I have a lot of faith in the people who post here at DailyKos. I know there are folks here with experience in political organizing. I address this diary to those of you who know a thing or two about movements and change.
I don't believe for a moment that change is going to come to America without dramatic action on the part of citizens. I have lost faith in the politicians who, since the days of Reagan at least, have steered the nation toward a point of no return where wealth and power are the goals of public service. Week after week, I see the Democratic leadership on the Sunday morning talk shows cheerily playing the part of "loyal opposition" until the cameras go dark and they head to the golf courses and hotel bars to share a joke and a cocktail with their Republican counterparts. A quick look at the vote tallies for the Bankruptcy Bill will demonstrate the lack of seriousness with which the leaders on both sides of the aisle dispatch their duty to constituents. If change is going to come, it's not going to be behind the banner of Clinton and her pets in the DLC. I know this has been a touchy subject here lately, but the truth cannot be denied.
Even if a leader were to arise that had the best interests of the country in mind and heart, what good would it do against a cynical set of electoral laws and hijacked technology designed to maintain an eternal right-wing majority?
So my plea to the politically experienced members of the DailyKos community is this: what action, what grass-roots efforts, could jolt the citizens of this country out of their greed and public-relations induced torpor? What better time for such action than a moment when even a large portion of loyal conservatives are questioning the validity of their own leadership?
I've seen such actions in other places, at other times. Nation-wide strikes by the Solidarity movement in Poland had percussive and long-reaching effects on a seemingly securely entrenched system. Right here in America, the civil-rights movement behind the (admittedly inspired) leadership of King, the SCLC and NAACP and others, turned the tide of a deeply calcified system of racial inequity, if not for good and all, then at least long enough to give several generations of people of color a chance to do something for themselves.
So what do we do now? What act of civil demonstration, encompassing elements of the left and center, along with those awakening few on the center-right, will finally start the ball rolling. Waiting for '06 or '08 does not seem to be an option to me. Even a sybolic gesture, if grand enough, heartfelt enough, can at least open up a little crack in the thickening walls surrounding the palaces of power.
[note: I hope it's clear that my own lack of concrete suggestions comes from a complete lack of experience and political know-how, and is not some rhetorical exercise.]