Life is a State of Mind

Devin writes about how voting sucks, and he has a point. Many aspects of our democracy cry for massive improvement.

I get that people are pissed off with their so-called leaders in government.
I agree that the currect collection of buffoons needs to be replaced.

So how do we create change if we care? I am unwilling to wait. Waiting only re-inforces the current process that puts buffoons in power. What we have now is effectively “Government by the Lobbyists, for the Corporations” – because you are correct, once elected, no politician has any time to actually write bills or research the votes he/she will make in congress. They are too busy stealing as much power and money as they can for the next election. They end up introducing bills written by lobbyists and researched by other lobbyists and special interest groups. This stopped being about people before I was born.

So how do we change that?

Yeah, sure we could stage an armed rebellion… sounds kind of dramatic, and I am certainly angry enough at the current system to do that; but there are costs to rebellion that I don’t like. Deaths, human misery, and the strong (and not-necessarily the smart nor the most willing to serve others) end up doing far better in any armed conflict than the rest of us would like.

So if we are unwilling to wait, and unwilling to revolt – that leaves us with trying to change the system from within itself. I’ll admit it’s a longshot. The odds are stacked against us. All the money, all the corruption, and the apathy of many people make change difficult. On the other hand we have excellent tools, and some crappy tools to work with; and we get people riled up enough and change can happen. Fat-happy incumbents don’t always win.

We protest, we organize public demonstrations of the truth, we expose the lies of big media in satire (Go Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert!!!), we begin to use alternative media for news, and we get involved with campaigns. You are correct, it is not good enough to simply vote any more – it should be, but our votes will be stolen if we don’t actively fight to protect them too. We need to get involved in and spy on the campaigns in our own districts. If the campaigners are willing to listen to us, they speak your mind! If not, then you know you need to try a different campaigner, right?

If you have no choice on the ballot, write in: “none of the above” – if and consider running for that office yourself next time. Don’t just sit on your ass and complain, do something about it. Research your choices well ahead of time, and publish and share your research with every one months before an election so people do actually have time to carefully research their choices. Frankly, in this age of internet information, anyone who is undecided with only two weeks left is a lazy excuse for a citizen. The information is out there.

Not sure where you live, but if you are in Northern Virginia this non-partisan info might help:
www.scottnolan.org/elections_2006.html

Go out and start a revolution, but a peaceful one. Take the country back by getting involved in it.