So let me say first that I think initial coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement — and similar protests and rallies staged by groups like 350.org — was terrible.<\/p>\n
The mainstream media downplayed, trivialized or simply ignored an important chorus of voices, raising concerns every bit as salient and thoughtful as those raised by the tea party.<\/p>\n
A lot of ink has been spilled already about why that has happened.\u00a0 It’s an important question and I follow those discussions with great interest.<\/p>\n
But I want to wrestle here with what I think is the major shortcoming of the “liberal movement” itself and that’s the lack of a clear linkage from the current activism to the spirit and process of practical, real-world democracy.<\/p>\n
I’ve covered left- and right-leaning populist movements in the US for many years.<\/p>\n
Conservative groups often have the trappings (guns, uniforms) and rhetoric (revolution, take back our country) of militancy.<\/p>\n
But by and large, with the exception of very rare fringe elements, the right tends to remain fiercely engaged in the business of winning elections and controlling the machinery of democratic policy making.<\/p>\n
The far-right changed the Republican Party not by abandoning it and marching in the streets, but by engaging it and marching in the streets.<\/p>\n
Long before the tea party staged big rallies, movement conservatives had taken over the inner operations of many GOP party affiliates around the country.<\/p>\n
From that linkage, there exists a clear and logical path to the kind of focused activism that wins elections, shapes democratic power and changes the direction of the country.<\/p>\n
The modern left, meanwhile, tends to be much more distrustful of and disengaged from democracy.<\/p>\n
The kinds of consciousness-raising that goes on in big rallies like the one now on Wall Street, or the 350.0rg gatherings in Washington earlier this summer, generate huge amounts of interest and energy, especially among young people.<\/p>\n
But despite the looming 2012 elections, the leaders of these movements draw almost no connection between their values and their policy desires and the ballots that will be cast thirteen months from now.<\/p>\n
To the extent that they talk about the Democratic Party, the tone is one of disdain, disappointment and dismissal.<\/p>\n
Liberal leaders have been remarkably unsuccessful at recruiting and supporting candidates who reflect their views.<\/p>\n
Even when suitable candidates do appear, there is enormous cynicism about “the process” and “the system” now in place.<\/p>\n
It’s worth noting that it wasn’t always this way.\u00a0 When activists headed South to battle Jim Crow, one of their chief weapons was voter enrollment.<\/p>\n
Some of the earliest progressive causes — and hardest-won reforms — involved voter rights and the direct election of US Senators, measures intended to put more democratic power in the hands of average citizens.<\/p>\n
Indeed, one of the weirder aspects of the current liberal disenchantment with democracy is that our present system — flawed as it is — is fairer, more transparent, and less corrupt than at any time in US history.<\/p>\n
Yes, recent Supreme Court decisions have increased the power of money and corporations in our elections.\u00a0 That’s worth debating and fighting over.<\/p>\n
But through most of the last two centuries — including periods when some of the most important liberal gains were being made — rich and the powerful elites held far more sway over our politics.<\/p>\n
Even if you accept the left’s notion that democratic politics are too sullied and money-soaked to warrant their involvement, an obvious question is raised:\u00a0 How do you make the changes you want, if not through democracy?<\/p>\n
If you want major reforms on Wall Street, or new laws restricting carbon pollution, or higher taxes for the wealthy, how do you make those things happen if not through the slow, complicated and tedious democratic process?<\/p>\n
There has to be a mechanism that translates passion and activism and rage into the kinds of decisions and policies that move a society forward.<\/p>\n
That mechanism is the ballot box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So let me say first that I think initial coverage of the Occupy Wall Street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6548,6550,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4955,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions\/4955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}