(The opportunities are unprecedented. Let’s talk about them! – promoted by eli_beckerman)
Need I say, the recent U.S. Senate election shows that this is a year of opportunity to win in some state-house Senate and House districts.
I urge there to be a few, say 5+ effective (that is, playing to win) campaigns in likely districts, and to be the alternative to the Republicans. By not playing at that level, the Green/Rainbow party can only look on from the sidelines.
A state senator need only be a resident of a district at the time of election.
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I thought that the Green-Rainbow Party was a mess. But looking over to the right I see a much bigger, much more established, much better funded disaster. The unraveling is in the making. The Democrats are wholly committed to a Wall Street-based developer-and-car-friendly growth economy, only that kind of economy has ended a quiet death. The Democrats in Washington have poured untold trillions into propping it up. That brand of capitalism morphed into socialism for the elites and a ruthless scramble for crumbs for everyone else.
War profiteers, housing profiteers, fossil fuel profiteers, climate “solution” profiteers, “health” industry profiteers, fuzzy financial instrument profiteers, drug war and prison profiteers, etc. have all worked their way so thoroughly into the Democratic Party machine that there is nothing else with any vitality. The genuine grassroots engines that powered Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign for President, Deval Patrick’s 2006 campaign for Governor, and Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign for President are — by design — blowing in the wind because the causes they’ve been steadfastly fighting for have been scamming them the whole way.
The bright side of all of this is that these campaigns were successful BECAUSE of that legitimate sheen of real grassroots democracy. While Patrick and Obama offered a one-two punch of rhetorical majesty, it happens to be TRUE that “Together We Can” and “Yes We Can.” We NEED “Change We Can Believe In” and we depend on the “Audacity of Hope.”
But we will get nowhere, absolutely nowhere, if we do not wake up to the stark realities of an inherently unsustainable economy dependent on ever-declining reserves of fossil fuels, a swiftly changing climate that is nearing dangerous tipping points towards disaster, and a whole slew of policies from the town level on up through international policy that are geared towards maximized private profits, economic growth, and revenue growth. Martha Coakley represents the cut-off point of the political discourse, because she endorses this madly unsustainable trajectory. The Tea Baggers have legitimate grievances and by making fun of them and ignoring them we play into the hands of the reactionary Right.
The truth is that bi-partisan coalitions in Washington have sunk this nation into debts which it can never repay. From the household level all the way through the US Treasury, we are basically insolvent. And the Bushies and the Obamies have shaken hands on the solution — throwing all their political capital into propping up the failed system by borrowing from the future. Bail out Wall Street, stimulate the fossil fueled economy, and work like hell to ensure that the US military can maintain cheap access to oil and a threat to any country who might try to undermine US interests.
On Beacon Hill it’s even worse because it’s one-party rule with virtually no accountability, transparency, or competition. Uncontested elections rule the day, and our elected officials tend to care more about their own political fortunes than they do about their constituents. From regressive taxes to corruption at every level of government, we have cemented in a rotten system and we seem to lack the vision and dedication to change it.
That’s where the opportunity comes in. With a little bit of vision, ingenuity, and dedication, we can permanently reshape the political playing field. This is an easy task in Massachusetts. The current brand of politics is so vacuous, so tone-deaf to the concerns of Massachusetts voters, so inept and short-sighted and repulsive, that we can walk up to Beacon Hill and overgrow the government. The current brand of politics thrives on people feeling so disempowered, so disorganized, so stuck-in-a-rut that they can’t even go out and collect 150 signatures from their neighbors to simply put a name on the ballot to challenge their State Representative.
Loosely organized constituencies are so deferential to the current office-holders, even when those office holders have proven again and again that they are (for the most part) utterly useless. Underpaid and overworked activists scramble like mad across the state to get shit done, and then defer to these people who inhabit our State House and spit on our democracy. How else could Clean Elections have been thrown out on a voice vote — not even being forced to go on record to throw out the single best opportunity we had to restore democracy in Massachusetts. How else could we allow our state legislature to shirk the Open Meeting and Public Records laws? How else could we allow 75% of legislative races to be uncontested and a 98% reelection rate for incumbents?
The opportunities are endless but we have to see things clearly. We can’t allow ourselves to get thrown for a loop. Beacon Hill is masterful at throwing bones at this group and that group, playing divide-and-conquer politics like they were Olympic athletes.
That is why we need to get smart, and why we need to organize. And we need to do it outside the Democratic Party. Some of us will want to spend our time influencing the people in office. But I really think we need to push on changing the political system itself, at least to open it up to a second party in Massachusetts that can advance a more sensible vision for the rocky road ahead. At least to open it up to more voices and more choices. At least to build some institutions that will not put business interests ahead of the public interest. Building an alternative political party is the clearest opportunity to make permanent change. The Green-Rainbow Party is based on a set of values that most of the people in Massachusetts would agree with. And it is the only political party that is not running away from the frightening realities that confront us. The sooner we name them the sooner we can address them. Anything less is a dangerous avoidance of our responsibility to future generations.
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Of course, the all-knowing pundits will interpret yesterday’s election as a shift to the right and obedient Democrats will take their cue to abandon even the semblance of progressive causes and lurch to the right. The political mood in the state and the country is anti-incumbency. People are sick of seeing lots of promises, but nothing done as the status quo marches on. I think yesterday’s election shows that people want an alternative and will vote for one, even when its as hideous as Scott Brown.
We should start at a local level but the Green-Rainbow Party has a chance to offer a real alternative in our one-party state. I know the party is still recruiting for the 2010 cycle, but I’m looking forward to seeing who steps up, where we can be competitive, and working this year to bring some real change to Massachusetts. Does anybody have a rough list of districts we should be looking at this fall?
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The G-R folks need to put on their best face and head over to those areas. Start encouraging folks, both D and U, to register as G-R. Register some new voters as G-R. Spike up the registration level, and I mean pronto. This weekend. Every weekend. Organized and systematic.
Now, get a candidate. A good candidate. Polished. Get some letters to the editor early to get this candidate in the news. Heck, the message is simple: Democratic leadership is broken: I’m also liberal, but I don’t march to the beat of the Democratic machine in MA.
And look, as a Big “D” Democrat, if it ends up being
45% GOP
40% D
15% G-R
the G-R didn’t cost the D the election… the D cost the D the election.
Start building the brand, one voter at a time.
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And note this vital and important date for the May 11, 2010 special election to the Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex Senate District.
If there are to be Green / Rainbow candidates for other districts in the state for the fall of 2010, they need to un-enroll now, if enrolled as a party member with the Democrats or Republicans, to avoid being disqualified as a candidate. It’s a month and a half too late now for that particular deadline for Galluccio’s seat.
Source: Special State Election – Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex Senate District (Secretary of the Commonwealth)
December 9, 2009
Last day for a person running in the state primary to enroll in a party or for a person running only in the state election to unenroll from a party, except for newly registered voters.
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Now that Scott Brown has won and Anthony Galluccio is in jail, there will be two State Senate seats to fill. I think it would send an incredible signal for the Green-Rainbow Party to challenge both seats.
Dates have been set for the special election to fill Galluccio’s Middlesex, Suffolk, and Essex seat:
MIDDLESEX, SUFFOLK AND ESSEX. – Cambridge, ward 3, precinct 2, wards 6 and 7, ward 8, precincts 1 and 2, ward 9, precinct 1, ward 10, precinct 2, Everett and Somerville, ward 1, precinct 1, ward 2, precinct 1, in the county of Middlesex; Boston, ward 2, ward 21, precincts 4, 6 and 7, ward 22, precincts 1, 2 and 5, Chelsea and Revere, ward 6, in the county of Suffolk; and Saugus, precincts 2, 6 and 10, in the county of Essex. [Anthony D. Galluccio, Cambridge.]
300 certified signatures required for all candidates.
And here’s Scott Brown’s district:
NORFOLK, BRISTOL AND MIDDLESEX. – Franklin, precincts 2 to 4, inclusive, Millis, Needham, Norfolk, Plainville, Wellesley, precincts B, F and G, and Wrentham, in the county of Norfolk; Attleboro, wards 1 and 2, ward 3, precinct A, and North Attleborough, in the county of Bristol; and Natick, precincts 6, 7, 9 and 10, Sherborn and Wayland, in the county of Middlesex. [Scott P. Brown , Wrentham.]
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A real grassroots movement might take inspiration from leaders, but it does not take marching orders. Ever since Obama’s election Democrats in this state and around the country have thrown around labels like “community organizing” and “grassroots movement” to describe what amounts getting a large number of people to do short term political campaign activity. Movement building it is not. Organizing for America sending emails to support watered down crap is not grassroots, democratic, or even socially connective in any real way.
If my progressive Democratic friends wanted to take over each Democratic town committee and fill them with committed activists who would draw lines in the sand around issues as basic as single payer healthcare and progressive taxation, and constantly work to educate people on the issues, then that would be all well and good. But that is not what they are doing. Some organizing is done around issues, but it has not entered our political dialogue, and certainly does not scare the Massachusetts Democratic Party into doing anything.
In any case, to work inside the Democratic Party and gain influence requires leaving your values and principles at the door and trying to make nice-nice with “progressive” real estate developers, town bosses, corporate and business executives, egg-headed professionals, and the whole clap-trap of “realistic” moderates trying to keep power at all costs. Decentralization, Grassroots Democracy, and Social Justice sit very well with these folks.
Organizing the unemployed, tenants, farmers, and workers had nothing to do with forcing the New Deal, and of course civil rights was just a matter of working inside the conservative and racist Democratic Parties in the South. Anti-nuclear organizing was a matter of giving politicians nicely written reports and appealing to the consciences of energy executives.
Wherever the Green-Rainbow Party runs a campaign or organizes a local, you can be sure we will not quietly dissemble after the election or event, we will stay, we will organize, we will shift values and change minds, and build a new kind of participatory and rational politics.