The Demographics False God

We all live in bubbles now. I thought my bubble had grown slightly bigger than their bubble and would continue to do so indefinitely because of age and demographics. The polls seemed to support that idea. I was wrong. I still think that will eventually happen, but it hasn't happened yet. And in the long run, we're all dead. The only way to make a dent in this is to organize and engage on the ground in boring every day ways in republican dominated areas to convince more people that liberal and progressive ideas are good ones. This will require hard, boring work, like actually going down to your party office and getting involved, showing up to boring meetings, phone banking, door knocking, running for office, or volunteering for non-partisan organizations that engage people in the real world with phone calls and face-to-face meetings and recruitment.. It will require the long slow process of re-invigorating the labor movement in the the U.S. service sector. These things are hard for liberals because they require subverting individual needs to the needs of the organization. They require working with people you might not like very much and talking to people who might not like YOU very much. They require compromise and negotiation and, yes, politics.

Clictivism isn't going to do the job, because it just maintains the bubble. Voting alone isn't going to get it done. (We have to stop patting ourselves on the back for voting, which is actually the bare minimum of what makes for good citizenship). I'm not sure any of this will do any good either; could be that people's ideas are set, and demographic change really is the only hope. But it's the best chance there is.

I'm probably not going to do any of that, because I am neurotic and lazy and hate participating in organizations. I hope somewhere in places like my home, there are people who are braver and tougher than me so we don't have to wait for the demographic bubbles to do the work for us.

And now I'll stop with the "Big Lesson" crap because there will be plenty of that going around and honestly, doing it all via social media feels like the height of futility.