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Saturday, November 7, 2015

You Say You want a Revolution?


When we wake up tomorrow it will be November 8, 2015. The date means little to me. It is the day before my mom's birthday. Its a Sunday so I will want to catch John Oliver. And its the day the weather channel said I will finally have to shut my windows and begin my annual self-imposed (near) hibernation. Its really just another day in another week where I have little going on and little to do.

Tomorrow is, however, exactly one year before our next big election. I guess for those of us who are paying attention and passionate about our political landscape, the date will offer a marker by which we will measure our accomplishments. We have a year. For those of us who have been at this for a while, a year is not a lot of time. For those of us on the left, a year might as well be a decade for as much as we need to accomplish. But I can hardly tell that when I listen to some of my brothers and sisters in the party. I hear a lot about revolution these days. It might be written as an exciting time for future generations to learn about in history books. Or it might very well be another year where what could have been simply wasn't. Again.

With our gerrymandered maps and questionable annual election returns, it feels as if a revolution will be our only hope. Last week our national elections set us back even further because we on the left can hardly be bothered to go out every time. (I mean really). To be honest, its not evident that we all want a revolution. It appears that the radical among us are more interested in arguing the finer points of our objectives than actually doing anything that would be revolutionary.

The left loves to argue. Its one of the downsides of being the intellectuals. We have a lot of opinions and historical references and love to hear ourselves talk about them (I'm not pretending that no one is reading this and I am not one of those people). We do, however, create our very own obstacles when we do this; especially when the arguments we seek or create are within our own party.

Several months ago I wrote a piece condemning the Regressive Party for thinking women would flock to Fiorina (read here) because she was born with the same parts as we were. I was chastised by a woman who kicked me out of her feminist group for having been so closed-minded as to ignore transgendered people who were not born with the same parts. If her condemnation wasn't enough, she spent what must have taken a full hour to type me a book about how ashamed of myself I should have been. I wonder how much of that time she could have directed toward someone who wasn't already fighting for women's issues to make them aware of the movement and its necessity.

A couple of weeks ago I was, again, berated by people calling themselves feminists because I was excitedly promoting the then-unreleased movie, Suffragette. Within minutes I was determined to have not only been a detriment to the feminist movement, but also, a racist. I wrote a piece about it (read here) because it was beyond my comprehension how people could be so misguided and I received many replies about my own determined narrow-mindedness. The majority of my replies came from people who read my article down to the point where I talked about my having been called a racist and they stopped there to interject having never (quite obviously) made it to the end of the piece where I imagine most people capable of both reason and introspection would realize I am, in fact, a feminist and hardly racist. That piece had people who demand they are feminists coming at me for two days to argue with me. Again I wonder, how much of that time could have been focused on arguing with someone who needed to hear your argument?

I stopped arguing with RWNJs many months ago. They are exhausting and although they will probably be a lifelong curiosity of mine, I do realize they have no capacity for critical thinking so I will never have an opportunity to offer them revelation. My only mission now is to offer rationale to those who are capable of understanding it. I find that those conversations are growing harder and harder with many on the left now, too. Last month I was sent a private message from a young (very young) man who was inviting me to join his FB group where the actual objective was to talk shit about one of the two main candidates for the Democratic ticket next year. Initially I replied respectfully (believe it or not) and said that I had not yet determined which of the candidates I was going to vote for but that even when I do, I would not want to participate in destructive conversations about the one I had not chosen. He promptly told me that I was an idiot and that I obviously don't understand politics or how important this upcoming election is. [Sigh...] Of course, I then took it upon myself to educate him about the history of the Democratic party and our myriad failures and before I was done telling him what an arrogant little snot he was, he blocked me from FB. okay...

I have had to put messages up in my groups telling people that if they want to create dialogue only meant to disparage one of our candidates I would block them. People are not even thoughtful enough to realize that if the meme they are posting has attribution on it from a right-wing group, they are literally perpetuating the Regressive Party narrative. There is nothing more discouraging than looking at our uphill climb and realizing how many of our fellow Dems we are going to have to drag up that fucking hill to get to the top.

I am a Democrat. I will support the Democrat who ends up with the nomination. I will bust my ass for whomever gets the nod like I do every 4 years. If you cannot say the same, then you do not want a revolution. You are literally creating the exact path the sick hateful sonsofbitches on the right need to wiggle any one of their beyond-crazy (some I comfortably call evil) candidates into the White House. And do not be mistaken. This is not just a fight for the White House. 2016 is our chance to get back the Senate. If we can convince enough people that the left is the only alternative when they go into the voting booth next year, we actually can make a change. No change will be made, however, if we all spend our time fighting with ourselves and demanding that the rest of the left see every candidate and issue through an identical narrow prism. That is POISON. Period.

We will get a national down-ticket revolution next year if we join together and continue to remind those around us of the shit that is coming out of the right. Daily I have people tell me, "Oh they know. Americans know what is going on." No. They Don't. They don't want to know. They are ignoring what is going on because the in-fighting is exhausting to them so they choose not to listen. When we perpetuate the nastiness we are just as unbearable as the RWNJs. Pause with that for a minute, because I am right (from over here on the far-left). When we behave like radicals we will be ignored like radicals. If we can manage to rally like champions, that is what we will be. You decide. But fucking unfriend me or leave my page if you don't want to hear about what it takes to actually have a revolution because I can't imagine I will have anything else to say for the next 365 days.


It's called R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Follow their lead. K?




Kiss Kiss.
Mean Progressive



9 comments:

  1. We've all seen that, I've posted several times that we need to stick together & I will fight for either candidate but I will also point out anything I think one of them is doing that I don't like. I agree we need a revolution but there's only one who really wants to change things. I've lost some people who either dropped me or I dropped just for peace of mind. It's the price to pay for speaking up and out. I don't think I will change everyones mind on what is best for the US but I am hoping to engage independents who are well known to sit on the fence until election day. That is who I target with my posts. We have to remember opinions are like elbows, everyone has one & you can lead a horse to water but I will not suck his ass just so he gets a drink. :)

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  2. YES! "No change will be made, however, if we all spend our time fighting with ourselves and demanding that the rest of the left make the same choices that you do. That is POISON. Period" YES! YES! YES!

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    1. Agreed and the best line said by this author was, "There is nothing more discouraging than looking at our uphill climb and realizing how many of our fellow Dems we are going to have to drag up that fucking hill to get to the top." As a REAL PRO-gressive, this author is speaking as a true democat. DISAGREE IF YOU REALLY WANT A REVOLUTION YOU CANNOT DO THE SAME THING HAVE ALWAYS DONE. Voting by party loyalty and default. Want a revolution BERNIE OR BUST or let the Repooblicans get it and that will send us into the 2nd civil war for sure. Bring it on !

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    2. Wonderful and right on. I will work tirelessly for the candidate of my party. I hope we make that Bernie Sanders, but I will follow his wonderful example and accentuate his positions, work tirelessly to tell his story, and help to positively effect political revolution. If our party chooses Hillary, I will shift gears and work and vote for her. We may all be surprised and Martin O'Malley will come from nowhere to win the nomination. If so, I will proudly and diligently work for and vote for him. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.

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  3. There are highly respectful ways of disagreeing with a candidates stance on some issue versus putting down a candidate. My biggest fear right now is the lack of humanity in politics now.

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  4. Your right without a doubt! The main Revolution we all need is to be involved with is Getting out the Vote! Making sure that people in your area know where their polling place is & offer rides if need be. ( and they don't scare the hell out of you lol)
    A Revolution that means We Stand for things that Make Common Sense! It makes Common Sense to keep our Economy going String & not touching the Affordable Care Act unless it's to improve it!
    It makes sense that whatever President Obama is doing to keep the jobs going that trend should continue to go the way it is!
    I realize the Repugs literally HATE everything Pres. Obama has accomplished & still accomplishing as he is still in Office & our President!!
    It would be much better for the Democratic Party to retain the Presidential seat!! Especially now!
    The Republicans are spending their AIR TIME TRYING to divide this nation when that just simply isn't the way to go!
    Especially now with the War with ISIS, the Issues with Russia both good & things to be cautious about! And our economy is getting back on track!
    If we stay on track Solar, Wind & Watrr power wil be able to be harnessed & used in a more cleaner, substantial way!
    Id like to think Our Nation wants to do the Smart Thing!
    I

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  5. "I will support the Democrat who ends up with the nomination. I will bust my ass for whomever gets the nod like I do every 4 years. If you cannot say the same, then you do not want a revolution."

    That's not being a revolutionary. YOU do not want a revolution if you're willing to vote, just less bust your ass for another neo-liberal.

    http://www.examiner.com/article/analysis-bernie-sanders-revolutionaries-sheep-and-counter-revolutionaries

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    1. You and I are, quite obviously, talking about two different revolutions. Let me be clear, you will never have your revolution because too many Americans are as terrified of the radicals on the left as they are on the right. My revolution is actually attainable. My revolution will have the nominees on the left all the way down ticket back in office and the vocal among us demanding they remain on the left in order to ever find reelection. The revolution I seek is within the voters, not the candidates. If we unite and remain involved we can bring about change. That is why the Tea Party was so successful. Their candidates are terrified of them. Im not bothering to read whatever you have posted here. I don't need to read continued rants from people who want to spend their time condemning those in the fight instead of taking the fight to the people who aren't in it. Grow up. If that's you in the picture above, its time.

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