Progressive Democrat Issue 61: POLITICAL RELEVANCE

I am repeating this from my newsletter from right after hurricane Katrina because it is just as important now as it was then, and it resonates with the message of Martin Luther King, jr.

How do we address the rising racism, anti-Semitism and hatred in America? There is 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, including King, to get America to admit that every American has the right to vote. Yet we still haven’t fully realized that admission that every American has the right to vote as we realize that systematic voter fraud and intimidation affected the outcomes of the National elections in 2000 and 2004 as well as the Georgia elections in 2002. Will that take another 100 years before the hard earned work of Martin Luther King, jr. goes from legal reality to actual reality?

I am a big fan of empowerment. In American politics there are two things that matter most: 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 short of rioting. 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, shout the loudest also get noticed. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and the right wing have turned being the squeaky wheel into an art form. They can, with a straight face, complain of being persecuted even when they control all national media, all levels of the Federal government, and most state governments. They can sound like the squeaky wheel even when they dominate every aspect of American society. The left can barely make a coherent squeak even when people are dying in New Orleans because they are seen as unimportant by the Bush Administration. This has to change. We have to be the activists who shout louder, volunteer more, vote more, petition more, write more letters, make more phone calls and have more boycotts.

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.