What Now—

democracy does not begin and end with elections


The mesmerizing media is full of it, on Sixty Minutes and every news show;
“President-elect Obama, what will be your first act? Who will be in your cabinet? What will you do about the economy? Iraq? Afghanistan? Iran?”

It would be easy to sit back and enjoy the show, wondering how great the seemingly great man will be, or will he be . . build expectations, or doubt his sincerity and decision-making based on his staff choices, before he even takes office.

That’s getting ahead of ourselves, isn’t it? Aren’t we forgetting something? The first part of “When the people lead, the leaders will follow.”

So far, the people have gotten together to present a new (at least marginally superior) leader the keys to the White House, but before we fall under the spell of the Amazing Snox Box (best children’s allegory for adults ever, by Brian Gage), in all our celebrations and amazement over our achievement, let’s remember that we, the people’s job of leadership has just begun.

For instance:

Are our debates open to all, or is whose allowed on the debates chosen by one non-elected very partisan Republican, and one non-elected very partisan Democrat?

Do we have public financing of campaigns (caclean.org), to level the playing field between ordinary voters and corporatists?

Do we have Instant Runoff Voting (also referred to as ranked voting, LAvotefire.org, irvinla.org), so we can vote for the candidate who most clearly represents our values, without fearing that by doing so we’ll end up electing the one that represents them the least?

Do we have the most efficient form of healthcare, single payer, or the least efficient in all the industrialized world, such that our auto industry is about to go under from the weight of healthcare costs (setting aside for the moment their stupid decision-making in product choice), compared to competitors in other nations who do not bear this burden because they are under single payer plans?

Are our water and food supply safe and free from pollutants? Are they being monopolized by corporatists?

Are our oceans being over-fished and polluted into extinction?

Are our energy production and our transportation systems entrenched in reliance on fuels whose use will lead to catastrophic climate change, destroying the ability of much of the planet to support life as we know it? Did I hear someone say, ‘clean coal?’ Oh dear.

Is a dangerous alternative, nuclear, being seriously suggested without understanding that when the entire use cycle—from mining to refining to transport to plant construction to safe waste transport and disposal (as though such a thing is possible with something that remains toxic for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years) to plant decommissioning at end of use cycle—is considered, it is clearly anything but an alternative? And, can I hear someone say ‘nuclear proliferation’ and ‘terrorism’ in the same sentence? Oh yeah.

Is our economy still built on a house of mostly worthless paper, whose only tangible product (besides the crap entertainment to keep us distracted from how bad this all is) is high tech weaponry to threaten the rest of the world into turning over their resources on our terms, or should I say the terms of the few fabulously rich who control most of the lot, and neglect to share much with the rest of the world?

Are there fewer and fewer jobs and steeper and steeper college fees so that the siren song of the military to keep our thousand foreign bases stocked with fresh canon fodder actually starts to sound appealing, compared to the alternative of being broke and jobless?

Have our civil liberties suddenly been restored, or are we still spied on in our homes and through our phones, capable of legally being detained on here-say without a hearing?

Seems to me like there’s plenty of room for leadership to go around. That maybe we, the people should hang in there for awhile and push. Seems like no leader could lead out of this morass a populace that sits dead on their ass, lost in a daydream, that the change we need is in ourselves. Seems that’s where it has to be. Seems like we’re going to have to rise up and start walking, without waiting to be told in which direction.

Okay so we close Guantanamo and promise not to do it again, give everybody a tax cut and tell them to go shop. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be enough.

We’re going to have to really work on this one—all of us.