Summary: Are most Americans disinterested or distrustful of marching chanting mobs? History suggests that would be good news, as their role has more often been inimical than beneficial. For those ignorant of history, including the fiasco of Occupy Wall Street, Democracy Spring gives them an opportunity to feel good by marching for vaguely described political goals. Funded in part by billionaire George Soros, they want to rein in billionaires playing with politics. Yet another odd development in Campaign 2016. {2nd of 2 posts today.}
“It’s time to take mass nonviolent action on a historic scale to save our democracy. This April, in Washington, D.C., we will demand a Congress that will take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice.
“The campaign will begin on April 2nd with a march from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. where thousands will gather to reclaim the US Capitol in a powerful, peaceful, and massive sit-in that no one can ignore. Over 2,000 people have already pledged to risk arrest between April 11th-18th in what will be one of the largest civil disobedience actions in a generation. Together we can open the door to reforms previously considered impossible and reclaim our democracy. Join us!”
Got to love the crackpot reasoning that follows, a tangible demonstration of why the Left has lost most of its influence during the past fifty years.
“This spring, in the heart of the primary season, as the national election begins to take center stage, Americans of all ages, faiths, political perspectives, and walks of life will bring the popular cry for change to Washington in a way that’s impossible to ignore: with nonviolent civil disobedience on a historic scale.
“We will demand that Congress listen to the People and take immediate action to save our democracy. And we won’t leave until they do — or until they send thousands of us to jail, along with the unmistakable message that our country needs a new Congress, one that that will end the legalized corruption of our democracy and ensure that every American has an equal voice in government.
“With hundreds of patriotic Americans being sent to jail, day after day for at least a week — simply for sitting in to save our democracy — the drama in Washington will rock the business-as-usual cycle of this election and catapult this critical issue onto center stage. We will focus the nation’s attention as never before on the urgency of this crisis, the existence of solutions to it, and the strength of the popular demand to enact them. We will make this election a referendum on whether our democracy should belong to the People as a whole or to the billionaire class alone.”
This seems vague (“existence of solutions” without details) — as if collective wishing were sufficient to accomplish a sophisticated and complex bit of political engineering. Yet again we see how far Americans will go to avoid the organizing and political reasoning that built this nation. The suffragettes, the temperance movement, the civil rights movement, and the anti-War movement all had specific and clear goals. The Democracy Spring protesters want the rich to have less political influence, probably not possible unless wealth and income inequality are reversed — about which they have no specific proposals to debate. Update: Their recommendations are buried in the FAQ, a poorly considered grab-bag of ideas (some unconstitutional, some bizarrely unlikely to be passed). It’s as if the organizers pulled these together after a hour (max) searching on Google. See the comments for a discussion.
Like children, they want action. Those readers with proper educations will recognize this logic.
{Tinkerbell} was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.
Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees.”Do you believe?” he cried.
Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate. She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasn’t sure. “What do you think?” she asked Peter.
“If you believe,” he shouted to them, “clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.” Many clapped. Some didn’t. A few beasts hissed. The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved.
An Arab Spring for American?
Radical leftist anthropologist Maximilian Forte compares this to the protests of the Arab Spring. Since the Arab Spring led to the Arab Winter — more authoritarianism and religious extremism — that’s a serious warning. Mobs, however labeled, can unleash powerful political forces. Worse, every side can use them. Left and Right. Democrats and Tyrants. Tit for tat, leading to a downward spiral.
For More Information
Please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter. See all posts about Trump and the New Populism, about Ways to Reform American Politics, and especially these…
- Lessons from the failure of Occupy Wall Street, its lasting legacy.
- Occupy & Tea Party are alike, both saving America through cosplay.
- How do protests like the TP and OWS differ from effective political action?
- The Million Vet March, a typical peasants’ protest. Does it portend more serious protests in our future?
- Why America has militarized its police and crushes protests.
- The protests in NYC repeat those in Ferguson, and probably will end the same – as wins for the 1%.
- Why don’t political protests work? What are the larger lessons from our repeated failures?
Ready for the after-action interviews
