OK wait a minute. Something about the latest mid-term election doesn’t pass the “smell” test. Considering that the GOP had: 1) no positive platform to offer (just hatred, fear, and division), 2) several prominent GOP figures are embroiled in scandal or criminal investigation, 3) GOP routinely offends women and minorities, 4) the national economy is booming under Obama while the economies of Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin are imploding under extreme Right leadership, 5) Republicans are actually proud about outsourcing jobs and serving the interests of the wealthy while neglecting the poor…
… and yet they won virtually every contest? Really?!
The extreme Right has been quietly at work for years to place in office sympathetic judges, governors and other administrators. Would it not make sense to do the same with election officials? In plain view, we just witnessed a widespread, organized vote suppression effort. In just one case, Georgia’s Secretary of State “lost” 50,000 voter registrations before the election - with no consequences. Is it hard to believe that critical masses of votes could be “lost” after the election? It’s a perfect storm: the GOP has their people in office, enabling a still greater stranglehold on the process, Democrats blame themselves for being lazy and not getting out the vote - may lose heart and be less motivated to participate in the future.
“He who casts the vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything.”
-- Joseph Stalin
Like the Catholic priest scandal, this is an issue so awful to contemplate that people are inclined stay in denial and go through the motions of business-as-usual. Politicians are afraid to confront it lest the Rightwing noise machine label them as “America haters”. And of course we’ve been conditioned to sandwich any proposed conspiracy between the terms “crazy” and “crank” (as though in the history of the human race, no conspiracy has ever been perpetrated).
But OK, enough of the Dark Side. There is a positive way forward, but it will require some fundamental rethinking of the strategy and issues.
(More below the orange crumpled-up ballot).
First, it’s important to clarify what hasn’t been working: characterizing elections as a “fight”. Decades ago, a boxing tactic “Rope-a-dope” was utilized by heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Ali would lie back passively against the ropes with face and trunk protected by gloves and forearms. The opponent would be suckered into delivering a flurry of blows that did little damage to Ali, but would weaken the opponent through exhaustion. Then, when the opponent was depleted, Ali could easily go in for the knockout.
In a similar way, Republicans have a pipeline of issues such as drilling in ANWR, abortion restrictions, funding cuts for vital programs - some of which I suspect even they don’t take seriously - but it draws Progressives into chronic “fighting”, expending vital energy and resources that should be utilized for promoting a progressive agenda.
Since the recent midterm election disaster, I’ve seen numerous messages from Democratic leaders vowing to “fight on”, “rally the troops”, “we don’t stop fighting”, etcetera. While knee-jerk tough-talk is an understandable response to feeling bruised by defeat, it is also a repeatedly demonstrated recipe for continued failure. Why? Because it is antithetical to the Progressive message of inclusiveness, unity, and collaboration. To “fight”, one must pose an enemy (which immediately cuts off half the country), then fan the flames of fear, hatred, and division. That’s the Conservative game. If we get rope-a-doped into playing along, we find ourselves in alien territory, confused, and lacking in passion to do something contrary to our values.
The Way Forward
Despite the tone of the above, I concede that Conservatives are probably not motivated by pure evil but rather are guided ultimately by an old, now obsolete worldview that the world is a place of scarcity and threat - a zero-sum game where the success of anyone else diminishes or threatens in some way one’s own chances for happiness and success. Even so, most are content to “compete” just enough to attain an adequate level of security and happiness. The major problems arise when others, in the manner of some mammals who will free-feed themselves to death if given unlimited access to food, a few who gain unlimited access to wealth seem driven to free-feed the culture and the planet to death.
Ushering in the bright future for people and planet begins with the simple realization that we now have the knowledge, technology, and resources to enable everyone to live in safety, comfort, and have the opportunity to realize their potential to contribute back to society. (It is more than a little ironic that the latter principle was a basic plank of the party that gave rise to the modern day GOP - the Whigs. Would that they still held to that principle.)
The civil rights movement of the ‘60s did not prevail because African Americans “won” the “fight” against whites but because Dr. King framed the issue of rights as something that applies to us all. For a compassionate, progressive future to prevail, we must drop the useless, destructive “fight” stance and military metaphors and instead articulate the message of hope and opportunity that uplifts everyone.
Then, everybody wins.