Recently an article by George Monbiot gave me a faint sense of hope at this time of despair inflicted on us by President Trump and his lackies. Monbiot wrote that one way we could cope with the sort of chaos being imposed on us all by this regime was for us to focus on our local communities and to devote ourselves to this.
Why, we might ask, have people everywhere lost their trust in politicians and the institutions they govern, ostensibly on our behalf.
There was an interesting article recently by Professor Larry Lessig addressing this challenge Where we go from here (#1). Democrats are not understanding what… | by Lessig | Medium
The author asked the question:
What drives the populism that rallied to Trump. That populism is not partisan. It is relational. It is not about Left versus Right. It is about inside versus outside. Populism is the rejection of a status quo. It is the rejection of insiders. Populism is the people’s scream at a system they don’t think hears them.
He then wrote this interesting observation:
Democrats make promises and advance programs as if the public believes such promises could happen, or if they do happen, that they will have a positive effect on ordinary people. They simply declare their ideas — which, in my view, are often great ideas—but then are puzzled when the public doesn’t embrace them. Government, on this view, is Frank Gallagher (Shameless), earnest and loving, but completely incapable of overcoming the addiction that renders his every promise meaningless. Fiona is the America that elected Trump, screaming its frustration in response.
He then considered:
Because America’s reaction to the Democrats’ promises makes sense—if you assume that government doesn’t work or is inherently corrupt. Why pay taxes if government spending is useless — or worse? Why regulate, when all regulation is just the product of crony capitalism? Just leave us alone, this view insists, and we’ll do with our own as much as we can. It won’t be great, but at least we won’t be the dupes of the Democratic Left.
His solution is as relevant to our upcoming Local Body elections in Christchurch as anything else I have read. Here they are:
(1) Start where the people are.
If change begins where the people are, then the people believe fundamentally that our government has been corrupted by money.
(2) Build upon common beliefs.
“You got to give them hope.”
Across the world, and slowly now across the United States, communities are organizing assemblies to listen and deliberate upon issues that are important to them. The best of these assemblies are large (though most of the work is done in small groups), randomly chosen and, critically, representative. But at the start, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The key at the beginning is simply to engage: For people to meet face to face, and to hear and find common ground. It must be a different politics, and we must build that difference out. Our democracy drowns with a media that profits from turning us into ignorant people who hate each other. We will get nothing unless we find a way to engage outside that ecosystem, crafting a different way to engage which does not profit by destroying our capacity to hear.
So, second, we must build upon our common belief, by engaging in a way that reminds us that we can do this.
(3) From the outside
But we must build from a critically different perspective.
If populism is not about Left versus Right—if it is about inside versus outside—then the populist challenge is to wage a campaign that is, and that therefore can be perceived to be, a campaign from the outside.
I like these thoughts. If you agree that they have some merit, then we can build on them over the next few months as candidates stand for office. We must ask them in what way are they different. Will they lead at the Council table and take others with them. Will they educate the public on what matters for our children and grandchildren’s long-term interests?
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