Why Burn the Midnight Oil for Edwards?

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Tuesday January 29, 2008 · 12:56 AM PST

2008/01/29 · 00:56

Why am I burning the midnight oil on the weekends coming up with tools like turning YouTube playlists into Video CDs?

Populist movements don't build themselves, they grow from a process of people learning how to support a series of populist campaigns in a populist way, rather than as passive consumers of candidates produced and marketed to win the greatest market share in the electoral marketplace.

It doesn't matter what the "horse race" outcome of the campaign is, if we fight the campaign. Fighting it, we learn how to fight. Learning how to fight political battles, we become citizens again. Becoming citizens again, we reclaim the Republic that lies dormant beneath the bread and circuses of modern American society.

{Backwards} : Upwards : Forwards

Of course "New and Improved"^TM is the horse that is gaining on "A Familiar Name You Can Trust"^TM. We have been thoroughly socialized as consumers. Many of us think of a political campaign like a sporting event, and even worse, like betting on a sporting event. If we did not pick "the winner", we lose.

When in reality, if we have a chance to support someone who best represents our interests, and we vote for someone else because we think "they can win", we have wasted out vote ... under our current political institutions ...

... just as surely as voting for a third party during the General Election represents a wasted vote ... under our current political institutions.

Because the climate crisis is real. And our current political institutions are not good enough to make the grade in fighting it.

So we must take every opportunity we have available to use to undermine our current political institutions and the culture of "political consumers" upon which it stands.

Because we are at that golden moment when there is some aspect of the system that is not standing up for any reason except that people believe that it will continue to stand up. The system of "lesser of two evil" voting in Democratic primaries rests on people ignoring the fact that the rules were changed in 1988, and there are no more winner take all states.

A simple, defiant, "No! Election Day is my Independence Day! I will vote against the Mass Media right to filter the race down to the two richest campaigns!" ... by 5% of the Democratic Primary electorate ... which is somewhere shy of 2% of the adult population ... and Edwards certainly over the threshold in Congressional District after Congressional District all across the country.

By 10% of the Democratic Primary electorate ... and Edwards is over the statewide threshold in almost every state on Super Tuesday.

Someone, make that ad, that tells your fellow citizens that can win their Independence back. Build a playlist around it. And then do something far more radical than sending the link around ...

... burn the Video and hand is out to your fellow local citizens.

And, the song implicitly promised by the title ...

People, wasting away in paradise
Going backward, once in a while
Moving ahead, falling behind
What do you believe, what do you believe
What do you believe is true
Nothing they say makes a difference this way
Nothing they say will do

Take all the trouble that you can afford
At least you wont have time to be bored

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Why Burn the Midnight Oil for Edwards?

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