The people can fix this by fixing their leadership
David Cay Johnston, co-founder of DCReport, had a profound piece on February 11 about just how bad the damage being done to our nation is, and how much of an emergency situation we’re in, and about the need to get people involved.
Following the piece were numerous comments that there need to be steps for people to take, some guidance, some suggestions to people on how to take such steps. Well here’s a suggested step that could make all the difference. The people need to call forth their own leader. One to lead people in a movement just as dramatic and strong as the negative movement happening now, only in this case a movement for positive changes. Positive and constitutional.
As I noted in my last piece, it’s been done before. In this country. In memory of some elders still with us who were there. It was FDR, rallying the people for radical change to transform the economy from one for the gilded rich to one for the working people. He was sort of the Trump of his time, only the anti-Trump. Such a leader has not stepped forward, but the people have the real power anyway and we can pull a leader forth into that role. A case of the people leading and the leaders following.
The people, social media, outlets like this one, can set up a mighty roar of demand for such leaders to step forward. No doubt some bad ones would try out but, again, the people having the power, they can filter those out.
The calls for small and individual action are still needed, to contact your representatives, join protests, join action groups, but it’s when the people move as a unit that the changes they insist on cannot be denied. Big actions are also needed, like huge national demonstrations, but that just gets back to the point that it’s the people who are the power, and that power works when we act together.
A new FDR is not a savior but a catalyst for the people, to give us a point of focus to act as one. Acting to thwart destructive change as best we can now, to win the next round of elections, and to institute a radical set of changes, much as Trump is doing only in the opposite direction.
Radical? Radical in the degree to which they are changes for the people, not radical in the sense of being contrary to American experience. What FDR did in his time was entirely American in nature, just radical in the way it was focused on benefiting the people.
Of course a charismatic leader putting forth steps focused on the people (see There is No Party for the People) would face resistance from the slight majority that voted for the current administration. But it was only a slight majority, an almost 50-50 split of the voters. That’s a good starting point. And of those who voted for the current administration some won’t like the results they’re seeing now, and many will always vote for whoever they think will do things for them. Proposals for an economy radically for the people is exactly what is needed, and what will draw many.
In the ’60s the slogan, “power to the people” was popular. It was, however, mistaken. There’s no need to get power to the people. The people are the power. They just need to know that, and to focus their powerful action. If a leader won’t come forward to create that point of focus then we need to shake the rafters with a call for ones to come forward, because a call so powerful that it shakes loose new leadership is within our power too.
