Next steps… or how to make change happen

As you can see from my last few posts, I’m starting to look ahead to November 5 and beyond.  I’m still working to make change possible.  But while there are record numbers of registered voters this year, and it’s looking promising, we can’t just sit back again starting Nov. 5 and wait for change to occur.  We need to keep working to make it happen.

We live in a participatory democracy, and if we choose not to participate, we lose out.  But it’s equally true that if we’re going to participate, we need to know how to do so.  And participation goes way beyond showing up on Election Day.  What we do during the days between elections is equally important.

I’m currently reading a new book by Naomi Wolf called, Give Me Liberty; A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.  Over the past 8 years, I’ve been reading a lot.  I usually do, and lately I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction.  Wolf’s previous book, Letter to a Young Patriot, caught my eye a little over a year ago.    In that one she traced the process by which nations slide into fascism.  She laid out 10 steps and sure enough, we’re well down the path.  As depressing as that one was to read and absorb, her new work is quite the opposite.  I highly recommend it.  It truly is a how-to for taking back our government and making it once again resemble what our Founders envisioned.  I’m looking forward to getting further into it, and to doing my part.  And I expect that I may be challenging myself to get out of my comfort zone.  I’ve started by writing — letters to the editor, to members of Congress, this blog– and talking. But as important as those are, they’re only the beginning.  I challenge those of you who want to see things change to read Wolf’s book and to join in.  As I started writing letters, the response among my friends and readers of my local paper has varied.  Some are quietly supportive. Other have been more vocal — some in support and some very vocally opposed.  Most of the comments have been respectful, even when we may not agree.  But I listen.  And I’m trying to listen more and listen more actively so as to hear the fears and anger when it erupts.

Sometimes I dispair.  I know that not everyone is open even to consider change.  That’s ok.  Robert Altemeyer and George Lakoff have been following up on the work of Stanley Milgram for some time.  While Milgram investigated obedience to authority, Altemeyer refined Milgram’s ideas into some thing called conservative or right-wing authoritarianism . They conclude that there is a segment of the population (probably around 25%) who fall into the right-wing authoritarian mindset. We all know people like that.  They’re the ones who, when confronted with facts about Sen. Obama cling to the negative smears.  John Deanhas written about them and their mindset in his book Conservatives Without Conscience and their effect in Broken Government.   We’ve seen a lot of these folks both in government and outside of it over the past several decades.  And we’ve seen what happens when they are in control.

But they represent only 25% of the population — clearly not enough to win elections on their own.  If Lackoff and Altemeyer are right, there is likely another 25% of the population who represent a diametrically opposite mindset — also not enough to succeed without the help of the 50% who can be reached by either side.  For the past 8 years, and largely going back as much as 40 years, the authoritarians have been in control.  Whether by fear or by Reagan’s sunny ways, they have been very effective at swaying that center group.  But if the polls are to be believed, the center is shifting this time. That plus millions of newly registered voters who are seemingly willing to become engaged in the process.  The reasons for the shift seem clear enough – a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo, combined with a candidate to offers something new and different.

Sen. McCain seems so old school, so last century, particularly in comparison to Sen Obama — whether it’s in using technology to reach and motivate people or just the sheer joy and camadarie that seems to permeate Obamarallies.  I, for one, am so very ready to put my smile back on after the last 8 years.  I think that’s one reason I was drawn to Wolf’s book.  The blurb I read on it made it sound like a clarion call for each of us to get and stay involved.  And so far, that’s exactly what it is.

If Sen. Obama wins the election, he will need our help to become “the change we’ve been waiting for.”  If Sen. McCain wins, we will need to work that much harder to make sure our voices are heard loud and clear.  Three million small donors will be a force to be reckoned with!