Some important reminders of history and the reality of our society’s power structures in this thread from @seachanger:
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Paul Cantrellreplied to "Dear Dr." ionizedgirl last edited by
@ionizedgirl
One of my brings-the-knives-out opinions is that politicians are on average far better human beings than we generally imagine. (And yes, many are grifters, con artists, sociopaths, reprehensible humans — but far fewer than we imagine.) There’s a whole lot of decent and well-meaning people in politics; it’s the job itself that’s a bastard. -
@paul_ipv6
Yeah, I often compare activism to R&D.A mistake we often make speaking to politicians is imagining we understand where consensus lies better than they do. Occasionally we do, but rarely. This is their job. If they’ve survived in it long, they’re probably good at it. We live in bubbles; they hear the whole cross-section.
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@jessamyn
I don’t think I truly understood all of what I wrote above until I’d had a taste of being in both roles (not in electoral politics, but within companies / orgs). Another crucial one I didn’t work into the thread is “diplomat.” -
@inthehands I've been considering this a lot more recently b/c we're doing tax appeal hearings after a town wide reappraisal. I chair a board that oversees these. The biggest taxpayer (community health center) grieved their appraisal (which is their right) & brought a lawyer. She showed up, acted all lawyerly and was downright rude. She was getting paid, I was a civic volunteer. People need to understand the power dynamics of the people they are interacting with in order to understand the system
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@inthehands Great stuff! It quantitizes what's technically much more fuzzy--a politician can and will engage in activisim; the best activism takes political realities to some degree into account (and in fact the DNC protests do hit that somewhat given that many of the protestors are also deligates--a political role), so much of this is technically on a continuum.
But the heart of it is that wielding real democratic power constrains your actions and not doing so to an extent leaves you freer.
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@jessamyn
Uff da, as the Minnesotans say. What a miserable situation.That seems like a situation where the lawyer is exercising power at the expense of diplomacy: to the extent that she can threaten you or the town with real harm, the threats are effective; to the extent that she needs city gov’s consensus and understanding, she’s self-sabotaging.
Here’s hoping you and the town make it through that process intact.
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jz.tuskreplied to "Dear Dr." ionizedgirl last edited by
Just go vote for Trump, and enjoy the next administration.
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@mneme
Yes, a continuum. One thing that’s important to appreciate is that when somebody occupies both roles or slides between them, when a politician can also be an activist, that is •situational• and not solely a matter of personal integrity, e.g.: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/113007433707353356 -
Paul Cantrellreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by [email protected]
Here's a great example of the activist-politician handoff in action, from @jztusk:
https://mastodon.social/@jztusk/113007506440716149(Yes, Obama didn’t directly enact marriage equality, but his executive choices such as extending federal employee benefits to same-sex partners in 2010, plus his SCOTUS noms, plus his public change to supporting same-sex marriage, all helped set up Obergefell.)
Was Obama lying before? or after? Or did he truly change his mind? …Does it make a difference? Not to the result!
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@inthehands I listened to a really interesting interview with sen. Butler who went from activist to politician in a really sudden way. And she spoke about how more close relationships between the two would be more efficient, pointing to MLK and LBJ.
Def worth a listen.
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@Jackiemauro
Sounds really interesting. The MLK/LBJ relationship is an extreme and classic example! -
@inthehands Thank you, I think we will, but the next hearing we're all in I will take more care to remind her that we're all working on the same result (a fair price) and she is paid while we are not and she should be mindful of that. The worst possible outcome is that they grieve it to the state and then I *think* it's out of our hands and not actually worse for the town. We're just all trying, cooperatively, to keep the state's lawyers out of it because it costs the state money.
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@jztusk
What? Where is this coming from?
@ionizedgirl @inthehands -
@_dmh @ionizedgirl
I wondered that too. Not sure whether it was careless reply based on misreading of the spirit of the post, or a joke that’s too oblique for me to understand. I just filed it under “sometimes replies don’t make sense.” -
jonathanpetersonreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands @donaldball I couldn't have been more proud of John Lewis as my congressman. He was a loud and persuasive voice against war - from his application as a conscientious objector to Vietnam in 1961 (it took 3 years for him to become the first black CO in the state of Alabama) through the end of his life. But it was his base in Atlanta that made that activism possible.
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Paul Cantrellreplied to jonathanpeterson last edited by
@jonathanpeterson @donaldball
John Lewis really was something else. -
@inthehands We finished this hearing today and I was very proud of me that when she said "I don't mean to be disrespectful but..." and then said something disrespectful I interrupted to say "Yeah that was really kind of disrespectful" and she walked it back.
(also we wound up not agreeing with "her side's" appraisal but not because they were rude!)
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@jessamyn
Nice. Sounds like you made it through in one piece, and maybe even some learning occurred on her part! Maybe.