Well, the first thing is to develop the ability to blast past their dismissive mantras. So, I respond your list with the following, in order…
“I don’t expect perfection, I expect improvement. The first is a pipe dream. The second is an everyday occurrence and a requirement of nearly every job in this land. Yours is no different.”
“Bullshit. Anything built by people can be changed by people or replaced by people.”
“Once upon a yesteryear that X (insert any modern marvel) you enjoy was a dream in someone’s head. Everybody said they were unrealistic, head always in the clouds, too idealistic, blah blah blah. But you enjoy X today because people made that dream a reality by not listening to lame quitter talk.”
“As a fully fledged member of this nation, I have the right to make demands of anything governmental that directly impacts my life, whether I’m a member or not, including political parties. Otherwise, you do not get my vote, my cooperation, my support, or anything beneficial from me. You will get my participation though, only it will be against you and for someone (party) who doesn’t work to ruin my life and prosperity. It’s not like I’m asking for free ice cream forever so don’t act like it is. I want what people always want, a fair shake to make my mark in this world. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“Sure, but change doesn’t happen at all until there’s momentum. Time to start moving. Glad we have some common ground. Let’s figure out next steps.”
“Then you’ll be abandoned as dead weight along with Trumpism and all other 19th and 20th century relics and left behind.”
That should give them pause to reflect.
The second thing is to figure out how to mount an effective Independent campaign without big money. Feels like the time is right. As I said before, Warren did some good groundwork here last campaign.
Thirdly, we need to bypass media as gatekeepers. They’re in it to make money, so maybe there should be a Not for Profit type of business model to challenge the status quo. Something run by an elected board, independent of government, and where revenue monies are spent gathering and reporting the news, not increasing the value of shares or lining anyone’s pockets. Everyone makes a decent but not exorbitant living in this model to keep prices down, and to keep it honest. For political reporting, mealy mouthed platitudes and gaslighting will be dealt with by calling it out on the spot and shaming it publicly, on air. They want to play that game, they lose support. No passes. Any pundit who fawns all over and abets poor political behavior gets fired. Do your job, or find another one. Probably, it’d be better to get away from 24/7 news, where you’re filling up time with the same stuff over and over. Don’t report the story until you have the whole story. So we’re talking a lot of work by people more tech savvy than me, but I’d guess the focus would be on internet type products and outreach.
Fourthly, we need to build a viable third centrist political party to keep the other two in check. Don’t you find it odd, that more people consider themselves Independents than Republicans or Democrats by 10ish% and that this largest voting block does not have a party to represent their interests? Doesn’t that seem the least bit peculiar to you? It does to me. If we go with majority will most of the time, why is the majority always forced to choose between two insane extremes? How is that good?
Fifthly, candidates. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Tennessee folk legend and frontiersman Davy Crockett? Anyways, going to primary school in Tennessee, you learn all about Davy Crockett, song and all. For our purposes here, Davy Crockett had zero interest in politics. However, his neighbors begged him to stand for office because the alternative was someone untrustworthy. Being civic minded, he agreed. He won his election and went to Congress. Legend says he made all the other Politicians grab their pearls by showing up on the floor in buckskin breaches, coon skin hat, and with his rifle. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that moment in time.
The point here is that if the people who want to run for office in your district are untrustworthy or have misbehaved in office there is a third option between two bad choices. That choice is to find someone who is trustworthy, convince them of their civic duty, and then engage everyone else you know to convince them to vote for your candidate and to reach out to everyone they know. Grow circles of support; network like your life depends on it. Because it does.
I’ve got that song stuck in my head now so I’ll leave this here. It’s enough to be thinking about.
🎵 Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Lived in the woods till he knew every tree
Killed him a b’ar when he was only three.
Davy, Davy Crockett. King of the wild frontier. (One more time now.) Davy, Davy Crockett. King of the wild frontier.
