As I was reading the piece in The Guardian, I was
contemplating what has gone wrong in fundamentally changing the world. Why is
it that at every corner of this fight, Open Society seems to find setback? IS
there a fundamental flaw in its concept? Or was there something in the methods
of delivery that doomed it to fall to the attacks of the witless like Donald
Trump?
Clearly what led to the rise of Trump and his ilk has its
base in fear. He tapped into an average man and woman’s fear of losing what
they (think) they have; their position in the world and their relevance. But
the rise of Trump is not, nor has it ever been, a quick and demonic rise; it
has been slow and steady. A dripping faucet for the last fifty years.
Why did we fail to see its rise? Were we blinded by
President Obama’s stunning success? Did his success cause us to lose focus and
think that we were closer to our goals than we really were? These questions
have been bouncing around my head since October 2016. I was devastated that night
as was my wife. In shock the next morning, I went to work, came home and drank
some win and ate some pizza with my wife. This was me gorging and deflecting.
I briefly thought that the problem was in that we Democrats
had not done enough to sustain the base support we had for President Obama.
I was wrong.
Here is what I think is our biggest failing; like all social
beings, those of us who consider ourselves progressive have sought out places
where we will be with like-minded people. Progressive idealists flock to
certain locations and hover around each other. Democrats and Independents largely
win those regions, but it is in the rest of this country where we have lost
touch because we were never in touch.
How do we start a real Progressive Revolution? Do we
continue protesting? Yes, but ONLY peacefully and never with anger or shouting,
messages get lost when delivered with vitriol. Do we continue to fight against tyranny
and oppression? Yes. But again, we have to do so with a bigger vision; not
getting caught up in the minutiae of each individual argument or debate; there
must always be a focus on a bigger picture.
But the biggest question is from where this Progressive Revolution
will begin. Do we start from the top, with grandiose ideas and funding of Congressional,
Senate and Presidential candidates? Or do we start somewhere else?
In short, a Progressive Revolution must be more like an
insurgence. We must infiltrate all of the bastions of the far-right ultra-conservatism.
That means we need to make the next generation of future leaders recognize they
are not needed in New York and Washington D.C. They are not needed in San
Francisco or Los Angeles. They are needed in the smaller recesses of our
society where hatred and intolerance thrive.
The current hatred is steeped in grass roots efforts. Fear
has been bred into our society for five decades and we need a better tool for
fighting fear. A Progressive Revolution begins on the front lines of Kentucky,
Alabama, the Carolinas; but it cannot be in just one or two places. We need to
have the Progressive Ideology infiltrate every bastion of conservative fear. If
we continue to try and force our ideals from the top down, fear will always
win. We need to win from the inside out. We need Progressive Idealists in as
many places as they are willing to live.
I just moved to South Carolina from Oregon and this has been
something which has really struck me. I can only make a small impact. But a
million of me; ten million; spread out across the most conservative areas; that
can be a boon to the Progressive Movement.
If there is to be funding of this movement, it must be as a
grass roots concept or it will continue to be hounded by fear-mongers. It is a
two-front ideological revolution. Let Donald Trump and his mindless followers
focus on national candidates; let’s take over at local levels. The more
Progressive Idealists spread across the nation, the better chance we have at
winning a more important battle. The 2020 election is not a litmus test of
which ideology will prevail; it is a sideshow. The show is meant to distract us
from the real work at local levels which is continuing to stoke fear among
those who have never been included in our march toward prosperity.
How did Donald Trump get elected? It was a magic show. While
the Progressive Ideology focused on the national stage, the hate-mongers spread
like weeds in Everywhere USA. Their filth and stench a ruse under an umbrella
of disenfranchisement.
This is no manifesto; this is simply me thinking out loud
that if George Soros is to see his Open Society Project succeed, I think it has
to happen from the inside out and he has been focused on the outside in
approach.
Change the focus.
Begin from within and let it spread.
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