But, the entire time I was out organizing I knew that, which is why I was reluctant to campaign for the Chicago antiwar movement’s votes. I didn’t hand out much literature at all for Greens or Nader. The only time I handed out literature was in Chicago’s Financial District when the Wall Street Bailouts steamrolled through Washington, D.C.
War has become, in the past decade, a wedge issue for Democrats much like abortion is a wedge issue for Republicans. Anti-war rhetoric wins voters who are not organized and have no ability whatsoever to make serious gains (although in 2006 they did prove they could make Americans vote for people who will execute war efficiently and not recklessly).
Elections, which come every two years, is the progressive movement’s worst nightmare. Progress for peace, human rights, and justice will never be significant so long as people fail to decide how to organize effectively during elections.
Serious deliberation and synthesis over nuance in organization and ideas must occur. Members of hardcore organizations must ask, “If we get the people to do what we would like them to do, do we need to beat them over the head with a vicious “moral argument” or can we just be happy that we got a response?”
If we truly consider what we do to be part of a movement, each action does not have to occur as if an apocalypse will occur tomorrow if we fail. If a movement is what we aim for, each action is a building block toward a level that will make it possible for the movement to be sustainable and powerful in America.
We need an antiwar movement capable of shifting the American consciousness. That will only come if those vying for state power sit down together, engage in serious deliberation over the state of the movement, and put their radical visions on hold.
For starters, let’s return to the most basic of questions: Do Americans want to wake up one day and hear it’s over? Do Americans want the occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq to end? Would they like to keep the wars from expanding into Pakistan and Iran?
I’m not convinced that this country is really against these wars anymore.
But if Americans are, how do they expect these wars to end? Changing your Facebook status and twittering your thoughts on the war won’t save any malnourished children in Iraq. And that shirt you just bought from the GAP won’t help a village improve its water supply either.
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