Exhortations to Keep the Faith

On the heels of my last post, into which some might have read a tad of defeatism regarding the upcoming election, I have encountered two powerful exhortations to keep the faith in the here and now.

Warning to you moderates and conservatives that I try in my way to cultivate as readers: the following contains unabashed assumptions about the meanness of our leaders, which I share, but don't believe globally apply to all those who support them.

The first was a message from Michael Moore forwarded by a friend last night which begins:

Enough of the handwringing! Enough of the doomsaying! Do I have to come there and personally calm you down? Stop with all the defeatism, OK? Bush IS a goner -- IF we all just quit our whining and bellyaching and stop shaking like a bunch of nervous ninnies.

and continues in humorous fashion mocking liberal jitters, reminding us:

So, do not despair. All is not over. Far from it. The Bush people need you to believe that it is over. They need you to slump back into your easy chair and feel that sick pain in your gut as you contemplate another four years of George W. Bush. . . .
Buck up. The country is almost back in our hands. Not another negative word until Nov. 3rd! Then you can bitch all you want about how you wish Kerry was still that long-haired kid who once had the courage to stand up for something. Personally, I think that kid is still inside him.

Next was page 114 from Jim Hightower's Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country and It's Time To Take It Back which I was reading on my way home tonight. It's worth excerpting liberally:

Of course it's hard to battle the bastards! So what's new? History - and certainly the history of our country - is the story of people struggling, always going uphill against the powerful to seek a little more democracy, a tad more justice, a slightly wider sliver of the economic pie.

Old Mr. Power, The Man, The Machine - by whatever name, the establishment is not in the giveaway business. Striving for democracy is bone-wearying, agonizing, frustrating, cruel, bloody, and often deadly work. "You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth." Henrik Ibsen said that, but he didn't mean by it that we should stay home and press our pants, rather that we should gird-up accordingly and go forth into the fray.

Look at what we have in America, at the priceless opportunity that has been handed to you and me by those who've dared to make this struggle in past years. Very few people in today's world, and very, very few in history, have even had the possibility of trying to create an egalitarian society ruled by the common good. Those who came before us risked all of their property, their reputations, their freedom, and their lives to push the boundaries of democracy for us.

And you're telling me that you're tired or impatient that the promised land has not yet been reached?

I still think it wise to be prepared to carry forward if November's results bear disheartening news for those of us so certain that Bush's agenda is a thinly disguised attempt to eviscerate the rights of the many for the wealth and power of the few. But that doesn't mean retreating too early from the present fight. Kerry and the Democrats by my reasoning should do 2-4% better than the election eve polls based on the underrepresentation of first time and infrequent voters in those polls who should turn out in record numbers and break about 60-40 in favor of the sane team. We still have three debates yet before then. Act confident!