2/23/2020 Focus on participation
Happy Sunday- Here in Ellensburg, Mother Nature just sent us a reminder that winter is not over, in the form of a swirl of wind and snow.
My thought today is a reminder that, despite the tendency of pundits and analysts to declare conclusions after every primary or caucus, the choice of a candidate for the general election is also far from over. I find it difficult to tolerate the public focus on conflict, whether in debates, primaries, or caucuses. Journalists tell stories, and stories require conflict to be interesting to us as human beings. I get that. But there is a more important story, a deeper one, that can too often get lost in the noise.
This deeper story is about participation. Every individual who is participating (by showing up at a caucus, voting in a primary, talking to people in their circle about the election, sharing their values with others, expressing their desires for the kind of communities they want to create) represents something to encourage, celebrate, and defend as strenuously as we can.
Following each evolution of social norms to become more inclusive, to encourage and welcome more participation, is a backlash. More inclusion unleashes the fear of loss of privilege and power, loss of safety, loss of place, and we often lash out, trying to hang on. Almost always, part of the backlash is an effort to decrease participation in key decision processes. Exclude people from making societal decisions; maintain control of those decisions; and, thus, maintain a sense of safety, power, and privilege.
It can be leap of faith to realize that our safety and power increases with more participation. "Don't encourage those people to vote," we think privately. "They don't know enough, aren't educated enough, are too easily fooled, too easily led, too blind to the way they are being manipulated."
The history of our nation is full of this tension between expanding and contracting participation. Listen carefully to the narratives being promoted in the candidate selection process, and you will hear this story.
If the narrative makes you want to opt out of participation, or if it makes you want to exclude others, question it.
Over and over, results show that the greater the participation in the electoral process, more candidates are elected who represent the vast consensus of our country. The vast majority wants secure access to health care, schools and churches safe from gun violence, and equal rights for all. Refuse to succumb to the temptation to believe that others with different preferences for how we achieve these things are our enemies. Our battle is to expand participation in the solutions.
Participation in making the decisions that impact our communities can be a uniting force. The good news: our participation is in our hands. Unless we want money to continue to determine the "winners," our most powerful option is to vote, and to encourage others - no matter their positions on the political spectrum - to vote as well.
One person, one vote. Multiply by millions. This is our work for the next 10 months, and for the next ten generations.
Sending love and gratitude for your company on this journey -
Liz