Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Selling Democracy
It was said by a wise man that eternal vigilence is the price of liberty. I am proud to report that, totally independent of each other, most of my family is engaged in this laudable pursuit. My mom helped process voter registrations in south florida, where her brother (my uncle) will be a polling place worker and my cousin David-the-lawyer will be a poll watcher for the Kerry campaign. My sister worked for the Kerry campaign in Arizona (critical work in a critical state, thanks sis, who’s having a baby like within the month), and my dad was going to do poll work too but he’s got a class to teach that he can’t miss. That’s a lot of focus, a lot of vigilence to come out of one small group of people scattered literally coast-to-coast. Frankly I’m very proud of how we’ve come out of the woodwork on this one. Regardless of one’s political views, the fact of honest participation is key. I’d rather my point of view won out, but not to the detriment of the political process.
As troops under my nation’s flag go to undeclared war on shadowsurgents in Iraqi slums and wastelands, as loggers prepare to harvest windfall profits from looser regulations in the Sierras, as americans are reviled internationally and misled at home, I fear for this nation’s most important export. We really were the first effectively representative democracy, and while we continue to hone our efforts in that direction we have occasionally brilliantly led the whole community of humankind in our application of the concepts of liberty and equality.
But that’s only occasionally, I readily admit it. My nation, which I prefer to imagine as a bulwark of political libertarianism, is also a place of deep divisions. Racism and ethnocentrism have sullied us and torn us apart from the first contact with our predecessors on this land. Capital assumes unwarranted privilege and the worker has no recourse. We are overlegislated and underprotected. Our last national election was a national disgrace.
We export democracy; it’s the most powerful tool available for empowering local communities and generating growth. Anything else we export, is in support of that. The less-developed the region, the more this paradigm seems true - and now more than ever, as Afghanistan appears to have held what will certainly pass internationally as a fair election, and as Bush tells us that Irak will have elections soon as well. I want to see them happen, I want to see them work. I believe that fair elections would go far toward the goal of quieting the unrest that has rumbled just at the boiling point since we declared victory.
I’m not going to go to Iraq to help them have fair elections, but I can offer an example of commitment to the process here at home - or close to it. This election really seems serious to me. A friend recently met Ted “conservative from Massachussetts” Kennedy at a fundraiser recently and ol’ Ted said that he thought this was the most important election of his lifetime - more than when his brother ran in ‘60, more than when he himself ran in ‘80. It’s important to me, personally, because it will affect my civil rights, my environment, and the economy. It’s important to us as a nation because it represents a fundamental choice between options - ignorant paranoia or nuanced reflection.
But my main concern is that it will affect other nations upon which we have trodden, and heavily. If, in the midst of what is seen internationally very clearly as an extremely divisive and rancorous campaign, we can mount a fair and transparent election in which all voters get to vote and all votes are counted, we can at least show that it can be done. We invented it; we had better be able to make it work anad sell it or the nascent governments we’ve helped establish will not survive. If America can’t hold an election, why do we think Iraq can?
That’s why I’m going to Cleveland. I feel as if this is the one time I may be able to have an impact on something that can touch almost every life on the planet. I got an email about it from a friend who knows me too well, and it immediately seemed like the right thing to do. They needed lawyers in swing states. I don’t live in one, and Nevada was already full. Cleveland was as good as any of the other choices.
It’s too bad that it’s so far away; it’s going to be a 3 day trip. I’m looking forward to it but it’s a lot to accommodate. I’m burning all my vacation time and the trip just ain’t cheap. But when I whined about this last, I got a few emails suggesting that, if I offered a way for my visitors to participate in my efforts through a sponsoring contribution, well, somebody might want to do that. I’m not really comfortable with “soliciting donations,” as the paypal people call it, but since this subject touches me so deeply and powerfully, maybe it does you too and this project I’m doing is something you’d actually want to support. Far be it from me to interfere with such a noble purpose - so I’ve set up a paypal button on the sidebar for your convenience. I’ll send any contributor a postcard from cleveland! Plus a mystery gift! Ooooo! Supporting democracy is fun! I know I’ll enjoy my work there. And thank each and every one of you who can vote in this election, for doing so. Let’s make it work!
