Get Action

An election once again brings up the faulty notion that if “our side” wins, they will wave their magic wands and fix things. Whew, thank God. Well, no. I have been saying this for years – to no avail-- politics is NOT a football game. It’s not “our team is better than your team--nyah.” Democracy is messy and contentious, that’s what happens when you have many voices. It requires all members of Congress to make compromises to get anything done.

This may come as a surprise, but not all Democrats are liberal and not all Republicans are staunch conservatives. The recent raid or IIhan Omar is a good example. Many democrats did not sign a letter of protest of an investigation against her. 

Ultimately, it must be the people who are served not the government. We know how large and complex it has become. Too many agencies have created a vast unworkable bureaucracy. There has always been some measure of corruption, that happens with any business involving large sums of money and ego but now we are witness to vast, overt greed happening because the corrupt know they can get away with it. How? Division. Divide the people, divide the courts, divide a political party.

The machinery of government is so unwieldy that those elected, soon discover there’s no way to fix it. The best one can do is toe the party narrative to stay in power for money and health care benefits, you know, what we the people don’t have. Meanwhile the population feels powerless to enact any change and become complacent. When we elect officals, we must demand they include us in the welfare of the state.

Instead of scolding farmers who voted Republican then betrayed them, we must offer sympathy and aide because they are ones who put food on your table not a venture capitalist. We must be proactive and directly confront elected civil servants who have failed to preserve the country. That means calling or writing directly to your state representative or senator. That means protest, that means advocating for affordable living, universal health care (the US ranks below Costa Rica). That means working to improve education to the benefit of everyone. The lists goes on.

Show up at council meetings and raise your voice. Learn about and demand our constitutional rights be respected. That means eliminating ICE which is clearly engaged in illegal practices. That means repealing Citizens United, an Orwellian term that allows for obscene amounts of money to manipulate elections.

Don’t just vote, sit back and expect everything to be alright cause our team won this time, woo hoo. Demand they do the work they promised, demand they help everyone not just their cronies or their bank accounts.

Get action.