Ah, those darned loveable silly progressives!

There are some truly ignorant ideas floating around Progressiveville. Keep in mind that I like these people – these are my people. These are the communitarians in a society that glorifies the ruthless acquisitors. They are always overmatched because they have not much more than a rudimentary understanding of politics, and none whatsoever of power.

Idea #1: Appoint Elizabeth Warren to head the Federal Reserve.

The folks who advance an idea like this (Joseph Stiglich for Treasury Secretary is another one) are suffering from two delusions at least: 1) Obama has made ill-considered appointments, and 2) placing a friendly force atop a raging bull will tame the bull. Obama has appointed the people he wants to positions of power – Gates to Defense is the most telling. He’s no fool. And, putting good people in positions of power, even if that was Obama’s wont, would not effectively deal with the power that the position theoretically controls.

Anyway, here’s the deal with Warren: She’s a congressional appointee, and is only there because she is well-spoken enough to have reached the public from an obscure position. Obama and his troops likely want her to shut up and go away. She won’t be around long.

Idea #2: Sign an Internet petition. Such activities are useless to the exact degree that they are easy. Think of it this way: The wardens of a prison know that inmate opinion does not likely favor them. Inmates might want to join together and voice that opinion via an Internet petition. It would not matter. Unless the inmates are somehow organizing, their opinions mean nothing, and the wardens are playing very close attention to any organizing activities.

Internet petitions and emails to congressional members are useless because they require no effort. The Internet is nothing more than an information-spreading tool, and is not a substitute for organizing.

If I were a member of Congress, here is the order of priority I place on various expressions of opinion:

1: Large contributions from organized donors, e.g., “bundled” money from corporate executives.
2: Self-interested advice and influence -can this person help my career or give me a job when I’m out of office? Can he give my wife a job (Mrs. Evan Bayh)? Can he generate negative publicity and hurt me? Does he know stuff about me that can hurt me?
3: Large contributions from unorganized sources -i.e., Hollywood actors. Hollywood is odd in that it gives lots of money to Democrats, but does not demand anything in return except some ideological posturing. The money matters. The opinions require perception management techniques to assure future flow of money.
4: Focused public opinion – this is that rare occasion when a misdeed has been exposed and is affecting poll numbers – Conrad Burns and his Abramoff scandal, for example. The scandal has a focusing effect. Public opinion can come into focus for a number of reasons -economic collapse, scandal, unpopular wars, etc. Elected officials will pay attention when opinion is focused, and usually try to manipulate perceptions to control that opinion. Usually the remedy is to replace one allowable party with the other to carry forward with the unpopular policy. Devices such as wedge issues – abortion, gay marriage, gun control, usually suffice to deflect meaningful organization.
5. The actual need and worthiness of various initiatives and bills before congress. These people in office are not scoundrels – they are just, mostly, not very strong, and so public service ends up down the list.
6. Disorganized public opinion. It matters and can bite them, but is usually managed via perception devices – Portuguese Water Dogs and beautiful kids, charitable activities, etc.
7. Mail – people who take the trouble to write a letter are a concern, as for each one writing a letter, many more likely share the view. Office holders encourage letter-writing, as it is a useful means of cheaply monitoring public opinion. Letters are by themselves a weak organizing tool – they merely alert the office holder that he might have to deal with a problem.
8. The office holder’s personal proclivities and aspirations – legacy stuff. Put a man’s name on a building, and that building will employee cronies for decades. Name a wilderness area after him before he dies, he’ll be your servant. (Note: This is why I long ago advocated renaming the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, the “Burns-Baucus National Recreation Area,” with a stipulated requirement that each man spend one day a year there water skiing. )
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43: Large public demonstrations that are over on Sunday evening.
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57: Paper petitions. It’s our constitutional right, dammit. They have to accept them. There’s a room down by the furnace where they store them.
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126: Form letters.
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129: Emails.
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311: Internet petitions.
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516: Small public demonstrations – so small that they advertise weakness, and especially those where participants dress really goofy.

Nothing will ever replace on-the-ground organizing – education and activism designed to focus public opinion. Environmentalists, civil rights workers, labor union organizers, feminists, anti-nukers all did this grunt work, and had an impact. If people educate and organize, they can work their way up the list, and on rare occasion, even bump #1 down to #2.

Politicians and corporations hate organizers and have for years threatened, spied on, scorned, imprisoned, infiltrated and murdered them. Those in power would be much happier if we would just email one another and sign internet petitions.