A Word From Michael

Right after posting "Local Politics," I read the next in Michael Moore's fabulous series of posts called "Tsunami Truths." (This one #24). Since the upcoming Midterms are the time to move more toward saving the world rather than merely savoring it, I highly recommend you read all of them! Such a relief from those trying to get people to vote from fear— here he simply reports what’s really happening all across grassroots America and states unequivocally that if we get people out to vote, there will indeed by a blue Tsunami. May it be so! 

 

Anyway, I was struck having just written my little thing about Local Politics— the timing was perfect. His posts are so much richer, so here is part of #24 as a guest blog. Again, read them all! And pass them on in all available forms— social media, direct e-mails, dinner conversations with Uncle Fred. 

 

I’ve spent all my time here on the Tsunami of Truths focusing on us winning the House, the Senate, and some Governors’ races. 

But as one who himself was elected to local office at the age of 18, I’ve neglected to point out that all change begins at home — meaning right there in your neighborhood, your ward, your borough, your school district. It is there where the crazies are trying to ban Maya Angelou. Where the Right is trying to stop affordable housing from being built. Where the Chamber of Commerce is trying to eliminate environmental regulations. Their mission is to stifle debate, to put a halt to change, to lock things down so that the big money in town calls the shots. That’s where the Ted Cruzes of this world get their start on the road to perdition. And if we don’t stop them there, they will one day become the next Marjorie Taylor Greene……………

So while I don’t have the time or resources to cover all (random guess) 14,577 city, township, local judge and school board races across the country next month, I can humbly beseech you to do a little research to find out who these candidates are and make the right selections. It’s harder to do that these days, in large part because our local media has been decimated — radio is dead or racist, print is “what is print?“, and civic groups like the League of Women Voters are, in many places, a shell of their former selves. 

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a whip-smart local bartender (AOC) running for town council, or a middle school principal (Jamaal Bowman) on the ballot for County Commissioner or a local activist and mother (Cori Bush) seeking to become the township clerk. There are hundreds of these good people running across the country and it will feel good to find them, meet them and vote for them. The bigger changes that we seek nationwide begin right here in Our Town. 

As the t-shirt says above, the mayor in Jaws — the political hack who at the behest of the local business community demanded that the sheriff open up the beaches for that all-important tourism money-maker known as the Fourth of July weekend (even though a mad shark who had already killed a skinny-dipper was still lurking offshore) — by the time “Jaws 2” rolled around, this bastard was still the mayor! Proving unequivocally that if you don’t pay attention to your local elections, if we don’t do our duty as citizens, even in the “smallest” races on the ballot, there will be no night swimming left for any one.