My district chair has sent out the rally cry to Muldoon to begin to prepare for the Caucus in March. She says:
The Democratic Party has scheduled a Caucus on Saturday March 20th, 2010 at the Lucy Cuddy Center, UAA campus at 9:00 a.m.
(Building # 6 on map: http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/map/upload/uaa_main_campus.pdf)
Bravo. Give me some more vitamins. Raucus Caucus. Raucus Caucus.
I read this excerpt from Ted Kennedy's book, True Compass. I think its message has meaning today in a post Obama election America whose participants feel a similar sense of confusion and betrayal.
It was a question that many in Congress must have asked themselves. It implied a crushing sense of betrayal. Here we were, by our own sights, a collection of affluent, well-educated, polically successsful white men who had devoted years to a constellation of causes that might well have led to electoral defeat for any or all of us. School desegregation. Desegregation in universtities. Desegregation in transportation and public gathering places. The Civil Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act. The poll tax repeal. We acted, as I have said, because we believed that the principle of equality and justice among the races was a cause larger than our own ambitions. We believed that our victories in these causes would change history. And at the very moment in American time when we were anticipating a mood of joyfulness and uplift, our cities were exploding in violence. How could it be?
There we no easy answers (True Compass, p. 247).
We elected our first African-American president to whom we look for change. Many of us in Alaska, went out on a limb to express our desire for a more progressive approach to government. Many of us risked retaliation by our employers and our peers for publicly expressing our progressive ideas and opinions. We feel disappointed, but do we need to be?
Echoing Ted Kennedy, who found many of his dreams thwarted by events beyond his control, there are no easy answers, more correctly, no obvious answers. Answers can be found, and evidence of change does exist, however, we must be aware of how and where to find those answers and be wiling to look beyond the superficial to identify those changes that have occurred.
A very careful study of government in Washington today, specifically in our many Departments will reveal that much improvement has occcured in the past year. The FDA has received long overdue funding and has utilized that money to hire inspectors to ensure our meats and produce are safe (have you noticed that our meat once again bares evidence of the blue and pink stamp of inspection). The TSA has and continues to undergo reorganization to improve its service and in doing so has pin pointed weak areas in the system (Department of Homeland Security reports). More importantly, a change in leadereship culture encourages personnel to expose weakness rather than hide it and bluster through with false bravado. The Department of Health and Human Services has begun the slow, arduous climb back towards rebuilding a system starved nearly to death by far right Republican's staunch refusal to neither fund it nor outright abolish it. This department will play a key role in providing the infrastructure that will revitalize public health in ways only envisioned by those who desperately fought to implement it for all Americans.
Now, more than ever, we need to back incumbants who represent middle class America, both to keep them informed of our will and show our support. We do this not because they deserve special treatment, but because we believe their actions in Congress have demonstrated their value as representatives to ALL of the cities, boroughs and districts, rich and poor alike. Those who have done well by their constituents should be rewarded with the privilege to continue in service.
I feel certain that our country has moved, at least in part, away from the notion that a candidate can be 'sussed up by reading a few slogans, or a popular hairdo. I know the fellow recently elected to the Senate in Massachussets seems to embody those very characteristics, but I believe he won, based not on superficial charisma, but because of the lack of voter turnout in the state.
Voter turn out must be the key. Every time the numbers in the ranks of the every day citizen swell, a progressive candidate, mindful of the larger structure of humanity, gets elected. I cannot stress enough, that our greatest challenge in the coming election is to find ways to get as many people to the polls as possible. We must genuinely reach out to those in need of assistance, who wish to be active citizens, and get them to the voting booth. As community organizers who love our communities, we have to help every citizen see the importance of their vote. We must link them to the process of government, and remind those in government that the poorest and hardworking amongst us have a voice.
I am one of those who must be reminded. I know the frustration that grips me and threatens to paralyze me, to convince me I am powerless. I have no time, no money. I have stood idle in the belief that "If only I could get above the hassles of everyday existence, and find the time I need to make a difference." These realities plague me, and I am certain plague many working class and middle class constituents in many voting districts. But if I do not participate in my government, who will? I will tell you. Those with time and money.
However powerful money may seem in government, it cannot affect the power of one day in the polls when the public chooses to flex its electoral muscle. Money can be used by those in power to forestall us in court with endless appeals, while they wait for us to die (Exxon Valdez), but they cannot stop us from marching to the polls. We stop ourselves. We allow ourselves to be beaten down. We allow ourselves to indulge in self pity, and hopelessness. Let us not forget, we number in the millions, and we make a difference when we vote. Obama's election proved that possible. Now we must apply that discipline, that belief to local politics. If we are powerless, and our vote does not count, why then did those in control of southern government in the sixties turn the hoses on the young people who traveled to the south to register black voters, and on the voters themselves when they showed up to participate in their government?
Here and now, we either embrace the concept of grass roots, or we bury our heads in the sand and cry "foul." Our system of government was intended to flow from the bottom up. Our President is "inaugurated" meaning that he/she is embedded into a system of government already in place. They are not crowned or incorporated. They do not gain their position by buying controlling shares in company stock. They are "inaugered." If the system is ineffective, how effective can a President be? We are the system. It was structure to serve and protect, to provide the religious freedom and economic level playing field necessary to make "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" available to all humanity. We the people are the most glorious part of the system. We are volitale and unpredictable. We are the backbone of the workforce that generates the taxes that drive the engine of government. Why should we not care who administers the wealth we work to provide?
The assemblymen and women we elect to local council must make budgets, plan neighborhoods and administer those who uphold the codes and laws that govern the citizens. They do so within the confines of state and federal law. They are the first in the chain that links each community to the larger government in Juneau and in Washington D.C. What hope have we to influence how our federal money is spent if we do not take interest in this most basic link? The budget they create becomes part of the tapestry of the state fiscal design that in turn is woven into the larger federal budget. If we do not ask for what we want in clear terms how can we expect to receive the money we need to build stronger neighborhoods?
We can meet these local candidates face to face. We can demand they answer the public call for information, debate and something more relevant than a billboard sign, a sixty second sound bite over the airwaves, a Tweet or even droves of sign waivers. We can refute the money they spend on campaigns by demanding they address us in public in buildings and during business hours paid for with our money. We have this power. We can tell them in letters and post cards that we want them in person, not on a triple fold piece of card stock stuffed into the cracks of our doors while go about the business of living. We can cut through the mountains of money that bolster their drive for office by dictating to them the terms of their candidacy.
I urge all to attend the Democratic Caucus. Bring your ideas, and your spirit. This caucus gives us a platform to launch our concerns, but we must also bring a spirit of cooperation. How have you been effected by your local representation? What can they do to meet your needs and expectation. In turn, how can they convey to you the difficulties they face? What do they need from us to help them achieve their goals in Congress. Be prepared to sweat. Awe the leadership with your numbers once again. Alaska stands at a cross roads in time. The old cannot be as it was, nor will the future simply emerge rosy and complete without our participation.
I will end by saying that when one talks to many of the younger, politically active folk in Anchoroage, one begins to ascertain that they possess a bit more patience their parents and grandparents. They seem to reckon correctly that the change they seek will not be attained in one or even two presidential cycles. No. This generation is a lovely paradox of rationales in that, while they thrive on instant messaging and the joy to be had in acquiring the latest design in skinny jeans or a coach purse, they possess a healthy skepticism of those who believe that they will achieve salvation and the good life by hating the right people, investing blindly in the stock market because "I said so," and rejecting the principle that government seeks only to destroy humanity.
As always, I am hopeful. As always, I believe in my fellow humans to do what is right.
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