I don't know if it's just that the three of here at Wampum are generally more cynical than many of those in the anti-Bush movement, but I get the sense that none of us were surprised by last Tuesday's outcome. For myself, I know I was disappointed, but remember other elections with outcomes I believed at the time pointed to global doom, namely 1980, and particular, 1984. For my mom, it was 1972.
I tend to hold out the hope that truly corrupt Administrations, such as the current one, if they do not find justice at the ballot box, will eventually go down in flames in the courts and/or public opinion, a la Nixon.
But since the election, I haven't really been able to put into words the direction in which I hope the Left heads. But I've been emailing back and forth with some dear old friends, some on the Left, some on the Right, some just tired of the whole partisan thing. In response to a concern we Progressives have all heard, that the Democrats just keep chasing the Republicans further to the Right as the latter moves the goalposts farther and farther back, I wrote this (slightly edited:)
I'm not talking about moving the Left to the Center, or god-forbid, the Right. I'm not talking about capitulating on our ideals either. I do believe, however, that there are places to start talking, to find common ground. How can we ask warring peoples around the world to sit down at the same table and find some commonality, if we cannot ourselves. I really believe it will come to violence in this country if we don't head it off soon. We who live in Blue states should work hard to show by example how "morality" is not guns, God and gays, but feeding and housing the poor, elderly and disabled, providing universal healthcare, removing corruptive money from politics, protecting the environment, all while growing good paying socially responsible jobs. It's great for Kerry to talk about them, but better if we actually do them. Then we can sit down with our Red counterparts, take a stab at a few of these issues, ones which effect both of us, and try and collaborate to find solutions which work.We need to do this not for ourselves, we who have computers and DSL, but for the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs and homes, throughout the country.
Here in Maine, I think we can actually build a stronger Progressive movement by moving towards a non-partisan Legislature. As I've mentioned previously, Maine's Democrats and Greens are practically at war, the much smaller Republican Party is rubbing it's hands in anticipation of the spoils, and the 38% of the electorate which is "unenrolled" in a party is completely turned off by the whole mess. They are the ones too, who have the most to lose by partisan politics, as they had to vote for candidates they weren't able to chose through the primary process (which strongly favors parties), and then those candidates engage in inter-party bickering and one-up-manship, which leaves unenrolled voters with no one to represent their concerns.
If Maine moved to a non-partisan Legislature, particularly if Instant Runoff Voting were simultaneously enacted (it's on the agenda for this session), the Legislature would be more representative of the diversity of the electorate, and elections would be fairer...and cheaper. Democrats couldn't argue that Greens were "spoilers", allowing for conservatives to slip in due to a split vote, Greens wouldn't see their candidate slots hijacked by fringe candidates, and unenrolled voters would be able to get on the ballot without jumping through the somewhat egregious (in comparison) hoops now required.
The Maine electorate is supposedly the most in-tune in the country and second in voter turnout. Legislative districts are small enough that candidates still are expected to speak with nearly every voter in the months leading up the election. It's thus reasonable to expect that issues can be the deciding factor in the voting booth, not the D, G or R behind a candidate's name.
While I work on this goal in real life, here on Wampum, I'm going back to writing on the topics I favored before this campaign season; autism, environmental and BigPharma watchdogging, armchair economics and native concerns. It seems the right time to be doing the Progressive Politics thing, not just writing about it.
Posted by MB Williams at November 7, 2004 07:13 PM | TrackBack