A seismic shift in the American political landscape
has gone largely unnoticed. Yet, the
implication of this political earthquake knows no bounds.
On Tuesday, voters in two Oregon counties—one of
them rural and conservative—voted to ban GMO’s.
In 2012, voters in five states legalized gay marriage and the
recreational use of cannabis. What is so
remarkable about these victories is not just the incredible, rapidly shifting attitude
of the electorate, but the fact that these successes came from voter-led
initiatives. In other words, these independent
grassroots victories do not owe their success to any politician or political
party.
In fact, for years, activists who have pushed for
marriage equality and cannabis legalization have been operating at the fringe
of the political establishment. Certainly,
neither the Republicans nor the Democrats—the country’s dominant political
forces—have embraced these two issues. Perhaps
nothing else better demonstrates both the shortcomings of the U.S. “representative
democracy” and the potential of DIY Direct Democracy.
Our so-called representative democracy is neither
representative nor democratic. It is a
hoax, a paradox, a cruel joke. It’s an
open secret that money buys elections; that Congress panders to their
contributors and that popular support for issues generally fails to translate
into political support inside of the Capitol.
But now, the joke may be on our elected representatives.
Remember the old bumper-sticker “If the people lead,
the leaders will follow”? Now it doesn’t
really matter if the leaders follow. If
the people lead, the people will follow.
And that’s what’s important.
If such seemingly radical change as banning GMO’s,
ending cannabis prohibition and ushering in an era of equality can be achieved
at the ballot box, what else can be accomplished through citizen-led
initiatives? The answer: just about anything. In fact, citizen initiatives have already
produced publicly funded local elections and, in cities from Minneapolis to San
Francisco, major democratic improvements in the way in which local officials are elected. The
initiative process can be used for virtually anything that could be
legislated—subject only to the limitations of your imagination and your state’s
constitution.
The success of activists in these three areas
demonstrates the power of an alignment of an unrecognized majority of voters. A majority of voters in jurisdictions from
coast to coast have shown their support for issues that their elected
representatives won’t touch with a 10 foot pole—or on which they’ve been
slowing…“evolving.” The beauty of DIY
Direct Democracy is that it is issue-based and transcends political parties,
political affiliation or no affiliation at all.
Elected “representatives” won’t reflect the views of
the public until we have serious political and electoral reform which addresses
our winner-take-all elections, lack of public funding for political campaigns
and the corporate domination of the election process. However, the success of the DIY ballot
initiatives proves that the American People are more open-minded,
future-focused and solution-oriented than their “democratically elected”
representatives. Our government is
out-of-touch and the methods we use to elect it are corrupt and mired in the
past.
DIY Direct Democracy is the future of American
democracy. And it's here now.
This essay was published at www.commondreams.org.
This essay was published at www.commondreams.org.
