by Ethan Johnson
June 25, 2007

It's official: I have political hand-wringing fatigue.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as though I don't actually care about a great many things, but after a while, the histrionic emails, letters, and phone calls get really, really old. I have grave doubts as to the effectiveness of these would-be sales pitches. For example:

• This is true: Amnesty International wants me/us to buy some CD and propel it into the Billboard® Top 10 to raise awareness about genocide in Darfur. I want the genocide to stop in Darfur too, and I have an excellent suggestion: Compel those who are bringing it about to end it. What song is gracing the charts these days isn't going to raise much awareness of anything, frankly, except "wow, there's a new song on the charts." Call me cynical.
• Some other political action group wants me/us to sigh a petition to the tune of 100,000 signatures to ensure that [issue] becomes a campaign issue for the 2008 US presidential election. Really...? Way less than 1% of the US public (never mind the voting public) has that kind of pull? I suppose so, but we're talking about "richest 1% of US citizens", not Joe or Jane Voter. Again, call me cynical. Wanna know how the few can bring that about without it purely being a money thing? Strongly support a third-party candidate. The usual suspects will contort into pretzel knots to woo away those votes. See Perot, Ross, 1992.
• We're in week # (I lost count) of the imminent threat for the US Supreme Court to either completely eradicate womens' rights, or mandate involuntary abortions, especially for the God-fearing. Other civil rights have eroded too, you know. More immediately and certainly without fanfare. Someone (cynically) pointed out somewhere that abortion is never going to be 100% mandated or outlawed, because it is too much of a cash cow for either side to attract support and money. That's too cynical even for me, but I wonder. And this is not to belittle the issue... I am pro-choice, but I don't have a uterus so I defer to those who do as to what choice makes the most sense.

Honorable mention goes to all of the various religious groups who are so cock-sure that [whatever] is going to happen [whenever] because of [something or other]. I had a random, amusing thought the other day: The Earth is what, 6 billion years old? More? (I'm not a geologist so I reserve the right to be reasonably ignorant as to the specifics other than "more than 7 days old.") So considering all of that elapsed time, and how short the average human life is, there is a lot of cock-surety as to what happens next, isn't there? For sure condemnation to Hell. For sure reincarnation. For sure ceasing to exist once you die, the end, no soul, no nothing. Small wonder that I'm increasingly interested in "tending my garden" in the Voltaire sense rather than fretting about political hand-wringing or so-and-so's latest cock-sure dogma.

Regarding petitions, I would like concrete evidence that any of these web-based petitions was solely responsible for a bill passing through congress, or equally, being voted down. I was amused and annoyed to receive political spam warning of the dangers of a would-be yes vote, and moments after the message arrived, congress voted the bill down for completely unrelated reasons. Another spam come over the wire saying "we did it!" No, "we" didn't do jack.

MoveOn is one of the worst offenders. I asked repeatedly to see actual results from my donations, and was never given a response. Ads were always placed in some other news outlet that I didn't have ready access to, either in print or on TV. Claims that whatever petition, or march, or sit-in was going to "change everything" rolled in sometimes several times a day. The clincher came when they fell short of a fundraising target and wouldn't say what they planned to do with the money that they collected. I stopped falling for it, and told them to quit bothering me. I'm more interested in what works, and spamming people with dire warnings day after day isn't cutting it.

By the way, note that many US political messages and planned actions are predicated on the Bush administration possessing this characteristic called "shame". News flash: They don't have any. Watch any given White House press briefing for proof. This isn't Mr. Smith Goes to Washington where the bad guy takes himself out of contention wailing "I'm not fit to serve this office." Don't hold your breath for that game-changing performance out of anyone on the Bush roster, especially Bush and Cheney. Shameless and proud of it.

So what will work, if political spammery isn't worth the paper it is printed on?

• Hold people/organizations accountable. "Accountable" is defined as "this person or organization is responsible for a net end result, and when that net end result is not achieved punitive measures are enforced." So if you are pissed at Democrats, and swear that you won't vote for any until they cave to your demands that reincarnation be taught in churches, don't actually vote for any Democrats. If you are pissed at Republicans, and swear that you won't vote for any until they pay out 3000% tax refunds and collect -3000% in tax revenues, don't actually vote for any Republicans. Small children get wise to empty threats from a parent, so what makes adults more immune somehow? If you threaten to withhold votes until demands are met, and then you shower them with votes anyway, they'll find all sorts of new and improved ways to placate you without actually delivering on any promises.
• Take an active interest. Accent on "active". I might be passively concerned about a raft of issues, but that won't necessarily bring about a desired end result. By attending the meetings, making your physical presence felt when and where needed, refusing to be placated without seeing actual results or receiving actual benefits, and so on, politicians and the like can't "just" toss off a one-liner and feel like they've accomplished something constructive. Most people do not have the time, patience, or motivation to maintain an active interest in political issues locally, let alone nationally, or globally. Change that equation, and revel in the flop sweat when the usual ruses and ploys fall flat.
• Don't take no for an answer. Lots of politicians get mealy-mouthed and vacuous concerning big issues because they either can't or won't commit to anything lest it be used against them by their opponent(s), or they are beholden to financial interests that are paying the freight for their election campaign. If the candidate won't take a firm stand on your pet issue(s), find one that will. If none will, consider alternatives, up to and including making a run yourself. See the second bullet point above for why this point doesn't quite play out in reality as people might hope.

Face it: The status quo persists in the US political sphere because of what I suppose is a blend of voter apathy and voter ADD: One group doesn't think voting matters, and guarantees that they won't get anything they want, and the other wants a great many things but they can't pick one and stick to it long enough to effect any lasting change. Not to tweak anyone with an interest in changing the US health care system, but topical movies come and go (cough... Fahrenheit 9/11... cough) and while people vent their collective outrage in the short term, when the chips are down they have moved on to some other issue and miss the opportunity to actually throw the bums out, change the world, or whatever the cause celebre of yesteryear was.

Finally, the most important advice of all: Lead by example. Wanna know how trees grow? Seeds get planted, that's how. Know how trees don't grow? By writing a poem about trees. This is really a topic for a future article but the drive-by version is simply this: Be the change you want to see in the world. Yeah, I know that's a tired phrase. But it's not any less true. Like the bumper sticker says, if you don't want any abortions, don't have one. If you want more trees, plant more. If you want less smog, pollute less. And so on. And don't the politicians love those photo ops with people who are effecting positive change?

And here's a closing thought from Dear Old Dad: People who don't work to achieve their own dreams will spend their lives working to help other people achieve theirs. I'd say the nature of physical and political reality reflects this all too well. <EM>