In a Democracy, Citizens Dominate When They Exercise Their Power
The result of the Tuesday, 5 November 2024, presidential election is bracing but upon reflection so clearly exposes the flaws in our society--- while offering the opportunity to acknowledge those flaws and get to work addressing them--- that I am energized by the chance that we now have to draw upon the enormous institutional resources provided by the genius of our constitutional democracy and put democratic principles to work.
Thus did I awake on the morning of Wednesday, 6 November, with an odd sense of elation as to the prospects for advancing citizenship and the relevance of my K-12 Revolutionary activism to that advancement.
I put in some significant door-knocking time for both Kamala Harris and a couple of Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education candidates, with nary a victory among them. Harris was my favored candidate in the 2020 Democratic primaries; thus was I delighted at the Fates for providing the vice-presidential opportunity to Harris and the 2024 candidacy upon Biden's withdrawal.
I followed the polling data closely in the seven swing states and optimistically envisioned a Harris victory; but Trump's win cannot be put in the category of "shocker," given the state of the electorate.
My read on the election is significantly different from most analysts >>>>>
I am aware of the demographic groups in which Kamala lost ground and the perceptions that so many had of the state of the economy, never mind in the latter case that Biden-Harris actually managed the economy very well after dealing with the Covid mess left by Trump, and that at present GDP growth is just under 3 percent, inflation is a bit over 2%, job growth is strong, and the United States economy the envy of the highly developed nations of the world.
But people want to pay lower prices anyhow, in the supermarket, for houses, for gasoline (which should actually be taxed for investment in electric vehicle production and green energy sources). And because people, especially in the lower middle class, are feeling economic and overhyped border anxiety, they are willing to vote for a sexual predator, multi-count/multi-case criminal, pathological liar, and nasty human being with visions of autocracy.
Thus my own read >>>>>
The low information base and questionable ethics of the American public has been exposed.
People spend more time on social media than reading nonfiction books on government, economics, international affairs, and ethics--- or even seeking out quality online articles pertinent to such subject areas.
People know little of the behaviorist principles of psychology that would allow them to understand the social and physical environmental determinants of their own whims.
Until we create knowledge-intensive, skill-replete public education, full of opportunities to discuss and debate societal issues and ethical decision-making that sends people into the world prepared as citizens who grasp that decisions made for the good of all will actually result in a better life for the individual--- the body politic will be ever susceptible to lies and misrepresentations that induce decisions in search of evanescent personal advantage, rather than the public good.
But I am not weighed down by the immediate circumstance of Trump's election.
We still have a democracy.
In a democracy the people are the government.
This is time for personal activism in behalf of the issues important to the creation of a promising future for the generations to come.
Trump and his policies cannot prevail if people at the local and state levels counter with policies consonant with the public good.
Such activism undergirds my life, in my teaching of 45 students of all ages each week, and on my various platforms for advocacy as to the necessary overhaul of public education, all under the aegis of the New Salem Educational Initiative.
I feel so enormously lucky to have made the decision that I made 53 years ago to become a teacher of young people living at the urban core.
And, while as a matter of personal preference, I would rather use all of my considerable energies in teaching those students and engaging in research and advocacy pertinent to Taiwan, and in the many applications of my research and interviews concerning African America and the North Minneapolis African American community in particular, I also feel blessed to have ten years ago observed my obligation to conduct an intensive investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
That investigation and the examination of a salient example of the urban school district in the United States puts me in a position to advocate for the overhaul of public education and thus the production of a more enlightened citizenry.
Not everyone is positioned for active citizenship of the sort needed at present. But for those of us extroverts, ambiverts, and introverts able to thrust themselves in the public arena, the opportunities are abundant to fulfill the promise of democracy.
I am heartened by those across the United States--- lawyers dedicated to challenging Trump’s extralegal attempts, governors vowing to challenge any Trump draconian actions pertinent to social welfare or immigration, environmentalists and climate change advocates declaring themselves willing to do the necessary work to ensure the human future on planet Earth, feminists and LBGTQ activists steeling themselves for carrying forth their work in opposition to toxic masculinity--- who are ready for the struggle.
The genius of the American political system is the federalist distribution of shared power and the legal protections of the Bill of Rights that relegate the presidency to just one locus of power.
We cannot lose a democracy unless we fail to act.
So as citizens we must exercise our right and our obligation to act.
I am honored and blessed to have multiple opportunities to exercise my talents for citizenship and I urge others to identify their own talents and arenas of action.
Therein is my cause for elation, an elation that I blissfully witness in others, and that I urge upon everyone capable of exercising the opportunity for citizenship.
No comments:
Post a Comment