Welcome to the Final Edition of my four day diary series providing a haven for the very, very nervous - The Coop! If you are having problems with anxiety and this election, this is the place for you. No accusations of Chicken-Little-hood here - just support.
Tonight, on Election Eve, I wanted to explain just why I am so nervous about this election. Here's the truth: It's not about one election and it's sure not just about Barack Obama. It's about the American experiment with representational democracy and justice. Has it failed? Or can it still work?
Every one of us has to make decisions about how to best spend their time, and where to pour their energies. As a socialist (yes, I'm a real one - and I can tell you for sure, Barack Obama is not!) I have always worked on the theory that we must first defeat the most extreme elements of the right while organizing labor. That's why I've tried to get Democrats elected. I also work on issues-based activism, but I've spent a lot of the past eight years working hard to elect Democrats, locally and nationally, with the goal of defeating the right at the ballot box.
Let me tell a short story; anyone familiar with Russian history will know this one. Despite the outrageous oppression peasants and workers suffered under the Czar, he remained popular with them. This was partly because they believed he was annointed by God. But they also believed that the Czar simply did not know how bad things were; that he was surrounded by evil and greedy syncophants who kept the truth from him. If he knew their plight, they reasoned, he would act to help them. To conclude otherwise was unthinkable; it would mean that positive change within the Russian system was not possible.
One such man was the Orthodox priest, Father Gapon. In the Revolution of 1905, Father Gapon led a protest march of tens of thousands of workers over the conditions in St. Petersburg. It was a peaceful, pro-Nicholas rally. But on January 22, 1905 troops fired on the crowd, killing hundreds on "Bloody Sunday." Worker strikes and feudal peasant uprisings called for change. Father Gapon changed his view rather radically, too. The system was broken, unrepairable. It had to be turned upside down.
And that's kind of where I stand on the eve of this election. The question I have is this: Can working people in America achieve real change for the better through our electoral system? Or is it the case, as Rosa Luxemburg said, "If voting could change anything, it would be illegal"?
I believe Barack Obama will be elected, and the job of moving him to the left will begin and I will continue to work hard to try to elect Democrats. But if we lose again - if despite the polls showing virtually no chance John McCain can win unless this process is irretrievably broken, be it through the control of information through a corporate-owned media or outright election theft - then I will come to a different conclusion and will have to make many changes in my life and my goals as an activist and worker.
So for me, it's not just an election. It's a turning point. And maybe I'm wrong; maybe the system is broken for good whether Obama wins or not. But I'm hoping it's not. And as everyone's favorite line from the "Yes We Can!" speech tells us, "in the unlikely story that is America, there is never anything false about hope."
So come, ye anxious ones, and share your worries here, a safe place to express doubts and fears without risking hide ratings or demoralizing the others.
And here, just because it always makes me feel better, is Neil Young's version of "Four Strong Winds", a truly beautiful song, that just aches with hope and longing and fear - but always hope....