Elections Are Means, Not Ends


	Elections Are Means, Not Ends

papananook

7-22-2008 4:49 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/934dd2d2-b18c-42e4-9a58-23899bd5e525/CB6D355A-02DC-4255-8D43-ABE11DE83F5B/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://institute.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/five-ideas-start-going-uprising-movement" href="http://institute.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/five-ideas-start-going-uprising-movement" style="font-size: 11px;">institute.ourfuture.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://institute.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/five-ideas-start-going-uprising-movement"><FONT size="4">•</FONT> <STRONG>Elections Are Means, Not Ends:</STRONG> The flag-pin-fetishizing media tries to make us believe that elections - and specifically federal elections —are the ends, rather than the means. This is amplified by a progressive movement that is still struggling with <A href="http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2354/">Partisan War Syndrome</A> - the sickness that says the only thing we have to do is elect Democrats and our problems are solved. The entire frame of mind is, of course, idiotically paternalistic —we believe that the messianic politicians will just hand down change from Mount Olympus, that all we have to do is make sure the right messiah is on top of the mountain, and that trying to use an election to pressure that messiah will threaten the messiah's ascent.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://institute.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/five-ideas-start-going-uprising-movement"><FONT size="4"></FONT> <STRONG>Remember That Thing Called Direct Action:</STRONG> Along with the paternalistic view of politicians that comes from the obsession with federal elections comes the potential to forget about direct action: the actions outside the electoral arena that can change things.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/CB6D355A-02DC-4255-8D43-ABE11DE83F5B/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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