Later, as I thought about how distressed I became at the thought that people are just giving up on our government and declaring the system a total loss, I realized that I do still cling to images from a kinder, gentler time. Being both an idealist and an optimist tints my glasses as rosy as can be. And with my Dad working in the upper echelons of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations through my teens, my Mom campaigning for Adlai Stevenson and Eugene McCarthy, and my sister for the past two decades working for the Democratic leadership in the House, my knowing that not EVERYONE in Congress is corrupt is well-nigh unshakeable.
However: I'm no political scientist, but with the institutionalization of money wed to politics and politics determining how the Congress votes, I'm coming to realize that we're running out of places to aim our idealism. And what blatantly horrible things are born of this poisonous mix. When the far right swept through the 2010 elections and 2010 being the census year in which districts were re-shaped, for at least the next six years we have to live with gerrymandered districts that make Republican candidates shoe-ins in all but the bluest parts of our country. And even more disturbing, Republican governors are eagerly signing legislation that is making it more and more difficult for working people to vote.
We watched The Butler the other night. For me the most vivid and emotional part of this "parade of presidents" was actually the father-son relationship portrayed. Those days of sit-ins and lynchings and church bombings are still vivid in my memory. My older brother, of whom I am intensely proud, risked life and limb to help the disenfranchised register to vote. Have those in this country who fire-hosed and spat upon all who stood up for justice been lying in wait all these years? Why is there not a huge public outcry about the obvious re-disenfranchising that's going on openly in the light of day? Where is our moral compass?
We need to go to publicly financed elections. Each candidate deserves the same "air time" to communicate to voters where they stand and what they pledge to work for. How can such a change happen when 1% of our people are pulling all the strings? How can I look a young person in the eye and tell them that their hopes and dreams can be realized if they just work for change? I certainly believed that and put my body on the line--- for justice, against war, for equality. But how could I blame a young person these days for seeking shelter in a college campus or a liberal enclave where all these goings on can be ignored? I'd be a hypocrite is I chastised them, for didn't I escape to Europe when the violence and prejudice of my mother-culture became too much for me?
No wonder we rallied around Barack Obama in 2008. We are a land hungry for unity, but addicted to a dog eat dog mentality. What a horrible image, survival by cannibalism.
When I'd get down and out about the state of our nation, my mother would always find a way to bring me back to the sunny side. The belief that people are inherently good and that this country is the grandest experiment in living together with incredible diversity we humans have ever set forth to accomplish, well, yes..... we must overcome.