"while committing to hope the uncertainty of final success...they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour"
(Pericles of Athens, the greatest democrat - 495-429 BCE)
Just as Congress is failing to hold the executive branch accountable, the people are failing to hold their representatives accountable. It is on us to send an unambiguous message to our Senators and representatives: all those that don't fight this will be voted out next year. The success of an autocrat depends on the complacency of its people. We cannot wait for others to save us.
I'm in a Republican district. There are a host of reasons to think I am the most likely Democrat who can win the District, in spite of (or because?) my advanced age (69). I know where campaign funding is available. I've been around politics my whole life, claiming seniority over Brother Jerry, by about an hour, as the longest serving active Democrat in the Brown political family.
I see it as my duty to run. But then I also think running would be fun, and being one of the cranky mountain people for which our towns are notorious, I like a good fight.
It helps that I can switch into a truly bodacious mountain accent, with roots in the Arkansas Ozarks. The local Boss Republican, whose support I will seek, assures me that people don't care about what I say (explaining Brown/Newsom policy and the carbon values of forests recovery), they just like hearing me say it. In a dialect that astonishes visitors from West Virginia, for example.
I expect to run, with a professional campaign and good finance, on a platform of Impeach the Crooks and of expanding the great innovations in forests management that are today emerging from the collaboration of State and Federal government, the Nisenan people, the downstream dam operator, and the loggers of Sierra, Nevada, and Plumas Counties.
I appreciate all help, specifically including conversation at places like this. I think I'll write a Why I Should Run piece on my Substack...
I think every District represented by the Party of Trump should have at a minimum a Candidate Candidate, sho in turn may hatch into an Actual Candidate, to at least serve as a focus for the local opposition to the lawless chaos monkeys.
Godspeed Jason. We need more people running for office, especially in red districts. If nothing else, it forces the incumbents to defend what they've been silent on, and to say things that make their constituents uncomfortable. The VA was already operating shorthanded before 1,000 employees were fired last week, which will clearly impact level of care and services for veterans. Everyone running needs to be forced to say "This is wrong" or "This is ok because (some weak reason that will anger every veteran)". Make them defend cutting medical research, pulling the rug out from farmers that were promised conservation reimbursements, and disbanding the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, among a host of other issues. Make them say these things out loud.
The campaign literature practically writes itself!
I am going on a zoom call this evening with a wildland-firefighters advocacy group. These people don't know whether they will have jobs this summer. Our District is thick on the ground with people like this, who are literally on the front line of the climate/carbon crisis.
I have in mind one member of this population, a leader in one of the local Hotshot crews, which typically means American Indian. I want to track him down, because he would be a better candidate than me!
There are men and women like him wherever we screwed up the forests, in Districts represented [!?!] by Republicans. Many are veterans of the recent wars, working on their pensions. All of them have natural allies in the urban fire departments, who work to save our towns, as we work to save their suburbs. Los Angeles County Fire Department, Long Beach Fire Department: Our people saved your lives by asking that you leave indefensible Greenville, and we lost our beautiful little town. We know you will always stand with us, as we always stand with you.
I got sicced on anthropogenic climate change when I was a young pup at the National Science Foundation. You know, the agency that brought you all the internet. Slated for destruction, because, you know, Science.
American democracy most often is aspirational. Today, it is difficult for women and nonwhite citizens to think of the Founding Fathers (and by extension their documents) with the approved textbook reverence previous American generations once did. This is only one problem among many in saving the American version of representative democracy.
In some ways, treating American democracy as a sacred cow we are following the MAGA playbook that yearns nostalgically for a time that never existed for all Americans. Perhaps, the dismantling and disruption are blessings longterm if we wish to truly rebuild a more perfect union. There is great risk, and no guarantees, America has the will to see this through. It is just as likely we revert to a form of the natural political state you address here. Few addicts change and arrest their addictions without first hitting their proverbial rock bottom.
Attempting to save a myth (however good it felt) cedes chances of success to those that favor corporate monied governance over new democratic representation models. We also must be realistic that any potential fight for new democratic models would take place in a technological environment where the enemies of democracy control the field of battle. New and forward, rather than old and back, is the more difficult winning strategy.
Precarious times indeed. Change is needed, which direction will America choose?
We should also remember that only 8% of the world currently lives in a relatively functioning democratic society https://www.govmedia.com/news/only-8-worlds-population-reside-in-full-democracy-report
Full vs. flawed democracies caught my attention first. USA charted as flawed now…
Thanks for the reminder and link.
Pericles watches & weeps:
"while committing to hope the uncertainty of final success...they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour"
(Pericles of Athens, the greatest democrat - 495-429 BCE)
Just as Congress is failing to hold the executive branch accountable, the people are failing to hold their representatives accountable. It is on us to send an unambiguous message to our Senators and representatives: all those that don't fight this will be voted out next year. The success of an autocrat depends on the complacency of its people. We cannot wait for others to save us.
I'm in a Republican district. There are a host of reasons to think I am the most likely Democrat who can win the District, in spite of (or because?) my advanced age (69). I know where campaign funding is available. I've been around politics my whole life, claiming seniority over Brother Jerry, by about an hour, as the longest serving active Democrat in the Brown political family.
I see it as my duty to run. But then I also think running would be fun, and being one of the cranky mountain people for which our towns are notorious, I like a good fight.
It helps that I can switch into a truly bodacious mountain accent, with roots in the Arkansas Ozarks. The local Boss Republican, whose support I will seek, assures me that people don't care about what I say (explaining Brown/Newsom policy and the carbon values of forests recovery), they just like hearing me say it. In a dialect that astonishes visitors from West Virginia, for example.
I expect to run, with a professional campaign and good finance, on a platform of Impeach the Crooks and of expanding the great innovations in forests management that are today emerging from the collaboration of State and Federal government, the Nisenan people, the downstream dam operator, and the loggers of Sierra, Nevada, and Plumas Counties.
I appreciate all help, specifically including conversation at places like this. I think I'll write a Why I Should Run piece on my Substack...
I think every District represented by the Party of Trump should have at a minimum a Candidate Candidate, sho in turn may hatch into an Actual Candidate, to at least serve as a focus for the local opposition to the lawless chaos monkeys.
Godspeed Jason. We need more people running for office, especially in red districts. If nothing else, it forces the incumbents to defend what they've been silent on, and to say things that make their constituents uncomfortable. The VA was already operating shorthanded before 1,000 employees were fired last week, which will clearly impact level of care and services for veterans. Everyone running needs to be forced to say "This is wrong" or "This is ok because (some weak reason that will anger every veteran)". Make them defend cutting medical research, pulling the rug out from farmers that were promised conservation reimbursements, and disbanding the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, among a host of other issues. Make them say these things out loud.
The campaign literature practically writes itself!
I am going on a zoom call this evening with a wildland-firefighters advocacy group. These people don't know whether they will have jobs this summer. Our District is thick on the ground with people like this, who are literally on the front line of the climate/carbon crisis.
I have in mind one member of this population, a leader in one of the local Hotshot crews, which typically means American Indian. I want to track him down, because he would be a better candidate than me!
There are men and women like him wherever we screwed up the forests, in Districts represented [!?!] by Republicans. Many are veterans of the recent wars, working on their pensions. All of them have natural allies in the urban fire departments, who work to save our towns, as we work to save their suburbs. Los Angeles County Fire Department, Long Beach Fire Department: Our people saved your lives by asking that you leave indefensible Greenville, and we lost our beautiful little town. We know you will always stand with us, as we always stand with you.
I got sicced on anthropogenic climate change when I was a young pup at the National Science Foundation. You know, the agency that brought you all the internet. Slated for destruction, because, you know, Science.
American democracy most often is aspirational. Today, it is difficult for women and nonwhite citizens to think of the Founding Fathers (and by extension their documents) with the approved textbook reverence previous American generations once did. This is only one problem among many in saving the American version of representative democracy.
In some ways, treating American democracy as a sacred cow we are following the MAGA playbook that yearns nostalgically for a time that never existed for all Americans. Perhaps, the dismantling and disruption are blessings longterm if we wish to truly rebuild a more perfect union. There is great risk, and no guarantees, America has the will to see this through. It is just as likely we revert to a form of the natural political state you address here. Few addicts change and arrest their addictions without first hitting their proverbial rock bottom.
Attempting to save a myth (however good it felt) cedes chances of success to those that favor corporate monied governance over new democratic representation models. We also must be realistic that any potential fight for new democratic models would take place in a technological environment where the enemies of democracy control the field of battle. New and forward, rather than old and back, is the more difficult winning strategy.
Precarious times indeed. Change is needed, which direction will America choose?
This!
Yes!