An Opportunity for 2020 Foresight

There are many issues that should motivate us to public action as responsible citizens. Issues like human rights abuses, access to needed healthcare, confronting ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to roll back regulations on environmental safety, deregulating the dumping of industrial toxins into our lakes and rivers, threats to cut back healthcare access, vital support for disabled recipients of Social Security, the spread of nuclear weapons, war, and support for oppressive regimes. Such actions can take many forms from visiting or writing letters to our elected representatives, writing editorial letters to the local paper or participating in public demonstrations.

In the last month we witnessed a day of protest by people who do not seem to object to or protest any of these things. Instead, in response to long overdue and very moderate legislation seeking mandatory background checks and monthly caps on gun purchases, militias and gun-right activists spouting unfounded fears and misinformation gathered in Richmond. None of the legislation proposed or thus passed in any way prevents anyone from purchasing a firearm.

Demonstrations around issues serve not only as a way of pressuring elected leaders but as education and outreach around things we feel are important. The Richmond gun rally succeeded in illustrating a real problem.

Photos of heavily armed zealots with over-sized military-grade weapons should concern us all. Do you really want your unstable neighbor to be that heavily armed? The other big issue made evident was the presence of highly armed extremist militia groups. As reported in the Virginia Mercury, six men were arrested in Georgia, Maryland and Delaware, all allegedly involved with a neo-fascist white supremacist group known as The Base. Authorities reported that the men were suspected of planning an attack against counter protesters at the rally. While thankfully there was no violence reported in Richmond, unlike the Charlottesville rally, there were only a few overt signs of racist nationalism or Nazi propaganda. Racist groups attending were more subtle, waving flags and wearing patches with the symbols of far-right groups like the Proud Boys and various white nationalist militias such as the III Percenters and Oath Keepers. Coincidentally, the Richmond Rally was being covered at the same time as another public shooting incident – the kind we have become too used to seeing on the news.

Recently some of the same fearful gun activists have attempted to pressure our city councils to endorse “Second Amendment cities” which Chesapeake City Council supported. As a long-time activist myself, I think many need to realize the empty symbolism of this and to read up on the “Dillon Law” which in Virginia states that “local governments are limited to the powers expressly granted to them by their state” meaning the State Legislature makes the rules and cities cannot choose to defy them or to do otherwise. The Dillon Law is problematic for local democracy on many issues. Virginia is one of 39 states in which it applies.

Four years ago at the close of the last electoral debacle I wrote of my deep concern about the ugly rise and empowerment of hate-groups and the neo-fascist right. It remains obvious that we as a nation still have a serious problem. It was on display in Richmond and has more to do with the danger, beyond partisan division, of proto-terrorist groups than it does with our continuing right to buy reasonable firearms for hunting or self defense. Public access to high-capacity military grade weaponry and armed hate-groups continue to pose a grave threat to public safety.

Another key issue, made evident by the growing Coronavirus epidemic, is the necessity of universal access to health care. Without everyone being covered, the poverty of some poses a health risk to all. The most important issue of the day remains the rapidly expanding climate catastrophe which threatens our future – especially in our low-lying, increasingly flood-prone, hurricane-vulnerable Tidewater area.

Voting is among the most important things we can do as citizens. Next, we need to keep pressure on those we manage to elect to act on the issues we care about. Our Virginia mid-terms demonstrated the effectiveness of this. We have seen action to expand Medicaid access and to enact sensible fire-arm regulations. Progress is also being made to protect our state environment. Though fracking and gas pipeline projects remain an issue, we have seen a ban on fracking in the eastern part of the state to protect the Potomac Aquifer, enacting of carbon cap-and-trade legislation, expanding offshore wind energy plans, and addressing flooding in areas of the Eastern Shore and in our own area including parts of Virginia Beach. A proposal to make the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice a permanent body, put forward by Democratic Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton, is making its way through committee. This would create a standing advisory council which would offer recommendations to the governor to protect historically vulnerable poor and minority communities from disproportionate impacts of pollution. Given the rapid warming of our seas and the increasing rate of their rise, there is much more that needs to be done to mitigate carbon emissions and to strengthen and adapt infrastructure here and throughout our country.

A vitally important opportunity for citizen action is upon us. The Virginia Democratic Presidential Primary is on March 3 with voting scheduled from 6AM – 7PM. Primaries are very different from elections. Come the election, we will likely have to vote against, rather than for a candidate, playing the old “lesser evil” game. Settling for lesser evils in questionably legitimate elections has not served our country well. Given record levels of corruption, media manipulation, voter suppression and reliance on shady technology it remains questionable whether legitimate federal elections are even possible anymore. This may be our last opportunity to make a real difference. Unlike elections, primaries are where we can and should vote our hopes by choosing the candidate we think is best on the issues. Capitulating in advance based on what corporate media tells us is possible is to surrender any chance of making a difference.

Whichever party affiliation or candidate you choose, I think what most of us have in common is a revulsion to corruption and to the continuation of resulting bad economic policies which poison our communities and impoverish us for the benefit of the well-connected. That is why many voted as they did in the last presidential election for someone perceived as an outsider who promised to “drain the swamp” but sadly continues to do just the opposite. As I've said in the past, the best criteria for judging a candidate are their actual record and who is backing them because that is who they will serve.

Given that criteria, I think Bernie Sanders remains the best and strongest candidate. Maybe it is his integrity. Beyond that rare characteristic in politicians, the vast majority support his agenda of universal access to medical care, climate action and people-first economic policies reflective of FDR's New Deal. He, unlike others, can be counted on to protect programs like public education and Social Security. His record shows him to be incorruptible. Most important is that Sanders is the only candidate who can be trusted to stand up to the enormous power wielded by corporations and to do what we must to address public health and the climate catastrophe. Sanders represents the best of our country. He will protect the civil rights and hard won gains of working people and minorities.

Beyond cultivated partisan division, the Representative Republic is on its deathbed. Citizens like those of us who are not billionaires have little if any real representation. Corporate influence has come to define public policy. Sanders and the broad citizen movement behind him are the last chance we have to revive and protect the Republic and to insure that we address the climate issue in a way that really matters. He can be counted on to actually drain the swamp of corporate lobbyists and self-serving moneyed interests. I hope we will approach this opportunity with 2020 foresight and not rue a lost chance with 2020 hindsight. We will all have to live with the consequences.