Something We Can Do Today
Since we're finally on our own...again
I was hoping that we’d have to continue the fight for justice today, and not resume the fight against nihilism. Now we have to do both.
Either way, I was going to write this:
Today is the day to begin planning an alternative, whether it’s a realignment or a third party, or both, or more.
We’ve been too patient for too long. It felt like we had to be patient.
In our broken system, in the face of looming nihilism, we didn’t want to split the vote.
Nihilism returned anyway.
So now we’re free to rethink everything. And we should, starting today. If we wait three years it will be too late…again.
My initial contribution to the effort:
For the last fifty years, the Democratic Party has been a coalition more than a monolithic party. It has included labor and civil rights advocates of all kinds, educators, cultural leaders, and many others…a coalition of groups suspicious (at the very least) of big money and corporate influence in our government.
But in our broken political system, the Democratic Party—as a party—is as beholden to big money and corporate influence as the alternative party.
And that’s an untenable position—for the party, for the coalition, for the environment, for the workforce, and even for our friends abroad. In our broken political system, the party can’t deliver. It cannot serve the coalition and also serve the big money that supports its campaigns. We want it to, and we expect more of it than of the other party, perhaps unfairly, but it can’t deliver.
So now there are no adults in the room. Only nihilists.
We’re finally on our own…again.
And the question I ask, today, is:
Can we rebuild the coalition without big money? In the Information Age, can we organize effectively around labor, environmental responsibility, and civil rights without bowing to Monsanto (or whatever it’s called now) and Exxon Mobil and Amazon? Because, as we’ve seen, the existing party can’t have it both ways.
Today’s the day to start asking these questions. As we’ve seen too often, tomorrow’s too late.
I was going to write this today, no matter what happened last night. “Wait until after the election.”
Nihilism returned anyway.
Be True, Episode 65: What It Means To Be True
John reads a poem from his chapbook All the Lonely American Roads. He also discusses impractical pursuits (like writing), the trouble with “bias,” and the only way to separate fact from fiction.
Still incredulous.