Knock on doors. Stuff envelopes. Call phones. Donate if it's feasible for you. Run for something local if you've got the resources. Just talk to people, if that's all you have time for. Be (nonviolently) belligerent when people are being bigoted assholes, if that's a risk you're willing to take.
I admit, there is much more stuff like this I could do. And I want to. But it's difficult when I'm working 60-80 hours a week and have a family that wants attention, too. And home life issues that generally make me want to avoid public attention. Not to mention fear of persecution at work due to fox news crazy conservative bosses, whom I have witnessed bullying other co-workers over political beliefs.
I have written representatives before, and received what seemed like canned responses. So was never sure if the stuff was actually read.
In other words: get out the vote. The essence of the democratic process. That's the only moral and ethical way to approach this. The whole "we need to burn these fuckers out" is exactly the same anti-democratic ideal the worst elements of the Right get attacked for.....just with a heavy dose of moral outrage from the Left.
And without the ability to get involved in the organization, outreach, and primary parts of the election process, voting amounts to picking from a list of options that were chosen for me. I posted the other day about my ballot. There may be places where there is more to fight for on the ballot, but there isn't much of consequence on mine.
Basically if you're legitimately advocating violence, you've already lost the game. We've all already lost the game, at that point. The savvier, more patient elements of the far Right have realized their best strategy is to say something just offensive enough, and watch people on the Left dig their own hole and jump in it.
You do realize you're saying this at a time when the current hot topic is actual violence from the right-wing, yeah? Mass murder with the implicit approval of our top leaders? They never stopped advocating. They moved beyond. And they haven't "lost the game" for it, yet. They might still. But I maintain that this point feels like a huge disconnect with current reality.
Edit: And many of the people you are denigrating for their aggressive stance on politics have literally faced danger physically on their doorstep in recent times. Someone already mentioned the voter suppression of native americans in North Dakota. This hot on the heels of facing blatant human rights violations and breaking of international treaties at Standing Rock. This isn't some foreign policy issue. This is inside our own country. My state's police forces participated in that. We are literally at that point, whether it's happening to you personally or not.
Yep. Look at the tactics used by Astroturf front groups. They didn't come up with those tactics, they were copied from thr 1960s green groups who got the Clean Air Act passed, and the Clean Water Act passed. And rioting didn't achieve that. One of the most effective methods was in fact letter writing campaigns to incumbent politicians, because as much as they like corporate donations, they need voters to vote for them. Notice that "street riots" isn't quite in the Astroturf playbook.
rioting can potentially stall legislation that's in the pipeline, it cannot generate new legislation. Nobody is going to author entire new bills protecting the environment because there are rioters.
There may not be precedent on the environment front in regards to rioting (that I can recall right now or have the time to look for), but I've made plenty of argument in the past that it has its place. Plenty of rights we take for granted would not exist without it. Plus, you're invoking a period in history when regulation of business wasn't the political taboo that it is today, due to the great depression and the gilded age being fresh in memory at the time.
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Topic: AmeriPol thread (Read 4229481 times)