Election reactions

[danaeris]

[Poll #377955]

Comments

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

give me a couple of days to crawl out of my depression and I might consider activism. Right now it all seems completely hopeless and hiding sounds like a much better plan.

[evergrey.livejournal.com]

Bitterly cursing these wraiths of death, ignorance and hatred, hailing misery down upon their houses.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Checkboxes might have been more appropriate here. Embrace the power of AND!

I am considering several of those options.

My sister already managed to move to England. I must admit it's tempting.

Hiding in my liberal bubble is the most likely outcome for me.

Becoming more politically active is unlikely for me, since it tends to make me less effective in the rest of my life (I get all stressed and anxious, the way I am today). But depending on how things go, I might do so anyway. We may need a revolution.

[dragon-spirit.livejournal.com]

I keep threatening to leave the country, but realistically, how is an impoverished, disabled, unemployed schmuck like me going to raise the funds to move, even if another country would have me? I think my only choice is to stay here and fight the good fight.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

what about "i'm not happy, but nothing" because i bet that's the answer for far too many people.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

...though i bet most of your readers are in coastal bubbles, so that choice would include that...

[rocketgeek.livejournal.com]

You know, the entreaties of my Canadian friends are looking more and more enticing... I'm going to start sounding out the two or three rocket companies located up there.

[auror.livejournal.com]

I couldn't care less. *shrug*

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

More active... specifically, looking to see what I can do to solve the, IMO, obvious disconnect the DNC has with reality.

I won't flee. I believe in fighting for what I believe in. Running just means they win.

Fixing the Democratic party

[cos]

For that, I recommend getting involved in Democracy for America and joining Progressive Democrats of America. Attend your next DfA meetup (if you didn't already go to the one this evening).

dfa meetup

[cos]

(so, did you go to meetup yesterday?)

Re: dfa meetup

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me about this... no, I did not. It had slipped my mind, but I wouldn't have made it anyhow as I'm coming down with some sort of bug. I've added this to my calendar so I don't miss the next one.

Re: dfa meetup

[cos]

If you sign up for your nearby meetup group, through the web site, you can check off an option that will send you a reminder email when the date is getting near. You'll also get a message if the organizer reschedules the meetup, or adds another one at a new date. Also, you can send a message to the meetup organizer, through the web site, let them know you're interested and find out what they talked about and what they're working on.

In the meantime, try to find out about your local Democratic committee (usually these are by ward, town, or county, depending on how your state party is organized) and go to their meeting. You can see what information about local Democratic meetings other DfA people have found out about here, and if your local committee isn't listed, try to find the information and report it here.

In MA, we have a state convention every May/June, and the process for choosing delegates happens in Jan/Feb, so a lot of our DfA meetup groups are starting to work on that. It's easy to become a delegate, but most people just don't know about it. Find out about your state party. It's largely through the state parties that we'll reform the national party.

Also, take a look at these flyers and materials from Progressive Democrats of America:
http://pdamerica.org/tools.php

[cr0wgrrl.livejournal.com]

Social change happens on a personal level. I change the world by showing others that there is a better way. I will continue to vote my conscience, maintain my current level of activism, and work toward a better future one person at a time, reducing the overall level of fear in this country by helping others learn to live without it.

And no way would I consider moving to another country. That would be leaving the pinheads firmly in charge and removing any ability I have to change anything.

[auros]

I don't want to move, particularly. And I'm already quite active. I suppose I might try to be, marginally, even more active next time around, but the option I really would've wanted was, "I'm pissed about the results, but I don't see that I could've done a whole lot more to affect it."

[cos]

Other: continuing what I was already doing, though possibly at a lower level depending on what job I get (I'm not going to keep up living off my savings and organizing nearly full time, but I might get a job that lets me keep doing something similar).

It's a long term project: to re-take the Democratic party, to build new media, to reframe the national political debate, to build grassroots networks, and seed the system with more local candidates... it was always going to take years, whether Kerry or Bush won. Things will get a lot worse before they get better, but how soon it starts getting better and how much better it will get still depends on what we do now.

[auros]

On reframing -- did you see this?

reframing

[cos]

Thanks for the link. I don't think Edwards is the right candidate (partly because I very much don't want him to be president :), but yes, "valuing work over wealth" was a good message that Kerry should've used more, and I appreciate Saletan's take on "responsibility", which is much closer to my view of "responsibility" as a political issue than the Republican use of the word.

Re: reframing

[auros]

Edwards wouldn't be my first choice if I could have anyone I wanted; Saletan's point is that he talks about the issues effectively, which makes him electable. And I'd certainly take him over anyone the Rs would nominate.

A few of the "centrist" DLC types, including Hillary, have started trying to reposition the party on immigration -- to expand legal immigration but take a harder line on illegals, and particularly corporations and individuals that employ them -- to confound Bush (who seems to favor amnesty for illegals) the way Clinton confounded his dad on welfare. Plays nicely into the "work hard and play by the rules" idea.