Well, we are pie fighting again. Seems we go through these phases, doesn't it?
Here's a very ugly reality: There are a lot of people, Americans, who have lost confidence in their President, Party, and Government in general.
That's a fact.
UPDATE: What is common ground? A simple example below:
Those numbers are growing, due to Austerity measures in the face of record breaking, massive, corporate profit that isn't trickling down to main street.
Here's another brutal truth:
There are lots of opinions as to why that is the case. Some say it's Obama and his failure to lead. I don't personally buy that one, instead believing that he's pinned, unable to act, due to most of Congress being coin operated. All of the GOP is for big business, and most of the Democrats are 'third way', still for big business, just a bit better about selling it as reform. That's where I'm at on it.
Obama isn't a Progressive, but he is a solid person, and he does care, and he is working to lead. There just are not a lot of options for him right now, and one needs to look no farther than Citizens United to see just why that is.
And there are other blames in play too. "Those other people" is a common one! The GOP works that one constantly, putting us against one another, rendering our power of the vote impotent.
Think about that and what it means. It means we lose, but lose what?
On a macro level, we the people are seeing our wage value diluted, our Supreme Court is at risk of solidifying biased corporate for the rest of our adult lives, our kids are not going to have the opportunity we did, our infrastructure is behind and rotting, and so it goes.
Austerity.
What is the answer?
First and foremost, we don't attack those people angry, looking to express that, and through that expression, express their plea for some alternative they can latch onto, get behind and feel good about.
We need to show that alternative, and I don't mean a third party either. I mean building this movement. Progressives are the only movement of size actually working to take some of the nation back for the people.
No matter how you play the blame game, you lose, I lose, people lose.
The burden for change, real material change, is on us, the people! Nobody is going to step in and fix it, because the money in play is simply too much! Citizens United is the best deal there ever was! Corporations need only spend millions to earn trillions, and will do that, absolutely will do that, unless we check them with our votes.
Don't attack blamers!
Some of what they say might be right, or it might mostly be wrong too, but that's not the point. People act out when times are tough, and look around people! Aren't times tough? Damn straight they are.
Redirect, find common ground, empathize, organize, build, focus. That's what we must do as Progressives, because nobody else has the size, or the vision to do it for us.
Again, Progressives, labor, minorities, the unemployed, gay people, and the poor, et al. all have common ground in that the economic focus of the nation needs to tack left, or the number of those people will continue to grow. Why include gay and minorities in that?
It's not that people will turn gay or something. Not at all. It's that we need to wrap our arms around the people getting punished for who they are, exploited for their station in life, and show them that they are not alone, that it's ok to be angry, and that there is a path to a better state of things.
The common ground in that is we ordinary people are getting kicked in the teeth! Gay people are punished for who they are, and other people are punished for what they don't have, or the color of their skin, or any number of things. We are all just people, and we all have the same basic needs, and we need to own our party to see those needs met.
If you are not talking about that, and attacking, or trying to validate your blame over somebody elses, it's not productive! It's not productive because the simple, macro answer is that either we the people organize and vote to take some seats, build our movement and own our party --the Democratic Party, or we will suffer more Austerity by the hands of those that own the corporations, because they own the economic majority in Congress. Fact.
Think hard when you read somebody crying out, expressing their feelings, seeing no leadership, wondering how it can all get so damn awful, and ask yourself how it's going to change when we divide ourselves.
It won't, and I think everybody knows that, leaving us in various states of denial over just how much work it really is to fix it.
On that note, the President is constrained by Congress. One good message for Progressive growth is about changing Congress enough for a President to act! That's on us, and Presidents are not kings. Given the massive corporate ownership of Congress, is there any real wonder about the lack of Progressive legislation?
Peace all. Think common ground, not "who is wrong and who is right".
UPDATE: How to focus on common ground? Consider the difference between "I WANT IT FIXED THIS WAY", and "I WANT IT FIXED". That's common ground.
If we build support for the Progressive movement, the solutions we could see are sorted out at the ballot box. Arguing over the best fix is a wonderful problem to have.
Arguing about who is at fault for the poor state of things is a ugly problem to have, because the former is productive in that it can only be the product of our consensus to get a fix as people, where the latter is not productive, because it is divisive and prevents the consensus necessary for our votes to actually matter.
See how that works? I hope so. Join me, join us, and go and tell your friends, and have them tell theirs. We are the only game in town, and if we fight among ourselves, we lose, and how can we grow, if we present as the losers we are, fighting as we are?