Progressive Democrat Issue 46: POLITICAL RELEVENCE

How do we address the rising racism, anti-Semitism, classism and hatred in America? Honestly, I don’t know. I have no easy answer. It took this nation nearly 100 years and a Civil War to decide that slavery was unacceptable. It took another 100 years and the martyrdom of several wonderful people to get America to admit that every America has the right to vote. We still haven’t fully realized that admission that every American has the right to vote. Will that take another 100 years?

I am a big fan of empowerment. In American politics there are only two things that matter: money and votes. Money and votes get respect. I firmly believer that the higher the voter turnout of a neighborhood, the more respect and more benefits they get from their government. Poverty and being the constant target of racism seems to inspire apathy. But the people who need to vote the most are those very people who have been abandoned by their government. Poor and minority communities need to vote. Why? Because unless they suddenly get enough money to get noticed by politicians, then votes are the only bargaining chip they have. Any neighborhood that has high voter turnout gets noticed. Any community that has high voter turnout gets noticed. Any group, be it racial, religious or ideological, that delivers votes (like the NRA) gets noticed.

I would add a third layer to empowerment. Money, votes and…activism. Groups that are known to deliver petitions, write letters, participate in boycotts, also get noticed.

If you don’t have the money to get noticed, get the activism and votes in your neighborhood to get noticed.

This newsletter is activism based. So, what do I recommend people do? It doesn’t matter where you live, who you are or how red your state is. Your political relevance depends on the affluence, the level of activism and the voter turnout in your area. It isn’t easy to affect the affluence of your neighborhood. But you are a community member with friends and family around you. You are a potential catalyst for activating your community, which in turn, over years, can be a catalyst for raising your community’s relevance within your city, state and nation. In some ways that is what my newsletter is all about—helping people be that catalyst for their community. Katrina and the Iraq show us that political irrelevance can mean death. The poor blacks died in New Orleans because they were irrelevant to our government. The poor of America and Iraq die in the Iraq War because they are irrelevant to our government. In Bush America, if you are not politically relevant, your life may be threatened.

So, reach out to your community and give them the message that they better make themselves relevant to the government or they may be the next hurricane victims left to die. Start a local Democracy for America group. Get your neighbors joining you running for Democratic County Committee or any other local positions. Saturate your neighborhood with voter registration drives. But don’t do voter registration just because you want Dems to win. Get your entire community to register and vote because that is the path to empowerment and political relevance if you can’t win the lottery.

Park Slope Brooklyn gets flooded with campaigning politicians every election because the people there are by and large rich, are by and large politically active and, probably most of all, Park Slope has one of the highest voter turnouts of any community in NYC. Imagine if your neighborhood had the highest voter turnout in your state. I bet your community would not be the one ignored when the floods come. Bring your neighborhood to a level of activism so that politicians of BOTH parties can no longer ignore you.