Democracy in Action...with a small "d"

Dispatch from Bellingham, 17 July, 2011

Democracy in Action

This past Saturday, I discovered another reason to love this place.  I attended a meeting of the “Rebuild the Dream” project begun by MoveOn.org.  About 30 folks gathered to consider ideas for radically reorienting American politics towards a more humane, fair and (small-d) democratic society.  It was a grass-roots call to action, not a top-down proposal.  Earlier, there had been a request sent out through MoveOn.org to propose ideas to improve the country.  From something like 28,000 of them, selected by around 5 MILLION citizens expressing their choices, 40 top suggestions were chosen for us to discuss and rank-order.  I urge all of you to visit the site http://contract.rebuildthedream.com to find the list and the invitation to participate in this process.  PLEASE…do get involved if you share my concerns for the direction the country is taking.

Some of you may know by now that I tend to be a pessimist.  Ever since global warming began to rear its ugly head, I’ve been more and more concerned that the country was, by and large, ignoring the calamity that lies ahead if nothing is done.  And with the most recent election of folks identified with the “T-party” movement, I sank deeper into melancholy.  Because many of these folks are also evolution deniers, something I had spent a major portion of my adult career fighting against, I was doubly concerned, because their political positions seemed driven by irrational emotions and not fact-based, logically developed thought.  And the obvious and odious involvement of corporate interests in the political machinery frightened me, for it seemed like our “democracy” was rapidly becoming a plutocracy. (More than a few would say that it has been for some time).  The blatant refusal to consider increasing revenues as the economy tanked made no sense…and “trickle-down” was clearly a flood up…from working-class folks to the super rich.  The data are unequivocal about this.  And so I despaired for the future.  And the most recent threats to social security, upon which I find myself depending, and my pending move to Medicare, caused me sleepless nights.  I am a worrywart. I admit it.

But this meeting gave me hope.  It was announced that there were multiple meetings going on in Whatcom County…and in every congressional district in the U.S.  These are genuinely concerned citizens meeting to affirm their fundamental role in our democracy…gathering to exert a political force.  My fears are shared widely and my concern for the vitality of democratic process is far from unique.  I don’t know that a lot was accomplished in concrete terms…save a commitment to grow our numbers, to reach out to folks who weren’t represented in our meeting…principally the younger voters, especially students, since the university isn’t in session, and to meet again, to plan more specific action.  We did prioritize the 40 suggestions sent to us*, and this list will be sent to the national organization to be shared.  There was also a strong sense that we had to act locally, because of a proposed coal-shipping port that would adversely affect Bellingham and everywhere adjacent to the port and the rail route to it.  We hope to stop the port, and the coal-dust, noise, diesel fumes and environmental degradation it will bring.

As I write, I have no idea what the “debt-crisis” shenanigans in D.C. will produce.  I hope the U.S. doesn’t default.  But more importantly, whatever the near-term political outcome, I am heartened that there seems to be a resurgence of popular democracy and that I will be a part of it.  

*For what it’s worth, the top suggestions in my sub-group of 8 folks were “Invest in Public Education,” “Medicare for All,” and “Substantially Reduce Military Spending.”  But the list of ten we discussed were all good choices and would provide a much better direction for the country than its present path.