Is Obama the perfect president? Have we solved global warming, health care, civil liberties? Are we still fighting wars that are breaking the very fabric of our society? Why do the Republicans have more power as a minority than the majority democrats? Are Evan Bayh and Brad Ellsworth really what we had hoped for or even want as our representatives?
For a very long time I have asked such questions and am almost convinced that people in Evansville have been beaten down for so long that they fail to understand that for a democracy to work it is vital for people to fully participate.
That has been shown a lot in the last year as a very few teabaggers and other anti-government zealots have been allowed to define health care and climate change simply by attending town halls and raising their voices. But we progressives seem to think that reason will prevail and that those who we have placed into office are actually trying to do the right thing.
In 2004, Howard Dean tried to start a movement that would being power back to the people but the less progressive elements of the democrat party played dirty in Iowa and were successful in making Dean out to be too passionate to be president. The result was a boring and ineffectual nomination of John Kerry who had shown great leadership in 1968 as a returning Vietnam vet but has done little to nothing since to either improve the country or foster our democracy.
Two years later, hundreds of us worked feverishly to elect people like Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill only to see them almost completely turn their back to our agenda, opting instead to act more like Republicans than Democrats and anything but corporately right wing.
Maybe there are still two parties but it is increasingly evident to me that if that is true, they are both seeking to represent the interests of corporations first and outside of an occasional "constituent service" dismiss our concerns entirely.
Today, regional politicians (and that is a very wide region) fear nothing and act as if we are their servants instead of the other way around. It seems the only way in which we have any power is to act repulsively, like the teabaggers, show up at all meetings and demand to be heard.
I know such a strategy has risks since it is clear that the politicians might no like us any longer, just like they don't like the teabaggers but if we are going to succeed in holding them accountable, do we really have a choice?
I know that most of the people who receive this email hoped for solid solutions to climate change and health care. But, things like a carbon tax that would be refunded especially to those who could not afford increased prices for gasoline and electricity, or what we all desired, a single payer health care system is not even on the table for discussion. Instead, we get billions of subsidies for more coal use and fail to even get a "public option" in health care.
In fact, the most definitive statement that Brad Ellsworth has ever made is his opposition to single payer. For that we ought to be ashamed since we have allowed a few ignorant people with distinctly right wing corporate bias dictate to him the terms of the debate.
In fact, Ellsworth is a real metaphor for everything that is wrong in our country. Take his other big health care issue, choice. He bent over backwards for the anti abortion lobby, specifically writing an amendment (perhaps his first effort to author much of anything significant) and Right to Life beats on him instead of embracing him.
He, of course responds like any corporate Dem would and acts apologetic to them instead of giving any slack to the pro choice people what actually voted for him.
Sure I could go on with this rant, there is just so much to say, but I would like to make a proposal to those on this list as an alternative. The first Wednesday of each month, the non-partisan Southern Indiana Democracy for America meets in Browning Room A of the Evansville Central Library. For the last two years, we have been showing movies in cooperation with Valley Watch in what we have called the Social Justice and Environmental Film Series. That has been moderately successful and some of our films have generated a decent audience.
However, it is clear that watching movies is not likely to give us the opportunity to organize and take our country back.
Therefore, I propose that we once again begin meeting and organizing to do just that and use those first Wednesdays of each month as the catalyst for making it happen. We can use that time to become a greater political force in our community and make sure that we are heard across the tri-state.
Although we have met at 7:00 PM in the past, we have the room from 6:30 PM on and we should begin to use all of that time to initiate our own quiet revolution that will give us strength instead of exacerbating our weakness.
Please mark your calendars for Wednesday March 3 at 6:30 PM to attend the next meeting of Southern Indiana Democracy for America so we can begin to take our country back from those who wish to exploit us for their personal satisfaction and profit.
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Check out the Valley Watch website at:
http://valleywatch.net
John Blair
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they
fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi |
