Stop
the Insanity…
It's been said that the
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting
different results. There's also no
denying that the recent political events in Wisconsin and around the nation have been
intense and even "crazy" at times.
I can't count the number of times I've read about, witnessed or
participated in something and thought that "truth really is stranger than
fiction".
We've seen and heard some
amazingly extreme things, especially in the past couple of years.
While I could go on at
length about my opinion of the craziness coming from the far right, I would
much rather focus on what progressives and liberals can do to offset the
extreme tactics, legislation and policies that the GOP is pushing on our
society. That's where the definition of
insanity comes in to play. We've seen
this pattern happen before as the pendulum of politics swings back and
forth. An extreme push by one political
philosophy is met with a strong response from its opposition. The people "wake up" and realize
that they have power, and also responsibility to exercise that power in order
to stop an extreme agenda from dominating our political, social and economic
landscape. Unfortunately, that takes a
lot of effort and for many citizens it is difficult to maintain a level of
engagement in politics. The end result
is that we see large numbers of citizens disengage from the process and return
to a state of political apathy. Thus the
election of 2008 is followed by significantly different results in 2010.
It's only natural that
people focus their energy on what they see as having the most impact on their
personal lives. We all have an
obligation to provide for ourselves and those we care for. When times are tough this means that our
focus narrows and we often lose sight of the "big picture" in our
efforts to make ends meet. Plus, our
political system isn't necessarily terribly interesting to watch work. Many of the important details are masked by
long winded debate, many paged documents and confusing legal language. In the end it becomes easier for many of us
to simply let someone else take care of political business.
The events in Wisconsin during 2011-12
have shown us several things. One is the
fact that politics do matter in our daily lives. I only have to look at my significantly
depleted paycheck every month to see the impact that one piece of legislation
can have. I talk to educators around the
area and hear about the ways that their daily work has been impacted by the
changes in, or the elimination of, their contracts as a result of the actions
of our legislature and governor.
Another lesson to be
learned from recent events is that the people must hold their government
responsible for creating policies that are in the best interest of the
citizens. In the end we can only rely on
ourselves to protect our rights. While
we may have others who represent our interests in some venues, we can't cede
power to anyone else and expect to see positive results. This means that we can't afford to retreat
from our current state of political activism and still hope for our voices to
be heard by those in power. Those who
advocate for us only have power because of the people who are behind them. Unions are a great example of this. Our union leaders can lobby and advocate for
their members, but union members need to be active in the process as well for
their voice to carry any weight in the debate.
Need evidence that a mass
withdrawal from politics would be "crazy"? Just look at some of the things that are
happening, even as we celebrate our successes at the ballot box from a week
ago.
--We've seen Governor
Walker and legislators decide to make a political statement using healthcare as
a "tool".
--We've seen GOP
leadership as well as conservative businesspeople continue to promote economic
theories that don't work and use fear to confuse people. This conflict will continue to escalate as we
get closer to the deadline for making decisions around taxes and budget cuts. The grandstanding and political manipulations
won't help our nation's economy.
The rest of the world is
making their voices heard about "austerity".
--Along with the failed
economic policies, we are also seeing a continuation of the attacks on worker's
rights. Organized labor played a large
role in the successes enjoyed by Democrats nationally and that won't be forgotten
by the GOP. Conservative business
leadership has little interest in supporting their worker's efforts to improve
their economic conditions and continue to offer poor contracts, then blame
unions for not accepting them. This
creates a volatile labor environment as workers are faced with fewer ways to
resolve disagreements without resorting to labor actions.
www.wkow.com
Meanwhile here in Wisconsin, we are told
that we won't see the legislature try to pass "right to work"
legislation. This from the same group
that was going to "work with" unions after the 2010 elections.
watchdog.org
--With control of many
statehouses and an election loss to mourn, conservatives are not going to give
up their efforts to change voting laws.
They use the argument that laws protecting voting rights were needed in
the mid-1900's, but these protections are no longer needed. Government oversight and protection of rights
is an infringement of individual freedom according to the conservative
ideology. Interesting, but flawed logic.
--One of the wildest ideas
coming out of the November 6th election is the number of petitions circulating
to have states secede from the Union. While this is certainly coming from a
relatively small percentage of the population it clearly shows the depth of the
hatred as well as a significant lack of knowledge by petitioners. GOP leaders like Mitt Romney don't help our
healing process by continuing their heated rhetoric attacking a large portion
of America's
people.
--GOP leadership continues
to use Benghazi
and other national security issues as political weapons. Republicans can claim to be the party of
national defense, but their record isn't quite as definitive as they would like
us to believe.
--It wouldn't be a post
from me if I didn't at least mention education.
The national victories for Democratic candidates doesn't do much, if
anything to give public educators hope.
We still need to change the debate away from a defense of public
education to an offense that promotes the strengths of our educational
system. In order to do this we need to
educate people about the fallacies surrounding the "education
reforms" that have been promoted by both parties.
None of this should come
as a surprise to anyone. It is naïve and
unrealistic to assume that conservatives would simply concede defeat and accept
the results without fighting back after Tuesday's election. In fact it is logical that, given the heated
campaign, that their would be a strong response to the loss. While the election was a positive step, the path
to recovery and social justice is littered with traps and pitfalls. Success at the ballot box doesn't guarantee
success in society. The same problems
that existed prior to the election remain.
It is up to us as citizens to move our nation forward. Find a way to get involved, and then stay
involved, it's not enough to simply cast a ballot in an election anymore.
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