Sam Smith – If the Republicans win on Tuesday there’s a big chance of massive numbers of sensible Americans going into depression, withdrawing from politics or replacing their positive goals with just anger.
But there’s another more useful approach: to use our time to work to restore American democracy, to illustrate what a kinder, wiser and more decent community looks like, and to use our power as victims of cruel capitalism to strike back at those who are funding evil.
For example, I came across a list of twenty corporations that support Republicans, The list included some prominent firms such as Taco Bell, Wendys, Wonder Bread, Applebees, Home Depot, AT&T, Target and Pizza Hut. At a state level, just as an example, Arizona Republicans get funding from PetSmart and Circle K.
A boycott by decent Americans of such firms could clearly be felt in a major way.
Another approach would be to think of yourself as an American who, while alienated from your national government is also part of a state and a community. Many of these will still maintain traditional democratic values and need to be supported with energy and affection despite what is going on at the national level. Bear in mind that fantasy and lying America is far more prevalent as a federal phenomenon. At the state and local level reality still frequently survives.
It would also be greatly helpful if the various pieces of democratic America learned to work together once more. One of the unintended problems with contemporary identity politics is that it has created a generation of activists with little experience of working with those who don’t look or act like them. And if people like you only represent, say,16% of the population, you definitely need to make friends among others.
These are just a few examples of how we should start thinking if this election is a disaster. After all, our causes have always been there, it just may just take us a bit longer to achieve them.
4 comments:
I have appreciated reading undernews UNTIL NOW. Your blatant and ugly political bias against Republicans stating that they are destroying our Country AND calling for a general boycott of companies who support Republicans is dangerous and despicable. So long unbiased newlsetter!
Never mind the Mallory, Sam. The Rs are no longer the party that once deserved respect, a party of honorable conservatives. They've been hi-jacked and your "bias" is well founded.
Mallory is misusing the word "bias." The majority of Republicans in the House support Trump's lie that the election was stolen. That's not "bias,"
it's just a fact. The Republicans want to control womens' reproductive lives. That's not bias, it's just a fact. I could go on--reporting the actual words and behaviours of people, regardless of what party they might belong to, is not "bias," it's just good journalism.
Don't get angry, get smarter, both "parties" serve their corporate donors, period, so arguing about what the Ds and Rs are doing indicates a failure to recognize who the real government is. Any government that does not create the money is controlled by those who do. Example?
In the name of preserving carefully negotiated legislation, a euphemism for inadequate watered down legislation, Senate Democrat’ leaders united their caucus to vote down amendments that would have added the party’s Medicare expansion plan and expanded child tax credit into the final spending bill now moving through Congress. Soon after those votes, seven Democratic senators joined with Republicans to cast a pivotal vote shielding their private equity donors from a new corporate minimum tax.
A Princeton Study found that from 2009 to 2014, the 200 most politically active companies in the U.S. spent $5.8 billion influencing our government with lobbying and campaign contributions. Those same companies got $4.4 trillion in taxpayer support – a 750% return on their investment.
The ‘power elite’ are the executive arm of the ‘ruling class’, which dominates public policy using the power of money. They direct our privatized monetary system giving them power to direct public policy, wars, and the entire economic development of the nation all for their personal gain, plus interest!
“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.“
~ Lord Acton
Post a Comment