Moving Toward November 3rd

 Each day, as we approach the election, seems like a year. On social media, the ramp-up of opposing posts began long ago and seems to approach an asymptote. A few thoughts on what is happening and what I am doing to navigate these perilous times.

Engagement is important and that takes many forms. I have contributed money on multiple occasions to Democratic candidates because, unfortunately, money drives politics. If you have not read Jane Mayer’s book Dark Money: The Hidden History of Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right you need to do so. America has struggled with inequality for many years but the rise of a plutocratic caste of billionaires, intent on amassing ever more wealth and power, seems to me to be central to why we are so polarized today. Sadly, the concept of “one person, one vote” is perverted when a small number of plutocrats can tilt the field away from democracy. Fat cats of the Daddy Warbucks stripe, such as Charles Koch, use their money to finance so-called think tanks that churn out propaganda to keep politicians in office who will perform their will. As an example, a public university in Virginia, George Mason University, has become a hotbed of such propaganda solely because Koch and others poured multimillions into it for endowing professors who are little better than propagandists. I had an interesting interchange with a friend who cited one of them (in an article published in a right-wing online journal). There is no reasoning with someone who has been so thoroughly duped that they cannot investigate the background themselves.

Another way to remain engaged is by reaching potential voters. I have written letters this election cycle for Vote Forward and postcards for MomsRising. These go to registered Democrats who did not vote in the last election. They are intended to get these voters to the polls for what is arguably the most important election since 1860. Americans have been phenomenally uninvolved when it comes time to vote. I am trying to understand this but the apathy is appalling. My fervent hope is that at least some of those I reach by a letter or postcard turn out this November 3rd.  

I use social media as does almost everyone else. I am disappointed especially with Facebook because it seems to be a Trumpian swamp of disinformation. It is easy to place flat out lies on Facebook but even more insidious are the posts that decontextualize an issue. There is too much that is clickbait, something that causes you to click on a blaring headline. If you click on the story and read through it (warning: antiemetics advised) it becomes clear that the story has been spun or twisted; facts and context are often omitted. The writers of such fantasy are artists of propaganda. For context about how language can be weaponized and made into propaganda, Jason Stanley’s How Propaganda Works and George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant! are must-reads. Twitter is useful especially for breaking news but caution is needed when interpreting links to stories here as well,

Political cartoons are as old as printing. Maybe older. The modern-day Everyman equivalent is the meme, usually a photograph with something written on it. The quality of memes varies and does the quality of political cartoons. But on the whole, political cartoons seem to be more thoughtful than the majority of memes. An example:

 

Last thoughts. We all have to live together after this election. We are all Americans. I do not hate the people who are “not on my side”, whatever that is supposed to mean. The plutocrats have developed an intricate method of polarizing us on a variety of planes. Racism. Misogyny. Class (even though we are supposedly a classless society). Ageism. Climate change. Religion. Abortion. Guns. Education. On and on and on. I have made my political view clear. I believe in liberalism, social justice, and an end to inequality in all spheres. I am also imperfect and have spent a considerable amount of time in the autumn of life trying to understand why we behave the way we do. I think we all need to become skeptics and do the homework ourselves. That will be a hard job. It is not impossible. Onward.