As Local Politics Change, So Will National Politics
One line I liked about President Bush’s speech tonight:
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“As local politics change, so will national politics.”
He was talking about Iraq, but it’s true for the United States too.
As we enter a Presidential year, it’s something to keep in mind.
It’s not like we don’t hear it all of the time - all politics is local.
But what does it mean?
To me, it means getting to know your neighbors, speaking with them about their daily needs, problems, ideas.
Family.
Work.
Play.
Troubles.
It’s not the kind of thing you hear regularly in national political circles.
At the local level, there’s little talk about political parties, or ideologies, or issues like climate change or corporate crime.
It’s about birthday parties, and truck traffic, and billboards, and development.
I really like interviewing people.
I do it every week at my day job in Washington, D.C., as editor of
Corporate Crime Reporter, a print newsletter for prosecutors, defense attorneys, law schools and large media outlets.
Every week, I spend an hour or so interviewing someone who knows something about corporate crime.
I then publish the interview question/answer format in Corporate Crime Reporter.
I’ve been doing it every week for twenty years.
Twenty years ago, the first interview I did for Corporate Crime Reporter was with Rudolph Giuliani.
He was at the time the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.
And he was leading the way in criminal prosecutions of corporate and white collar crime.
Twenty years and some 1,000 interviews later, I’m still at it.
But a few years ago, in my spare time, I started interviewing local people where I live - in Morgan County, West Virginia.
Not about corporate crime, but about their lives and issues in their lives.
And I started writing local news stories.
Some friends of mine helped me and we put up a web site - morgancountyusa.org.
At the profiles section, you’ll see the interviews I’ve done with local citizens. (Click on their pictures to see the interviews.)
At the news section, you’ll see the news stories I’ve written.
Every time we post a news story or interview, it is sent out to an e-mail list of about 400 interested people in the community.
Morgancountyusa.org has served as a catalyst for political change in Morgan County.
Haven’t heard much exciting about political change at the national level for next year.
But I like the idea of using morgancountyusa.org as a building block.
It can be easily replicated.
It’s not that expensive to run.
And if each of the 3,000 counties in the country had such an activist web site like morgancountyusa.org, we’d have a better country.
“As local politics change, so will national politics.”
Thank you, President Bush.
My sentiment, exactly.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.
Yup. But first, Americans that care have to get it through their thick skulls that we govern ourselves. Either we grow a strong viable third party or we purge the democratic party. Every single corporatist in the democratic party must be fired. And don’t listen to those that scoff at a third party. They are wrong. Some say, who would they caucus with? What a stupid question. Who does Bernie Sanders caucus with. Progressive democrats, of course. The skys the limit if conventional wisdom is tossed out the window.
I also like the idea of using morgancountyusa.org as a building block. —- easily replicated. — not that expensive to run- - - And if each of the 3,000 counties in the country had people discussing such an activist web site, we’d probably have a better country.
The sheltering umbrella under which we’re reading this is “common dreams”. I wonder how these dreams ever spread out to be multiplied by the thousands not yet reading or thinking about being a good neighbor. What makes more people visit the “virtual community” site and learn about what others think is best for the “community”?
Any answers?
This interesting, imaginative idea could be extended to interviewing community residents who don’t see themselves as supporting the peace movement and a progressive agenda generally. It would help foster real local dialogue, which doesn’t happen much now, and it would force progressive activists to become better at communicating with a broader public, something we are now quite bad at. And so long as we don’t communicate well, the broader public will continue to see us as marginal, outside the mainstream, and not to be taken very seriously. This modest idea has significant potential!
If only… the majority of Americans live in big cities where “local” political participation is, to say the least, challenging, and the class war is all but won, or lost, depending on whether you’ve got more than you need or not enough to survive. Out in the burbs, the neighbors barely speak to one another. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, counties or towns where the locals have organized a bit, but the paradigm is all but set in concrete: no matter what “we the people” do or say or demand, the war goes on, the rich continue to rape us, and the Earth keeps getting sicker.
Which makes it extremely difficult to find the motivation to fight a Goliath that wins (by lying, cheating, stealing and ignoring all laws and rules and codes of conduct,) every round…
This what I have been saying all along. Obviously, we are not getting anywhere writing letters, placing phone calls, and emailing our Congress people in Washington D.C. If we want political change, we must start locally: dismantling the ivory tower piece by piece starting at home. Then the movement will spread regionally, then nationally.
We should purge the Republican party also. There was a time when the Republican party (perhaps 19th century) though serving elite interests, probably had more going for it than the Democrats.
What happened to the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt? Arguably there really are muliple good ideas, multiple — but differing — ideological responses to policy. Today we have two bad camps of incoherrent and largely overlapping corporatism.
This is much wider than a turf battle between progressives and the Dims. This is a problem between Americans and the interface with politics at-large.
Local politics makes me crazy! It’s all for one and one for one, or two!
It’s time for election again for local politicians in Western New York. Unfortunately we have a town where the big corporation has bought and paid for the votes. Maybe that’s too harsh. What I should be saying is the local people have been listening to the lies and never verified the facts. The local politicians in our little town has given up the town’s rights for future expansion of Chemical Waste Management FOREVER! Town’s rights - that’s all of us living in this town. The canidates change but the binding agreement does not. That just isn’t right especially when the towns people have started opening their eyes to see the light of truth.
Getting a good canidate to run is the hard job in local politics. In a small community with no growth for decades where individuals have connections and relationships that their daily lives depend on, how do you get them to be pro-active?
I will get my neighborhood association to do this.
mommy,
I do not want to make this sound overly simplistic, because in reality it is not. You have to show other members of your community what negative impact the corporation is having on the town. Sure they would see it as more jobs, but the residents have to look at the bigger picture. Have information sessions, even if you start out with a small group of people. I lived in a small midwestern town, and there was no “international news” section. People pretty much accepted at face value what they heard on the radio or watched on television. Yet few residents had the interest to ask probing questions. No doubt it is difficult, but information sessions can be very helpful. Show what other towns of similar size have accomplished and how they have become proactive in politics. Nonetheless, I completely understand your frustration.
Actually, this isn’t true.
I’ve seen lots of progressives and change involved in local politics. The locals in the Colorado caucuses passed resolutions calling for an end to the Iraq war in 2004. I think they’ve also passed a resolution calling for impeachment.
The problem is this. The leadership of the Democratic Party doesn’t listen. They could care less what is happening at the local level and what people at the local level think. How many local Democratic groups have passed resolutions calling for the end of the war or impeachment.
So, maybe the changes in the local politics will filter up to the national level. Again, nice idea, but it ain’t happening. In order to get admitted to the national leadership, you have to buy into their agenda. Nancy Pelosi is a prime example. When she was just a back-bencher from CA, she was pretty progressive. But obviously, to get the job as speaker she had to promise to abandon those beliefs and instead follow the pro-war, pro-corporate conservative line of the Democratic Party.
Rep. Obey and Rep. Conyers follow the same pattern. They seem pretty good when they are powerless back benchers in the minority. But they abandon their ideals and beliefs in order to get the powerful committee chair positions they now hold.
The key fact is that the Democratic Party is not democratic. Its a top-down driven power structure, and only those who agree to follow the center-right, pro-war, pro-corporate positions held by the top of the party are admitted into positions of power.
Success in local politics is good for local issues. Please get involved. But anyone who things that working at the local level will change national policy isn’t paying attention. If you want to change local policy, you need to have the money to be making 6 and 7 figure donations to these mobs …uh parties. If you aren’t doing that, they aren’t listening and they don’t care what you think. And they’ve got control over the systems to make sure they stay in those positions.
On the other hand, if by working locally you mean going outside the Democratic Party and building a new party from the ground up that will represent people and behave democratically, then yes … that’s exactly what to do.
Just regard the Democrats as being as much as the enemy as the Republicans and you won’t go wrong.
I think the comments by Thomas Albright are spot-on, and the comments following are terrific!
I live in Delaware. Corporate and old money interests are the power. The game has been rigged despite the majority Democratic voters. In 2004, a group of us, Democrats, Independents, Greens, even Republicans, organized for Kerry in our county. We were good. Among our group there was the president of the state’s MENSA, a retired Congressional legislative aide; Jim and Sarah Brady; retired federal government civil servants with special expertise; a former DC lobbyist and more than a few well-educated, talented citizens. But the computer voting machines were 5% off from the exit polls, an impossibility. Even though Kerry won, you can bet that many of our flipped votes contributed to Bush’s so called majority.
Ther is always the doom sayers all politics is local , it just may not happen as quickly as some of us would like but it is the only way for long lasting change to take place. Who hires the local police and fire Deps. Who sets up your bldg codes and planning your zoning. Its hard work but your involment is essential if we are to save this world. My grandchildren are worth the effort.
Local politics never change.
It’s the same old group of hereditary affluent calling the shots.
It’s the same “No new taxes” vs “We want more services” struggle
It’s the same dropouts, burnouts, dealers, & hobos
It’s the same ALWAYS corrupt police keeping the status quo
The size of the town or burg varies, but these basics never change.
Against the comments voicing pessimism, cynicism, and despair, may I offer this: What needs to be done is not impossible. That means it’s our responsibility to try as seriously as we know how to end the war, save the planet, and engage the broad fight for economic and social justice. And so long as public officials are put in place by voters, the people retain a critically important tool of a democratic system. (Yes, I know: election machines can be jiggered, but so far that isn’t the norm.) But this means progressives have to learn to communicate far more effectively with our fellow citizens than we now do.
The battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary, nonpoliticized people is critical–the consent of the governed and all that–and it’s one that conservatives take very seriously. And it’s all about communication–frightening people with the spectre of terrorism, painting the left as some mindless radical fringe (to keep people from taking our ideas seriously), refusing to engage in dialogue except on their own terms. So far progressives have not been particularly effective in countering this very calculated campaign. So to get back to Russell Mokhiber’s original comment, let’s look for and embrace creative new ways that reduce barriers to communication. His is a great one.
People who insist that third parties can’t thrive (like the Greens) don’t get this. We should be running for school boards, city councils and town boards. Volunteer to be on planning committees. It’s not exciting, but it’s the only way real change is going to happen.
Don’t give your $50 to a presidential campaign, give it to a local candidate. Work for an independent or Green running for highway commissioner. Run yourself!
There are hundreds of Greens in office all over the country. And these cities & towns are thriving.
Get involved!
Change won’t come until an adjustment in our values is overhauled. As long as we set pompous wealthy thieves in high places on pedestals and as long as we condone the privileged instead of applauding those who are full of sincerity, character and humanitarian principles (not religious fools), local politics will not go very far in getting back our Democratic principles. Change comes first in the family and in the schools and in the mind.
There are over 511,000 elected officials in the US. Over 96% (491,000) of them are local elected officials. This is the foundation of our political pyramid. Only after we get more people involved in local politics and running for local office can we expect to make changes up above.
WWW.LocalPolitics101.Com