Stop Staring at Your Phone, Feeding the Tech Giants Traffic, and Get Involved –

Dolly v. Donald: A perfect expression of Altruism v. Selfishness.

The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

How many red flags do we have to wave before enough people will listen and take action?

For many years now, we have been pointing out over and over again that the future of democracy and the planet depends on “the people.”

The press can only raise red flags when danger lurks.

During my daily morning reading on Monday, another red flag popped up from another nonprofit working to try to save American democracy.

Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, had an op-ed published in The New York Times.

“American democracy has been deteriorating with alarming velocity since President Trump’s return to the White House. Every day, it seems, there’s a new Watergate-level outrage. Nearly seven in 10 Americans are dissatisfied with how our democracy is working.

“All too often,” she writes, “those who hold or have held positions of power still fail to acknowledge that long before the present crisis, our system wasn’t delivering meaningful opportunity and representation for all Americans. And too many of our leaders who yearn for now-discarded norms carry on without acknowledging that no single institution, on its own, can prevent democratic backsliding.

“Many of the excesses of the Trump administration have been successfully challenged through our judicial system. My organization and others have leveraged the power of the courts to block destructive initiatives, from Mr. Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ slush fund to threats against the First Amendment to draconian — racist, in some cases — immigration policies. Our legal system has at times buckled, but it hasn’t broken, so it can be tempting to think that the long list of judicial rulings secured against the administration, combined with a midterm election wave, will get us past the crisis. It’s understandable to anticipate — to hope — that coming out of the midterms and heading into the next presidential election cycle, a savior, something or someone, will emerge to usher in a return to democratic norms and show would-be autocrats the door.

“Here’s the problem: Waiting for a savior has led many of us not to exercise the greatest power we have: our own.”

Our Democracy Is at Stake. Stop Waiting for a Savior.

“Using the courts to rein in Mr. Trump’s authoritarian leanings remains essential, but it isn’t sufficient. If the midterms result in the shift of power many expect, it won’t be as easy for the president to trample the Constitution or run roughshod over Congress. But Americans should be clear that there is no cavalry coming.”

***

“Many of us confuse consuming political news, engaging on social media and participating in group chats with doing the things that we, as individuals, can do to help change our country’s trajectory. Instead of doomscrolling, we can organize our neighbors, work at local polling places or join community groups. We must not be satisfied with watching the decline of American democracy from our phones.”

Yes, she continues the education, the philosopher Richard Rorty observed that left-leaning reform movements in the earlier part of the 20th century emphasized the agency that individuals have to create change. He explained that the social movements that led to checks on corporate power, workers’ rights, women’s rights and civil rights were powered by ordinary Americans who took direct action to bring about meaningful change.

“By contrast, in later reform movements Dr. Rorty perceived a trend of spectatorship, in which progressives in elite and academic circles were often more interested in being observers who critiqued American society rather than matching those critiques with action. Nearly 30 years ago, he warned that if those who sought progress failed to push institutions to deliver for the working and middle classes, Americans would embrace a populist savior-strongman who would gain power, only to eviscerate our democracy.”

He was not the only one to warn people about this. We were writing about this in 2015 and 2016 and again in 2020.

I bet you’ve never seen the pictures of Donald Trump wearing white pants and shoes in his first big stadium rally in Mobile, Alabama in September, 2015. That’s where this all started.

2015: The Donald Woos the Heart of Dixie, But Jesus Remains Politically Polygamous

2016: Fascist Dictator Donald Trump Stuns American Establishment, Defeats Hillary Clinton for President

2020: Can Altruism Trump Selfishness to Save Democracy and Planet Earth?

How many red flags do we have to wave before enough people will listen and take action?

How can we stop data centers if all people do is feed them traffic?

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