Are you a political hobbyist or a political lobbyist? Maybe you’re a political atheist (someone who doesn’t believe in politics). There are probably other categories, but this is enough for one column.
Andy Borowitz, a political satirist (another category) — best known for his “Borowitz Report,” short, fake-news, very funny dispatches — wrote a serious full-length book a few years back, titled Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber, in which he documents this country’s steady political descent — from the know-nothingness of Ronald Reagan (President Cue Cards) through Bush I, Dan Quayle, Bush II and Sarah Palin, all the way down to the Bottom-Feeder-in-Chief (and we probably haven’t reached the bottom of the ignoramus barrel).
It is an important history (horrifying, albeit darkly hilarious) and in his wrap-up, Borowitz reflects on what we can do to reverse this downward slide. A big part of the problem, he says, is us. Too many political hobbyists, not enough activists.
Borowitz gleaned that concept from the book Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change by Eitan Hersh, political scientist (yet another category). Hersh holds that most of us are political hobbyists. Borowitz admits he’s one of them. “We think we’re participating in politics,” he writes, “but we’re often just spectators, following it the way we follow sports. Obsessively watching cable news, checking Twitter, and monitoring the latest polls — all of which I’ve been guilty of — makes us feel like we’re staying informed, but to what end? When I do these things, I’m just a passive observer, rooting for my team. There’s a difference between going to a Super Bowl party and playing in the Super Bowl; only those who do the latter affect the outcome of the game.”
After the 2016 election, Hersh wrote, “I started feeling that if we are going to save our democracy, we all really need to work, to do the hard things.” According to Borowitz, Hersh recommends the following: “Organize. Register people to vote. Get out the vote. Go to town meetings. And maybe the most challenging task of all: try to change people’s minds, one voter at a time.”
Like Borowitz, I’m guilty of too often being a spectator. You too? How do we move beyond political hobbyism?
Donating to candidates is a step removed from passivity, but not by much. Joining the ACLU is better because the ACLU is actually doing the hard work — filing lawsuits, protecting our voting rights, which are gravely threatened by six years of dedicated Republican voter suppression efforts, aided and abetted by a corrupt and extremist conservative Supreme Court majority (their latest effort involves restricting the use of mail-in voting, with the full complicity of the U.S. Postal Service). What can we do about it?
Voter registration is essential to offset our disadvantage. We need more people to vote. A lot more. We can’t prevail if we don’t outvote those who are harming us. Registration drives are one way to take action.
Why do one-third of eligible voters fail to show up? And how can they be convinced to go to the polls? That mystery needs solving. Maybe the Democratic Party of Oak Park has some answers. They conduct door-to-door canvassing. Meetings are held in their headquarters (6941 W. North Ave., second Saturday morning of each month). Open to the public if you’re interested (dpop.org or call Eileen Lynch at 708-386-0900).
Another challenge is convincing third-party voters to stop throwing away their votes on candidates who can’t possibly win. They’ve lost faith in our political system and don’t see that voting for the viable alternative is the only way to stop the damage that Trump is inflicting on this country. Like them or not, the other party is light years ahead of the Republican Cult, politically and morally, when it comes to addressing the problems facing this country.
What else can we do? Last week, driving west on I-290, I saw an anti-Trump billboard and thought, people need to see a lot more of these. The Lincoln Project American Political Action Committee might be a good source of creative protest messaging to put on those billboards (lincolnproject.us). Anything that connects Trump to his pal Epstein, for instance, would be well worth publicizing.
Closer to home, The Leaders Network of ministers on the West Side have connections with the Oak Park-River Forest Community of Congregations. Worth checking out. Does your church/temple/synagogue have a social justice group? Probably. Unity Temple’s Vote Love team has a get-out-the-vote event scheduled for Sept. 13 at 12:15 p.m. (votelove@unitytemple.org).
While you’re at it, contact the local chapter of the League of Women Voters and find out what they’re up to. What can one person do? Volunteer to be part of a larger group. It multiplies your impact.
Education is badly needed. Most Americans seem clueless about how our political system works — and why it doesn’t. Join groups that are already established and doing good. This is the Age of Networking. Or as a friend recently recommended, become a pollinator for democracy.
Every time Trump brings you to the brink of despair, remember Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Biden in 2020. There are more of us. We can do this. We have done this.
If we’re on the right side of history (and we are), we will prevail, no matter how long it takes.
But first we have to move beyond looking at politics as a spectator sport.
What are you doing that the rest of us should know about? Let us know.