Kos' recent diary entry on the
Vast Left Wing Conspiracy as well as numerous diaries over the past few months have lead me to a conclusion.
We do not have anyone to blame for the vast Right Wing Conspiracy but ourselves.
I hear and read a lot of people complaining about how Congressman X or Senator Y didn't stand up for this or that. There is a lot of talk about media bias and about how organization Z isn't doing their job.
My answer to that is fairly simple, more after the fold.
If we want to change things then we have to work to change them. It is really as simple as that. You can't rely upon or expect our politicians to stick their necks out for us when they don't get the strong and overwhelming sense that we are charged and ready to go to battle for them.
The extreme Republican politicians that have hijacked their party aren't bold because they have any special courage or power. They are able to take the actions they take because we let them. They are able to take the actions they take because they have a base that is fired up and is ready to go out there and battle it out and win elections for them. I have read quite a few books which claim that all of those pro-life supporters and various other fundamentalists we deride are some of the most dedicated campaign and organizing volunteers.
So what does that mean? It means that we are solely responsible for changing the direction of this country. None of us would be wasting our time here at DailyKos if we didn't care, it is time we moved past talking and started doing something.
What I'm talking about is being far more involved that just contributing money to political causes. That is good, but it isn't enough for the caliber of people we have here on DailyKos. Each and every one of us needs to be involved with something it doesn't matter what. We need to be dedicated volunteers for groups like MoveOn, ACT, our local DFA groups and campaigns. Furthermore, it is no longer acceptable to simply do this in the few months running up to an election - we need to do this every day.
If you don't particularly care for any of the organizations out there, you disagree with their mission or you think you can do things better then start something yourself. MoveOn.org started because two people were fed up with politics during the Clinton administration. ePluribus Media started right here on DailyKos because a group of people were fed up with the media's treatment of the Gannon affair. I'm the President of BuyBlue.org and we started right here in DailyKos after the election because we were fed up with corporate influence in politics. There are literally endless possibilities out there, and we need smart and passionate people to go out there and fight.
If you are a web designer or a techie you should volunteer to help our politicians build respectable and useful websites. If you happen to be a religious person then you need to be in church convincing people that the way we are conducting ourselves isn't very moral. If you enjoy talking to people then you should be out there working campaigns. If you are a good writer then you need to get hooked up with groups like ePluribus Media and you should be writing letters to the editor as much as possible. We all have our unique talents and they must be put to use.
The politicians that represent us are going to continue to be spineless to a certain extent until we can prove to them that we are a force which must be recognized. I believe that we are finally taking some steps toward that, especially after the last election, but just when I get hopeful people start going back to their old ways and they forget that it is going to take hard work to win, nothing is ever handed to you.
Over the past 6 months I have given up countless nights of drinking with friends, evenings working out at the gym, nights plopped in front of the TV watching CSI and I've pulled more strings of 100-120 hour weeks than I care to count. I don't do it because I like it, I do it because I hope that in some small way I'm contributing in a positive way to the big picture. I hope that someday we'll be moving in the right direction again and I helped play a small part in it.
I know not everyone wants or can give that level of effort, but I hope that my words have at least inspired you to take some sort of action, whatever you can manage. We can criticize any number of things all day and nothing will change, history is made by bold individuals taking action.