I am in a holding pattern. If I were on an airplane, it would be circling, waiting for the weather clear or a slot to open up on the tarmac. If I were a World War 2 naval officer, my squadron of PT boats is circling; they are hungry sharks waiting for the prey to provide an opening for the attack.
[And given that an old injury to my rotator cuff is acting up, I would hope that one of my officers is JFK, and that he could slip me a pain pill to wash down with my whiskey.]
We--those who are good, smart, and reasonable citizens, pragmatists and progressives who actually care about the well-being of the American polity across the color line--are stuck between two unpleasant events.
Two weeks ago, the Democrats were shellacked during the midterm elections.
There will be an imminent announcement that Darren Wilson is going to walk free.
Moreover, and this fact is truly grotesque, he has actually been financially enriched by killing Michael Brown execution style in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri.
As I wrote on Twitter, black life is cheap in America. Yet, killing black people has always been very lucrative. This is one of the central paradoxes of modernity in the West.
On Sunday night, I had the good fortune to speak with journalist and fellow (as well as much wiser) traveler Mr. Paul Rosenberg. He has written for Al-Jazeera, Salon, and Alternet. My conversation with Paul will be featured on an upcoming episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.
I shared my angst with him about American democracy, and my growing belief that principled non-voting and pursuing a nebulous "third way" should be the primary ways that the American people resist Power in the Age of Austerity, plutocracy, inverted totalitarianism, and the carceral society.
Voting is a type of fetish. This is especially true for many of us who are heirs to the Black Freedom Struggle.
Paul made an astute observation and intervention: voting matters because there are forces who are willing to do anything to stop the poor, working classes, young, and people of color, from voting. The bloody history of the Civil Rights, labor, and women's movements offer up proof of this dynamic.
I know that Paul is correct. However, I am still vexed by, and uncertain, if participating in a broken system dominated by two parties where the voters' choice is between the lesser of two evils is an act of civil and moral cowardice.
Yes, there are important differences between the Democrats and Republicans--and yet both are beholden to the corporateocracy and robber baron plutocrats.
It is important to highlight the following fact: the United States of America is not a democracy. The general will and majority opinion do not drive the decision-making of the country's elected officials in the Executive and Legislative branches on the national (and likely state) level.
The will of the American people is routinely ignored on a range of policy issues from health care to raising the minimum wage, ending America's wars, and investing in the country's schools and infrastructure. As research by Martin Gilens and Larry Bartels has demonstrated, America's "representatives" protect and respond to the interests of the rich at the expense of everyone else. A small cabal of interest groups and corporations mandate and control American public policy. The Republican Party has pushed this elite model of anti-democratic governance to the extreme by racist gerrymandering and the use of the courts to subvert mass democracy in order to serve the agenda of the 1 percent.
As troubling as they may be, the above politics do not account for the power of the Deep State, that continuity of deeply entrenched agents and institutions in the national security state and elsewhere which (across administrations) limit the range of options available to the President and other elected officials in reorienting American foreign policy.
Across divides of party, race, and class, the American people sense that the country is going in the "wrong direction". They want a hero or a visionary to correct matters, to provide a clarity of vision and leadership.
Robert Tilton was a televangelist hustler who made millions of dollars by promising to pray and "lay hands" on the prayer letters sent to him by his viewers and congregation. He would cure illnesses, drive away demons, and speak in tongues. Tilton, like most of his religious hustler ilk, separated the desperate and stupid from their money with aplomb. The most talented thief and con artist makes his or her mark feel happy to part with money they do not have.
Robert Tilton was eventually brought down. The prayer letters were in the garbage. He was committing criminal fraud. Tilton's hands were not magical. His congregation were shown to be gullible fools. If the American people are waiting for salvation from a "great man" they too are fools, not much different than those who sat in Tilton's pews or watched him on TV.
Is faith in voting and the American democratic process the equivalent of believing in the powers of Robert Tilton? Or is such cynicism about voting uncalled for and extreme?
Are you also in a holding pattern of sorts? What do you think this week and next will bring regarding Ferguson and other matters?
33 comments:
This also begs the question, is the political system broken because of non participation by voters, or would the results be the same even if we had participation?
Most of the votes are going to come from the so-called 99%. Candidates have to get these people to vote for them. Meanwhile, the money for these campaigns come from the 1%, who have expectations for their "contributions." The interests of the 1% run counter to the 99%. The candidates, have to pay lip service at least to get the votes, while all the while intending to do nothing of value for them. This is where the money comes in, to pay for slick ads that have the same effect as ads for products, to get people to buy something they think they need.
If the voters knew the issues and what they were voting for, the money wouldn't make a difference. But they don't, it does.
This is a very simple analysis, I know, but on the basis of this you could conclude that the system is not working as it should for two reasons: (a) the voting public does not participate and (b) the voting public doesn't understand the issues.
This begs these questions: if this dream scenario I draw on here, of voters actually following events to the extent they were educated voters, and then actually voted, then (a) would such a scenario negate the impact of money, or (b) would the reps voted into office still find reasons not to do the things the voters actually wanted, because of the money?
If it were (b) then I'd say the system is broken. If its (a) then the oil needs changing.
At some point, people have to recognize the reality that voting for a President and sitting back expecting him to wave a magic wand and make all the problems go away isn't realistic. It's not enough to just mobilize people to vote. They must mobilize and advocate the policies that they want and need. The sad fact is that this kind of mobilization is most effective when it's in the service of discrimination against non-white people and women or in support of the billionaires who set the economy on fire.
The system is clearly broken. The two parties have conspired to rig the game and make any meaningful opposition untenable. That, and the fact that votes hold no power over a candidate once elected. As long as he/she does master's bidding while in office, it doesn't really matter if they win re-election; the cushy private sector job will be waiting for them.
This is one of those cases where there should be no fear of losing the baby when throwing out the stanky bath water... The baby died in 2004...
The revolving door between government and lobbying must be closed permanently. The bathwater is filthy. What will we fill the tub with when it is emptied out?
That is scary. There have been mass popular movements that have furthered the common good. There have been both popular movements in league w. elites who also maintained the color line. I still marvel at how much progress there has actually been in American society given those dynamics. Democracy is indeed a horrible form of government except for the alternatives.
The Boston Review piece does a great job of sketching out the shortcomings and merits of mass democracy, issues of representation, tyranny of the majority/minority, and agenda setting.
I've been wondering how I could get more involved in influencing local politics. The Dem candidate for HoR in my area is a Friend of Coal and therefore is against anything that would hurt WV coal production. He also is not on point with other issues. A simple case of not being a Republican.
How can a tired and overworked individual find the time to participate in a system that despises your participation?
I've been reading up on the John Birch Society. SPLC has a pretty good summary of their foundation and return to prominence in conservative American politics:
“The John Birch Society has been aced out of a direct role because they are a political third rail of conservatives and the right wing,” Berlet said. “They have been marginalized by the leadership of the right because of their conspiracy theories. But a lot of the right wing of the Republican Party was and is highly influenced by the John Birch Society. Step one in understanding the Birchers is that they are not that much more far out, compared to other people on the right.’’
Some of the longtime Bircher ideas and themes that have slipped into the conservative mainstream and now sound like Republican talking points include, according to Berlet, the belief that big government leads to collectivism which leads to tyranny; that liberal elites are treacherous; that the U.S. has become a nation of producers versus parasites; that the U.S. is losing its sovereignty to global treaties; that the “New World Order” is an actual plan by secret elites promoting globalization; and that multiculturalism is a conspiracy of “cultural Marxism.”
I don't want to offer a glib answer to such a serious question, but I think we have enough brilliant minds available to come up with a working representative democracy of some sort, with more stringent rules regarding campaigns and money. And a better system of holding elected officials accountable to their constituents while in office.
I tend to think that the only thing worse than voting is not voting. Exit polling makes voting a somewhat legitimate poll that the powers must feel compelled to defer to.
Voting at the local level makes all the difference in the world for a place like Ferguson. It's why the power structure is Apartheid-esque - only the older white people are registered and vote. You may get no relief at the state level, and slim support at the national level, but you can shape your destiny at the local level.
:) Consent of the governed.
In "Before the Storm" a book on Goldwater's '64 campaign, the author describes several hotbeds of Bircher membership including Orange County, CA. At the time the JBS was taking off, Orange County's economy was booming due to a huge amount of aerospace contracts from the federal government. One got the sense that it was off to the federally funded factory by day, off to the Bircher meeting by night.
I'd be interested to hear more about this: "my growing belief that principled non-voting and pursuing a nebulous "third way" should be the primary ways that the American people resist Power in the Age of Austerity, plutocracy, inverted totalitarianism, and the carceral society."
Or do we have to wait for the podcast?
Remember "What's the Matter with Kansas?". Even voters that know they're voting for policies that counter their economic self interest, do so anyway.
However, I tend to think that voter apathy is a problem, both in knowledge of the issues and actually turning out to vote. It seems this issue could be fixed for at least a few cycles. Perhaps a few cycles is all it would take to reroute the ship.
Yes, absolutely!
Consent of The Governed - Why You Should Vote: http://www.byebyedemocracy.org/2014/10/consent-of-governed-why-you-should-vote.html
And, of course, all the old white men will be out voting for Republicans!!
The voters referred to in that book had interests other than the obvious, the so called "pocketbook" issues. That's a key attribute of such voters. Many of their interests are driven by race, plainly put, and even though economic issues that impact them directly are a concern, what becomes more of a concern for them is making sure "those people" don't get any benefit out of the system, even if it means they don't either. Such voters are the political equivalent of suicide bombers, willing to blow up their own lives in order to blow up others.
And this is why the GOP would be nowhere were it not for race. They know these voters will, for example, prefer to go back to a time when insurance was priced out of range for most of them, and having a pre existing condition meant no insurance at all, if it means that black people, to be blunt, would not be able to enjoy having health insurance on what they have been made to believe is their dime. So the GOP spends its entire campaign dog whistling, and lately, openly fear mongering on race, to drive the point home to these voters.
But this is only part of it. There are many voters, well meaning, who really don't know the issues and don't know how to vote, based on what they perceive as their needs. For example, one reason why congress changes hands so much is because many voters use the simpleminded calculation, that, whatever party is in charge must be thrown out for the party not in charge, if things are not going well. They won't consider things like the time it takes to fix problems, the trajectory the party in power is on towards fixing them, etc. They just throw them out. Now we have a situation where, they put in power the party that was responsible for the economic situation that the democrats at least made some attempt to remedy.
I should edit that paper?
Democracy in theory, sounds good and seems to make sense. In practice, its another story.
Did I tell you I love you - but not in that way?
No hugs or love allowed here on WARN! Don't make me put the hoses on you :)
LOL. Definitely not. BTW, dogs and hoses! anything less is disrespectful of my struggle :P
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this
world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or
all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…" —Winston Churchill
This post sums up the essence of American politics and the American electorate. Everything else is noise.
White Americans are the largest people in the US to have had their wealth and opportunities subsidized by federal, state, and local governments.
What are you talking about! White folks are the hardest working, most diligent, responsible, and entrepreneurial people on Earth! No white person was ever subsidized by the government! And no white person ever benefited from the systemic theft of wealth and labor from non-whites! Go away commie America hater!
I can't find the Boston Review article. Is it available online or only in print (for now)?
http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/lead-essay-under-influence-martin-gilens
Thank you!
That was the same thing with Democrats in the elections, with issues such as voter suppression; sitting back and waiting for the courts to take care of things. The problem isn't going to go away and Progressives and Liberals need to take personal time to actually take people to be registered, to take the time to help people get their documentation - and even spend some money.
Two years. Progressives and Liberals have two years to help their neighbors and friends out. Nothing says voting like Granny showing up at the DMV with a hunting license, in order to register to vote. Especially if Granny is Black and the DMV CSR is a White Racist in Republikanistan.
'Granny's Got A Gun Permit' Voter Registration Drives.
The rhetoric does not address the mass popular movements. The Left needs slogans based in reality, absurdity to address absurdity.
We can argue the facts all we want. No one but us, is listening. We may get a few converts here and there, but nothing says advertising when Fox News features 'Granny's Got a Hunting License' voter registration drive, especially when Granny is a minority. Look above for the reply to Miles_Ellison for a further explanation.
The Left - whatever constitutes the Left - is too damn intellectual for their own good.
One may hate Goebbles, but he did it right. No reason not to use those techniques - yet base the propaganda in fact. Besides, Goebbels learned it from someone else who came before him. He just capitalized on it and everybody remembers him.
Popular movements that further the common good almost always splinter on the rock of American racism.
It is still nebulous :) Paul and I talk about it a bit. What are your thoughts on alternative strategies?
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