Jim Macdonald has left a new comment on your post "Support Obama? Live near Bozeman? Check out this f...":
Personally, I don't have one bit of faith in Obama. And, if you read enough about me, you would know that. The point of the flyer is to reach those who do support Obama and what Obama could be doing.
I wrote after the 2006 election a piece called "No Radical New Wind in Yellowstone" that you can find on this blog; there is no reason to believe that electoral politics will make any changes to the system.
However, there is faith that people who organize together and take the long road to work from the ground up can make a difference. Look at what is called for from Obama - stuff that no person in government actually pays any attention to (a real seat at the public in decision making; why? It's not really logistically possible). You can't put all the public interests into a room and be effective in making decisions. Yet, that's a damning critique of the system. It's a system that cannot be repaired from within - just like the IBMP.
However, my view is a very small minority. You have to reach people; you have to let them follow their inclinations and beliefs to their logical conclusion. And, that's why you reach out to people who are Obama supporters (my belief is that voting is only for protest - I am likely to vote, if I vote, for some third party) because there is a convergence of belief potentially - even if not an identical optimism about the system.
Obama's rhetoric actually runs counter to what he's doing by running for the most top-down authoritarian position in the world. All one can hope for is that his Administration scraps the IBMP - and only if he appoints the right people, but that won't solve the buffalo problem. It won't solve the fundamental problem in Yellowstone or for buffalo. It will create an opportunity of space for a grassroots movement to develop that can actually stand up for justice. What we need is time; in the end, we need to be the power - not the Barack Obamas.
So, you asked; now take the time not to jump to caricature views about what I've written. You can be a political radical like myself - essentially an anarchist - and still work well with other people, still empower people to act even though you don't have faith in their route. More can be done, and it's not morally or logically responsible to draw cynical conclusions about working for justice.
Posted by Jim Macdonald to Jim's Eclectic World at 5/21/08 11:16 AM __________________________________________________
D O T E A S Y - "Join the web hosting revolution!"
http://www.doteasy.com
About Me
- Jim Macdonald
- Hi, my name is Jim Macdonald, and I have an odd assortment of interests. In no particular order, I love Yellowstone, I am an anti-authoritarian activist and organizer, and I have a background in philosophy, having taught at the college level. My blog has a lot more links to my writing and my other Web sites. In Jim's Eclectic World, I try to give a holistic view of my many interests. Often, all three passions show themselves interweaving in the very same blog. Anyhow, I think it's a little different. But, that's me. I'm not so much out there, but taken together, I'm a little unusual.