Driving Votes: Jo's Blog - Archived Entry

Last weekend I went to the Oregon Country Fair—a magical place of fairies, pirates, jugglers, dragons, contortionists, silver people, fire dancers, hippies, wild cats, bikers, fiddlers, devils, princesses and everyone in between. Of great importance this year, there were also many people registering voters. We even met the great people of the Gandhi Peace Brigade who have posted their trip with driving Votes. It is exciting to me to see so many people getting active—I have definitely never felt this kind of energy before.
My hope is that this energy will translate into 1. Bush getting defeated and 2. strong political pressure on Kerry to start acting like a Democrat.

It feels like the whole country has moved so far right—people (mainly Republicans) are talking about Kerry as one of the most liberal congress people! But, I know that this is not true. The millions of people who have seen Fahrenheit 9/11 are proof of this. I believe we truly are a nation of people who believe in equality for all, curbing corporate power, environmental preservation, international cooperation, fair trade…

The problem is we have been tricked into believing that our government will do what is right for the people. What is frightening is that the current administration has moved so far away from doing anything “for the people”. They have managed to market their objectives in an incredibly effective manner. The Iraq war is a perfect example of how strategic marketing enabled the administration to accomplish their goals. Bush’s “Healthy Forests” initiative which promotes destructive logging of old-growth forests is another example. How about “No Child Left Behind” which included cutting $8 billion from the promised funds for education

However, I am hopeful that we can change this. It certainly is encouraging when Michael Moore is on the cover of Time magazine! I do believe that we can get enough people, including the fairies and the bikers, to stand up for justice and push for change.