I see the occasional piece of discourse slide past me on this website (but also in other places) that goes something like this:
Every four years the democrats tell us our democracy is in danger and we have to vote for them or else! When will the centrists liberals stop holding us hostage like this! Why don’t they fix it for once and for all?
Here’s the thing: you can’t permanently get rid of fascism. We had a WORLD WAR that killed 75 million people to try to get rid of fascism and it just keeps on popping up again. It’s a weed that will always come back because it grows in the fertile soil of human misery, and until we end human misery for good, our soils will be rich and productive for a long time. Fascism flourishes when people are scared, unhappy, and suffering, because it gives humans easy solutions to complex problems.
Anyway… We! The Royal we! Need to stop thinking of voting as one weird trick to fix things forever and start thinking of it as weeding. Every four years you’re going to have to weed this fucking garden. For the foreseeable future. Now put your gardening gloves on and get to work, otherwise you’re going to end up with a fascist garden growing nothing but the thorn bushes of oppression and subjugation.
yep, and not just every four years! any time there is an election, local or state or national, it's important to vote. then get on the email newslettr so you know what your elected representatives are doing, and you can tell them what you think the priorities should be. if you want democracy, you have to participate, DEMOS means ALL THE PEOPLE.