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obama and revolution

a word on this election year…

I am so excited that I am about to be away from the u.s. as this election year gears up!

I said, years ago, that I hate politics, and that is still true. I hate the posturing, the games, the polls, the navel-gazing beltway, the lies.

I love the people and land of America, but I hate the politics, and how little the process currently has to do with yielding positive changes in people’s lived experience.

I want an alternative way of being in the world, post-nationalism of any kind, local beyond borders, post capitalist, people and planet-centered. i am learning that way in the work i get to support in detroit. and because the changes I want to see are so pervasive, I identify as an American revolutionary more than associating with any political party.

but to me, this year is a simple year. all I need to do is go on sabbatical, be a revolutionary, and vote for Barack Obama.

for most of us, Obama is not a promised land, though perhaps not enough of us realize yet that no president will ever be that. Obama is a human being in the highest office in a corrupt system in a capitalist nation, so naturally he is a hot mess. i send him compassion.

the people who are vying to run against him are so much hotter in their messiness that I can’t even watch these primaries. not because they are republicans, but because they are part of a racist inhumane anti-immigrant 1%-loving backlash.

I dabble in the belief that revolutionaries shouldn’t engage whatsoever in reform work. if you are all the way there, just be you and dont get distracted or frustrated. heck, stop reading now, this isn’t for you.

if you are unsure about whether or not to engage, just operate on those fronts that feel logical for you. being revolutionary is something we must practice every day, but logic is also something we must practice every day.

logically, we propel ourselves to a dark zombie apocalypse if the republicans come into office this year. the Mayans told us everything will change this year…I don’t think they meant a perry presidency tho. I think they meant the transformations we are currently unleashing. I hope! this is why I am going to the Mayan ruins next month!

as long as I am going to live in America, which as the home of my niece and nephew kind of trumps all other places, I have a responsibility, particularly to those who feel policies shift. those who use food stamps and would not eat if newt gingrich was elected. our newly immigrated folks who won’t survive if michelle bachman is elected. the planet upon which we all depend, which won’t be able to sustain human life for long if a republican is elected.

but I also can’t drop the work I am doing, as a revolutionary, to stump for obama. that’s not logical. if we keep doing that every two/four years, we won’t make meaningful headway in our work to build the radically loving humane society we need to build in the shell of our capitalist present.

there are organizations that blend these realms sustainably and beautifully – I am still partial to the league, which localizes political engagement, integrates electoral and community organizing strategies, and creates accessible voting guides where people converse with each other, educate each other.

those are revolutionary skill sets, even if they are cultivated in a reform environment.

but generally, keep doing what you are doing, supporting your organizations, giving resources to the organizations you currently support, sustain.

we are in a revolutionary age, the age of Arab spring, occupy, 2012 transformation of the world, even my sabbatical – radical things are happening.

it would be amazing if we could all just keep escalating this revolutionary work, and Obama could focus on being the president, bringing home troops and stuff.

I know he won’t, I know he will have to basically pause his real job to campaign. and I know y’all will probably have this debate all year. but I just wanted to say, it could go down differently.

we can choose, we can be complex, anytime.