Chlorophyll

There are a number of whines circulating amidst the progressive community of the US at this point, most of them generated from the results of the recent election. Here's a sampling:

"How can those people [read: "red staters"] be the way they are?"

Well, they can be that way because that's generally what they've been taught to believe. Some people think in the "red state" fashion based on religion. Some based on social factors. Some based on economic factors. Many for all three of those reasons. But mostly they do so because they've been taught and constantly reminded of the famous message of Margaret Thatcher: TINA; There Is No Alternative.

There is no one in their neighborhoods or on their news media that they consider credible who will inform them that there is a different way to live and a different way to think. And if there is someone credible, that person's foundation will quickly be destroyed by the tyranny of the 'common wisdom'; that cynical perspective that can be rolled out at any opportunity to belittle a message of hope or change; the former laughed at, the latter feared. In many ways, the perspective of many Americans is not too different from the average medieval peasant and every member of the upper class in medieval Europe knew one thing for certain: if you give the peasants hope, you give them desire for change and a desire strong enough to overcome that fear of change. Then they start to fight back.

"Why can't we win?"

If this whine is couched in the perspective of the Democratic Party, I'll tell you why you can't win: because said edifice is every bit as venal and corrupt as the other major party they claim to oppose; because the candidates vomited forth by the Democrats are every bit as repellent to the majority of Americans as those proffered by the GOP; because most Democrats and most Democratic supporters don't actually want change, as most of them are from that same noble class that's still truly afraid of the peasants. They imagine change as something of an aesthetic transformation; something that doesn't really affect their lives or how they live them, but will make them feel much better about themselves because somewhere, a few more people among the have nots may step up to the level of the haves.

As revolutionary a figure as Martin Luther, famed for his outrage and personal transformation of much of the Christian world on behalf of the common weal, also issued a statement that the princes of the Germanic states should repress the social revolution that was taking place alongside his religious one 'by whatever means they could employ.' Luther believed in reforming the Church. He did not believe in reforming the social order. In the end, his efforts remained cosmetic to the overall society, and as many as 100,000 people lost their lives trying to make real change.

"How do we save/change/revive the Democratic Party?"

You don't. You put it out to pasture, take it behind the barn and shoot it, sell it to the glue factory, whatever. Imagine it in however comforting or shocking a manner you wish, but making an effort to save the Democrats at this point is effort, time, and resources wasted, even if done by the so-called 'grassroots' (a buzz word now condemned to the political graveyard for having lost its meaning) efforts of organizations like MoveOn; a group originally dedicated to supporting the career of Bill Clinton who is noted for accomplishing the most expansive Republican agenda of any president in the 20th century. Keep in mind that many of the same tidal forces are even now tearing at the seams of the Republican party, as people continue to tire of having their hopes and dreams swamped by something or someone declared by the servile media to be 'electable'. If we're fantastically lucky, we'll splinter both into a multi-party system by default. Stranger things have happened. Just not yet in American political history. And the best way to hedge your bets is by working for something genuine while we're waiting for the inevitable.

In short, stop whining and start proving Maggie wrong (as she was from the start): there are alternatives. All you have to do is actually spend your time and energy working for one, whether political or otherwise.

Whine and Wisdom. In vino veritas. I'm going to have another drink...