(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Dear Kossacks [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2025-01-04 I’ve been struggling to find my voice lately. I’m battling feelings of bitterness and betrayal. My motivations for building a better world are being tested to an extreme. After a lifetime of working to make a positive contribution to the world and frequently paying a severe financial price for such desires, I’m starting to wear thin. It would be so much easier to just focus on making money and being with the family. Had I not been such an idealist I’d have probably ended up a computer programmer in the late 1990s and ended up with larger stock options from whichever firm I ended up with. I’d have my 10 acre property and carefully designed house. I’d have the cash to essentially be retired and work on whatever project I wanted to. Instead I have an overriding compulsion to try to make this world better. And so when faced by the epic failure of so many folks around me to help create that better world, it’s hard not to let the bitterness in. I generally maintain a Buddhist attitude of non-attachment to results. It's the effort and solid work towards good that matters, and not the “winning”. If you attach to the winning, it comes with disappointment. Currently I am failing in the non-attachment with regards to our national politic and our relative climate inaction. But tis not the Republicans which dishearten me. There will always be selfish and misguided people in the world. It’s why I work to make a better world. No the people who have left me bereft of joy are the liberals and Democrats who are addicted to corporate money and lies and who can’t even bring themselves to recognize their own complicity in our predicament. And before you join me in that sentiment, I may be referring to you. To still see so many people think Corporate Media has been making mistakes in their support of Corporate Oligarchic agenda amazes me. The bright light here is a rising number rejecting WaPo and the NYT. But that’s not enough. Too many people temper the need to speak out boldly about radical equity, love, and restorative justice. Too many people don’t speak out about the need for comprehensive Climate Policy as an existential need. Too many people continue to follow and support the same Democratic leadership that has been compromised by corporate money. Harris campaigned on “Joy” when many people are feeling existential terror of climate change if they are awake to the issue, or people feeling controlled, cramped, abused, and otherwise trodden on by corporate America. When our leaders do not voice the problem, it is too easy for propaganda to lead them to blame the wrong people for corporate avarice. The corporate media convinced everyone that Joe Biden couldn’t get reelected or do the job. Including far too many on the left. Harris was to be the savior of the Democratic Party. Wany on the left who waged a vicious whispering campaign (and not so whispered at time) against Biden promised us victory through Harris. We trod on the principles of the Primary by attacking our own nominee until he was forced to step down. When I voiced my own concerns I was told by many it was for the good of the party and country. Biden COULDN’T win. Well Harris didn’t either. When I advocate for making pro-Climate policies which include pro-worker provisions (such as the Green New-Deal) too many people buy into the corporate media line that such talk will lose us the election. “Not enough people care about the environment.” “Not enough people care about social justice.” “Not enough people care about pro-worker policies.” By silencing our voices on these issues we slide into autocracy and oligarchy anyway. We do their work for us. When it comes to primaries between a corporate Dem, and a Progressive, we are always told that the Progressive is unelectable. Nevermind that the moderate Clinton and moderate Harris failed to win election. Nevermind the peak of Biden’s popularity was not during his election in 2020, but when a large amount of progressive legislation was passed making people’s lives better and easier. Once that legislation was stopped, by the moderate Dems, Biden’s popularity began to sink and never recovered. The corporate media has now shown they will support an autocratic monster over basically any Democrat. No moderate message is going to save us in the future. The moderate corporate message of Democrats has taken Democrats from a “permanent” house majority in the 70s to where we are today. When we abandoned the principles of the labor movement, when we abandoned economic justice, when we started taken money from the oligarchs we lost again and again. All that stacks up against us now is surmountable if enough people choose to do so. I have chosen to live for justice, compassion, and equity. I have the scars to show for it. When are you going to join us fighting for real equity and justice? When are you going to join us in putting responsible people in power? And the current democratic leadership is NOT responsible. They have failed at every step in preventing autocracy from inching forward. And that’s because they are compromised in their own campaigns through corporate donations. They can’t speak out because they have been told not to speak out. And they don’t believe enough in justice and equity to risk the loss of corporate support. They have convinced themselves there is no other way. If right now you are calling me a fool or an idealist, you’ve bought into the corporate fiction yourself. Surviving this world as a species will take enough people understanding the need for cooperative, mutually beneficial action over greed. Are you going to fight for our future? Are you going to speak out for justice? Are you going to put yourself on the line to make a better world? Or are you going to meekly let the greedy bastards spiral us into catastrophe? If you want to fight, it starts here, on this site and in your personal lives. It means not taking the corporate propaganda of “that justice idea won’t work” and pushing for positive, responsible change. It means getting of your ass about seeing climate as an issue. It means stopping to be the negative voice in the club when you really don’t know. Will you join me in fighting for a better future? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/4/2295163/-Dear-Kossacks?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/