NB: This is a candidate diary with the references to the candidate removed. The candidate diary itself will go live on the Big Orange, sometime a little after midnight.
One serious confusion in some progressive populist thinking online has been a misunderstanding of the role of the progressive blogosphere as a tool for building a progressive movement.
However, as a progressive populist looking at the passive-voice descriptions that “populist messaging fails because there is not a populist movement” … I feel like jumping up and down and yelling, “read your history books you idiots!”
A populist movement is not created in coffee house discussions, whether live or online … it is created in the process of fighting for things, and in the process learning how to engage in a political fight and transform ourselves from political consumers to citizens of a Republic.
And without populist messaging leading the way, there will be nothing to take to our fellows when we get out amongst them.
Picture Credit: David Leeson (#8)
As we scramble around trying to get messaging out, much of the effort would seem to be pointless and wasted effort … but there are so many different efforts that some of them work, and those are the ones that are propagated. And as in many cases of early innovation, we have to make many efforts, all of which have a low chance of succeeding, in order to actually have a strong chance that some of them shall succeed.
And, no, its not enough to provide “oxygen” for a bonfire … not at this point in time. But its enough to keep the fire burning, which is something that would not have been technologically feasible just four short years ago.
And the tools and the political environment have come together in a particular “pre-change” moment … because, in part, a growing number of people are realizing that the Climate Crisis is really, truly serious.
As we look at the magnitude of the gap between the politically possible and the urgently needed …
… then it is clear that any vote that does not change the boundaries of the politically possibly is a wasted vote. It is, of course, up to each of us to decide for ourself what vote can have that impact … and while I would strongly argue on the issue, I don’t think this is the place to do so.
Still, how can we doze through another marketing exercise posing as a political campaign?
How can we sleep … when our beds are burning?
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… not only is the Long Emergency series sporadic, but so is my checking up on the discussion.
I’ll try to do better with this diary.
one will hit the mark
I hope you’ll expand on the digital aspects of the populist movement in future essays.
nice work
and bing-fucking-o Bruce. we need to get back to the business of citizenry. the real fourth branch of this gov’t