Just got another one of those incessant emails from "Guy Cecil" of the DSCC. This is supposedly "Re" "Gary in accounting," as if I sent them some diatribe about someone named "Gary" in my accounting department (which we don't have, seeing as I work at a public school). Spammer 101: try to fool me into clicking into an email because I think it's work- or personal-related. I've received tons of pixel-wasting missives from old Guy asking for money, so I knew what it was. Clicked anyway. And was almost immediately incensed.
The strongly implied message, hawked by Al Franken who should goddamn know better, was that I could help defeat the tea party with hardly any effort at all! Just click a link, make a quickie donation, and the tea party goes down in flames while I still have enough time on the clock to finish my coffee.
Horseshit. Bullshit. Insert your favorite ruminant here shit. This is not how we force change.
Al gives us a quickie "fun" bit about the mythical "Gary in accounting" calling for 8 am meetings and eating up all the "good donuts." Then he pivots and says that the country is on the brink of rack and ruin (that much is true), but it can all be avoided in less time than it takes to dose my coffee with Splenda. Al, doing a smooth transformation from Bob Saget to Billy Mays, tells us:
Now, I know you’re probably thinking, “Al, this is pretty corny, even for you.”
But with Republicans holding our government – and our economy – hostage, I’m not ashamed to ask for your help. If we don’t stand up for Democrats right now, it could mean a total wipeout on Election Day and a disastrous return to the Bush economic plan.
So look at it this way. Make a $5 contribution now and all week, whenever you read about Karl Rove’s latest smear ads, you’ll know that you’ve already done your part to help Democrats fight back ...
Yeah, Al, it's very goddamned corny. Worse, it's a damned lie -- the DSCC is not leading a wave of change that will transform this country, turn the tea party juggernaut into smoking wreckage, and restore dignity and decency. And worst of all, it fools decent progressives, liberals, Democrats, moderates, and anyone else who might want to work for real change into investing (a miniscule amount of) effort into "faux change."
There's a poll, go vote in it. You think sending the DSCC $5 in the amount of time it takes for you to scarf a Krispy Kreme with sprinkles is gonna stop the tea party and change America? Or not?
The change we need isn't going to happen by us taking our heads out of our monitors, our Blackberries, or our coworkers' backsides for two minutes and tossing a fiver towards the DSCC or any other mainstream political organization. The email itself isn't the issue. It's the idea that someone else, be it the DSCC or some other group, will do all the heavy lifting for you. All they need from you is an occasional donation. We can go on with our lives while change is handed to us. We don't break a sweat, we don't change our routine, we don't do anything. Someone else will do it all, and things will be wonderful again without us being inconvenienced. It didn't work before, and it won't work now.
Real change will begin to happen when we abandon the easy, comfortable idea that tossing an occasional donation at a nicely ensconced group of fatcat Washington insiders is going to do anything except perpetuate the same old shit that's brought us to the precipice of ruination. It will happen when we make it happen: when we get in the streets, when we overwhelm Twitter and Facebook, when we get in our elected officials' faces and STAY THERE, when we do anything and everything we can to politically destroy the tea party and the unholy compendium of goons, fascists, and oligarchs who want to pull this country apart and eat it piece by tasty piece.
Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Main Street. Occupy everything. Force a tsunami of change on the nation.
And maybe even the fellow with the curly black hair and the engagingly wry expression will abandon his newfound comfort among the beltway porkers and get his ass to the barricades alongside us.