Recalls, corporate money, and the future

All the votes are not accounted, but things are far along that I feel safe in expressing my disappointment. The union busting governor of Wisconsin seems to have weathered the recall.there are a handful of things I want to say:

First I want to extolled the virtue of the right to recall. Without a doubt many will have voted against the recall only because they feel once someone is elected they should have the right to a full term. I would agree that people deserve a fair chance. But a fair chance is not necessarily a full-term. If our system deserves to be called representative, when fundamental issues are at stake, and elected officials do not represent, the principle of recall is essential for democracy. my view is that there are not enough efforts to recall politicians. and I thank our friends in Wisconsin for stretching that democratic muscle, even if it was not strong enough.

The second thing I want to say is that corporate money in elections is really scary. It is not so much that votes can be bought, but that vast amounts of public airways can be dominated. We are just at the beginning of the effects of the Citizens United case. We the people may lose all semblance of any real say in elections.but in spite of this I have at least a modicum of optimism. I believe it is possible for campaigns to overspend.I believe it is possible for people to get smart enough to see past the ads. Hegemony is not easy to break and a highly monied hegemony in a mass media culture is even harder to break. But I continue to have faith, something will continue to shine through.

I do think that things are fairly gloomy for people, and the planet, and I believe that right-wing ideology makes it that much more difficult for things to improve. Even the so-called left, in the hands of moderate Democrats continue to cut into civil liberties, and basic rights. I don't know how to get past the dominant political hegemony that we are facing.

I believe that to do so we will have to think creatively. We may have to come up with new political tools, and we may need to reach beyond that, to new economic tools, new sociocultural forms. This may require tremendous flexibility of thinking in order to invent something new that has the potential of making the difference. But being inventive raises the risk of coming up with false solutions, things that don't work. I believe that's the risk will have to take.