What Does EFFECTIVE Action Look Like?
“Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.” Teddy Roosevelt
People like to say “When we fight we win.” Those people don’t ever tell you what happens when we don’t fight, but that is becoming more and more obvious.
Most people are afraid to fight. Some people don’t even know who they are fighting with.
Democrat Party leadership, including Moore County and North Carolina State leaders really don’t understand what it means to fight. They still think it means carrying signs, holding meetings or writing blogs like this one. Witty signs are a lot of fun but they don’t actually win any fights. They don’t take any risks and so, they don’t solve any problems.
A Democratic National Committee panel on Monday recommended a new election for the post held by Vice Chair David Hogg, whose challenge of “asleep at the wheel” elected Democrats caused establishment Democrats to clutch their pearls.
The leaders of two of the nation’s largest and most influential labor unions quit their posts in the Democratic National Committee. The longtime leader of the American Federation of Teachers and the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told the party’s new chairman that they can no longer support the work of the DNC. In their resignation messages, the two union chiefs suggested that the DNC was not open to searching for new ways to win.
Democrats don’t seem to get what they’re up against. They think protests and petitions will create change. They believe that silly symbolism like taco trucks and tea bags are messages that can’t be ignored.
Democrats don’t get it because they see this as a long running political fight that can be solved with the same old tactics. They are just waiting, expecting that the pendulum will eventually swing their way.
But this is way more than politics as usual. It’s a shift in American culture. It about the very values our country will be based on. It’s no longer a battle over the obvious issues like abortion, healthcare and education. It’s a battle about Freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
This fight hinges on fear. It idolizes racism, hatred and nationalism. It values power over everything. Trump and his cronies were put in power by some of the richest men in the country. They asked us to believe it was the will of common, everyday people who were somehow being left out of the American Dream. They wanted us to believe that they understood it because they were living it.
The Democrat response has mostly been people politely walking around carrying signs and posting clever memes on Facebook. Elected officials think mass emails and social media posts are a defense for right wing crazies with guns.
Republicans on the other hand are forming militia groups made up of people pardoned by Trump. They are sending soldiers to beat down protesters. They are literally murdering, jailing or deporting the opposition. Republicans weigh the threat of losing a primary against answering hard questions from someone’s mother at a Town Hall and the choice is easy.
As an example of the lengths they are willing to go to, a US Senator from California, was wrestled to the floor, handcuffed and removed by federal agents after trying to ask questions of Homeland Security Secretary Noem at a press conference in Los Angeles.
“Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy…but where are they?” –Plutarch, Sayings of the Spartans
We’ve lost sight of what it means to take action. Not to mention what it means to take effective action.
Effective action creates change; change in thinking or change in direction. Theories do no good unless they guide action.
The pain that comes with effective action is severe, it injures you, it damages you and it forces you to change.
Fear of the unknown can be scary but fear of things staying the same is even scarier. Action means moving in new and unexpected ways. Effective action makes us uncomfortable, it makes us doubt ourselves and reevaluate our understanding. Effective action doesn’t always make sense at first. We often think that we know better or that the act should never have been done. But often times it is only after the act is done that it starts to make sense. The most rewarding response to “Why did you do that?” is “Because I just had to.”
The failure of inaction is much more subtle. You get none of the benefits of action and all of the problems stay just as they are. You are faced with knowing that you never even tried to change things. The more you focus on taking effective action, the more other people will feel that they too can act.
Change is sometimes very subtle; it’s not all fireworks and big bangs. It’s usually incremental, just baby steps. But change is what we need right now.
Change matters. Act like it.
NEXT TIME: Why is change so important for Democrats?