I wasn’t going to vote today. I was lukewarm on a few different options that I was considering:
1) Write in a candidate I believe in – the clearest statement my vote could make.
2) Vote for Joe Kennedy – support a third party anti-war, anti-corporate-duopoly candidate
3) Vote for Martha Coakley – keep the Senate seat out of the hands of a regressive/oppressive Republican.
But leading up to today I felt stronger and stronger about throwing in with the largest bloc of Massachusetts residents — those who won’t be voting at all.
Then along came the pleas from friends. Now, I’m not moved by the inside-the-box thinking that accompanies these pleas. But today I’m making a swap. While my heart wants to stand in solidarity with the people of the world that the corporate duopoly is ravaging, and raise my voice against this brutal and unjust system instead of tacitly supporting it, I’ve made another decision — a somewhat crass political decision. I asked one of my Coakley-appealing-friends to cast their vote in November for the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor, no matter what impact that vote might have on a precious Democratic victory. The result is that today I will begrudgingly vote for the Democratic Party candidate for US Senator.
This isn’t a proud moment. I am disgusted by the state of our political system. I am disgusted by the state of the progressive “movement” in Massachusetts and beyond. I am disgusted by the inability of the Green Party to mount a serious opposition to the ruling parties on Capitol Hill or the ruling party on Beacon Hill. I am disgusted that my friends and my fellow Americans are continuing to throw their weight behind such a rotten, oppressive, and destructive system of government. I am disgusted by my own lack of resolve to make the tough choices — not a measly vote here and there, but a committed stand to fully opt out of the economic and political systems that are taking us to the brink.
These words from Dr. Martin Luther King are no less relevant today:
This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not from the action of a conforming majority. But, from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.
We urgently need a transformed minority that can creatively maladjust. I call upon my friends to revisit the framework upon which they are making their political decisions. I call upon all Massachusetts residents to take responsibility for the reckless state of affairs that dominates the status quo, and to put our hearts and our heads together to advance a new kind of politics, and a new kind of economics.
Another King quote on nonconformity:
The hope of a secure and livable world lies in the disciplined and dedicated non-conformists, set not on the preservation of any status quo, but set on building, with God’s help, an order of justice, peace and brotherhood.
Instead of passively playing along, we need to become disciplined nonconformists building alternative systems that can sustain life and extend prosperity to all. To do this, we must redefine progress and prosperity itself. And we must build the political, economic, social and cultural institutions guided by those definitions.
So vote today, but know that the real work of democracy happens between elections. Pretending otherwise is far worse than electing Scott Brown to the US Senate.
Vote, then organize.
#
Beautifully expressed. Don’t be too hard on yourself for not wholly opting out of the political and economic systems–we can’t all be Scott Nearing. Your own work is invaluable, trivial as it doubtless often appears–I know the feeling. It’s going to be a long and tough slog, sometimes working within, sometimes outside the system. Luther was right: at times, in this world, god must serve the devil.
But I share the disgust with fellow citizens, rigged system–and self. I didn’t look into any mirrors at the local high school at which I voted.
I expect nothing of any real, truly necessary moment to come out of the current administration. But if some small-scale improvements that could change in some small way the lot of the less powerful and less priveleged are defeated by one vote, I’d be less happy with myself than I am forgoing a “principled stance.” Living where I do and under the circumstances I am, I know too well the need to take what ya can when ya can. Sometimes, principle is a luxury.
#
I won’t try to make too much sense of what just happened today with the election of REPUBLICAN Scott Brown as the junior US Senator from MA.
But I do know this-today things have changed and I don’t believe for the better.
One of the things that needs to be done is to figure out who Scott Brown is. A very dangerous person has tapped into a nation’s anger.
One year ago tomorrow, Barack Obama became President along with Democrats in control of both the House and the Senate. Today, the political terrain has changed across the state and across our nation.
We need to figure out what has happened and how our party can move forward.
Mike Heichman