Recliner Democracy

I think we live in an age of deteriorating political activism. Posting on a blog does not help with the situation, but it does assist in clarifying my thoughts on the problem and also, hopefully, makes people aware of my opinion on this matter. With that out of the way, I would like to address a certain group from which I receive emails: MoveOn.org.

MoveOn.org is a left-leaning political "activist" website which bombards its subscribers with emails regarding various legislative actions and reasons to be activists behind not-so-thinly veiled rhetoric. Last week I received an email to participate in a "virtual march" to indicate my support against the genocidal actions of the Sudanese government on the people of the Darfur region in Sudan.

What is this virtual march?

Clicking on a link will bring you to a webpage that has a form which the user can fill out and submit. All of these forms will ostensibly be delivered to members of Congress and the President. What are the odds that they will read 100,000 (MoveOn's goal) letters sent to them by people on the internet, most of whom have political leanings further left than most of Europe? I think that those odds are pretty small, honestly, especially with our current government.

This "mass" mobilization is a pissant show of political "giving a damn," being used by the fine folks at MoveOn.org to inflate their pathetic egos by submitting to Congresspeople these "letters" from the internet. Let us also not forget that all-important PAC money in the briefcases.

I know what's going on with the janjaweed and their cooperation with the government of Sudan. Filling out a webform to have submitted to my member of Congress, Dennis Kucinich, and the President accomplishes a negligible amount of nothing. If I were to want to do something worthwhile, I'd stick a $10,000 check in with a hand-written letter into an envelope, presenting a rational and coherent argument towards intervention in Sudan. It seems to me that would work more effectively than a common web form.

I'll go out and march, even if I'm the only one marching. I truly believe in my causes to be more than pathetic webpages. So if you see me sitting at the corner of Bagley and Front streets with my "Save Darfur" sign... well, you know why.

By the way, I'm voting for Barbara Anne Ferris on May 2. I really didn't like your purely ad hominem attacks on Kucinich, but we deserve better.

-rl