Heath Haussamen
The Internet makes democracy possible in a way the world has never before seen. The challenge for movements like the Tea Party and Occupy is to rise above division and work together to change the world.
At a recent gathering of people from various churches in Doña Ana County who are fed up with the direction of our country, one woman’s story caught my attention.
With a message on the screen behind her informing those in attendance that 70 percent of employees at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park are Texans, the woman talked about her own plight.
She said she did her part, earning a college degree that helped her get a good job, but then was laid off. She said she applied for more than 200 jobs after that and didn’t get a single interview. Finally, she was offered a job that paid a little more than minimum wage and came with no benefits. Though she thought she deserved better, she took the job, since it was the only one she could find.
“None of this is my fault,” the woman said.
I believe that sums up the sentiment of many Americans as one of the worst economic downturns in this nation’s history drags on and on. It’s a sense that people are doing exactly what society tells them they need to do to be successful – getting an education, working hard – and they still aren’t making ends meet.
It’s a sense that the American Dream is dead, and that it was killed by the wealthiest among us who are getting richer and richer while quality of life for the rest of us degrades.
A larger, worldwide movement
I’ve been observing the Occupy movement for weeks without saying much about it. I wanted to spend some time digesting the sentiment that has led people to demonstrate, camp in public places, and boycott banks to shine light on what they see as a devastating problem.
And I’ve repeatedly been asked to analyze how the Occupy movement compares with the Tea Party movement.
At this point, my belief is that, though they have significant differences, both are part of a larger, worldwide movement that has the potential to fundamentally change this world. That’s something I find exciting.
We’ve seen the new movement help topple an oppressive government in Egypt that had long been supported by those with power, including America. We’ve seen it help empower people to organize across the Arab world, in nations including Iran. We’ve seen it in riots in London. We’ve seen it in the effort in Wisconsin to defend employee unions.
And we’ve seen it in the Tea Party and Occupy movements. The Tea Party had a dramatic impact on the 2010 election. Occupy forced Bank of America and other financial institutions to back off new fees.
These are people from various nations, from across the political spectrum, and from various ethnicities, income brackets, genders and sexual orientations. They may not agree with each other on a lot of issues – including whether the woman at the start of this column or society is to blame for her plight – but they agree on one key point:
Those who control things aren’t playing fair. And that must change.
It’s the Internet
Why now? Though there are other factors, I believe the primary reason is the Internet, which makes democracy possible in a way our world has never before seen. People without money or influence over our decision-makers can organize on Facebook and Twitter in spite of efforts to stop them. They can show the world what’s happening on YouTube and blogs.
The voice of the people can’t be silenced.
Right now, the majority in America says our system is broken and corrupt. The Tea Party and Occupy movements may not agree on the solution to our problems, or even on the cause of the problems, but they agree there is a problem: Whether it’s the government or Corporate America, people with too much influence are grabbing even more at the expense of the rest of us.
I believe there’s truth in the complaints of both movements. The three-headed dragon that runs our society – the government, the corporations and other special-interest groups, and the mainstream national media – uses its power to increase its power. Increasingly, the rest of us are being left behind.
In America, one needs only to compare the unreasonably high percentage of millionaires in Congress with the disproportionately high percentage of black men in prison to see that something is drastically out of whack.
What people across the world are saying is that those who hold power can no longer take advantage of those who don’t.
United we stand, divided we fall
Those who hold power can’t stop the new level of democracy made possible by the Internet. The challenge in the 21st Century and beyond will be for humanity to maturely handle the responsibility that comes with such democracy.
We’re not there yet. As we saw in London, the threat of mob mentality taking over is a real danger. Polarization is on the rise.
I’ve defended the Tea Party movement in the past and I will defend the Occupy movement. I’ve long criticized those in power who try to limit peoples’ ability to organize and change a broken system. Regardless of their ideology, I will continue to defend people who are rising up in this nation and around the world to force change.
But I will also challenge them to handle that responsibility with care. Only through working together will they change the world. Those who hold power will seek to divide them to keep them from becoming too influential. The challenge is to rise above the division.
It’s not as though everyone who supported the revolution that birthed America was on the same ideological page. They were people with different beliefs who could agree on one thing: The king needed to go. They banded together to accomplish that goal, then created a system of government intended to force them to work through their differences to find compromise that would benefit all.
Thanks to the Internet, America is in a position today to actually realize that promise. But it will do so only if people put aside their differences to work together.
In the last few years, we’ve seen glimpses of what that might look like, but we’ve also seen incredible polarization that threatens to put a stop to any attempt to change things. I’m encouraged by what’s possible, but worried about what might happen if people don’t work together.
The phrase “United we stand, divided we fall” seems especially appropriate at this time. If people can agree that the king needs to go – that our society needs fundamental changes that build a new level of democracy into the system – then they need to put aside their differences to make it happen.