Sooner or later, the complexity and endurance of the truth overwhelms most lies. Either the lie is an oversimplified version of events that can't hope to compete with the truth in its completeness and synchrony with reality, or the revelations continue and drown the misleading stories in their resistance to debunking.
That is, if people will say what needs to be said. All too often, we get knocked down, and it seems the truth has been bitterly rejected, and we're further from spreading the facts than we were before.
This is the moment not to back down. The liars and manipulators of truth will always fight back. They are not without their own dedication to their cause. They are not without their vested interests to protect. If you thought it was going to be as simple as confronting them once, you have another thing coming. The question is whether the folks challenging us have another thing coming themselves. The question is whether you'll get past the illusion that continuing to insist on the truth, on things getting better is worthless, a fruitless pursuit.
They're not cracking the skulls of marines with rubber bullets or gas grenades because they trust in the endurance of their point of view in the face of resistence. They're not tear-gassing grannies and pregnant women because they're confident in their political positions. They see a revolution on the horizon. They see a change in politics coming, and they know they're being handed their hat, if not shown the door altogether.
It's not accurate to say there is only one party, any more than it once was in the fifties and sixties, when the Republicans were down. In times when a party is in the minority, and there seems no way out, capitulation and accomodation are the rule. If you give up on things because of that, you change nothing. You actually reinforce those who insist on going along to get along. You repeat the changes that undermined your political power in the first place.
If you want real change, your voice has to be raised and remain raised. You don't have to repeat the same actions you did before. You can be as creative as you want. What's important at the end of the day is that your voice, and the voice of others become an insistent part of the marketplace of ideas, in defiance of those who have declared your ideas and your point of view politically incorrect, radical.
You only accomodate the ongoing occupation of American thought by the Conservative movement when you set your voice aside.
We will not get all we want, all we need, all at once, because those who invested in things like they are will fight us, and sometimes the disappointments will mount. People will bleed on the pavement and suffer in poverty even though they should not. Our trials and tribulations will continue, mark my words. There is too much of a reckoning occuring here for it to be simple or easy to undo the problem.
This should be our cue to resist, I believe, to say that we will not accept the continuation of the previous order of things, a resistance that should only increase in strength the more it is knocked down.
We have to make it clear and compelling to folks out there that there is no more good cause to cooperate with the Republican's policies, to continue things the way they are. Those policies were wrong before, and they continue to be wrong. We will only pull away those Democrats inclined to cooperate with Republicans if we give them the sense that they will pay a political cost for not cooperating with us, and that is more than simply knocking a few down on election day. This has to be a sense of things internalized by our leaders, who come to realize that the time when people wanted Democrats to act more like Republicans is over.
We can't just walk away, and leave them to follow those they will, we have to make it clear that the faction of our Democratic Party that will reward loyalty and punish betrayals is not going away, that this reflects a permanent change in our politics, not merely an incidental rebellion that can be handwaved as a fluke.
We can't afford to believe that change will just naturally flow from our saying the truth once or twice, convincing people to vote for Democrats and Liberals once or twice. It's got to come out of a permanent change in American politics, and part of that permanent change has to be that we show up to protest, to debate, and to vote everytime, and not simply trust our Democracy to the vague impulses of our enthusiasm. Our enthusiasm to vote, to protest, to do whatever cannot merely come from our sense that somebody's watching, approving of us, or whatever.
We must be willing to vote and act to bring about what we believe would be the best outcome as an act of will, not merely a reaction to circumstances out there. We have to be willing to not only defend what we believe in, but make it manifest on the political landscape. We can't do that if we sit at home feeling defeated.
They'll never sit still for us, give us the opportunity to change things for free. It will always be a struggle. What they're doing to the Occupy Wall Street protests across the country is meant to be a warning to sit down and shut up, and it certainly will knock us off balance whereever it happens. That's the point. They want to attach a cost to standing up and speaking our minds, protesting their status quo. Stand up and question them anyways. You're not there because what you wanted would be nice. You've stood up for all these things for a reason, and that reason, not the popularity of the movement, not the liberty it's given by city governments is the reason you're out there.
Same thing in the voting booth. It's not just about the candidates. It's about the direction the government and management of this country takes. Even if the Democrat is a disappointment, that Democrat might be reachable where a Republican is not. We can always get a lower-maintenance candidate in there later. This is about tipping the balance to make things possible. This is about prying open the doors long locked to us by the ascendance of the conservative movement.
The question always raised is whether we're going to manage this, whether we can reverse the corporate-friendly policies that aren't so friendly to the average person, whether we can undo Citizens United and all that. It's an easy question to get intimidated by, if you try and take it all in one swallow. The reality is that much of this war for America's soul will end up being a lot of small battles, some small enough you can win by yourself, some you'll have to win with others.
We can change this country. After all our forebears did it, they gave us what too many have acted to take away from us as the last few decades have unfolded. It wasn't easy for them, though, and many of these policies evolved over time, rather than simply happening at once. That is not to say that it will have to happen incrementally, or that we should reject non-incremental solutions. That is to say that sometimes that's just the way things turned out. But would we trade those glorious freedoms, those righteous protections, those fundamental values away, simply because gaining them wasn't a matter of instant gratification? Of course not!
If our movement can grow by leaps and bounds, let it. But if it's necessary to win some tough battles for what seems like meager winnings, we should have the strength to push on anyways, because winning that battle right there might pave the way for the bigger victories we want, and it should go without saying that no victory can be had if we fail to dedicate ourselves to winning the struggle.
So, whatever's got you down at this point, whatever gets you up in the morning, keep at it. Persistence, stubborn willpower to see things done is a necessary part of political change. Our rivals didn't reach where they were by becoming discouraged when they lost their fights. I can remember the change over the course of my life as they gradually broke open the old order to make way for their new.
If we cannot match their willpower, their dedication to keep us down, we're not going to be able to wrestle back control. But I think we have the capacity. We just have to make the choice, and be willing to take the risks that come with any political movement.
They'll do their best to make you swallow your questions before they are asked. Ask them anyways. Show people that what you believe in matters to you. Show your rivals that you will not give up what you want, even if it means pain and suffering from them.