As the election this November hijacks our nightly news and threatens to completely take over our daily conversations, I too am overwhelmed by the desire for change. However, I don’t think it is the type of change Barack Obama and the Democrats are chanting for. Our Winona Catholic Worker community does not have a TV, but we are still subject to the bombardment of ads that cost thousands of dollars to make and millions of dollars to air. For all of the opinions, rhetoric and millions of dollars being thrown around by these ads I am truly at a loss as to how the Democrats’ “change” will actually effect my community in a positive way.
Money, especially the candidates’ constant struggle with raising more of it, is a never-ending topic among pundits, news anchors and politicos. But never, it seems, do they question the morality of the soliciting and spending of these impossibly large sums. John McCain and Barack Obama have raised, between them, $563,589,000--over half a billion dollars; when four other recent presidential candidates’ (Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani and Romney) fundraising has been factored in, the amount rises to over a billion dollars. This money goes mainly to two basic costs: administrative and media. As of August 20, over $434 million had been spent on the administrative sector and over $307 million on media, including $235 million on TV commercials. By November 4th of this year, five of these six candidates will be unable to show anything for their efforts. And what will we have to show for it?
Only imagine what this billion dollars, put into the right projects, could have accomplished within the current system: 300,000 people with health care, 17, 000 elementary school teachers, or 9,000 new public housing units, but instead we get attack ads and pop-ups. However, thinking in these abstract thoughts is exactly why Americans are so willing to part with their money…it allows us to distance ourselves from direct intervention within or without of the system. The current structure, in which authority is distributed from the top down in order to keep the power/money concentrated in the fewest hands, is only sustained by our reluctance to really involve ourselves in our communities on a personal level, at a personal sacrifice. Can we advocate for a radical new system in which money is not given to campaigns, but to people; where money is used not to spread slander across your TV screen, but to invest in family farms and health care? We do not need to be pacified by those in Washington or St. Paul who again and again tell us that they are representing our needs and our concerns, and sorry but there just isn’t any money there for your school or bridge or voucher program to get fresh vegetables to low-income families.
It is possible to do better for ourselves. We have to let go of our own distrust, greed and hate so that it can no longer fuel and propel the system. Barack Obama and John McCain and all the others believe that ordinary Americans are too self-absorbed to really care what they are doing. And to be completely honest we are, and we don’t. So little of what is done in Washington has no direct immediate effect on our everyday lives that we just forget that in a democracy the citizen is supposed to have the control. We forget that this small homogenous group of individuals controls everything that we do, to save us from anarchy (and thinking). I’m pretty sure that my voice is not welcome in the halls of Congress. I’ve seen what they do to friends who give voice and action to their concerns, who do not believe that working through the system is morally or ethically responsible.
What happens when we involve ourselves in our own communities, give money to local groups instead of the multi-billion dollar players in this crazy scheme?
(We will have an opportunity to discuss these and other thoughts concerning the Catholic Worker and voting November 7th. Please join us for a roundtable and potluck at Bethany House at 6pm.)