Planning for the next regime change
There is a lot of soul-searching going on about what went wrong with the last election. How could the Bush-league Butcher steal it again?
The scary thing is the degree of disconnect between those of us who found voting for such an inarticulate, dangerously adolescent, intellect- and curiosity-stunted xenophobe incomprehensible--and the majority of Americans who seem to mainly react to the push-button "moral" issues of the Christian right.
So, now whattawedo?
Salon magazine has some interesting opinions on this subject here.
My two cents:
1. Don't hold back and don't be too polite
I don't think there has been such a collision of world-views in this country since the 60's and early 70's. Then it was "freaks vs. straights." Today, it is the Christian right vs. a much more amorphous collection of liberal, progressive, humanist, libertarian (and more) viewpoints. What is our common thread? This can be hard to find, and that difficulty makes it hard to have a unified impact. But there are certain things we have in common, I think-- a love for freedom, tolerance, diversity, and a strong commitment to the separation of church and state. We need to talk up these values without reservation. We shouldn't hold back. We need to show that our morality is higher than dogma. We have to be outspoken about it. Forget centrism. The sea change brought about by the 60's (civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, spiritual diversity, consciousness exploration and expansion, tolerance for non-conformity, etc. etc.) didn't come from being polite. We need to speak out and tell the truth with some degree of immoderation.
2. Be patiently impatient
Tell someone some truth every day. The change of people's hearts is the change that matters. Be willing to effect change one person at a time.
The scary thing is the degree of disconnect between those of us who found voting for such an inarticulate, dangerously adolescent, intellect- and curiosity-stunted xenophobe incomprehensible--and the majority of Americans who seem to mainly react to the push-button "moral" issues of the Christian right.
So, now whattawedo?
Salon magazine has some interesting opinions on this subject here.
My two cents:
1. Don't hold back and don't be too polite
I don't think there has been such a collision of world-views in this country since the 60's and early 70's. Then it was "freaks vs. straights." Today, it is the Christian right vs. a much more amorphous collection of liberal, progressive, humanist, libertarian (and more) viewpoints. What is our common thread? This can be hard to find, and that difficulty makes it hard to have a unified impact. But there are certain things we have in common, I think-- a love for freedom, tolerance, diversity, and a strong commitment to the separation of church and state. We need to talk up these values without reservation. We shouldn't hold back. We need to show that our morality is higher than dogma. We have to be outspoken about it. Forget centrism. The sea change brought about by the 60's (civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, spiritual diversity, consciousness exploration and expansion, tolerance for non-conformity, etc. etc.) didn't come from being polite. We need to speak out and tell the truth with some degree of immoderation.
2. Be patiently impatient
Tell someone some truth every day. The change of people's hearts is the change that matters. Be willing to effect change one person at a time.
posted by laffnowl at 9:58 AM
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