Saul on Ice - Democratic Underground

H2O Man

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Mon May-10-10 07:26 PM
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Saul on Ice

“Right now they're frozen, festering in apathy, leading what Thoreau called 'lives of quiet desperation.' They're oppressed by taxation and inflation, poisoned by pollution, terrorized by urban crime, frightened by the new youth culture, baffled by the computerized world around them. They've worked all their lives to get their own little house in the suburbs, their color TV, their two cars, and now the good life seems to have turned to ashes in their mouths. Their personal lives are generally unfulfilling, their jobs unsatisfying, they've succumbed to tranquilizers and pep pills, they drown their anxieties in alcohol, they feel trapped in long-term endurance marriages or escape into guilt-ridden divorces. They're losing their kids and they're losing their dreams. They're alienated, depersonalized, without any feeling of participation in the political process, and they feel rejected and hopeless.... All their old values seem to have deserted them, leaving them rudderless in a sea of social chaos. Believe me, this is good organizational material.”
--Saul Alinsky; 1968

I joined DU on December 29, 2003. It was a day that stood out for me for several reasons. Among them, Patrick Fitzgerald had been assigned to head the investigation of the “Plame Scandal,” and a web site known as Truth Out had featured a solid article by Will Pitt about the Bush administration's exposure of the CIA agent who's husband had called them out on their “yellow cake” lies.

One of my associates had brought this forum to my attention, assuring me that it was read by a wide variety of “non-members,” including a few decent journalists. It seemed a good place to advance some of the truths about the Plame scandal that the “mainstream” media either would not, or could not, report upon. Thus, in the first couple of years that I participated in discussions here, DU's old-timers may recall that my primary focus was on what informally became known as the “Plame Threads.” In my opinion, that series of threads was as good as anything on this or any other internet forum. There was information put forward in them that was reported several years later in the mainstream media, although the Plame Threads would be best verified by the public release of court documents that the media only dared to hint at.

In those days, I came to see that the loose-knit DU community included many, many talented and insightful people who were active participants in a wide-range of discussions. More, many people here were experienced in the art of “community organizing.” This forum had a wide range of people from the progressive- and liberal left, including a significant number who were representative of grass roots activists to the left of the Democratic Party. And, although I've never felt that the forum harnessed its full potential for serious grass roots organizing and coordinating efforts, there have been a number of examples of where it has served as a solid resource.

Since the 2008 elections, on a national level, the progressive-liberal wing of the Democratic Party has found that many – if not most – of those same politicians that welcomed our donations and votes during the campaign season, have failed to follow through on promises to work to advance anything that even remotely resembles a progressive-liberal value. Certainly, we could all agree that it would take years of hard work to repair the severe damage done by the Bush-Cheney administration. But, 18 months after those historic elections, that hard work remains untouched.

In those same 18 months, a form of social rabies known as the “Tea Bag Party” has become relatively organized, although its irrational thought patterns rely upon the mainstream media to provide it structure. Politicians and pundits frequently equate the Tea Bag Party with what they incorrectly and dishonestly call “the Far Left.” More, without question, the majority of those corporate puppet politicians pay far, far more attention to the rabid right, than to the progressive-liberal left.

So long as we invest our energies by merely expressing anger and frustration on an internet forum, we will not effect any meaningful change. Instead, we will live lives of “loud” but meaningless desperation. And that's a pity.

If one does not believe that the progressive-liberal left has the potential to actually organize and effect change, take a few days to simply read an internet site called “Democratic Underground.” There are still many intelligent and capable grass roots activists here. The truth is, if there were not, the opposition would not invest the energy it does to disrupt those serious and meaningful discussions that do take place here. But they do, often successfully, and that's a shame.

I can't speak for anyone else – and I'd refuse to, even if somehow I could – but I will say that at the same time that I'm not participating actively on this forum to the extent that I once did (and would enjoy doing so again), I am busy on other grass-roots level community organizing. And I hope that others from the progressive-liberal left are, as well.

Peace and Justice,
H2O Man