(the diagnosis of what just happened continues… – promoted by eli_beckerman)
Yesterday, the people of Massachusetts were unable and unwilling to elect a democrat to the U.S. senate. I am aghast and perplexed, wondering what their motive for electing a republican to the U.S. senate might be: More of their tax money going to invasions and occupations? More tax money going to corporate bail-outs? More of their wages going to utility, insurance and credit companies, which have the prospect, now, of remaining under-regulated?
Did these deluded voters think killing more civilians in foreign countries will bring them cheaper gasoline?
Republicanism is a disease of the spirit. It is a coagulation of all that is worst in humankind; violence, greed, rashness, selfishness, ignorance, exclusivism, racism, classism and indulgence. It is the state religion of a nation ruled by cowardice and violence. Killing populations of civilians with a large army, air force and navy to steal their natural resources can only be done by a people who are spiritually immature and immoral.
The candidate the people of Massachusetts elected, yesterday, will help make sure that no peace treaties are ever signed, no corporate polluters will ever be punished and health and labor laws will never be strengthened. Was the democrat candidate, Martha Coakley, not corrupt and war-mongering enough? The people of Massachusetts had to elect a Lt. Colonel?
Not that I think democrats are much, if any, better. Democrat candidates think we will vote for them because they are “…not quite as bad”, and because we “…have no other choice”. It is this presumptiveness that compells me to vote for a third-party candidate. I know I can support an alternative to the democrat/republican stranglehold on congress by voting for a third party candidate.
Why do I know this when no one else seems to? Do they not know, or do they not care? Worse yet, could the truth be that the majority of voters approve of imperialism and a “might makes right” mentality? If this is so, then they will reap what they sow.
When I went to the polls yesterday, I voted for the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein. Later, I looked through some abbreviated exit polls for a few towns, to see who people were voting for. I saw no reported votes for Jill Stein. Why was this? Do the people of Massachusetts want more war, pollution and corporate greed?
It is my observation that they elected a corporate stooge (military) because it makes them feel powerful. Because of what yesterday’s election in Massachusetts reveals, I can see that we are at an extremely dangerous point in this country. An incendiary current of conformism and militarism is in vogue and we are in critical need of reality slapping us down, enabling and informing our spirits with a realistic humility and appreciation for creation.
Republicanism, and all that it stands for, is a sickness of the soul. It is an out-and-out rejection of the gestalt principle that is as important to uphold and maintain in international relations as it is in a kindergarten classroom. I do not-so-much point the finger at the candidate who won this election last night. Without a deluded constituency, out for blood, oil and more money, he would not have gotten five votes. The numerous people who elected him are the reason we should shiver and weep for the spiritual condition of this country.
These people make me ashamed to travel the same roads, sit in the same movie theatres and eat at the same diners as them. I feel as though they are my enemy. Through either ignorance, apathy or a psychotic selfishness and materialism, they have put one more block in place in an attempt to bring about more death and destruction both at home and abroad.
I am sickened when I think of the spiritual jaundice of this nation. Through my nausea and tears, though, I can console myself that my sickness is not spiritual.
Paul Whitcomb
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… there is a justifiable moral and spiritual outrage pervading this nation and this commonwealth. Yet the progressive majorities are silenced by standard-bearing Democrats who can do nothing more than mock and dismiss this outrage. No alternative is presented. The mainstream media blocks the gate of political discourse. Arbitrary “Free Speech Zones” are created by whoever controls the airways. Media consolidation, corporate conglomeration, and a direct line to politicians through campaign contributions and lobbyists mean that corporations have their ears AND control the “public” conversation. Phone calls to legislators are pushed by well-established NGOs and lobbying groups, all friendly to the corporate duopoly. The institutions to challenge the status quo do not exist. Individual activists labor over endeavors to do it — to build new institutions or to wing it without the capacity to organize strategically.
The Right is organizing the legitimately outraged populace — the same people who made phone calls to their Congresspeople demanding they scrap the bank bailouts, the same people who can see plainly that government is a corrupt mess of self-interested politicians. The Left is stuck in a defeatist splintered victimhood, always reacting 3 or 4 steps behind those setting the agenda. The Greens seek to turn this stale ideological spectrum on its head, respecting people of all stripes yet advancing a clearheaded, rational, values-based agenda. But their brand of ecological politics hit a brick wall of power politics and they turned tail and ran from it because it was an uncomfortable blow. Scattered and licking their wounds, they’re starting to talk about regrouping, about how to size up that wall, to find its weak spots, and get to work getting to the other side of it. It won’t be easy but it’s possible. There’s a time for mourning but we can’t take the time for that now. There’s a whole lot of organizing to do and the windows of opportunity — political, economic, and ecological — are fast closing on us.
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Paul, I can’t help but agree with aspects of your critique. Elections can be dispiriting affairs. I can’t tell you how often I feel an anger and deep dismay at my fellow citizens that mirrors your own. But it passes pretty quickly, because I find that in my case, it doesn’t accurately reflect the reality of the situation.
It pays to remember that a good number of those who voted for Brown or stayed home DID in fact vote for Ted Kennedy for years, and voted for Obama. I don’t think they’re enemies at all, nor do I believe that most are out for “blood, oil, and more money.” Most are just trying to get by, and they aren’t voting for warmongering and global injustice–they’re voting for whoever seems like they’ll leave them the most money need they need to get through the next few months. Or weeks. I sure as hell can’t blame them. and most aren’t heartfelt believers in one candidate or another–they just have a general sense they’re being reamed, which they usually are, and so every 2/4 years they go the polls and register their contempt … for whoever they elected the previous cycle. I don’t hold their desires to protect their families and increase their savings (or, more likely, decrease their debts) against them at all.
I WOULD agree that they do, often enough, vote against their best interests.
This, I doO think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about ignorance and apathy–but again, even though I sometimes feel it, it’s hard to rage against them to any great extent. As Eli suggests in his response, the Spectacle is everywhere, and people WILL fall for bread and circuses every time. I know I often did. I still do.
We have to stop blaming rival politicians, other voters, and “society.” It’s OUR failure. If people aren’t attending to our message, it’s because we haven’t figured out how to be more entertaining than the mass media is. If they don’t respond to our candidates, it’s because we aren’t running candidates with the savvy to know how to appeal to what truly moves them (a classic long-term problem for the left, which assumes that because we’re “right,” people’s nobler inclinations will lead them to elect our candidates. No way).
WE have to deliver more carrot than stick, and we have to breed a tastier carrot than anyone else. Lay some sugar on ’em.