Year-End Inventory

It was a sufficiently depressing refrain during Emperor Bush’s re-election campaign. It’s even more depressing now that the elusive election rug has been yanked out from under us progressives once again. Another clean theft by the Republican Party and their extremist minions.

In fact, this reporter was so despondent on the night of November 2 that, shuffling off to bed early, I angrily proclaimed to my stunned wife Donna, “That’s it. I’m through with politics!” What’s worse, I didn’t even bother to polish off my traditional bottle of Election Night Cream Sherry. A tragic evening indeed.

But, lo! I dwelt in the Pit of No Hope a mere twelve hours. For on the morning after I took pen to paper and began scribbling a small inventory of thoughts about the disaster that was the 2004 general election. When all the thoughts were arranged and bar-coded according to their Despair Producing Quotient (DPQ, of course), here’s what my mental warehouse looked like …

… Four more years? Four more years of what? Four more years of endless war in the Middle East (with perhaps a new invasion thrown in here and there by Caesar Dubyus just to keep them evil a-rabs on their toes). Four more years of economic malaise here at home as our manufacturing base continues to erode and America continues to wave bye-bye to its best-paying jobs.

Four more years of pillaging the environment so that Good Ol’ Boys can continue to barge around in their massive SUVs, monstrous pickups, and sporty lil’ ATVs and gas ‘em up cheap (lining the pockets of Bush’s oil pals and increasing—not decreasing—our dependence on foreign crude). Four more years without affordable (it ought to be free, for God’s sake!) health care for millions of hard-working Americans. Four more years of the wholesale suppression of civil liberties in favor of pervasive religious fundamentalism (maybe I just don’t get it, but isn’t that what His Fraudulency is supposedly fighting against in the Middle East?).

In short, four more years of fear. So, that particular shelf is crammed with cans, cartons, boxes and barrels of poisonous crap loaded with lethal levels of DPQ. Sadly, the “Red States” of the American heartland seem to thrive on fear-filled DPQs. It must go well with their steady diet of sin and guilt. Clogs the hell out of the arteries—to the point where there’s no heart left in the heartland—but if this life is a veil of tears and you’re destined for the Promised Land, who cares? Chow down on them there DPQs!

Through with politics? Maybe not. There are other shelves to be inventoried. May have to do a bit of dusting here…

…Beyond the stockpiles of toxic rhetoric and spiritual negativity there shine gleaming jars of hope. These jars contain the antidote for fear. These jars can re-define the political and social landscape of America; they can cure Heartland Disease. These jars are the future.

These jars reveal that compassion and tolerance are signs of strength, not weakness; that peace is a good thing, war is not; that jobs, education and health care create security (in any nation), but invasion and occupation just create more terrorists; that true morality can withstand the test of individual liberty, whereas only false idols demand worship by one and all.

The contents of these jars have the power to re-claim the language of socio-political debate from the grips of the Remote Right and the Religious Wrong.

But how to open these jars? Many suggest staying within the comfy confines of the Democratic Party. After all, but for the outright vote thievery in Florida and Ohio, the Democrats won the presidential election (again). ‘Cept somehow they lost it (again).

No matter. The bottom line for this reporter is that I’m sick and tired of us progressives selling out to the Democratic Party and working our hearts out only to lose (and be courted again four years later) or, worse yet, win (and be completely co-opted). We have a good, healthy pocket of progressives here in Washington state. It’s time to stand on our own. Time to stand and reach out to other pockets of progressives. From the grassroots up, we can re-claim the high ground in the political debate.

For my part, I plan to begin with the local Green Party (http://www.whatcomgreenparty.org.)

Hell, even the evangelicals and fundamentalists had to start somewhere. And now look. They run the whole friggin’ country!

One last item on the inventory list. If you still aren’t convinced a grassroots effort can have a positive impact, consider this: What happened to the Commerce Corridor? When the banking, trucking and corporate interests couldn’t sneak that particular land-grabbing monstrosity past the watchful citizens of the Cascade foothills, they tried to shove it down our throats. The people rose up and spread the alarm. They came together, they spoke out, they persevered. Then, just as quickly as it had sprung up, the Commerce Corridor slithered away.

Yes! A tremendous victory forged at the community level. A tremendous victory for now. Where there’s land to be grabbed, greedy hands will be reaching. Extreme vigilance is required.

Let us begin the hard work of taking inventory of who we are and what we want for our families, our neighborhoods and our towns. Start opening those jars of hope and start re-stocking our spiritual shelves with compassion, tolerance, stewardship and peace. §