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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Even when times are dark and dangerous and the winds of change bluster and threaten, there are fragments of hope to reach for, to light the way out of peril.
But we can’t rely on others to guide us. Everyone needs to light their own candle.
The election results have been a major “woke-up” call to establishment Democrats. A call to return to their roots as the party of the people.
Whether they will heed it remains to be seen.
If they don’t, it will be up to you and me to invoke the tough love necessary to put them back on the path.
Some have said that Democrats only win when they’re economically populist and culturally conservative. Economically populist – absolutely, but culturally conservative – I think not.
However, they do need to curb foisting their own values on others. And the perception that not only are they unilaterally forcing people to walk in lockstep, but they have to stop projecting the asinine assumption that their views are more right, more important than those of people who disagree with them.
They and their Republican brethren need to start treating culture like religion – leave it to the individual to determine, let it be personal. Adjust their approach so as to respect all standpoints without imposing any particular one.
In the same way, those who hold strong opinions must accept that if they want others to accept their right to hold their own. They, in turn, must step back from proselytizing and denigrating opposing beliefs.
Search for a middle ground. Instead of insisting on determining which bathroom transgender children – and adults – should use, add a third choice. Or make them all separate unisex units.
Look for ways to diminish people’s fears instead of stoking the fires. Work toward accepting that everyone is different… and that’s just fine so long as everyone is allowed to be themselves without having to defend themself at every turn.
Fear was the governing factor of the election just past. The rational and logical were overwhelmed by, as Peter McLaren put it in the LA Progressive, “fissures of fear and prejudice that run deep within the American psyche.”
To break the unholy alignment of blind loyalty and unchecked ambition on all sides, people must be educated on how to best address the unknown. They need tools to learn how to accept uncertainty and continue to function, to lead normal lives.
Some Americans, albeit fewer every year, find solace in turning to religious beliefs. And should be encouraged to do so if it works for them. But they can also benefit from other skills and practices, from meditation to openly discussing their feelings to education and demystification of other perspectives and more.
Whatever actions can be taken to reduce that sense of uncertainty that drives mankind’s elemental fight-or-flight response.
Because when people are scared, they agree to the unthinkable. Deterministic choice, which is one of the factors setting humans apart from other animals, must be encouraged not rejected.
The best way to reduce anxiety may be to imagine a better future, forget the if-buts, and throw oneself whole-heartedly into making it a reality.
In every way that matters, feelings are more powerful, stronger than just words. More real. In the mechanism of perception, feelings drive the contemplation that leads to cognition and thoughts, and prompt action.
People need to feel better, feel worthy, feel trusted before they can relax and be open to the pluralism promised us in the birth of this nation.
We don’t need the moral grandstanding of the ‘woke’ wing of the Democratic Party even as we don’t want the sellout of those who have drunk too deeply of Wall Street Kool-Aid or the ones who continue to pursue American imperialism and back despots in the name of profit and previous alliances.
All of these alienated voters.
We need a new political leadership to build better platforms, embracing everyone and strengthening democracy from the bottom up, not the top down. To focus on educating all Americans not to serve as workers in factories but to be committed and engaged participants in their government with the analytical skills to parse political situations and policy ramifications.
And act.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a spokesperson for social and economic justice as well as civil rights and racial equality. He stood up against presidents but also against some of his own supporters.
He understood that sometimes our friends are our own worst enemies… Unless they too speak up. Unless they unequivocally commit to change, towards bending the arc of the universe.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
This quote was from one of five lectures he gave for the Massey Lecture series on CBC Radio, posthumously published as The Trumpet of Conscience.
Devised to educate Canadians about the civil rights struggle then boiling over south of their border, King not only addressed race issues but also his opposition to war, and the power possible in harnessing the strengths of the youth of America and of grassroots movements everywhere. He called for nonviolent resistance as a political tool to demand government effectively address and eradicate the poverty underlying the bulk of social ills.
And, echoing his earlier work, he acknowledged that “Not long after talking about that dream I started seeing it turn into a nightmare” and that he was “personally the victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hopes.” However, he “still [had that] dream. I have a dream that one day men will rise up and come to see that they are made to live together as brothers.”
Political power lies in trust. The only reason democracy works is there is a contract between the electorate and those they elect; that they consent to be governed. A contract that is fragile and can be broken.
Sophisticated powermongers are like terrorists; they hit targets that can shatter the trust between the people and their government. We are experiencing some of that fragility now with economic insecurity, with climate change, with turmoil worldwide driving emigration… and with the looming instability of the incoming administration.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing: walls are breached not by enemies, but by a Trojan horse, by friends who turn aside from battle or lie or stay silent in the face of danger.
Perhaps just lighting a small candle in the wind is purpose enough. A show of defiance, tiny creatures taking arms against a sea of troubles. One at a time. Demonstrating love and purpose.
Lighting the way for more to join in seeking a better way.
(Liz Amsden is a former LA residence who now resides in Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected].)
