Are You a Spectator, or a Citizen?

storm the field – Liberal Street Fighter

So, what’s it going to be? You’re disgusted with the Democratic Party, but you know damned well you’re not a Republican. There is always the choice that the biggest bloc of voters make: you can sit it out, avoid the political fray, proclaim “a pox on both their houses, they’re ALL crooked!”

Many, especially the cozy incumbent Vichy Dems and their well compensated consultant class, their bought-and-paid-for blog heelers, counsel you that you have no choice … either / or, Dempublican or Replocrat … you have to pick a side, join the team, get with the program. “WHERE ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO GO?”

In other words, be a fan, a spectator, sitting in the stands. Root,root, root for the home team. Wear the colors, buy the jersey, cheer when you’re told to. “Yes, we punt without gaining any yards, but we have a GAME PLAN,” the party poobahs proclaim. “Just wait, the other team is injured, falling apart … if we just keep hitting the basics, we’ll win in the end.” BE … A … SPECTATOR.

Is that really what you want your contribution to politics to be?
Many Americans know something is broken in our political system, and the source of that ill wind is us. For years, most Americans have been content to be either FANS of their particular party, or even worse, consumers. We treat politicians like celebrity athletes. This is not the role envisioned by our founders when they established this country as a republic, a place where a well-informed citizenry chooses representatives to carry out their wishes in the government. As Jefferson put it:

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.” —Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:207

We stopped educating ourselves. We can blame it on the powers that be, but we LET them put us here. For too long, we’ve been content to be spectators, to be cheering fans for the American Team. Chants of “we’re number one” ring out across the political spectrum, and many of us can’t face when our government, when WE commit some evil, do some wrong, commit great crimes. We avoid responsibility.

When Americans have been truly exceptional, when we’ve added good to the world, it’s when we’ve been involved. Not always perfect, but trying to do good, to make a positive change. The Revolutionary War, labor movement, the suffrage movement, civil rights movement, the Marshall Plan … all of these things happened because we were engaged, more people than usual were active and involved in the day-to-day political life of the nation. MORE OF US BECOME FULL AND INVOLVED CITIZENS!

This is where we find ourselves. This is the choice we all face, the choice we need to help our neighbors and friends and families face:

ARE YOU A SPECTATOR OR A CITIZEN?

Both parties want you to stay on the sidelines, buy your tickets, show up when you’re told. Even in the minority, the entrenched office holders who promise you they’ll protect your rights benefit when the Republicans take them away, as they and their’s get to enjoy the perks, receive the benefits of being courtiers in the brave new feudal world.

So, you can keep cheering when you’re told, or you can keep raising hell. Raising hell, after all, is your real job if you’re a citizen in a Republic. So no matter how many fund-raising emails you get, no matter how many “wiser” folks tell you to shut up and play along, remember that a citizen is involved. A citizen stands up and asks the inconvenient questions. A citizen says no when their, or somebody else’s, rights are trampled on.

History shows that when people get off the sidelines they can force change. In the past, we’ve too often gotten the ball rolling, then settled back down, content once again to let our representatives run amok. Again from Jefferson:

“I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” –Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:278

Take to the streets, write on a blog, send letters to the editor or your Senator or Representative, your Governor and state legislators. Talk to your neighbors. Join a third party. START a third party. Work with people involved in other issues to find common ground and work together. Build coalitons, construct bridges, question, learn and challenge yourself, challenge those who receive your precious vote.

Be a citizen.

Chicago Sports Fan Mickey from Epinions dot com

Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech” from the Four Freedoms Exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum