Seeking Disruptors, Catalysts, Change Makers, Universe Denters, & Moral Arc Benders
It's Time for Some New Shift In Flyover Country
We're not collectively doing anything big to be ready for this deeply transformative upheaval of a moment that we're in. We could.
Nobody's leading out front with truth about what's happening. We could.
The media cover stories with traditional little packages about problems and how someone maybe Congress should fix it and are they going to?
No they're not going to.
What are these people thinking?
Expecting Congress to fix like social media problems or to address AI is completely absurd given the political landscape we're in today. They won't do anything about damage to Americans from covid in so many ways, or climate change, or guns, either.
Add any huge pressing urgent problem to the list and Congress still isn't going to solve it.
Right now they can't even decide whether they will keep the United States government from going into default on its debt... even though not doing so would cause cascading failures and system interruptions of all kinds of things around the world.
But pick a problem that's on the news and pundits waste time yapping about how Congress should do something.
Yeah okay... maybe we need to work on fixing Congress first.
But then people don't want to do politics. Or they don't want to change how they're doing politics.
We keep doing the same political things but the entire landscape is changing and fast.
We're stuck in our old paradigms and it's hurting us and it's doing damage.
We had a freaking insurrection and a coup attempt and a big chunk of our society thinks that was okay.
We have blatant hatred going on all over this country and being encoded into law by the Republican political party and a big chunk of our society is okay with that. Elected leaders are pushing it. They openly threaten their colleagues and they openly threaten democracy and they just keep right on going.
The media keep crowing about how Republicans are losers but it's not the case when they're the ones passing laws in state after state after state.
That's not losing. That's winning what they want and using their power. That's not losing. That's not losing. Republicans aren't losing everywhere. I can't say it enough but I hear the opposite all the time.
There's a political and media narrative out there that Republican politicians are losing. There's a narrative that they're losing because their message isn't selling.
It doesn't look that way here in Little Florida here, as Iowa is following the DeSantis hate model for passing the most extremist laws.
It doesn't look like Republicans are losing as North Carolina's abortion capacities were struck down this week adding the state to a long list across the South where abortion is no longer a legal option. Yet the media trotted out a bunch of shock this week over the NC change.
Where's their shock over the states that have already lost abortion rights over the last year? Where are those stories? Where's that ongoing coverage?
We have a narrative problem in this country partly because the people who run the mainstream media are in the damn cities. I'm swearing because I'm frustrated.
I'm starting to understand the danger of living in flyover country.
I'm understanding the danger of politicians and media not understanding what's really happening in the guts of this country, and not communicating the hard truths about what life is really like. Or not speaking to that in problem solving ways. Or not even recognizing it.
And this is how Republicans are winning. They haven't forgotten flyover country. I'm really sorry to have to say that out here in public. Yet the ways they're paying attention to flyover country are hurting all of us… even as it helps them win elections in all kinds of places.
Even so, they have refused to invest in flyover country. Republicans have refused to do anything to actually help the day-to-day lives of people in flyover country. So there's that aspect.
But they have not forgotten how to talk to people out here in the rest of America. They're totally tuned in to the anger and resentment that they helped create by not ever helping, and by making life more difficult in a huge range of ways.
Why don't we talk about that?
Why don't Democrats talk about any of this stuff? Like about how Republicans refuse to invest in Americans in so many places and what the effects looks like in our communities?
Why isn’t the media talking more about the effects of Republican policies on day-to-day life in the flyover states? Arguably, again, because the national news is coastal and urban. But it’s more than that. They frame the damage as damage to Republicans in future elections… not as damage to very real humans. Extremist abortion laws aren’t going to “hurt” Republicans — especially as most of them are men. Extremist abortion laws are going to hurt women, girls, families, and communities. Where are those stories?
How do we ever expect to take on the really complicated big problems if we're not willing to be serious about what they even are? If we’re not willing to see the humans and the real stories? I would argue that we can get more aggressive about bringing those stories to the national narrative, and to the media. Our work here gets into that.
I could swear I heard a politician on the news yesterday say that Democrats should try and win a supermajority in the next big election, so that actual real problem solving can happen. He was a governor.
Why is that guy an outlier? Why is that rare?
Why is he the only one calling for Democrats to try and win a supermajority? Why aren't we all?
Why have we written off winning in the tough states? Are we just going to let the hate win?
Democrats say they’re going to lean on their grassroots organizations, but in how many states has the party mechanism not spent money in rural areas? Why aren’t we trying to reach, engage, and fire up people who could help Democrats win? In how many states the past few years have no Democrats even run for state or other offices? How strong is the grassroots organization the party intend to lean on in 2024 when hundreds of state legislative races ran uncontested in 2022?
These are states that are pushing back child labor laws and making it illegal to travel to get an abortion and targeting trans people and erasing history and the lists just go on and on and on and on.
I don't get it.
Are we just going to watch the ship go down, as news reporters futilely ask if someone's going to do something?
I'm not just whining on the internet. I'm creating the space to work on this kind of stuff. We're ready to go, with online events available now for volunteers to join to get shift going, and a slightly overhauled website to help folks get the background on what we’re scheming.
Getting people signed up for anything though is like pulling teeth. Raising money for it is incredibly difficult.
Yet we're all out here wondering when someone's going to do something.
Look, we've got some ideas about what we can do to work on this stuff in real ways that are different than what's been tried before.
We have more than ideas.
We have a framework and we've created the space and we've got events and we're ready to go.
We just need people willing to get involved to help us get this going.
There are things we can be doing now that will have a huge impact in a few months or by next year if we get them going. But we have to start.
We're in a time of transformation and we should start acting like it. Seriously.
Join us. We are.
You don't get deep change by doing the same stuff over and over.
We intend to be disruptors, catalysts, and change makers. Universe denters. Moral arc benders.
It's time for all that, and we're going to need to step out into the light.
Let's go.
Upcoming Zoom Calls:
Friday May 19, afternoon — Volunteer Teamwork Call.
Sunday May 21, evening — A Social. (Let’s connect & do fun stuff.)
Monday May 22, afternoon — An Open Conversation. (Talk about whatever’s pressing for whoever joins the call).
Monday May 22, evening — How We Can Raise A Ruckus.
Tuesday May 23, afternoon — Business Pressure Group. (Putting together a working group to ramp up pressure on or partnerships with business).
Wednesday May 24, midday — How We Can Raise A Ruckus.
Thursday May 25, midday — Coalition-Building.
Thursday May 25, evening — Volunteer Call.