Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.
Obama and Romney continue providing regular entertainment – including dueling singing candidate ads – for the media, who then have another “story,” if not substantive news, to deliver. Record breaking fundraising continues, with corporations as people and anonymous contributions at the center.
Another staple also returns: The right, the duty, the push to vote. In a “keep it simple” framing, that’s usually accompanied by the assertion that the only legitimate candidates are Democratic and Republican.
I’m convinced that additional options are imperative. Reading Matt Stoller’s column yesterday at Naked Capitalism was a “music to my ears” moment, unlike listening to Romney or Obama. Stoller is one of many who are pointing out the failure of our Two Corporate Party / Governance system. He writes Voting This Year Means Choosing the One Who Beats You:
Every election cycle, Americans are greeted with a bevy of condescending lectures from well-heeled political elites about the importance of voting. It’s your duty. People died for right to vote. And so forth. This year, a far more compelling message about democracy is coming from miners in Spain, who, beset by austerity measures imposed by both political parties, are shooting at riot police with homemade rockets and slingshots.
The Spanish miners are threatened with “endemic poverty and powerlessness. … they may have a vote, but they have no voice.” Jerome Roos at Roar Magazine has a poignant piece about these miners, “‘Yo soy minero’: the miners light the way of the struggle.”
The moving scenes lived out in every village through which the miners have passed on their march toward Madrid, the welcome, the words of encouragement, the assistance received, the solidarity extended throughout the entire country … , and finally the reception in the capital and the accompaniment in their protest by so many workers, ought to be a turning point … in the construction of collective resistances. The miners have … awakened something that was asleep inside us, they have pushed us.
Being “pushed” to vote is something we’re accustomed to, and that’s fine, but it’s not enough. Being pushed to step outside the system we’re supposed to trust is something else.
Stoller writes about the attitude of “America’s leaders” toward voting. We know their attitude toward doing something like Spain’s miners. We saw it clearly displayed as Occupy sites were shut down and a huge, militarized police presence became the norm. As for voting, Stoller provides the example of “Obama advisor” Peter Orszag, giving Orszag the “award for cynicism in civics.” In June, Orszag argued in a Bloomberg editorial that voting should be mandatory. That came six months after Orszag had a column in the New Republic,
‘Why we need less democracy’, arguing we need ‘depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions’, most likely in order to cut social spending programs on which normal Americans not in the political class rely.
Orszag’s attitude is pervasive among political elites, and has been for years. However, such an authoritarian impulse has never in our lifetimes intersected with recent economic, climactic and political circumstances in this country.
Stoller asks if “an Arab Spring or Spanish miner style resistance” can occur in the U.S. It’s happened before – he mentions 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain – but as he also notes, such rebellions “have been mostly whitewashed out of our history books.” The rise of organized labor was a key factor in that much touted “American dream.” Things have changed.
In 1952, one in three Americans were part of a strike of a thousand people or more. In 1970, with much larger labor force, that number was still one in four. …
In 2009, only one in a thousand Americans participated in a large scale labor action. But as we saw with Occupy Wall Street, there is no reason large scale civic action can’t happen here. And with paramilitary forces breaking up these largely peaceful protests, and new draconian measures imposed on protesters in cities across the country, the lesson American elites seem to want to teach those who seek redress from their government is that peaceful change isn’t possible.
I’m hearing this analysis made more and more: one perhaps growing possibility is that if “peaceful change” is made impossible, something else will happen. Stoller uses the frequently mentioned quote from John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” JFK was talking about Latin America, but I agree with Stoller:
… as inequality increases radically under both Democrats and Republicans in this country, and political rights decline in the Citizens United era, we would do well to listen to this maxim. Though perhaps, as American politicians layer remarkable surveillance technologies, expand the importance of one’s credit rating, encourage media consolidation, allow unlimited corporate cash in politics, and expand militarized policing on top of a giant prison complex, it’s clear that the organizers of the country understand this all too well.
Turning America into a giant prison where the prisoners are forced to vote for the one who beats them may prevent normal people from having the ability to make economic decisions themselves.
The Elites and their Electeds are aware of the potential for some form of rebellion, and are taking steps to keep the crowds on the streets as small and contained as possible. One tool in keeping the masses quiet is convincing We the Electorate that all we have to do is vote for one of the two choices they provide, and the Electeds will take care of everything else. Well, they do of course, but for their, not our, benefit.
(Spanish Miners Lights via Roar Magazine
Spanish Miners March via Roar Magazine)
I read that Stoller piece yesterday, and I’m afraid he’s right. The most likely ways things will go are either a virtual prison, or violent change that prevents it. You can’t know how America is right now and not be worried about this. I wish peaceful change was the most likely outcome, but it’s pretty clear that the rich aren’t going to allow that, and as long as too few of us care about making change happen, the rich will get what they want.
“You can’t know how America is right now and not be worried about this.”
Agreed. And one scary related thought: those who aren’t worried because they don’t know, or don’t have any energy left after getting through the day, maybe of job hunting without any results. This is a part of the whole awful mess … the many people who are simply exhausted.
And of course, I also wish for “peaceful change,” but I think you, Stoller and others are right: “the rich aren’t going to allow that.”
Exactly and I can tell you I’m scared for the future of our country.
Half the people don’t vote. Is it any wonder so few are able to control so many.
Is it any wonder why they don’t vote today? Joyce addresses this every day.
Where’s Anthony when we need him? He’s a regular reader & contributor who refuses to vote this election, if I’ve read him correctly, because the whole thing’s a scam. He gets what Stoller and Joyce are talking about. In fact, he wrote it before Stoller did!
I thought about Anthony, too. Hope he drops by and shares his thoughts.
Ms. marsh I lovez ya…ya KNOWZ I duz….but they NEVER VOTED! Maybe if some more folks actually got involved….and I don’t just mean in the two parties although realistically that is the only way anything is really going to change. If all of the people who profess liberal or progressive views started showing up and voting in local Dem parties and worked their way up through the system things WOULD chnage.
Realistically, this has as much chance of producing changes we want as going to a football game will bring the outcome we want. Election campaigns are about electing people to office. When that’s the point, any opinions volunteers may have about the things the candidate should do once in office are about as substantial a worry as whether the pizza place across the street will still deliver at midnight.
Campaigns are full of people who don’t care what your opinion is, because you’re not the expert – they are. This is why parties inevitably win when people try to change them in ways they don’t want to go.
If you want to influence politicians, be someone they need to please. That’s the only thing that matters with most of them, and most of the ones who think differently aren’t around for long.
If they did, most would probably vote the way most people who vote do – without understanding what they’re really voting for. Most folks don’t have endless time to try to find information that will keep them informed. They watch TV for an hour or so, or they read a little bit of a newspaper. In either case, they learn very little about what’s really going on from those sources.
Plus, of course, they’d still be presented with the same miserable choices, and most would feel obligated to pick one or the other, rather than vote for what they really wanted (assuming they could do that, of course).
I don’t think of low voter participation as a good thing, but I also don’t see any reason to think that things would be all that different if everybody who was able showed up at the polls.
I don’t get what the scandal is- as long as the media continues to help dictate that we have only two political parties governing this country, what difference does it make if 50% vote, or 70%, or 100%?
Now, if the 50% who currently do not vote started to vote for a third party, we might actually start getting somewhere. But if that ever started to happen, we’d be told by everyone from Fox to MSNBC to Solo and RAJensen that the lunatics are taking over the asylum and what a horrible threat it is to our Democratic Republic.
Half the people don’t vote.
Under our current system, a far larger percentage have nothing to vote FOR.
Maybe, just maybe, enough people are going to say “the emperor has no clothes!”, and then help create something “to vote FOR.”
I knew this one from Stoller would hit a nerve with you, Joyce.
This is an example of what we do around here and what I ask of every reader: to keep these two thoughts in your head simultaneously. To empower people to think of their vote in a different way: voting, while not supporting the current system that’s rigged against the middle class ON PURPOSE.
It demands people consider that a “loss” for a favorite celebrity candidate, whether it’s Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, is THEIR loss, not a loss of anyone in the middle class. Because outcome can also force change, even catapult people into recognizing what’s really at stake.
It’s a cinch America’s inequity won’t change without it.
“to think of their vote in a different way”
Absolutely.
It demands people consider that a “loss” for a favorite celebrity candidate, whether it’s Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, is THEIR loss, not a loss of anyone in the middle class. Because outcome can also force change, even catapult people into recognizing what’s really at stake.
I strongly agree with this comment. But, something else has to happen because Americans think their country will never become Oligarchic (even if most don’t even know the word) which we’re well on our way to being. The change in this country that most of those of us want who post here won’t happen unless we Americans are shocked to the core out of our “silent majority” and complacent corners when laws passed start to effect the majority of us negatively.
And, a Romney win along with the current Republicans taking the Senate and keeping the House in November imo would awaken Americans real quick when the Ryan Budget gets passed into legislation which will hurt all but the 1%; the Courts get packed with more Scalia’s; more draconian laws get passed targeting women and minorities; voting rights are successfully challenged (as the recent “win” by Scott in Florida enabling him and his henchmen/women to use the database from Homeland Security to “weed out undesirables”: those they know will vote Dem); gays right to marry under the equal protection clause is defeated in the SC; environmental laws are all but done away with; Corporations lose their people status and become Supreme Beings, creationism is taught in every public school as a science subject; collective bargaining for public unions is outlawed; the neocons instigate wars over non-existing threats; the second amendment trumps all the other amendments; and, a bevy of other Republican hits.
It’s not enough that the unemployment rate is high because most people still have their jobs even if they realize that their salaries and benefits have remained flat while the 1% have had a feast of plenty with both. If the majority of Americans still feel they are relatively ok and their lives are not Dickenisan, that they can still vote and express themselves, own a gun, attend church or not without being bothered, eating whatever crap food is avaible, have a cocktail every day and still have health insurance even if it’s whoefully inadequate, it’s going to take a wake up call like a Romney win in addition to the Congress and the Supreme Court taken over by the Republicans as described above which will negatively effect them to their cores to make the majority act (taking to the streets enmass to change things).
It needs to get to the point near which that old song lyric kicks in for a majority of us Americans:
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
The Ryan Budget alone becoming legislation, imo, will be the one thing that will finally have the needed impact on the majority of us Americans for us to wake up and realize how much we’ve lost Because of the severity of it’s impact on day to day lives and that what was stolen from us was not only our country but the very idea most of us grew up with about what it meant to be an American and how safe we were from despot rulers. The “that could never happen here” mind set.
Yep, Janis ringing in America’s collective ear wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen right about now.
Janis. Wasn’t she spectacular? Or, as I used to say often “far out, man”
And, a big honking Yes to what you said!
I love this, newdeal. Say it loud, strong and often. I do get people upset with me, for doing that kind of thing, but the more of us who refuse to be quiet, the better.
Special cheers for this one: “Corporations lose their people status and become Supreme Beings.”
And now I’m going to go listen to Janis singing about freedom, maybe followed by the still amusing and highly sarcastic, “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz … “
I’ve been quiet for far too long. I’m shy. Also, it’s the “good girl” not wanting to rock the boat. Well, I’m too old for that nonsense any longer. Without trying to be obnoxious (and trying to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing), Ive forced myself to speak up. Whether I’ve changed minds in my private life is another thing but at the least, it’s started ongoing conversations about this mess which is only a good thing.
Thanks for your continued wonderful writing on these topics, Joyce, and thanks to Taylor for giving you frontpage status. The conversations cannnot stop!
OMG, Joyce, I love that Mercedes Benz song! Her delivery of it is so delicious and witty. And, that laugh she does at the end of it. Priceless.
For those too young to remember or too old and forgot (KIDDING
), here is the Mercedes Benz song Joyce spoke about. Enjoy!
http://tinyurl.com/cjypam
Love that you provided the link
And by the way Joyce, thank you for your continued great posts! Just cause people see things through different lenses doesn’t mean we can’t recognize passion and intelligence working for the betterment of us all!!
Thank you, Sec. You know I’m with you on recognizing the importance of those “different lenses.” I very honestly do think the resulting conversation is crucial. There are no easy answers, and we need differing ideas to keep us thinking and working.
Here, here, secularh.
My Dear…Ms…Joyce………..
“Liberal Independent…Equality/Gay Rights Activist…Writer….and… Oh yeah………
……….
Revolutionary”
How are you?