John Dowlin, Philadelphia is active in Independent Pennsylvanians and is travelling to New York for his second national conference.
Long story short: I was a non-voter until a Vietnamese friend, Tran Van Dinh, begged me to vote for George McGovern. Since then I’ve voted for 3rd parties, other patriotic long-shots…..
Attending the Indy conference in 2011 was like auditing a Harvard class on participatory democracy: very nourishing, inspiring. I did vote for Obama first time around, but not in 2012. His effort to be the post-partisan president brings to mind Gorbachev’s effort to bring about glasnost and perestroika (openness and restructuring). Gorby’s biggest obstacle was THE PARTY. He had to prod his comrades — constantly — with quotes and references to Lenin. “All power to the Soviets!,” i.e. all power to the local councils, not the party! He even considered renaming the USSR, from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics.
The lesson from the Obama years, thus far, should be clear. It’s up to us, we the people, to withdraw from the two-party duopoly, to withdraw all support and participation from the inertia of two-party stupidity, to borrow from H.L. Mencken, to withdraw from boobus americanus! Close to 80% of the American people have had it, they’re fed up and very ready for constructive change. We independents — Americans, not American’ts — need to imagine, explore and articulate that change, one conversation, one letter at a time. No amount of inertia — soviet or otherwise — can withstand a daily challenge of constructive Americanism!
John Dowlin
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