Pacific Views

We Don't Need A Hero

Ralph Nader addressed the PowerShift 07 conference, the largest global warming event ever held, at the University of Maryland yesterday and he had a lot of interesting things to say. Things that would be worth writing an entire blog post unpacking.

Like that "this is supposed to be a joyful movement," or that if "you replace the White House press corps with 10 year olds, Bush is in deep trouble." He reminded the audience of a Cicero quote, "freedom is participation in power." He scoffed at the conventional wisdom about how impossible it would be to shift our industries, pointing out that during WWII, General Motors' production lines "went from cars to tanks faster than you can spell General Motors." He brought out a favorite question of his that his dad sometimes asked him when he got home, "What did you learn in school today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?"

Nader also told the assembled students that when they attend the lobby day event to talk to their congresspeople, "When you walk on Capitol Hill, do not be awed. They work for you." He said that the most important thing for young people, and presumably any people, who want to improve environmental policy to tell their representatives was that they'd be back, that they'd be at their district offices, and that they'd bring more people.

Then at the press availability, he did something that shouldn't have been remarkable, but was. When Leah of Current TV asked him to sign the release contract for the video clips she took of him, he read the contract, balked at several clauses and crossed them out. He crossed out over 3/4 of a very short document, particularly objecting to a clause saying that, no matter what, he was entirely liable for any legal action brought because of their posting of his statements. "It doesn't have to be written this way," he said, and "this is a very one-sided lawyer."

So, more than the picture of him signing books, or the picture of the very long line of people waiting for him to sign their copy of his book, everything about what he said is summed up for me in that picture. Is summed up by a short, insignificant contract, that I'd signed a copy of with barely a thought not an hour beforehand, with the majority of its substance crossedhatched into oblivion.

Everybody in the room was pretty amused at first. Then the cameras started really going off, because it seemed to hit us in a wave that this was worthy of notice.

Nader had pointed out earlier that it was Nixon, a Republican, who signed OSHA into law. He formed the EPA. Signed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. He said it was because "Nixon was the last Republican president who was afraid of liberals."

Damn. We don't even have many Democrats who are afraid of liberals these days.

So now that the New Hampshire filing deadline is passed, and we all know with finality that Gore isn't coming to save us, now what? For me, I look at John Edwards and remember that he couldn't stand up to that snivelling bigot Bill Donohue any more than he stood up to Dick Cheney in the 2004 vice presidential debate. He's going to fight for me? Barack Obama, who tours with people who spread homophobia, believes in the chimera of 'clean' coal and skipped the vote about censuring MoveOn, is going to represent my views in government? Hillary Clinton, a militarist with an unknowable position on the Iraq war, is going to be my champion?

Yeah, that's a lot of not so much.

Watching Democrats these days is enough to sap a progressive's will to live. They say good things, and that's usually the end of the story. They know how to talk to us by now, but their actions make their words barely worth paying attention to anymore. Do you need the laundry list? No. You've been watching in horror just like I have. We haven't had a Democratic Congress for a year yet, and I almost miss the Republicans, because at least I didn't feel conflicted about being disgusted by their actions.

It's a great conflict, though. Because I shouldn't have put nearly as much faith in them as I had done. Why did I ever do that?

We have, right now, a terrible system of government. The shadow corporate government with their fleets of lobbyists has rigged everything against the voices of citizens being heard by their representatives. The media are riddled with liars and con artists and fools. We get to vote, but everyone knows that money is worth more than votes when the decisions get made. Our politicians spend most of their time begging, for a wide variety of reasons, and it's inherently corrupting to always have your hat out for the next sale.

And we just put up with it. We just sign the contracts. We just pull the lever and go home.

What we really need to do is something that's long been considered impossible: we need to elect a new people.

We need to elect a people that will keep up the sort of steady, low grade quibbling with the status quo that really changes minds. We need to elect a people who make their names and opinions known to their representatives, and their representatives' staff, and their local media outlets. People who complain, joyously, because their vision of a better world isn't clouded by a haze of resignation to the status quo.

Don't misunderstand, though. I don't mean to say that the Republicans are right and it's all just a matter of personal responsibility. It's not an either/or proposition. The changes that need to be made to save our world are bigger than we can make on our own, and I disagreed when Nader's suggestions about how to change minds came down to turning people on to all the money they could save by adopting energy efficient lifestyles. We need systemic changes, but they'll never happen unless a lot of people insist on it.

As Bill McKibben says, what people should do if they want to prevent climate change is, "1: Organize. 2. Organize. 3. Organize. ... After that, if they have some energy left, by all means change the light-bulbs."

So it's a question of what we need to take personal responsibility for. When the public finally accepts that it's their job, our job, to be leaders, we'll get better government. Let's face it, you've seen our elected representatives. Most of them are good speechmakers, but when it comes to it, they're really just followers. They won't sign on to legislation that they know is right unless they have the cover of friends. They won't challenge statements that they know are lies because they fear David Broder. They won't vote the way they know their districts want because they fear Republican attack ads and a few big donors more than they fear to make life worse for their constituents. They aren't leaders.

I'll say it again: They aren't leaders.

And power abhors a vacuum. I think you know who isn't filling it, starting with anyone who genuinely represents the public interest. So hey, why don't you do it? And bring a friend. And tell them you'll be back. Tell them you're watching and talking and agitating. That you're making sure your fellow citizens know exactly why they should be mad as hell and what they can do about it.

Conservatives have spent a lot of time since the 1960s demonizing liberals and taking over the Democratic Party. They've done their best to make liberals out to be very, very scary indeed. They're still terrified of the people who made Nixon create the Environmental Protection Agency, liberals who were real leaders, even if we don't know their names. Just think how much fun it would be to give them a real reason to be afraid that their cushy, corporate welfare state might vanish like so much Arctic sea ice.

Posted by natasha at November 4, 2007 04:02 AM | Activism | Technorati links |