Two points. First, it's important to distinguish between Democratic politicians (particularly
DLC-types), on the one hand, and rank-and-file Democrats, on the other. There's no doubt that the former are, as a whole, becoming increasingly out of touch with the poor they presume to represent, but I don't think the latter should be painted with this brush, since many of the latter
are the poor.
Second, I think it is a huge mistake to overlook to extent to which rank-and-file Democrats are at fault (at least indirectly) for the current state of affairs. Yes, many if not most Democratic politicians are becoming increasingly out of touch with the poor and increasingly
in touch with their corporate paymasters, but that, I respectfully submit, is an inevitable byproduct of the fact that rank-and-file Democrats have been out of touch with
each other -- largely because of
TV-addiction -- for decades. Their lack of involvement between campaign seasons is what created a power vacuum in the first place, so it was simply a matter of time before corporate elites (in the form of the Democratic "Leadership" Council) took full advantage of this vaccum.
I have to get up early, so in the interest of time, and to give everyone a clear idea of what I mean, allow me to post the following two excerpts:
"In politics a person is not a citizen if the person's only function is to vote. Voters choose people who, in turn, act like citizens. They argue. They establish the forms within which people live their lives. They make politics. The people who merely vote for them merely make politicians. People who argue for their positions in a town meeting are acting like citizens. People who simply drop scraps of paper in a box or pull a lever are not acting like citizens; they are acting like consumers picking between prepackaged items. They had nothing to do with the items. All they can do is pick what is. They cannot actively participate in making what should be." -- Karl Hess,
Community Technology, p. 10
"J. Hunter O'Dell, one of
King's early lieutenants in the movement, recognized the fixation with media developing among civil rights activists and lamented the consequences.
"'We all recognize that technologically this is a media age,' O'Dell wrote. 'But it was disastrous for us to rely primarily upon these corporate forms of mass communication to get our message and analysis out to the public....In the end, it means a new kind of addiction to media rather than being in charge of our own agenda and relying on mass support as our guarantee that ultimately the news-covering apparatus must give recognition to our authority.'
"O'Dell's point is that the civil rights movement acquired its 'authority' to articulate large political aspirations, not because network television came to Selma or Birmingham, but from the hundreds and even thousands of meetings in black churches, week after week, across the South over many years. The dramatic spectacles that appeared on TV were the product of those mobilizing sermons and dialogues, not the other way around.
"The movement's organizing processes, O'Dell noted, contained all of the functional elements of a responsible political organization -- mass education and communication as well as continuing accountability between the leaders and the supporting throngs. 'The power of any movement for democracy,' O'Dell emphasized, 'is always dependent on such reciprocal relations between the mass of people and their leadership.'
"These elements are missing, it seems, from much of the irregular citizens' politics that tries to emulate King's heroic model. Activists hold press conferences or arrange dramatic events to prod the political system. But patiently built reciprocal relationships between leaders and followers, the laborious tasks of education and communication, are often not even attempted. To be blunt, there is a hollowness behind many of the placards and politicians know it.
"Succeeding generations of political activists, it often seems, copied the glamorous surfaces of the civil rights legacy -- the hot moments of national celebrity so well remembered -- while skipping over the hard part, the organizational sinew that was underneath." -- William Greider, Who Will Tell the People, p. 206
Todd Altman
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
