So yeah…Democrats….Republicans.
If you want to look at it from one perspective there is no difference. From THAT singular perspective you will get no argument from me.
They are The Powers That Be.
You can lump them all in, as far as I’m concerned…from that perspective. Throw in the Bankers and the Insurance Cos and the Oil Cos ad the Defense Cos too. Throw in the 1%, the hyper-rich. Throw in the cops, who protect them. How far do you go? Where do you stop? Throw in everyone who works for one of these entities? Throw in anyone who sells something to them? Throw in anyone who consumes something they make? Throw in everyone who does not spend every waking hour, every minute, every breath out in the streets opposing them?
As long as we are generalizing, there are two kinds of people in this world, the rebels and those they rebel against.
Anyone wish to hazard a guess which side the demographic of this website comes down on, lol?
But it is slightly less of a generalization to break it into four groups:
The Rebels
The Content
The Powers that think they are helping the oppressed
The Powers that are actively oppressing
If you notice, the Rebels are slightly outnumbered, there. Always have been, always will be. Fighting the Power is not a new thing, it is as old as history, as old as human nature. Older even, since at its core is the urge to burst free from all constraints and create something new. See: The Big Bang.
There has always been The Power….and there has always been that which fights against it. In that way, from THAT perspective, they are one. Not only have they always existed together, but more importantly for our purposes, they evolve together. Which returns us to the intro of this essay and the question…where do you stop?
The question then, is not whether we Fight The Power. Or even what or who The Power is, that we are fighting. It is in our nature. And from THAT perspective ….It doesn’t matter who is President, who is in Congress. If they were all angels of perfection and light…we would just move on and find other powers to fight against.
No, the question is not why or who or which….the only real question is …how.
As I stated, the Rebels and the rebelled against evolve together. They do something heinous (since they always do!) and we figure out a way to stop them. Then they figure out how to defeat the strategy and tactics we used to fight them and take measures against it. Then we come up with something new…etc. etc. etc.
Just as Reagan learned from Nixon and Bushco learned from Reagan. WE learned from Ghandi and then from King and then learned to use the system and get our people elected. See: The Progressive Caucus.
Guess what, my ragged band of tattered Rebels? As if you did not all painfully know and feel deep in your rebel souls, we have lost the last few battles. It is our turn to evolve. And it will have to be a damn good evolution.
The Democrats, Congress itself? Nothing but tools, cat’s paws to use to try to further the Eternal Rebellion. The advent of the web and the emergence of Daily Kos and the Left Blogosphere seemed/seems like that evolution…a way to influence and use Dem politicians as our tools for change. It didn’t work in 2006. Mainly because the politicians that were already there had been terrorized by The Powers That Be. Politicians after all…are by nature, nothing more than weather vanes, blowing in the direction of whatever wind is prevailing. But even weather vanes are useful, if utilized correctly. And that’s what we are, for now, trying to do.
Influence them, by educating and influencing the public and public opinion.
In another month or so, when we stop fighting ourselves, we will have someone else we can try to influence. Someone who needs our votes and our money and our work as volunteers. We can try to influence a Power that will Be.
It won’t work to our satisfaction of course, nothing ever does, since we are never satisfied…but that is the next frontier. Influencing and lobbying the nominee…AND….working down ticket to elect more progressives. This is the next frontier. Those are our new tools.
While we wait for the quantum leap we all would like to see, that is the HOW we have to work with. We need to maximize that how.
How do we do that?
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and…………..hmmm!
Quantum leaps will not be brought into being by waiting.
These paws were made for clawing…
“What’ve you got?” One of my favorite movie lines ever, and there are so many things to chose from these days.
I don’t think voting will help, and regular protests only get you so far and aren’t covered by the media when they occur.
A few days ago I wrote an essay about trying to get at least one person from every state to start walking or biking to DC to confront their representatives directly about their refusal to bring up impeachment hearings. Since this would not be simply a one day project, I think it could be one of those things were momentum grows the longer it lasts and the media would eventually notice, kind of like they did with Sheehan’s protest in Crawford.
Anyone think this would be a good idea if there were some organizing involved? A group like Moveon could possibly get something like this off the ground, or maybe even the people here could do it if we have enough collective resources and willing participants.
Throw the bums out!!!!!
discussing discontent, and the instinct we have to to react, not respond.
when our actions are actually re-actions, we only evolve to the equal but opposite level of our competition. we only ever evolve far enough to react to their new level of horrific injustice…never past it…
its a little naive to expect institutionalized leaders of any stripe (here, governmental ones) to push the envelope too far as it un-balances the foundation of their power. we need to move the foundation. but, yeah, you kinda already said that…you wanted to know how….let me get back to you on that one….
It will take me some time to compose it after I get off work. Forget the “election” I got your future right here.
… toughness is a requirement. And so is courage.
From the Osho transformational tarot, a description of “The Rebel”:
I think often of Patrick Fitzgerald’s press conference when he was going after Scooter Libby. There was no spin, there could be no spin. He acted completely within his own recognized and willingly accepted limitations and that gave him a power and authenticity that couldn’t be challenged.
Isn’t this ever going to end?
There are 435 Reps in the House. There are 100 Senators.
There is Bush, and Cheney, and Mukasey, and Condi, and a few other nutbars.
And there is Robert Gates walking around with a device in his pocket counting down the days till Bush is no longer in the White House…
And there are THREE HUNDRED MILLION Americans…
WE are The Powers That Be.
Just how frickin’ long are they going to keep trying to deny that, and keep fighting us?
This was written over 40 years ago–Schattschnieder’s (sp?) Semi-Sovereign People. Nothing changes this system–it is an outgrowth of capitalism–money leads to power. The US has never been a success–just blessed with secure borders and abundant natural resources.
In the 1960s, I foolishly began to think that unions would grow to equalize the system. That they would invest their pensions in their employers and eventually own the means of production. The rich folk saw this coming and emasculated the unions. My bet is a Kennedy had Hoffa killed.
Reagan is beloved by the evil empire because he finished the destruction of unions. The Dems watched bemused–and named the fucking DC airport after him–the terrible irony of it still makes me gag. Weapons–not words–will wag this dog–and you know it!
An interesting exercise is to dig into the JFK assassination and learn of the various connections among a large cast of characters (H.L. Hunt, Jack Ruby, LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, CIA types, organized crime bosses, etc).
I agree withe the idea of lumping the wealthy, the powerful, and the criminal together.
on the street, and see who comes wandering by…
It’s an uphill battle but the only fight worth fighting.
“It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” is 20 years old.
KEEPITUP