Letter from an Angry Voter

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Letter from an Angry Voter
By Tom Sullivan

August 3rd, 2008 - 6:02pm ET


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Don't you see how you're misreading me? I am not a victim. I used to be a victim, but now I'm not. Can't you see the difference?

Chip Elliott wrote that about carrying a handgun for self defense in “Letter from an Angry Reader,” published in Esquire magazine in September 1981. The writer and his psychiatrist wife (graduates of Stanford and Radcliffe) had moved to Venice, CA – a neighborhood filling with writers and artists, but still in transition. They and their neighbors were victimized, robbed and robbed again. Elliott went from bohemian innocent “to carrying a 9 mm Smith & Wesson automatic in 10 weeks.” Yes, with a license.

There are echoes of Chip Elliott in the wave of populist activism during the Bush years – the “uprising” David Sirota writes about. We used to be victims. We’re not anymore. A lot of people can’t see the difference. Press. Pundits. Party bosses. The Elliotts’ world had changed. They changed with it. So have we.

What hasn’t changed yet is the clubby political culture we’ve entered. Online criticism usually focuses on “the Village,” the Beltway culture of pundits, lobbyists, and political and media consultants. But from the beginning it was clear how much housecleaning there was to do, not just in Washington, but in our own cities and states – where corrupt politicians and secret deals reveal themselves in smoky conversations on dark hospitality suite balconies.

The old boy network has seen movements come and movements go. They believe that if they stonewall efforts at reform, we will go away. It has worked in the past. The war ends and the antiwar “radicals” evaporate. Frustrate the party upstarts and they will take their balls and go home. And the old boys get their club back.

One thing you can say for the old boys, they are patient and persistent. (Okay, that’s two things.) Patience and persistence are not the first qualities liberal activists look for in their change agents, and qualities that not enough activists cultivate in themselves. Whenever an Obama flings the wheel hard over (or not hard enough) and the ship of state doesn’t turn like a speedboat, impatient activists abandon their posts and jump ship. Do that, and nothing changes. And the old boys get their club back.

Still, today they’re nervous. They should be. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008083103/letter-angry-voter