This morning I logged into Facebook and saw that Tamar - of Mining Nuggets - had discovered and become a fan of the Coffee Party Movement. I looked at their website and watched their founder's video (why is she outside in the snow?); but I have misgivings.
I like the ideal I think they represent - that the function of the government is to represent the will of the electorate and that it is the responsibility of the electorate to be engaged participants in the process - but I liked the idea of the One America organization sponsored by John Edwards' campaign and that wound up going nowhere (as did he). (In fairness to the One America movement, that provided the impetus toward community involvement that has led to my continuing participation with the American Red Cross.)
If I were to parse their Mission Statement, I don't want to see "cooperation in government" so much as I want to see "collaboration..." I want my representatives to work collaboratively with other people's representatives to find practical solutions to the problems before them.
I also reject the call to "support leaders..." because, with the exception of some people in the Defense Department and the American Red Cross, those people aren't my leaders; they're my representatives. Let's not forget who votes for whom in the elections.
If the Coffee Party movement is simply a counter movement to the Tea Bag movement then it's probably a cute idea but not something I want to make time for. I think the bigger issue is that I must compete for the attention of my representatives not only with the other voters in my legislative district but also with the Democratic or Republican Party who bring nothing to the table but their corporate self-interest; and I'm not okay with that.
3 comments:
I hadn't seen that at Facebook but then I get around there very little and don't know much about how it works as I only got into it awhile back. The idea of groups of like minds to be necessary to counter the other groups not of like minds, but then finding the right one would be the problem. I am more of a coffee drinker than tea drinker though ;)
While I, like Rain, am more of coffee drinker than a tea drinker, I really don't see myself involved in such a group. And like you, I really would love to see collaboration. However, I don't see it happening as long as certain media talking heads keep fanning the flames and one political party refuses to compromise, it will not happen.
I confess that, as a retired Navy Chief, the coffee reference immediately grabbed my attention.
This seems to be a fairly recent start-up 'movement,' and - given their stated goal of getting all of Congress to set aside their partisan differences and act as one for the people - I am not optimistic about their chances.
Rain, Facebook can be a huge time-waster, but so long as you choose your friends wisely and learn to hide all of the game stuff it can be a good way to keep track of what's going on with your online communities.
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