My father wrote this for a local paper and gave me permission to reprint it here. He says it better than I could, and I am inspired by his continuing to fight for Democratic ideals and social justice.
WHY NOT JUST GIVE UP? (10/6)
A few weeks back I wrote about my discouragement with how American elections are up for sale. Pour enough millions into the TV ad game and you will probably win. Among the responses there came a letter from my granddaughter. Michelle is a savvy, young epidemiologist, who is currently working in Nairobi, Kenya with “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” She is a dedicated progressive, who was one of the crowd of young people deeply impressed with Obama and vigorously supported his nomination and election. With his victory she, and millions of others, celebrated the new day which was about to dawn. It is not what happened! The disillusionment among these throngs has been profound. I’m reprinting here that part of my granddaughter’s letter about the situation, and my response.
Dear Grandfather…………
As I have read your last column about the affect of money on our country’s elections, I realize that this is exactly why I may be giving up on politics. I know I shouldn’t take the lazy and the easy way out, and turn into one of those indifferent Americans who can’t be bothered to pay attention, but I’m close to giving up. The system is too broken. It’s defeating my political spirit.
Dear Michelle,
I hear you loudly enough to have my own discouraged spirit stirred. I am rattled by what you say. And you are not alone. Like you, two years ago many of us simply sat back and waited for the miracle to happen. While we were resting, others were not. They were thinking, planning, agitating. There was anger out there in the hustings, and into that vortex swarmed Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Armey, and a well-funded cabal that morphed into the Tea Party, while pretending it was only a populous grass-roots movement.
Confronted by this anger in the country, the Democrats in Congress didn’t know what to do. But the Republicans did. THEY DECIDED TO FEED THE ANGER WHILE FEEDING ON IT! Their strategy was to block every effort to help address the terrible plateful of problems Obama inherited, while loudly asserting that he had failed to solve them. This has turned out to be a remarkably successful political strategy, even as the nation has continued to suffer. In the meantime most progressives sat back and said “dah!”
So the dark streak in the American spirit has once again seized the nation by the throat. The take-over of the political system by angry money is simply a symptom. Currently the battle for the American spirit finds one side with all the energy, while the other side sits on its hands and moans, “ain’t it a shame?”
Keeping America focused on justice has always involved an immense struggle that requires organization, vigorous support and new generations of activists. When they let down, into the vacuum will inevitably spring a right-wing opposition. And that is exactly what has currently happened. All of the generous justice-centered American spirit, evidenced from Social Security to universal health insurance, is now at risk. Unchecked, the rich will grow richer, the poor increasingly left out, and American imperialism, supported by its military-industrial adjunct, will continue to control the nation’s future. All it will take is for the millions, who were turned-on two years ago, to sit back and say, “let’s just opt out.” When “yes we can” becomes, “what’s the use,” the historic results are set. “No we won’t” will inevitably prevail.
I’m 80, but I’m not ready to leave America in the hands of the powerful, moneyed, right-wing interests that have conned millions of our citizens into believing that the only way forward is to go back, and have fed the grass-roots anger with that massive deception. It is probably too late before next month’s election to re-energize the powerful coalition that celebrated Obama’s “yes we can” spirit. But as nasty and decadent as contemporary politics seems to be, I know no other way to reclaim the American genius of justice for all. Dropping out will only reinforce the descent.
Is the whole thing rotten? Almost! But it is what we now have to work with, and work with it we must.
Grandfather
But that’s just my opinion.
Charles Bayer
http://www.sgvexaminer.com/images/2010/B%20October%207%20-%2010%2010.pdf
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