This blog was started in late October and early November of 2023. A lot has changed since then, and many things have not. Over the last few months I have debated whether or not to post these notes. They are a bit scattered, and are not all fully formed, some of them even express ideas I don’t necessary hold anymore. Ultimately, though, I felt like I wanted to put them out there in the hope that they might resonate with some others who are wrestling with similar thoughts.
As I predicted, my mind is changing. More accurately, my thinking is evolving as I learn more about what is happening in Gaza and the history of Israel’s occupation. The right-wing extremists who have held power throughout most of the 75 years since the establishment of the current state of Israel have built a legacy of apartheid, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. I may talk more about the specifics and provide source material in another blog. I’ll also get deeper into how US policy makers have been complicit and have made me complicit without my consent.
It is in the context of the current situation, and an increased awareness of history, that a lot of people are reexamining their potential choices in the upcoming election cycle. Sincerely questioning the institutions of power and holding elected officials accountable for how they wield the power they are granted, are crucial to the long-term health of democracy. This is a painful process, but one that must be undertaken.
In my opinion, the leadership in the Democratic Party has failed miserably in the handling of the crisis in Gaza. There are many layers to this, and once again I will save deeper analysis for another blog, but the result is that I am left with a mixture of sadness, disappointment, outrage, and confusion.
A point I want to make before I get into the notes below is that I am not here to judge or shame. This is what I am going through, and this is where my head and my heart are right now. You will be in a different place and that is okay. The important thing is that we are all actively working on being and doing better in a world where that can be very difficult, and it can even feel like the rest of the world really doesn’t want you to do that.
- Am I being selfish in my choices, in my desire to move forward incrementally rather than burning the whole thing down?
- What can we learn from history? It doesn’t show a lot of progress toward the world we want. There is some, for sure, but it is damned little and now we seem to be backsliding.
- Incremental change often works to move us toward a larger shift, so I don’t necessarily want to abandon that approach completely. That said, it feels like the time is right for a tectonic shift.
- Would a massive shift be more effective in the long run, even if it is more painful? What would that look like? Power and nature abhor a vacuum so we must be ready to step into that opening or someone else will.
- When it comes to choices in voting, I still don’t think both sides are the same. I still think there is a better chance of moving Democrats toward the policies we want than there will ever be of moving Republicans that way. My preference would be to elect people who are already there, but that isn’t likely to happen overnight. Keep in mind that the Republicans have been working on their strategy for over 50 years. Progressives need to shift to that sort of long-term strategy.
- Don’t let fear and anger drive your choices. Feel your feelings, honor them, and acknowledge them, but don’t base your decisions on them. That is the playbook of the modern conservative movement. Don’t fall for it. Does it concern you at all that burning it all down seems to be the objective of the far right as well?
- Also, don’t let the corporate democrats off the hook. Put pressure on them. Let them know you are not okay with this shit and are actively looking for alternatives.
- Sometimes I think about how different things would be right now if the 2016 election had come out differently. Even just looking at the Supreme Court and what its makeup would be now, and how that would have changed the way so many things turned out – reproductive rights, voting rights, victim rights, environmental protections, privacy protections, and so much more.
The biggest thing I’ve been thinking about that I feel needs to be emphasized is that we need to think and plan beyond 2024. We also need to be working at all levels, not just the Presidential elections. This needs to become broad based and long-term. We need to work together to co-create the world we want, and it needs to go way beyond the next election cycle. The chances of us securing the future we want in 2024 are less than zero. Yes, it is important, but we need to be planning for what comes next, and what needs to happen, needs to change, over the next 50-100 years or more. What happens in the next 11 months will ultimately be a footnote. Even if by some miracle we achieved all that we want by next November, the fight will go on forever. We need to build the foundations for future generations to stand on so that they can carry on that fight and have a chance to win.
So that’s it for now. I plan to post some updated thoughts around the 2024 election very soon, so stay tuned for that.