| Blogs, websites, and YouTube videos have become a powerful two-way megaphone for candidates and voters alike. And that's exciting. And it's becoming more so on a daily basis for a certain subset of politically engaged, web-savvy citizens.
But outside the new media choir, the vast majority of Americans still sing themselves to sleep.
Civic apathy runs rampant in the home of the brave, and it's smothering our democracy. Not just in terms of low voter turnout, but in terms of the quality of thought that goes into the act of voting -- and the degree of disengagement in between elections. The result is a massive level of ignorance about the big issues, and the policies that allegedly address them. And if that purple haze doesn't lift soon, there'll be no way to keep this nation healthy and thriving -- regardless of who the next president is, or which party controls Congress.
America faces a litany of increasingly complex crises. That was true even before terrorism and climate change emerged to threaten us to the core. But breakthrough solutions are few and far between. Power swings left, then right, then back again -- but our chronic problems just sit and fester. Yet every four years, we act like hypnotized sheep in our self-deluded search for a new savior to help unravel this mess. As if we, the people, have no greater responsibility in the matter.
But we do. And we must. Because in this day and age, no president or party can be wise enough, on their own, to solve America's many problems. And that's when they're acting virtuously. Which is not easy in the environment we place them in. For even well-intentioned politicians become corrupted or stymied by the special interests that fill the power vacuum created by a nation of absentee landlords.
Will we wait for another September 11 to jolt us out of our stultifying civic slumber? Or is there some other way we can be inspired to invest in a radical upgrade of the operating system of democracy?
"You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world"
-- Lennon/McCartney --
Before you change a thing, you need to be able to identify it.
And the thing that most needs changing in American politics is not the big bad "them" -- but us -- the people. The citizen slackers.
In my previous diaries, I referenced a pair of recent major studies that provided empirical evidence of the America's widespread civic ignorance. But I didn't mention one of the more surprising exclamation points on this national embarrassment. It appears, according to the Pew Research Center, that even in this tuned-in, always-on, electronically-connected age, the average American's dismal knowledge of national and international affairs hasn't improved one iota in the twenty years since the emergence of cable news and the internet. This is true for all age groups, though it appears that young people know the least.
No surprise there, as civics education in our schools has been in free fall for a long time. And that insanity clearly needs to be healed in a hurry. But even if that were achieved tomorrow, it'll be 20-30 years before those kids are running the society. Can we afford to wait that long?
Every four years we see huge, celebrity-filled ventures to urge young people to vote. And some also try (in vain) to motivate the younger generation to bone up on the issues.
But what about the grown-ups?
What about the 77 million baby boomers who could change the country overnight if they had the will? Should apathetic adults simply get a pass?
Not if we truly want to cure what ails this nation before it's too damn late.
To do that, American voters of all ages need an honest self-appraisal. Widespread civic ignorance may have been tolerable in less crisis-prone times. But we're not just in Kansas anymore.
"You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world"
Well, not quite all of us.
If you're reading this, you're obviously part of the engaged minority. But you undoubtedly have many friends, family members, and co-workers who live in the darkness of civic apathy. We should double our efforts to help them turn the lights on. One person at at time, if necessary.
This is, admittedly, a herculean task. The average person wears an armor of apathy to protect themselves from acknowledging their failure to do their jobs as citizens. This doubles the problem. They not only don't know or care about such things. But they subconsciously protect themselves from even thinking about them.
Shattering that armor needs to become the job of the engaged minority.
Because we-the-snoozers make up eighty plus percent of the population -- and we're so deeply ensconsed in our trance-like state that we're going to need a loud and loving wake-up call -- to remind us that our much cherished rights bear a cost in civic responsibilities that go well beyond the simple act of voting -- especially if that vote is influenced by little more than spin-tested slogans oozing out of emotionally manipulative TV spots or snarky web videos.
We need to be encouraged to accept the fact that 21st century citizenship requires a dedication to keeping oneself fully informed, and to conscientiously monitoring the performance of those elected to manage our collective affairs. And these tasks need to be done on a near daily basis. For life.
Otherwise we can kiss this thing goodbye -- and have no one to blame but ourselves.
But who will dare speak to the country like that? You sure won't see any pols or pundits poking their fingers in the eye of the voter/viewer/consumer. And the soapbox is too often a counter-productive platform for music and movie stars of conscience.
Right now, today, there's only one sector of influence that can immediately and effectively pick up the torch from America's founding revolutionaries -- and that's the political blogosphere -- if enough online activists would choose to use their distributed power and collaborative intelligence to help spark a civic renaissance in America. A ruggedly non-partisan, long term effort to virally infect all key nodes of the culture -- the schools, the churches, the workplace, the dinner table, the social networks, and by all means the mainstream news and entertainment media.
The internet is the enabling tool. Potentially, a miracle tool. But if we really want a revolution, then we need a message worthy of the medium. A bottom-up, culture-wide, multi-generational message that urges a new definition of patriotism -- and what it means to be a responsible citizen in these trying times. A soulful message that helps ordinary Americans recognize they have a job to do as citizens -- an obligation as a member of a collective tied together by a mutually-beneficial social contract -- but that it's also in their own self-interest to stay informed and engaged, because that's how we ultimately learn how to shape national priorities, rather than be shaped by them.
In a recent speech at Occidental College, Bill Moyers remarked that when Woodrow Wilson spoke of democracy releasing the energies of every human being, "he was declaring that we cannot leave our destiny to politicians, elites, and experts; either we take democracy into our own hands, or others will take democracy from us."
But before we take it back, citizens first need to get a lot smarter about how to run it. Because there are no white knights coming to save us. We really must retire that fantasy once and for all.
Don't get me wrong. Elections are critical. We surely cannot survive another disaster-in-chief. So working passionately to elect your preferred candidates is clearly noble and necessary. But we also need to think big picture -- focusing not just on winning elections -- but on winning back the very idea of America, without which we're lost no matter who sits in the Oval Office, or on Capitol Hill.
"You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead"
There's only one way we're going to keep the American dream alive for future generations. We-the-peeps have to step up -- and commit an hour or more a day to reading serious newspapers, magazines, blogs, and websites. Everybody. Every day. And that's just for starters.
Idealistic? Yes. But what's the alternative? More zero sum game, ping-pong politics-as-usual? More "trust us pros to run things?" How's that been working out for us lately?
"You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We are doing what we can"
Something truly revolutionary needs to happen. And it needs to rise from the roots -- from the virtual to the real world. From the Self to the Governing.
We've reached a point where it's no longer enough for disgruntled voters to simply criticize or complain about politicians, or the media, or big business and their arm-twisting lobbyists who thrive only because the owners of America aren't minding the store. It's time to flip the mirror around -- to offer some long overdue constructive criticism of ourselves -- to try to inspire ourselves to reclaim our roles as true citizen patriots.
And the internet is where that conversation can and should start -- where the seed can be planted, where the meme can be manufactured.
"You say you've got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan"
It's axiomatic. If we want wiser and more effective government, we need wiser and more effective citizens. It's a simple syllogism for a self-governing society, but pols and pundits won't discuss it.
Who will then?
Political bloggers are fearless, and their voices are being heard and echoed by more and more of the mainstream press, and in turn the general public. That might not mean voters will be persuaded to support candidates favored by the netroots -- but it does suggest there's an even bigger, more profound and self-sustaining prize that our cybereyes can help bring into focus.
Imagine what might happen if -- between now and November 2008 -- the netroots were to use their increasingly loud megaphone, and almost limitless creativity, to help ignite a sea to shining sea conversation among the American people. By the people. For the people.
Imagine what might happen if masses of bloggers and other new-media opinion shapers put down their partisan swords for a few minutes each day, and collaborated on launching a truly revolutionary civic renewal campaign worthy of our founding ideals.
And not just for this election, but ongoing.
Want to leverage the netroots -- to grow and diversify its audience and influence? Then adopt a TransPartisan big idea. Not a Matt Bai policy-oriented big idea -- but a vision of a country being self-governed by a couple hundred million citizens actively participating in shaping and honoring the social contract -- and thus widely supporting enlightened policies enacted by political representatives of a new and higher caliber, attracted into public service by the new paradigm of an informed and engaged electorate.
Then plant that big fat meme deep in the ground, and take turns watering it every day.
A man from Vermont once said: "You have the power!" Indeed. And now is the time to use it in a more expansive way -- to challenge not just those running for president -- or those running Congress, or major news outlets -- but also to challenge us, the people, to stiffen our civic spine.
Help us connect the dots -- between rights and responsibilities -- between the individual and the collective -- between civic apathy and political corruption, and all that flows from that.
Help us make all the critical connections you can think of to demonstrate that the personal is political. Never more so than today.
Blog about it. Make an endless stream of YouTube videos about it. Start a "Take The Pledge" campaign ("I pledge allegiance to the idea that I will take my job as a citizen seriously").
In short, become a tidal wave of Tom Paines -- encouraging your audience to not only adopt a new citizenship manifesto, but to fire up their friends and family as well.
Reverse the curse of civic apathy and ignorance. That's a revolution worthy of the word.
A revolution of the American mind. |
STATE BLOGS
