Advocating for the Common Good

"Democracy Means Paying Attention"

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I had joined a Facebook group called “Christians Against Christian Nationalism”. I said that it was “critically important for Christians to engage in advocacy”. While I was specifically referring to CACN, it’s actually a much broader point.

We face political polarization the likes of which we haven’t seen in 160 years. The levers of small-d democratic governance seem to be somewhere between atrophied and frozen solid. We seem unable to even address effective policy solutions because the incentive structure rewards opposition and not compromise. The media landscape is balkanized and too large of a segment of citizens would rather watch cooking competitions. Trust in institutions is at an all time low and falling. People are focused on their immediate concerns over the price of eggs or gasoline or rent. It’s really hard to take the long view that our situation demands.

Given that depressing paragraph, the natural response is one of complacency. Can any of us really make a difference? If not, why try?

The answer lies in my subtitle above: Democracy Means Paying Attention. I have always liked that phrase. Honestly, I had to Google it to see where it came from. Turns out it’s from the last chapter of The Good Society, by Robert Bellah and colleagues.¹ This is the follow-up to Habits of the Heart. Where that earlier book laid out the challenges of expressive individualism in American society (before 1980), the later book offered solutions. I used Good Society in a class when I taught in Kansas. Sadly, my various moves across the country required culling my library and it didn’t survive.

This newsletter was actually born over these very concerns. Here’s how I opened the very first piece in June of 2022.

After years writing on Blogspot and then Wordpress, I’ve decided to join SubStack. In “taking the plunge” I recognize that the pool is already pretty crowded. Why do we need one more voice trying to squeeze in among all the cacophony?

To be honest, we probably don’t. And yet I was influenced while reading Dan Pfeiffer’s new book, Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media are Destroying America. He does an exceptional job of outlining the communication infrastructure that has developed in support of conservative positions.

When it comes to solutions, he suggests that while it would be great to build progressive infrastructures, that will take time we don’t have as a society. The solution to disinformation and misinformation seems paradoxically to be more information. If more voices are sharing in a small-d democratic space, it can drive the social media algorithms into better place.

It may not be much, but if this newsletter causes people who follow me on SubStack, Facebook, or Twitter to find new ways of “paying attention”, then it’s not all in vain. (I’m still not charging for content but if you’d like to support this advocacy with a few dollars a month, it would be greatly appreciated!)

I recently finished two books about political advocacy that are top of mind. They are making me ask what more I can do besides writing a (hopefully informative) newsletter 2-3 times a week.

A disclaimer: as it happens, both of these books are written by Democrats. But the lessons therein are not necessarily partisan. The first book, Democracy or Else, is written by three of the Pod Save America hosts. It stair-steps its way from simple engagement to volunteering to running for high office. There were some specific takeaways from their book I will be thinking about during this election cycle and beyond.

I already donate monthly to my local congressperson and follow her on social media. My next steps will be to begin interacting with the campaign more directly. I also was prompted to find out where the Adams County Democrats have their office. Turns out it’s just down the street from my ophthalmologist. As I’ve written before, I serve on the board of my granddaughter’s charter school. A couple of months ago, I saw an advertisement for a meet the candidate event for an Adams County Commission candidate. So I went and found that I was the only person to show up. We had a great conversation (she won!). Running for office is likely a bridge too far (I happen to know the limitations that come with age), but the potential has always intrigued me.²

The second book, Dirt Road Revival, was a father’s day gift. The title evokes the sociology of religion, but that’s not what it’s about. It is the story of how a twenty-something Democrat climate activist, Chloe Maxmin, ran a campaign to win the most elderly and most rural county in Maine. First she won a state representative race and then went on to defeat the Republican leader in the state senate.

Most of the book is a campaign narrative of how she and her campaign manager Canyon navigated their unique approach to their effort. There’s a lot of well-deserved complaining about the cookie-cutter approach used by professional campaign consultants and the ways in which they want to repeat the tactics that work in urban environments.³ They thought a lot about what rural communities need and how to best communicate about that. They develop strategies to canvass the territory, hear peoples’ concerns, and offer solutions that fit the context.

Along the way, they raise the same concerns that Paul Waldman and Tom Schaller’s White Rural Rage addressed. Consultants’ talking points and grainy attack ads don’t speak to the needs of rural health care or transportation or high speed broadband. They made their own materials and organized volunteers using social movement tactics.

These young people are encouraging in their willingness to engage. I write in my book about GenZ activists like David Hogg who now has a PAC to support other young candidates or his Marjorie Stoneman Douglas classmate Maxwell Frost, now the youngest person in congress. Or consider the new group Run For Something which is working to field candidates in all races across the country.

Maine is not Colorado or California or Texas. The Maine communities are smaller and more geographically concise, so Chloe and Canyon’s strategy is hard to replicate. You can’t really knock on thousands of doors multiple times.

But you know what does work? Talking to people in your immediate circle. I confess that I don’t know enough of my neighbors and what little interaction I have with them involves how the lawn looks or our recent hailstorm. But that’s on me. I really need to take steps to get to know them better. Then we can talk about the big issues confronting our society.

Or maybe it’s at church. As I wrote yesterday, the impact of Christian Nationalism and Republican alignment is real. Many people have left their local congregations to avoid toxic conversations. But that’s not the right answer. The right answer is to engage those we disagree with through love and compassion. They are part of what we must attend to.⁴

So as much as you’d enjoy yet another episode of the Great British Bake-off, maybe you should text a friend or talk to your neighbor or send money to a candidate or study policy proposals. Because Democracy Means Paying Attention.

1. Here’s a 1991 New York Times review of the book by none other than Cornel West.

2. It’s in my blood. Here’s a story I love to tell: My paternal grandmother got my grandfather to run for Republican precinct committeeman in Indianapolis, which he won. When he died, she took his seat. Then she ran for the state legislature and won. She didn’t like it and instead ran for Marion County Recorder of Deeds, getting my uncle (her son-in-law) to run for her legislative seat. he won and then went on the the State Senate. In 1980, John Mutz was selected as Lieutenant Governor of Indiana by Robert Orr and served two terms. He ran for governor in 1988 and was defeated by Evan Bayh.

3. There’s a parallel here to consultants in higher ed. Too often institutions pay “experts” lots of money after which they simply drop your institutional logo onto stuff they already have on the shelf.

4. I think there is less diversity in my congregation that I’d like. While it’s comfortable to be in a justice-oriented church, I ignore those who would not agree with my positions. BTW, in a podcast today, even Jon Lovett said that Democrats had made a mistake by moving away from religion.