the end of the world as we know it?

(@9:30 – promoted by buhdydharma )

yes, that is a deliberately provocative title.  And I am afraid I have little of subgstance with which to support that question.  But in this, only my second post on this site, let me offer just a little bit of my current thinking.

I am not presuming the imminence anything catastrophic, like the immediate annihilation of the human race.  Nor do I presume that there will be seismic changes politically,even though one might well argue that such is what is required if democracy as we have known it is going to survive.

Instead let me posit something a wee bit different, and perhaps even arrogant.

The two-party system, mediated by the ‘gatekeepers’ of the main stream media, is now obsolete, dying off.    

It is possible that we will see a president elected who still fits the old models – after all, Hillary Clinton could still win Iowa, and if she does she is the likely next president.  But even that “success” would be little more than a last gasp of politics as we have known it.

Unless and until those currently in political office and those seeking higher office understand that there is a hunger for a different way of politics and governance, they will do little more than preside over the demise of an ancient and no longer productive system.  And either we will radically reform our current system to something that is truly democratic, or we can watch while we become either a fascist dictatorship or we degenerate into anarchy.

How do I know this?

Perhaps it is the young people who are no longer content to merely stuff envelopes and make phone calls.

Perhaps it is the many who have found freedom and empowerment through various electronic means.

It may even be some who straddle the divide between the past and the future, politicians like Brad Miller who recognize the importance of the netroots, not necessarily to the exclusion of the grass roots, but as a means of organizing and motivating people who are too often otherwise ignored, except for their votes and their money.

“We the people” is a noble sentiment.  For too long we have allowed others to tell us how we should act and think politically.

No more.  

Someone has to speak out.  Perhaps we need to lead our leaders.

When the response I receive from a sitting member of Congress after I speak out very forcefully is that s/he wished s/he didn’t so often go along to get along, there are things that need to be changed.

There is a hunger abroad in the land.  It is a hunger for real leadership, for those willing to stand for something, for people willing to put themselves and their careers on the line for something beyond themselves.   Why strive for power and control if you are not going to attempt to use it?  

Those who may by happenstance encounter these words can provide the examples of what I mean.  Certainly the cowardice of Schumer and Feinstein with respect to the Muaksey nomination is but one example, and even since there are many more to which all of us can refer.

I offer no list of particulars that have offended me.  There are too many, and I fear that should I begin I would inevitably offend by what I omitted.

I know this – it is not YET too late, whether we speak of civil liberties, of global warming, of tyranny, of economic disparity, of inequity, of increasing hatred towards this government and by extension to the people who have empowered it, which ultimately means all Americans.  It is not YET too late, but there is little time left.

I used to view myself as a raging centrist.  No more.  Consider me an extremist, and perhaps I will become little more than a nag, someone who annoyingly keeps pointing out that the emperor is naked.  But I will remain silent about nothing.  With whatever voice I may have I will ask why not?  What I do will not matter much, but as Gandhi has said it is important that I do it anyway.

What about you?