The country

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 
Each day I read the news and it's something horrible. Our political system is dying. (An 18 year old US citizen was detained for over a month by ICE for no reason. Mitch McConnell blocked 2 pieces of legislation to protect elections. The president vetoed a series of measures to block the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. And Mueller's testimony leaves little doubt that the president should be impeached. Oh yeah, climate change! Antarctica is on fire. Um, I think all that was just from today). And yet the average American does nothing. 

 

I don't know what to do. I get involved locally and it makes me feel better. Maybe it makes a difference. I don't know how to get others to care or to do something. Just hoping that things start to get better won't cut it.

Apathy and denial are killing us.

Years, even decades of political activism have truly left me saying 'I really don't know what to do.'

There's a song by U2 from the 1980's and there's this line that resonates with me "A new heart is what we need/Oh God make it bleed". I don't know if anything short of divine intervention will save us, because most Americans aren't even trying.

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

I don't know either. I donate what I can, I contact my reps when I remember (or just when I can slow down enough to focus on ONE thing to complain about), I signal-boost stuff on Twitter that seems important, but it's also incredibly discouraging when the only tangible result I see is endless return address labels and continual asks for more money. The NAACP at least gives you a weekly newsletter with actual NEWS in it for what they did that week, but they're the only ones.

I've been thinking about impeachment a lot, and here's the other thing: We fought so hard to make sure Nancy Pelosi got the position she's in now, and she's doing FUCK ALL. She seems so much more focused on appeasing the GOP than actually getting anything done, or making any forward motion towards impeachment. I also looked up the statements on who in the House has actually said, "Yes, it's time, let's impeach this guy," and do you know how many people in my state are for it? One. JUST ONE. And not the guy for my district either. All the others are, "No," or "Not yet" or "No comment."

I know impeachment isn't the only thing we should be focused on, but like, if we can't even get that done, then what? How much worse does this have to get for anyone to make any progress? I'm getting to the point where I've lost faith in anyone who goes into politics on purpose. You can't hold that much power without it turning you into someone else. I don't want to believe that, but look at where we are.

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

I guess I don't know if it's politicians or if it's the people they serve. Like maybe if more of us were demanding impeachment, then we'd get it? I spoke to a US Congressional Representative who said that we have to keep in mind that we no longer have any moderate Republicans in the Senate (and thus, an actual impeachment is unlikely - unlike during Watergate when we had actual moderate Repubs) and that Trump's supporters want impeachment proceedings so that they can feel more put-upon and triggered.

Agreed, the NAACP has a good newsletter! And totally agree, emails that just ask for money without explaining what they're going to do with it are no good. I do think that organizing locally - just joining a local group that's resisting - helps.

[rhoda_rants]

Yeah. I was reading something on Vox earlier, and one of the reasons for the divide in House Democrats is they just don't want to lost their seats. Which is just. . . heavy sigh Part of me understands, but part of me is like, "Please just do your jobs, stop playing games here."

And that's the other thing: I get that getting involved locally would make sense, but then I would have even more politics in my life. I don't want to be involved in politics. I just want people to stop being jerks. I feel like I've been pushed into being more involved than I want to be, even over here in my small way, because of people being jerks, and I don't like it. I don't know if that even makes sense, but that's the most sensible way I can think to put it.

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[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

I could think of 100 things I'd rather do than work on politics. Hey, I came across this article from a couple years ago. It has a couple good ideas. FYI:

https://greenamerica.org/economic-action-against-hate/economic-action-against-hate

Their ideas are easier than, say, knocking on doors for a political candidate. (Which I dislike doing but I'm going to do again....I just need to find a Saturday that I have a chunk of time on, and where it's less than 90 degrees out!!)

[rhoda_rants]

These are great--thank you!

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[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

Yay! I actually have the paper article which is longer and has even more ideas. But it's a good springboard. There's a lot each of us can do just in our daily lives. I think LGBT rights improved largely because of ordinary people coming out/becoming allies.