More, and Better, Democrats -- Now, More Than Ever

Democrats outnumber Republicans.

And if every Democrat voted Democrats would win nearly everywhere.

And more elected Democrats would include more Democrats who are better Democrats.

The more Democrats elected the more women have a voice in our society, the more poor and middle class people have a voice in our society, the more people of color have a voice in our society, the more queer folks have a voice in our society, the more people who grasp the scope of environmental catastrophe have a voice in our society, the more people who cherish thought and dissent and science and art and diversity and peace have a voice in our society.

And the more democratically-minded, equity-minded, diversity-minded, consent-minded folks have that voice in our society the more society will come to reflect our needs, demands, and aspirations.

Too many polls suggest that Democratic turnout will be depressed for the mid-terms.

Too many comparatively more democratically-minded folks aren't enthusiastic about the shape and speed and scope and form urgently necessary reforms are taking, and so they might not be bothered to vote their own best interests.

If so, they will suffer for it. We will all suffer for it. And the space for hope and sanity and even survival will diminish, the difficult compromised convulsive process through which actual change takes place will get worse and not better.

It is as simple as that.

Republicans are a force of outright bigotry, derangement, violence, and suicidal denialism in the world in this moment in their long history as a party. It hasn't always been quite this bad, and it need not remain this bad forever, but it really is incomparably bad right now, and the Republicans must be fought and defeated.

There is not a single concrete complaint people of the left can make about the state of our politics that will not be made worse by having fewer Democrats in office. Not one. There is not a single concrete aspiration of the left, from single-payer healthcare, to a shift from military to welfare in budgetary priorities, to an end to the death penalty and to the racist war on some drugs, to the protection of every woman's right to choose, to gay rights, to the separation of church and state, to gun control, to disarmament, to progressive taxation of income and property, to a renewable economy, that is not rendered comparatively more likely to arrive the more Democrats are in office. Not one.

This is obviously not to deny that there are Democrats who are ardent foes of these aspirations, that there are Democrats who are elected as champions of these aspirations and who then betray those promises. These shabby Democrats and betrayers must of course be exposed, pressured, resisted, fought in terms that reflect the opportunities actually hand to do so.

But a refusal to support Democrats in general -- even when Democrats in general are the only organized force through which progressive change is given substance, especially when the refusal to support these Democrats is the facilitation of Republicans who are an organized force for authoritarianism and bigotry -- is quite simply wrongheaded in the extreme.

If you want to make a symbolic protest, make some art and shatter us all with your vision, if you want to rail against the system, publish your critique and transform our thinking for good: all of these are worthy and wonderful things to do, mighty things to do, I salute them all, I contribute some measure to them myself.

But please, please, please register and vote, vote for the better candidate rather than the facilitating the ascension of the worse candidate, support primary contests wherever incumbent fail to represent the expressed interests of their constituents, write letters to your representatives clearly explaining your desires and disappointments, attend public meetings and hearings at every level of government in which issues of concern to you are under discussion, run for public office yourself, do whatever you can, to whatever extent you can, whenever you can, even if it is simply a matter of voting for Democrats and encouraging everyone around you to do so as well.

I'm to the left of even most of the best Democrats, but I can grasp the differences that make a difference between Democratic majorities over Republican majorities, and between growing progressive caucuses and shrinking corporate-militarist caucuses in the Democratic party to the process through which we arrive at better more democratizing, more sustainable, more equitable, more diverse, more consensualizing outcomes.

Don't sit this one out, don't facilitate the ascension of the authoritarians and fancy that some thrill of symbolic vindication at the too-compromised, too slow-moving pace and extent of reform for the better will somehow compensate the substantial loss of democracy, equity, diversity, consent for the worst that will follow.