The other day a Facebook friend, a lifelong Democrat, wrote this as a comment on my post on the unhinged House: “I want a way to get out of this. I’m getting less and less able to tolerate it. Angry all the time. We need something to be hopeful about. Thinking about voting Green in state elections. Dems are not listening.”
This was my response:
That won’t get us out of this mess. Sadly we have only two parties. And only one that is anywhere near functional.
It isn’t that the Democrats are not listening. It is that the system itself is broken.
If you vote Green the Republicans have a better chance of winning. And they have already announced the plan for American fascism if they win. That is not a campaign tactic by the Democrats. It’s a fact.
And even if the Democrats win, they do not have nearly the latitude to govern that people think they do.
The corporate oligarchs are more powerful than this government. That is the true enemy. Not the Democrats.
The choice is how much harm will be done. The Republicans are in alignment with the oligarchs. The Democrats will do what they can to avoid the worst harm.
So what can we do? Vote blue to keep the level of authoritarianism where it is, instead of a bare fascist dictatorship. Which would be a hell greater than we can imagine.
And figure out how to either bring down the oligarchy or take ourselves en masse out of its control.
We won’t be able to do any of that under Republican Christo-fascist rule. We will be too busy surviving and maybe risking our lives in the resistance.
Reagan started his propaganda campaign against our own government and it laid the foundation for where we are now. The government is not the enemy, but that big lie sapped it of its functionality.
And now it is so weak it can’t save us. Only limit harm.
The only part that retained its full power were the military and a militarized police force.
But watch how fast it becomes strong again if fascists get their way. Watch how fast the anti-government right flips the script.
And there is another, broader issue.
The crossing of planetary boundaries and the impending ecological collapse.
There is nothing OK about any of this.
But the fascism that is spreading over the world works hand in glove with the capitalists. If they win they will consume what is left of the biosphere with even more reckless abandon than they already are. If will be game over. Not just for democracy but for life on earth.
If they are defeated, it will be a massive multi-generational struggle to repair the damage.
This is a choice that resonates through time. We are at a key moment in earth history.
If we defeat them it will echo through 100 generations. If we fail, the last of us may already be born.
I am prepared to spend the rest of my days working on this.
The one thing I have come up with is detaching ourselves from them as much as possible. Stop buying new stuff. Become self sufficient. Create a gift economy for regular citizens.
Timothy Leary said “turn on, tune in, and drop out”. The key here is dropping out.
They run on money. The more we deny them the better.
I want to win.
Not just by electing Democrats. But for regular people and the rest of the biosphere.
The Democrats at this point are a means to an end. They are weak. It is not our imagination. And it is by design.
But if we turn out en masse and give them a real majority, they might just get stronger. If they are stronger they are a better shield.
And though there is no guarantee, it possible that they might just give us the progressive policies we demand.
Right now they are the party we need. Later they may become the party we want them to be.
No doubt about your view- I am afraid for our children’s futures!
I shared this on my FB page (Veronica Knight) and got this response that I thought you'd like:
Clear and concise (actually!).
The ‘job’ of citizenship in a democratic republic is for each citizen to hold themselves ‘responsible’ to ‘study’ their goals and expectations and align active participation (including VOTING) toward electing candidates whose knowledge and leadership skills are deemed admirable. ~Bruce Gruber