“Democracy Rebellion” is a 56 minute inspiration. I strongly urge you to watch it online before it expires from the KSPS/PBS website this Monday, February 3. To watch, click the blue above (the blue indicates a weblink) OR click the direct direct link (web address) here:
https://video.ksps.org/video/the-democracy-rebellion-a-reporters-notebook-with-hedrick-i8oy2s/
[If the click doesn’t work, go to the P.S. below for detailed instructions on how to copy and paste.]
Why take the time to watch this? Its main point is that anything worth achieving (or protecting) does not occur overnight. Changes we now take almost for granted, like suffrage (the right to vote in elections) for former slaves, suffrage for women, the direct election of U.S. Senators, none of these changes happened spontaneously. All occurred because of long-fought popular movements, arguments, and agitations that arose out of years of effort by dedicated volunteers. Indeed, without the concerted effort of many it would still be legal to keep slaves.
Democracy Rebellion puts in context the current municipal and state-level efforts to preserve our democratic values from the threats we face. [These efforts are all the more pertinent while a lawyer like Alan Dershowitz argues in the U.S Senate (last Wednesday) that there should be no limit whatsoever on Presidential efforts to consolidate power. (Read Heather Cox Richardson on Dershowitz, here. Then sign up for her daily analysis of the impeachment proceedings here.)]
Teaser: Who knew or remembered that Washington State passed initiative I-735 with 63% of the vote in 2016, an initiative urging passage of an Amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision? Eight hundred cities and 20 states are now on record favoring such an amendment. (Action by 34 states would force Congress to act.) On a different, but related note, who knew that the Sate of Connecticut publicly finances political campaigns?
Watch Democracy Rebellion. It offers some relief from the spectacle occurring in the U.S. Senate as Republicans close their eyes and ears and advocate for oligarchy against the will of 75% of voters.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. If clicking the blue web address (the second paragraph above), highlight the link, hit COMMAND=CMD (⌘ on many computers) and the letter “C” simultaneously, then click your cursor into the line at the top of your browser’s window (Examples of browsers are Safari, Firefox, Chrome, whatever application you use to see webpages) and press ⌘ [CMD] and “v” to paste in the link. then hit Return.)
P.P.S. One final note. Alan Dershowitz deserves our disdain. He is a lawyer and a now retired Harvard professor, but he is mostly wrong-headed currently and historically, and he’s been at it a long time. In 1974 he said, “I’m not happy seeing Richad Nixon’s gang being tried by blacks and liberals in the Disrict of Columbia.” Wow. Click the link for context and the original newspaper article offered by the fact-checking site Scopes.com.