After a bit of a break due to a combination of despair over how the Democratic primary fizzled out after having so much hope as well as the upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic, I am back with newfound inspiration that I hope can withstand even the utter hopelessness we are experiencing.
First and foremost, I hope you, wherever you are, are healthy and safe, and that no one you know is affected by this devastating pandemic. This crisis is also an economic one, and I hope that it hasn’t taken a toll on you as it has on millions in this country.
Of course, a lot has happened since the last time I posted in January. I will admit that, like many of us who supported Bernie Sanders’ campaign, I was crushed by how the Democratic primary ended after all the work and hope so many put into it. The purpose of this post and new direction of my blog is not to rehash or relitigate what happened, or to give my views on the presumptive nominee or how the primary unfolded. It’s also not to suggest what the left/progressives should do going forward, because I truly don’t know–that was part of my despair! So I’ll leave all that to other commentators and bloggers.
But I do want to give some context on where I am coming from for the new direction I see for Underground Groundbreakers, which has already been an evolving project. A large part of the reason UG has been dark for the past few months is that I felt I needed a break from politics, which was true. I told myself, as I have a few times over the years, that I’m done with politics for good, I can’t take any more. That is true to some extent but I also know that I can’t give it up completely, so I gave myself permission to take the time during what is already a stressful period to take a break from it. I watched a lot of stupid TV and let my mind be empty while I was dealing with the new normal that is the quarantine life. I didn’t have any expectations about when or if the desire to write would arise again, though I’ve tried to write here and there since I do miss it.
But you never know where or when inspiration will strike. So when my boyfriend and I watched the excellent film Merchants of Doubt (which is also a book, and which I could probably write a whole separate post about), it got me thinking a lot about how big a difference can be made on specific issues. Of course, politicians will usually have to be involved at some point when certain proposals come up as legislation, but not always–ballot initiatives are also a growing and effective way to advance policies, but they do take a great deal of work. The big thing is getting a decent segment of the public behind a given issue once they realize how important it is or, even better, how it will directly affect their lives. Almost no legislation of consequence has ever been passed without public pressure behind it, whether that pressure was from “liberal” or “conservative” groups (terms used loosely because much is in flux right now), as I discuss in my post about the Sunrise Movement. As we’ve seen in countless examples such as the Civil Rights and Voting Acts in the 1960s, and the marriage equality laws in the 2010s, by the time legislation is passed, much of public opinion has already shifted. So I’m now beyond the outrage of politicians and parties and have evolved to what’s at the core of the matter, which is issues and policies, which transcend party and identity and appeal to those on every part of the political spectrum, regardless of what some may have you believe.
As this blogging project has always been, this will be an evolving learning process. I mean this in terms of actually learning more about these individual issues–I know a little about many of them just from my interest in politics, but am by no means an expert in any of them–and in how I will present them. I also don’t pretend to take full credit for coming with this idea–this comes from listening to many others, and is a learning process for all of us. For me personally, as I know is true for others, this is also my way of trying to productively cope in some small way with the profound disappointment I’ve been feeling since the Democratic primary wound down. Perhaps having enough public pressure behind these core issues will power another, more successful political movement someday, but as of now I’m not holding out for that. In fact, I don’t know exactly what my goal is other than to try to do what I can to help push things in a better direction, but the way I see it is that politicians and campaigns will come and go, but these issues transcend any of those. And at the end of the day isn’t the core of politics supposed to be issues that actually affect people?
This is why I think this new direction is still in line with the mission of Underground Groundbreakers, because it will still be spotlighting important work that needs to happen and the people who are making it happen–and my hope is also to include ways that you can get involved, too, because that is the only way we the people will truly have any real power.
This is just a brief introduction–there is so much more to get into, and I will be learning as I go! But the introductory posts for this new focus will focus on what I and many others see as the two existential and ever-present issues in public and political life today–money in politics and the climate crisis. So stay tuned for that, and thank you as always for reading and stay safe!
