In the past I've written essays here that have tried to shine a light on the path ahead. Despite the hopeful outcome of November's elections, recent events make clear that the path ahead for progressives leads straight up a steep mountain range.
What follows will be, I hope, simple to understand; democracy is a muscle we need to exercise. However, we all know that making progressive change is not so simple to put into action, and harder still to pass into law.
Let's start by talking about one example of our current predicament, high fructose corn syrup...
High fructose corn syrup epitomizes everything that's wrong about our corporation-dominated society.
Bread, something you buy at your corner store, and which used to be made with honey, is now, like thousands of other corporate food products, oftentimes made with cheap, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The dominance of HFCS in the food we buy is the byproduct of an unholy alliance between our elected lawmakers and corporate lobbyists who have teamed up to turn corn-based sweeteners into both re-election and profit.
You could say that kind of corporate welfare supported by our elected officials is as American as HFCS-sweetened apple pie, but here's the point. The reason high fructose corn syrup ends up in food we buy at stores in our neighborhoods is because the decisions that lead to HFCS dominating the marketplace are made far from those very neighborhoods.
Over the last thirty years a seismic shift has taken place in American society. Our stores have gotten bigger, our portions have gotten bigger, and yes, our children have grown obese, but those are just symptoms of the underlying disease.
Hand in hand with our government, big corporations have steadily removed accountability for their actions from the local sphere even as those actions have had adverse consequences for all of us. Whether it's HFCS in our food or corruption in the financial industry, there's one common theme: we pay the price in our neighborhoods for decisions that we had no effective say over.
This is as true in exurbs littered with foreclosed homes as it is in big cities where an epidemic of childhood obesity has redefined the notion of Type-2 diabetes. It's as true for the suburban mom whose credit card company has increased her minimum payment by 250% (with a 30% penalty rate if she defaults) as it is for the urban college graduate whose can't find a job in the aftermath of George W. Bush's economic policies.
Because so many of us work for the very companies that have, Enron-like, given the American taxpaying citizen the shaft (while they pay us, adjusted for inflation, less and less wages), we are loathe to speak up. But speak up we should.
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We've gotten to this place, this disconnect between our lives and our government, because enough people who should know better, our elected leaders, have let it happen. The time for that to change is now. The place for that to change to start is the communities where we live.
Our nation was founded on the principle that the decisions that affect the lives of citizens should be made with accountability to those citizens. Our system of government established over two centuries a grid of representative districts (federal, state, county, municipal, school, water, and transportation) that have made us the most governed and represented society in human history.
That system of locally rooted and responsible government, however, is broken. Even here in my home town, a supposedly progressive city, developers and big corporations can grab the ear of our local government much more easily than can local citizens.
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We need a revolution in democratic participation in our society. It's not enough to elect Barack Obama as head of state. We need to unclog the arteries of the body politic. Democracy is a muscle. We must use it.
That means that we progressives need to spur a movement to retake local government and make it work for the people again. Decisions that affect our everyday lives should be made with accountability to everyday people. We are powerful in our districts, in our neighborhoods, the places where we live. We need to understand that fact and put true democratic accountability back into the practice of American politics. In doing so, we will begin to find new allies across the political spectrum. In doing so, we will grow new leaders and a new culture of leadership.
This will not be easy. The coalitions we build will be heterogeneous and broad. The problems we face are global and profound; the temptation to be less than democratic in the name of making change will always be present. There will be disagreements and clashes of cultures. That's part of making change and always has been. But our democratic principles will be, as always, our greatest strength.
It is precisely because we are linked in an ever more global society that our local actions will reverberate and redouble and interconnect. And it is precisely because multi-national corporations act globally that we must resist their influence over our society with local and democratic action that pushes for the common good.
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Democracy is both the solution and the tool. As Barack Obama's campaign demonstrated, there is nothing we can't do when we come together. But even with Barack Obama in the White House change won't come from the top down.
Exercising the powerful muscle of democracy is up to us; it's time to get organized and win...not just for a say in the ingredients that go into our children's food, but for a fundamental voice in every decision that affects our lives and the planet we share.
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In addition to getting involved in your local Democratic party and supporting members of your local labor unions, here are some links to groups doing just that sort of organizing. Please add more in the comments below or pay a visit to an organization below that might be new to you:
CommunityOrganize.com
Progressive Majority
the Craigslist Foundation
Democracy for America
Color of Change
The Courage Campaign
the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
the National Center for Lesbian Rights
VotoLatino
ACORN
Democracy Now
Public Citizen
Drinking Liberally
the Ella Baker Center
Live Earth
Ashoka.org