Election Madness By Howard Zinn

[G_j]

http://www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0308

Election Madness
By Howard Zinn, March 2008 Issue

<snip>
The subhead was “7,563 homes were seized, nearly 3 times the ’06 rate.”

A few nights before, CBS television reported that 750,000 people with disabilities have been waiting for years for their Social Security benefits because the system is underfunded and there are not enough personnel to handle all the requests, even desperate ones.
Stories like these may be reported in the media, but they are gone in a flash. What’s not gone, what occupies the press day after day, impossible to ignore, is the election frenzy.
<snip>

No, I’m not taking some ultra-left position that elections are totally insignificant, and that we should refuse to vote to preserve our moral purity. Yes, there are candidates who are somewhat better than others, and at certain times of national crisis (the Thirties, for instance, or right now) where even a slight difference between the two parties may be a matter of life and death.
I’m talking about a sense of proportion that gets lost in the election madness. Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes—the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth.

But before and after those two minutes, our time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice.

Let’s remember that even when there is a “better” candidate (yes, better Roosevelt than Hoover, better anyone than George Bush), that difference will not mean anything unless the power of the people asserts itself in ways that the occupant of the White House will find it dangerous to ignore.

..more..

[Orwellian_Ghost]

1. And more

K&R

[thunder rising]

2. There is no shortage of BAD NEWS. Hope is in short supply. gooooObama!

[elizfeelinggreat]

3. Howard Zinn rocks

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." Howard Zinn

[G_j]

7. great quote! n/t

[stillcool]

4. it's what makes this election..

so different. The possibility that we might actually be able to figure out a way to have people get together, and work to cure our social ills. Kind of like the Renaissance. Or the Impossible Dream.

[Kat45]

5. Excellent article. I wish everyone could read it.

He speaks the truth. I particularly like these two comments:

<we have all been brought up to believe that voting is crucial in determining our destiny, that the most important act a citizen can engage in is to go to the polls and choose one of the two mediocrities who have already been chosen for us.>

to repeat, "choose one of the two mediocrities who have already been chosen for us." In that sentence, he sums up what I've been arguing for a while, but much more eloquently and succinctly than I was able to muster.

And his closing sentence: "Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens."

[G_j]

6. direct action by concerned citizens.

without this, there is no Democracy

[G_j]

8. ==