Why the 2008 Elections Are So Important

Before I started this blog a few weeks ago, I posted on my other blog the reasons I believe the '08 presidential election is so important that ANY of the Democratic candidates are better than ANY of the GOP candidates running: the courts and the rule of law. But there are many reasons why I believe that all of the elections of '08, not just the presidency, will be the most important in a generation:

• The Bush administration was the first time that "movement conservatives," who began taking over the Republican Party in the '70s and first won the presidency in '80, ran all 3 branches of government (at least, from Jan. '01 to Nov. '06). So, the public had its first full experience of the philosophy of modern conservatism in complete control. Polls show we didn't much like it--but the November elections are our chance to repudiate this political philosophy resoundingly--in a way that changes the landscape for a generation.
• That's why the GOP is trying to make the public believe that what it disliked was just G.W. Bush--or just bad news from Iraq, or just Congressional gridlock. We have to make clear that we reject the very forces that brought Bush to power.
• The climate crisis will not wait another 4 years, never mind another 8. This is our last chance to get laws that will actually have enough teeth in them to tackle the enormity of the problem.
• We have a chance to tell corporate Democrats of the DLC and other DINOS (Democrats in Name Only) that going back to the Clinton years of the '90s, while an improvement, is not enough. We need bigger change than that. Indeed, for many of us progressives, the Clinton years were a huge disappointment--one that only looks good now because these last 7 years have been so atrocious.
• I am a devout Christian--married to a minister. But I am no fan of the Religious Right. Back when Republican Sen. John McCain actually told the truth (2000), he rightly called them "agents of intolerance." For a variety of reasons, the Religious Right is currently divided and, at least, on the back foot. (Predictions of its demise are premature). Many younger evangelicals are rediscovering the evangelical left that I knew in the '70s--in which faith propelled one to work for racial and gender justice, to end poverty, to care for creation, to work for peace. Not to demonize immigrants, gays, persons of other religions, scientists, or atheists. Many of the leaders of the RR are aging or dying. The ones which remain are divided about the GOP candidates for president--or are sitting this one out. This election is a chance to break the electoral power of the RR--not in the name of militant atheism (although folks like Christopher Hitchens are a result of the RR), though we protect atheists and agnostics, of course. No, we reject the RR in the name of the Constitution, and of the ideal of America as a place where all faiths are respected--and the consciences of those who have no particular religious faith, too. Rejecting the RR means restoring tolerance, respect, reason, scientific integrity, and church-state separation.
• This election will determine whether or not we can win back the respect of the community of nations or whether we will continue to become a rogue nation that is a bigger threat to peace and stability than anything Osama bin Laden can do. It will determine whether or not we honor treaties or continue to "unsign them." It will determine our attitude toward international law--and the institutions of international law--most of whom we helped to build in the first place.
• This election may be our last chance for a generation or more to save the gains of the New Deal and try to restore the best of the Great Society: To return us to a mainly middle class society in which poverty and homelessness is rare, in which extremes of wealth and poverty are absent, in which progressive taxation ensures that all pull their weight and that much-needed public institutions and services have the funding needed. (We won't solve all this with one election, but it could determine the direction for a generation or more.)
• How we treat minority populations, not just racial and ethnic minorities, but sexual minorities, gender identity minorities, religious minorities, and those with unpopular viewpoints will be greatly affected for good or ill by this election.
• We blew the chance for universal healthcare in 1992-3. This may be our last chance to join every other industrialized nation and make healthcare a universal right, not a privilege of wealth.

The list could go on for pages. This is enough. It will require active citizenship. College students: If you are not registered to vote, change that immediately. Then get registration forms and register everyone you know, everyone in your dorm, sorority, fraternity, etc. Pass out voter registration forms at every ballgame, protest, concert and dormroom bull session.

Write letters to the editors of local papers. Volunteer for candidates' campaigns (start with Andrew Horne's) Pass out literature and buttons and T-shirts and yard signs and bumper stickers. Staff a phone bank. Contribute money. March against the war and against torture. Get involved with social change organizations.

Democracy is NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT. A sign I saw said, "Democracy is like sex--it works better when you participate." Well, maybe not. If democracy were really like sex, people would not need to be ENCOURAGED to participate! Democracy is hardly perfect--but it sure beats alternatives. We need it to work. We need your participation.

This is the year. Now is the time. We are the people we have been waiting for. In 2008, we take back our country.