“There comes a time maybe every six, eight generations where the world changes in a very short time. We are at that time now, and I think what happens in the next 2-3 years is going to determine what the world looks like for the next five or six decades.” ~Joe Biden, Nov. 2, 2023
In the midst of political turmoil — both at home and abroad — it’s now or never that we rescue our falling democracies. The window to preserve and advance Democratic ideals is closing as authoritarianism envelopes the land. As Biden indicated above, the next couple of years will be pivotal.
I plan to do something in the next year to help Democrats win elections. Even though state legislative races in my districts are likely lost causes for Democrats, there is much good to be done elsewhere. If nothing else, I plan to work to re-elect Joe Biden and push Christina Bohannan further than she could make it last cycle. That’s a starting point. The problems we Democrats face are deeper than that.
People don’t have common sense. Common sense itself has flown to warmer climates leaving a settled landscape where industrial methods of crop production yield fuel and food hardly palatable for humans without feeding it to some food processor or biological intermediary like hogs, chicken, sheep or cattle. We have become proselytes of the party of “what’s in it for me.” As long as our interests are protected in politics, we are satisfied to turn our heads to avoid what else we might see.
We may well be at the point where traditional methods of winning votes are no longer relevant. When I knocked doors during the 2020 election, to a person, everyone had made up their mind whether they were voting, and for whom. They also had decided how they would spend their political time during the campaign. Everyone was influenced before I got there, and it wasn’t by another person like me who knocked on their door previously. More than any time I recall, broader influences are at work in society and they impact our elections. In 2020, Donald J. Trump beat Joe Biden by 128,611 votes in Iowa. I look around my neighborhood — dominated by Republicans I know — and this margin of victory just doesn’t make sense. Without understanding the forces at work in society, it’s difficult to know what we should do to bring common sense back to Iowa voters.
I’m on the county party’s central committee mostly because no one else in my precinct will take the seat. The second seat from our precinct was not filled for lack of a volunteer at the last caucus. I missed the last two central committee meetings, mostly because even though they were on my calendar, I spaced them off. I used to be diligent about keeping appointments, yet when it comes to a political organization that lost relevance to common voters like me, attending meetings is not a high priority. The organizational structure is not going away, yet it needs to gain relevance and soon. There is less than a year until we vote in the 2024 General Election.
What is it possible to do to save Democracy from the authoritarians? I don’t know yet intend to find out.
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