Multiconstruct

I had the great pleasure of speaking to the Boone County Missouri Muleskinners on Friday for their weekly meeting. It was over Zoom and it went pretty well. They put the video on their Youtube channel. It begins with my friend Alyce Turner introducing me and reminding me of my biggest political defeat when I chaired The Committee for Rollcart Choice to try and keep Columbia, Missouri from banning automated trash collection. She references restoring recycling because Columbia’s Materials handling center was recently destroyed by a tornado. I’m posting the video link if you care to see the presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQf30-2Mies

If you prefer to read, here are my prepared remarks.

After writing a book on winning elections, governance, and advocacy I first need to make clear that my approach to politics is fundamentally different. Almost all political discourse in the US is around state and national issues based around a right/left dichotomy. Worse, the political discourse is heavily focused on horserace considerations more than substantive policy discussions. Rhetoric and sound bites play well on social media and cable news and politicians today exist who only have a political strategy and no strategy at all for governance.

As a longtime grassroots activist with a focus on building community with an anarchist’s heart and an ecologist’s focus on the bioregion I had a fundamentally different approach to politics. When I ran for city council my focus was not on pursuing any ideological victories or building a political platform for future political advancement.

When I was thinking about running, I asked the “why” question. I decided as a candidate I would run on my values but if I won, I committed myself to a governance agenda that recognized my fiduciary responsibility to the city as an organization, as a placeholder for long term capacity to ensure resident services. I also committed myself to the care and well-being of the 1,400 or so employees. I also decided that the concrete (sometimes literally) facts on the ground were more important than more ephemeral things like my political career and my constituent’s feelings about how the city developed.

My focus on good government challenged me to respect city policies and internal capacity and to focus on regular improvements and long-term planning. I long argued that as much attention we place on state and federal issues it is local government that matters most. Local governments operate utilities; electric, water, sewer, solid waste; deliver public safety with police, fire, and the courts; we guide and facilitate economic development, pass local laws, make land use decisions and more. From what it takes in taxes, fees, and other revenue compared to what it delivers, local government is the best value in politics. Politics even takes its name from polis, which means city.

All these points are well and good but what do they mean in an age of rising authoritarianism? They mean everything. An authoritarian agenda needs all levels of government to control the people and fulfill its awful purpose. One of the real strengths of our country is our system of decentralized power and local control. From voting to education to policing to land use, the patchwork of local systems that make up most of our governance systems serve as a check and balance from any group asserting a national governance agenda.

An approach that I call localism tells us to defer on national ideological agendas. Instead, we should look to our own local conditions to inform our path of building long term progressive change and protecting freedom and democracy. In Leavenworth, Kansas stopping CoreCivic from reopening their troubled detention facility as an ICE deportation center presents as the obvious issue to rally around.

CoreCivic through their chronic cost cutting and casual disregard for their employees, their detainees, and the law make themselves an obvious target. We highlight their long and spectacular malfeasance rather than the large national issues around immigration. We bring everyone to the table who wants to stop the facility from reopening with no litmus test.

As we work on this specific issue we strengthen our alliances, our individual and collective capacity, and the belief in the community that they can make a difference. Having a deep knowledge of local processes, relationships with the local power structure, and the unique political pressure points for local actors which can help guide messaging and approach has been critical in the success of the campaign.

More importantly we are manualizing our approach. We are telling the story to inspire action across the nation. We are also making connections with other activists in other communities who are fighting the same struggle. The national zeitgeist expresses itself within local communities and is best combated and ameliorated within communities based on their own conditions. 

If you liked what you read and are interested in learning more about the practical realities of activism consider ordering my book. We should have books in this week, and they should ship the week after. https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world?fbclid=IwY2xjawKQPpNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFFRVdlMTdjQ0U5ZXFIeUhJAR4t9VcKwAmjbC0TRFkPMrp5PdLY9Boh372cUz-qdfq5rkuO7zFoWKmKtbDZLA_aem_O46YqlaAoNU-5hWACdnx4g