Howard Zinn ~ Voting is ... marginally useful but a poor substitute for democracy

Professor Zinn reminds us why he's a treasure with his Election Madness appearing in The Progressive. Dr. Zinn tells us that "Historically, government, whether in the hands of ... , has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: ... " He correctly claims that neither Presidential candidate that will represent the Democratic Party this fall and likely occupy the White House come next January (even with a probable Democratic Congress!) will move "off center". Neither offer "radical change from the status quo."

The whole piece is solid Zinn yet I especially liked the following:

I’m talking about a sense of proportion that gets lost in the election madness. Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes—the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth.

But before and after those two minutes, our time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice.

He's right of course. We get wrapped up in the election process, especially in the Presidential race although I for one like to work on Congressional and State campaigns, but don't do the hard yet vital work of building the grassroots and moving forward towards a movement. As DFA suggests, "We are the ones we have been waiting for." We can and must do better. John Gunn