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Tasty
New Items When the Fahrenheit 9/11 box office is giving Shrek 2 a run for its money, you know something is up. People are fired up and hungry for change. Frankly, it is too bad we can't have the "handover" early like they do over there in Iraq, but the day of reckoning is a-coming on Nov. 2. Amen to that. The good news is that there are so many initiatives and groups out there working to rally the troops, register voters and re-defeat Bush that one can't help be optimistic (pause to knock on wood). The bad news is that there are so many things going on, that it is sometimes hard to keep track of them all. To address the new reality that politics isn't just centered inside the work of traditional political parties anymore, a while ago I put together a tongue-in-cheek yet quite serious menu — for a virtual eatery called The Regime Change Café. The menu is still up — you can check it out at www.kumbayadammit.com— and original staples like MoveOn.org, America Votes, and Grassroots Democrats remain customer favorites. But since the first menu was laminated nine months ago, more promising initiatives have been cooked up by political chefs across the country. So here's a listing of the newest specials you might want to sample and buy. KERRY'S KITCHEN: Down the street from The Regime Change Café there's a new restaurant open that needs your business called JohnKerry.com According to federal law, you can spend up to $2,000 there. BE A BILLBOARD: 100 million people didn't vote in 2000 and uh, most of them aren't big Bush people. So numero uno, we simply need to remind people to vote. Go to November2.org to get the coolest T-shirt out there that is simple, direct and guaranteed to start a conversation about voting, hope and change. November2.org is brought to you by a coalition of about 1,000 voter registration groups, including MoveOn.org HOUSE PARTIES: Sept. 22 is another day to mark down on your calendar. That's when educators and activists will be holding house parties to highlight Bush's weak education report card. See www.greatpublicschools.orgfor more — and remember to bring an apple for your teacher. HOOK UPS: Still fired up to do more after hitting the house party circuit? ElectionMatch.org is designed to connect groups who need volunteers with folks ready to help. Perfect for anyone who has a week or two to spare and is ready to go anywhere. Think blue states. LET'S GO OHIO: If you can make it or know friends who can, I'd check out The League of Pissed Off Voter National Conference — happening July 16 in Columbus, Ohio (see www.indyvoter.org).In the words of the organizers: "This is no ordinary boring conference with speakers and panels!!!..." This will be a hands-on voter training effort led by the top talent in the 18-30-year-old space, designed to empower people to make their own 90-Day Plan to electoral success. Bring a friend when you go and poof — you can form your own League of Pissed Off Voters local chapter. But remember to be nice to ladies from the League of Women Voters if you see them at the mall. They started it all. REPUBLICAN SURVIVOR: It's down to the home stretch in the six-week, web-animated series brought to you by hungry House Democrats. Check it out at www.dtriptv.orgThis funny series started out with W, Cheney, Tom Delay, Katherine Harris, Ann Coulter and John Ashcroft trying to outlast each other. Funny yes, but the strategy behind it is deadly serious: Constituency voting patters in key Houses races in Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Oregon could swing the election again (the total margin of Gore vs. Bush in those FOUR states was just under 15,000 votes in 2000). SWAP MEETS: Pained by Kerry's appeal to the middle but afraid of four more years of Republican rule? Consider strategic vote swapping with Nader voters in Alabama and other red states you can learn more at www.naderkerry.org HERE'S THE BEEF: In answer to that old question "One-two-three, what are we fighting for?" (which too often progressives have just filled in with "Not Bush/Not This"), The New Democracy Project has issued a great new compilation called "What We Stand For: A Program for Progressive Patriotism." Is Progressive Patriotism a new L–word to rally around? We could do worse. STILL MAD?: If you haven't had enough after checking out the Michael Moore movie, there's an excellent mini-documentary about Bush's hypocritical relationship with the military. Visit www.americanfamilyvoices.orgto buy a copy of Honor Betrayed — for a swing voter you know. Or support a great new group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (CREW) that's suing right-wing groups who aren't playing by the rules. For too long, groups like Judicial Watch have been filing frivolous lawsuits to feed the right-wing scandal machine. Now, thanks to CREW, there's a new sheriff in town. BORN IN THE USA: Bruce Springsteen, this one's for you. They stole your anthem of working class America in the 1980s under Reagan, we want it back. Tell The Boss all about it by urging him to play a big concert during the Republican convention at DraftBruce.com Dan Carol is a Democratic political strategist and a founding partner of CTSG (www.ctsg.com),a progressive consulting firm based in Eugene and Washington, D.C.
Breaking
Three Hearts Eugene City Councilor Bonny Bettman recently told me, "I ran for council four years ago to address environmental issues facing my ward. Now, I realize my main work is to retain democracy." After 22 years in environmental advocacy, I am realizing the same thing. So are millions of other Americans. The heart of democracy is being attacked by the Bush administration. The ultimate source of this problem is an ancient human tendency of those in power in social organizations, whether a community, religion, political organization, or government: The tendency to limit alternatives, which are seen as threats to their retention of power. The crucial distinction between a dictatorship and a democracy is the absence or presence of processes that allow alternatives to enter public discourse. Authoritarian regimes don't like alternatives. Independent courts are avoided, because alternative perspectives on law and evidence will surface. Journalists who report evidence or ideas that contradict the regime's messages are reined in. Dictatorships dissolve legislatures that are independent or can't be purchased, because legislators may discuss or enact policies that are alternative to the regime's. Democracies, on the other hand, acknowledge the importance of alternatives, and install laws, processes, and support systems through which people can bring alternatives to the decisionmaking table. The Bush administration's major attack on democracy is its systematic elimination of processes by which those whose ideas differ from theirs can bring ideas to the table. One example is the Bush administration's attack on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was signed by Richard Nixon on Jan. 1, 1970. NEPA requires federal agencies to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for "major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." Such actions might include renewing a dam's permit, cleaning up a hazardous waste site, building a highway in wetlands, or logging a steep watershed. In a move that counters the human tendency to consolidate power and suppress alternatives, NEPA requires that every EIS include "all reasonable alternatives to the proposed action." This is the heart of an EIS. Equally crucially, NEPA requires that the development of all these alternatives take place in coordination with the public, who can submit complete alternatives for comparison with the agency's alternatives. NEPA doesn't sit well with the Bush administration. For example, with the ostensible goal of restoring natural fire regimes to logged, fire-suppressed forests, and protecting communities adjacent to such forests, President Bush signed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. This legislation excuses the Forest Service from considering "all reasonable alternatives." Free from the constraints of logic or alternatives that would actually help restore forest health, the agency simply announces plans to log large, old, fire-resistant trees in remote, roadless locations, far from communities at risk. In a move to shield agencies from the public and their ideas, the Department of Homeland Security is proposing to prepare certain EISs in secret, for example regarding cleanup standards following a nuclear power accident. The Bush Forest Service is drafting regulations that would entirely eliminate EISs from the development of national forest plans. No EIS means no consideration of alternatives or analysis of environmental impacts. The regulations would also relieve the Forest Service from the responsibility of even trying to retain native species on any of the nation's 177 national forests and grasslands. In sum, the regulations would prevent citizens from standing up for their national forests and the species that live there.
This pattern of strangling democratic, public consideration of alternatives is endemic throughout the Bush administration. For instance, the administration has argued that Guantanamo Bay prisoners should not have access to courts and lawyers. Our nation's energy policy was decided behind closed doors, by unidentified people who appear to have been less than innovative about alternatives to oil. You can look at instances of eliminating consideration of alternatives one by one, or you can acknowledge their collective significance: the destruction of democracy. Americans depend on democratic processes in order to stand up effectively for the vulnerable, the silenced, the wild. The Bush administration daily works to eliminate those processes. Our main work right now is to restore democracy. Coming in August: The Breaking of Three Hearts, Part 2: The Natural World.
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