TNH: Ground-level politics

[avram]

In addition to this LiveJournal, I maintain a weblog, which in the past year or two has become pretty much entirely political, as has weblogging in general. I read a bunch of weblogs regularly, which means I’ve read a whole freaking lot of political essays in the past few years. The topic of how to get the Democratic Party up and going again has been a popular one in some circles, especially since yesterday’s disasterous election. Teresa Nielsen Hayden (the smartest person I know, and I know a lot of smart people) has written the very best such essay I’ve seen yet, by a large margin. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, go read it. Here are some snippets:

Real political action is always social. The primary interaction isn't between you and your political ideals; it's between you and other people. If you don't engage with your fellow citizens, you might just as well have stayed home, or joined a community theatre group. [...]

Get real, vote real. If you want to make changes happen, you have to get your guys elected. Deciding the whole system is corrupt so why bother, and/or casting symbolic votes and protest votes for non-starter candidates, is like wasting your ammunition on symbolic volleys that don't hit anything. The other side won't be impressed, and they'll still be aiming their own shots at you. [...]

Be polite. Most especially, be polite to people who don't have a perfect understanding of all the fine points of your political analyses. Explain how you think this point here, which they do agree with, hooks up to that point over there. They may thereupon decide they agree with that one too; whereas if you denounce them for not understanding that second point, they may decide they don't agree with any of your points, so there!, and will undoubtedly decide that you're a jerk. [...]

Democracy isn't something we have; it's something we do. Giving an equal shake to the little guy is important because we're all little guys.