General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere Are Progressives at Local Meetings? Waiting for the Next Nationwide Mass March?
The latest census has shown that the United States has continued to grow much more diverse. While this should be great news, the fact of the matter is that extreme right recognizes this, and knows that they cannot compete when it comes to mass protests. Likewise, the right understands that they need to manipulate redistricting and make harder to vote in densely populated urban areas in order to retain power. Finally, to magnify their voices, the right has taken advantage of the fact that many local school boards and city councils give members of the public the right to publicly comment during board meetings, which the extreme right has done:
This is why Republicans push issues like opposing masks at schools or the hysteria against "critical race theory". These divisive issues give the right a pretext to show up and speak and ultimately control the agenda at local government meetings. Indeed, sometimes you see the same 20-30 right wing advocates just going from meeting to meeting to effectively filibuster the agenda by spouting right wing talking points that they heard from Tucker Carlson.
The question is where is the left in local government? You do not need a lot of people or a lot of money. Yet, we have yielded the floor to the same twenty or so loudest right wing extremists who cruise through meetings to create youtube worthy spectacles that get more views then a long planned march of hundreds of people.
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts). . .according to author/professor Eitan Hersh:
https://twitter.com/eitanhersh?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
If they really want to make a difference, they should be joining their local political parties as district leaders/precinct captains. For starters.
TomCADem
(17,378 posts)I agree that too many on the left think that engaging in flame wars on Facebook with right wing troll-bots constitutes activism.
On the other hand, right wing media has trained Republicans to target local government meetings by featuring stories with just a few right wingers spouting misinformation at local meetings. These local meetings are usually recorded and speakers get a few minutes each to speak, so with just 10 to 20 people, the right can dominate a meeting with a discussion about mask rules or the dangers of critical race theory. A five minute update about school COVID protocols could be hijacked by 10 speakers speaking for 5 minutes each to spread vaccine misinformation. As an added bonus, the ACLU will defend the right wingers if there is any effort to curtail such public statements.
Republicans and right wing media understand that they are increasingly in the minority, thus they have learned how to leverage forums to spread their message without relying on sheer numbers by focusing on local government. The left, on the other hand, tends to rely on popular opinion, which does not always translate into political activity. Just because more people might agree with you, does not matter if the only people speaking at your local government meetings are spouting the latest nonsense they heard on Tucker Carlson.