Wednesday November 20, 2024; 7:24 AM EST
- 1. After the focused activism of the 1968 Poor People's March on Washington, journalist I. F. Stone wrote, "To see the Poor People's March on Washington in perspective, remember that the rich have been marching on Washington ever since the beginning of the Republic."#
- 2. In recent years, right-wing media operations have fervently and tirelessly used the slogan-fear-repetition methods of classic 20th century propaganda to march into the homes and heads of tens of millions of U. S. citizens, every hour of every day.#
- 3. In 2008, the Obama campaign for president developed a web presence that informed, motivated, and activated tens of thousands of citizens about the issues and stakes of the day. After the election, the Obama team shut down the site. Whatever skills and tools and insights about activism had been developed were shelved.#
- 4. In 2024, the Harris campaign developed informative and motivational digital communication tools, and after the election they shut it down, abandoning for the foreseeable future the lessons learned about communication in our troubled society.#
- Items 1 & 2 imply that for Republicans what matters is knowing how to work the system in their favor, and once they spot the method they would call it insane to stop working the system. Trump, in his auditorium speeches, surely does the same thing with lines that stir the emotions of the crowd. #
- Items 3 & 4 imply that for Democrats what matters is winning the next election so they can grab control of Statehouses and Congress and proceed from their as ever-wise insiders able to do without our support until the next election. It's so rewarding to be sworn into high office that they seem to forget that the goal is not to be sworn in but to govern, successfully, at length, and in such ways that you won't be kicked out and your policies overturned two or four years from now.#
- 5. Citizens seem to accept the what surely must be unacceptable approaches taken by both parties. Lacking a clear alternative based on alliances and affiliations with others, based on understanding of civic practices, based on tools and skills of building a movement and applying sustained pressure . . . lacking all those things, citizens are left with, well, left with what?#
- 6. The history of the web is in some ways the history of a chain of manifestoes that answer the question in Item 5. Starting from outside, with the tools we possess and others we might invent, what are the next steps to create a third way, via activism, without the glaring flaws of the two national parties sketched so quickly above.#
- 7. Where are those manifestoes, what are those tools? We know people who know parts of the answer to that question, but they are not usually affiliated with each other, working as a team to go forward. Which helps return citizens to their status in Item 5.#