There has to be a better way

Last night, on my way to my last EfM seminar meeting of the year, I decided that I should put up a thread about the Democratic debate before heading out. Given that this is at least partly a political blog, I guess I thought I should. But my heart wasn't in it, because, frankly, I just don't care about the debates at this stage of the game.

Blogs are often seen by presidential campaigns as ATMs. If you are the proprietor of a high-traffic Democratic (liberal, progressive, whatever) blog, the upshot is that those who are running for office will treat you with some respect--because you are now Somebody That Matters. Your voice and influence could mean money in their campaign coffers and ballots in the box for them, so--goodness--you might even be deemed as deserving of the time of day as some of those high stakes corporate donors!

Almost a month ago, I wrote about "prophets and kingmakers", concluding that, while there's more money in the kingmaking gig, that role is not a very good fit for people who are mainly concerned about bringing about positive social change. A couple weeks later, in response to a diary about "the real gatecrashers", it struck me that the big problem with the whole "crashing the gates" model is, in fact, those damn gates.

I never consented to gates.

And it's become really clear to me over the past few years that we're not going to make anything better simply by installing a different group of people inside the castle. Trusting that they will "remember who got them there"--when the truth is, everything changes once they get inside those gates.

So I really take issue with the whole set-up where few are on the inside and many are on the outside. Similarly, one of the main drawbacks to being a "kingmaker" is that somebody is being made king.

I know these are metaphors, but there's something I think we forget too often. When we elect a president, we're not choosing someone to be our boss. We're hiring an employee for an important job.

Also, *we* need to be setting the agenda, as I noted here

I remember when Jim Wallis came to Columbus last spring, he said something about Martin Luther King. I don't have the exact quote, but it was something like, "he never endorsed a candidate, but he was able to get politicians to endore *his* agenda.

When I attended that B.R.E.A.D. assembly, I was impressed that so many people were willing to come out on a Monday night to demand fair treatment for a segment of the population that politicians may feel that they can safely ignore. These people showed up not for a political party or candidate, but in support of a shared value. WE were taking the lead, and telling the politicians and elected officials that *they* need to get on board.

So, no, I'm not interested in being the Democratic Party's ATM. I want to be--*we* need to be--the party's conscience instead.

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