I wrote a comment the other day that turned out to be the seed of this dairy. I am sharing this with the hope that the likeminded can rejoice, while those with different points of view can take a moment to consider ours.
It is exciting to fight against the status quo.
As progressives, the status quo is our enemy. That may strike you as odd. Shouldn’t our enemy be the right-wing radical who stands against all we believe in? If only it were that easy.
In many ways, of course, the status quo is the enemy of the extreme right, too. They want to keep things just the way they are (or were in their long lost dream of how things should be). A surprising amount of centrist liberals argue for the same outcome.
Progressives and extreme conservatives both want change, we just have dramatically different ideas of what that change should be. Standing in our way, fighting to keep things the way they are, is the status quo.
About the Establishment
You’ll often hear people speak of “the establishment.” Try that on DKOS and you be accused of being a conspiracy theorist who should go back on their meds. Of course, what we are really talking about when we say “the establishment” is the old status quo. Do I think there are secret societies conspiring to tear apart mankind? No. Do I think there are people who profit off the current system and are afraid change will cost them money or power? Yes. Yes, I do. They are the defenders of the status quo.
Rigging
In the race for presidential nominations over this past weekend, Ted Cruz won the GOP’s Colorado delegates on a day when no one voted and Bernie Sanders came out of Wyoming with fewer delegates than his rival Hillary Clinton despite beating her by over 10 points in the popular vote.
When people like Joe Scarborough and Donald Trump complain the system is rigged, they are correct. It isn’t rigged specifically against Trump or Sanders, it is rigged against anyone looking to topple the status quo. Both major parties have failsafes to deny the public a truly fair vote. Each has a way to override the will of the people. But who gets to override? Surely that is a decision left to the masses, correct? Alas, no. It is a privilege reserved for the ruling class of both the Republican and Democratic party; the keepers of the status quo.
Despite the excitement, going after the status quo can also be frustrating, as it is always a steep up hill battle. By its very nature, the status quo has a lot of support… that’s why things the stay the same for so long.
The rigging isn’t designed to stop any one person; it is designed to stop the people from enforcing change that the status quo doesn’t want.
Incrementalism is not progressivism
Since Ronald Reagan, we’ve had a string of Presidents who subscribe more to the status quo than anything else (including more than religion or morals). Just think, over a span of 36 years the touchstone issues of the right and left have been given nothing but a slight head nod. There has been no full-scale assault on abortion from the GOP, just as there has been no real push for single-payer healthcare from the Democrats. Why is this? Both of these events would upset the status quo. The powers that be like the systems that be.
The appeasement of the status quo via seemingly progressive acts is nothing more than incrementalism; when we are told things are getting dramatically better only to find out they really preserve the status quo. It can be confusing to see. Obamacare is incrementalism. Changes were made that helped a lot of people, but those same changes also funneled money back into the corrupt system that gave us the problem in the first place. Obamacare didn’t rid us of poor insurance companies, it solidified their revenue streams. That’s an example of the government protecting an industry’s status quo.
Incrementalism isn’t enough for people who are suffering. That’s why we need movements like Black Lives Matter.
Fear
In North Carolina, the HB2 bathroom issue has all the trappings of gender discrimination, yet the law reads more like a proxy for holding on to the status quo. Men and Women have different facilities. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Gays can be discriminated against. Think about it, that’s the system a good portion of our country has had for years. That’s their status quo. That sameness is what they cling to. It is familiar, and familiar is good.
Unfortunately for progressive Democrats, the willingness to challenge the status quo isn’t found everywhere. Why? For starters, many people fear change. Even if systems we have may be suboptimal, we still have it so must be OK. They will lash out at those who push for betterment and progress.
It happens on this site all the time.
We have a lot of peers on this site who feel that even the notion that they could think differently is really a hidden way of the calling them “stupid.” That’s the fear talking. Fear of change.
People protect what they are familiar with, even if it is to their detriment. And the proponents of change become the enemy, too, even if they want similar outcomes.
Bernie is not the power
The power behind the change we want is not Bernie Sanders. He’s just the guy (albeit a great guy) holding the baton right now. No matter what happens in the primary and beyond, he will pass the baton at some point. And friends, we have a lot of people ready to hold that baton and ride for change.
Much of the change we want isn’t going to be won in a day, and it is certainly not going to be won in a couple of months. The forces trying to preserve the status quo are well-entrenched, with funding to last to the end of time.
If you want to change this year’s election process, you are too late. We have a pool of candidates flaunting their love for the status quo, and that message - like warm blanket on an early Spring night - is hard to ignore. Our best bet to realign the party system and push for standardized primary process that are well coordinated and reward each citizen by counting, and valuing, their one vote. That shouldn’t be a radical idea in 2016, but apparently it is.
We all have a role
If you aren’t ready for the revolution, that’s cool. You are not stupid. You are not broken. You are not any more or less flawed than the rest of us imperfect humans. You simple aren’t ready. And you may never be. Which is OK, too.
Time will tell if we will continue to pull in converts to the cause against the status quo. Time will tell. Whether it’s the primary, the general election or some event down the road, I suspect there will be a reckoning. Not a fight, not a riot, but an “ah ha” moment when enough people realize that it is OK to sign on for change.
We may lose or we may win. But we will never be here again. We’re moving ahead. We’re progressives and we can’t help but want progress.