more and more progressives elected to all levels of government.  And supporting groups that are getting laws passed to put Democracy back into the republic.  And on land use issues to try to recapture the public benefit of the infrastructure investments we make.

We are already planning to push the agenda for Obama's 'first hundred days'.

My deepest desire is that Greens and independent Socialists get people elected starting at school boards and city government, build their parties to get people elected to the state level and Congress, support the people they get elected in an ongoing way (if you don't know what that means then you don't get the role of elected government), and reform and open up the process.  In other words, grow up, put your head down and consistently do the work.  Some people are going there, and that's great.  But the left electeds really need to DO the work competently, not just pronounce a bunch of great political perspectives.

But mostly what I've seen is a ton of energy expended in organization destroying in-fighting to run side-show Presidential campaigns. And, the exact same phenomena happened in the aftermath of the very hopeful and positive Senatorial race in Washington State in 2006.  Sort of like a tree falling in the forest.  The tree gave up its life, but no one else heard or cares.

All that says to me is that they don't have a clue about how to create real democracy interacting with the mass of real and imperfect people that do not share their perfect vision of how things should be.

I AM happy that folks who I often happen to agree with are running, that we have a bigger field and its' great to get the ideas out there.  I mean they get a few interviews on Democracy Now.  But, they get interviews on Democracy Now anyway.  It will take years of bottom up electoral and media reform  work before there will ever be a third party or independent candidate on a presidential debate stage again.  That means getting a lot of people elected at all levels.  And, allying with people -- gasp! -- who may have other perspectives.

Has it EVER occurred that facts of the actual popular vote will provide ammunition to those of us who want to get rid of the electoral college, or at least make the electors vote proportionally based on the votes cast in their state.

And consider if, unimaginably, Obama does not get the electoral votes, the realities of the popular vote need to be a landslide to bolster the actions that the PEOPLE would take in response?

P.S.  After watching the Green party stuff happen, I really want to say to Ralph Nader, "Grow up".  More, I am really pissed off at him that he has not been doing the job he knows how to do so well, with the result that my new car gets the SAME gas mileage as my 22 year old car that just died.

I've observed a general tendency on the left to ignore electoral politics in the fond hope that people will eventually get mad enough to start a revolution.  The attitude has reversed somewhat in the 21st century, but we are still playing catch-up.  Conservative fundie crackpots had no such inhibitions back then, with the result that one of their own is now a VP candidate for the Republicans.

In other words, we have a pipeline problem.  Serious candidates for national office have to have street cred from holding local office successfully.  This general rule applies to everybody not named Oprah Winfrey.

Palin and McCain are reckless sociopaths, Palin especially.  We are too close to this country plunging into chaos --  psychological as well as ecological/economic -- to take chances based on theoretical preferences, in my opinion.

Even if we could elect McKinney or Nadar I wouldn't vote for them now.  I don't think they show as much promise to help the country navigate the economic and ecological crisis as Obama shows. Their policy ideas are much closer to mine.  But Obama's shown the kind of leadership and calmness that make him the person we need in there, imo -- and, to the degree I've watched McKinney and Nadar, much as I respect and appreciate them, I don't see the same kind of talent, genius, really, that I see in Obama.  

The president doesn't determine all the policy, anyway.  We can't leave that up to the electeds. It's up to us citizens to keep the pressure on for more of the right policies and fewer of the wrong ones to be enacted.

The other half of the picture is the requirement, which you stumble around, that someone who shares your values actually have the ability to get into office.  Neither Nader or McKinney have the ability to do that.  

Voting against McCain and conservatives like him will never be the right answer.  We need to vote FOR someone that we believe in, instead of against the scary candidate.  So if people don't feel like they can vote for Obama because he doesn't seem "real" enough, I'll respect that choice, at least to a point.  Thank you for asking us to ensure that Obama will win before changing our vote.  That's a nice gesture.

What would be more effective, as people have been saying for years, is if people realized that the parties are made up of people, not pieces of paper with words that they might not agree with.  Until we have a way to ensure that votes for candidates on the "left" , or on the "right" for that matter, don't push the election results in the wrong direction away from what your vote is actually FOR, choosing to fight against the center two political parties and candidates from those parties is nothing short of foolish.  Don't like what you see in the Democratic Party?  Get involved and change it.  Same with our friends on the conservative side.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." - is wrong.

If you don't stay in the hot kitchen, someone else does the cooking.