America

The arms race. A time in our Nation's history when we were on edge. We were racing to the top, to be the world super power and make sure we defeated the USSR. The times were hard, some sloppy policy was made, and our Nation was all over the political spectrum. Since we've learned these lessons, we now know better. In today's current political climate we have our very own arms race. This time instead of racing to the top to fight against another Nation we are fighting against ourselves. The right and the left are all pissed off while the middle stands and stares. We have generated such polarized language that all it does is to turn-off people from politics and aggravate those who are in it.

Our current political climate tears us between either "taking back America" or "Change". It puts our leaders in a battle of endless litigation, of pass then repeal. Take a look at choice, healthcare, gay marriage or any other issue you hear about. During the Bush years the Democrats were always set on getting back into power and now during the Obama years the right is doing the same. Both the Tea Party movement and the Netroots were born out of anger, frustration, and a call for something different. How is it that both the right and the left are so mad and frustrated about what is going on that they are calling for uprising from their respective sides?

FACT: The middle of the political spectrum makes or breaks policy.

We know it's hard to hear. Sometimes we like to disagree with it and get wrapped up in the fighting for our beliefs, but it's true.

It's our opinion that Millennials voted for Barack Obama not so much because he is a Democrat or a liberal or a progressive, but because he gave us the hope of a new kind of politics - one where we don't tear each other down but build our nation up together. Millennials are frustrated that the Congress, the oldest in average age in American history, continues the highly partisan governing from the Bush Administration. We voted not for policy change but for a fundamental change to the approach to governing and politics.

Older generations were fighters. They fought wars, they fought for civil rights and women's rights, the fought for their generation and their country. "Fighting" for one's values and beliefs was a constant theme at this year's Netroots Nation. The "Netroots", spawned from the Daily Kos army, has that fighting spirit. They came of age again under the Bush Administration and remembered the fight that they and their parents fought.

Looking at older generations and comparing them to our generation raises one main question. Are Millennials fighters? We fight in wars but don't have the draft. We support the guarantee of equal rights for the LGBT community and all other oppressed communities, but in a different way in which the struggle for civil rights was fought. As Tim Wise reminded us during his Netroots Nation keynote speech, the majority - whichever way you cut it - will always try to retain it's upper-hand. It's human nature. It's that understanding of human nature that led the leaders of our nation to protect minority rights at the individual-level and at the state-level. But majority rights are protected, too. That is the wonder and effectiveness of American federalism, which is itself rooted in finding compromise and in taking the slow-paced approach to change.

What does a nation without negotiation look like? It's ugly. No one is happy and the entire country is pulled in different directions. The country would be plagued with martial law and civil wars. This is not our country. Our country has a long standing tradition of compromise. We were founded on the idea of protecting everyone's beliefs and creating the fairest possible system we could.

If we keep up the fighting mentality then we fail to bring in the hearts and the minds of the people. We open the doors for special interests to flood the political world with money and bad policy advocates. Policy-making requires moderation and negotiation; the cornerstones of democracy and American federalism. A nation as diverse as ours must take careful and deliberate steps in governing. But shocks to the systems are sometimes important. That was the case during the civil rights era, for example. The federal government recognized that individual rights are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and must be protected. For the most part our Nation recognizes the importance of equal rights and the protection of those rights. There are still examples were this isn't true, but it's being worked on. The reason a shock to the system was needed in the past was because the issue was ignored. We now live in such a connected age that no single issue can be ignored because anyone, anywhere can make it public. Voters make or break politicians.

Millennials carry the spirit of the founding fathers, perhaps more closely than generations in recent times. We understand that quality interactions with our counterparts advocating in good faith are more important than building huge e-mail lists based upon tactics of fear and hate. We talk to others, on this blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and we do it with civility - or at least we try. We interact this way because we know others are watching and that everything we do and say is on-the-record. This does not mean that we don't stick to our principles and our values and voice our opinions. What it does mean is that we know that we are having conversations with people, other than those that just agree with everything we say. We're not about burning bridges; we're about mending them and building them out into the future.

There isn't a good example in recent memory of what it's like to engage in quality conversation with our friends on the other side of the aisle. But, we all know that working together is the right thing to do. It's the reason that politicians and candidates harp on their bi-partisan successes because they know that Americans are all about teamwork, in life, in sports and in politics. Our generation might not have a clear vision of how working with conservatives and Republicans will turn out, but we know that fighting against them will only entrench their views more, and vice versa. Barack Obama said, "If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress." We're pretty sure he meant that we walk down that path together and not alone.

This post was a collaboration between Karlo Marcelo and Colin Curtis.

Colin - @colincurtisks

To follow up on this weekend's post regarding the GOP's dire long-term political future, here's a gem from former senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), defending Gen. Stanley McChrystal:

"Obama is detached from the American experience. He just doesn't identify with the average American because of his own background. Indonesia and Hawaii," said Santorum. "His view is from the viewpoint of academics and the halls of the Ivy league schools that he went to and it's not a love of this country and an understanding of the basic values and wants and desires of its people. And as a result of that, he doesn't connect with people at that level."

No word on what Santorum defines as the "average American experience."

Santorum's not on his own here. As the GOP continues to be hostile to the diversity that forms the heart of the American story (either implicitly or explicitly), it is rejecting the citizenship and cultural heritage of wide swaths of the Millennial generation's experiences with this country.

UPDATE: More craziness: John Boehner's turn.

"They're snuffing out the America that I grew up in," Boehner said. "Right now, we've got more Americans engaged in their government than at any time in our history. There's a political rebellion brewing, and I don't think we've seen anything like it since 1776."

Last week Sarah wrote about the lasting negative impacts recessions can have on society, decimating a generation's collective trust placed in important financial institutions and processes.

There's another side to this recession coin, though. As cliche as it may be, one large opportunity we as Americans have is to re-examine what really matters to us. I'm not invoking that mushy stuff about "living like you're dying," or seizing the day, living as if every day is your last. Unfortunately deaths occur every day that reinforce the fragility of life. Recessions force us to get back to basics. We have to clean out our closets, separating the SWAG of life from the non-negotiables.

This perspective was reflected in last year's presidential campaign. Barack Obama was lambasted by conservatives for refusing to wear a flag pin on his jacket's lapel. The audacity! Then-candidate Obama would go on to explain that patriotism is more than whether or not one places a piece of metal on one's coat.

“Somebody noticed I wasn’t wearing a flag lapel pin and I told folks, well you know what? I haven’t probably worn that pin in a very long time. I wore it right after 9/11. But after a while, you start noticing people wearing a lapel pin, but not acting very patriotic. Not voting to provide veterans with resources that they need. Not voting to make sure that disability payments were coming out on time.

“My attitude is that I’m less concerned about what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart. And you show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who served. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and our ideals and that’s what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals.”

Since September 2001, many a politician, with an eye on the patriotism market, donned those flag pins. They became a part of our culture. The conventional wisdom never questioned them. And I'd wager that if a candidate refused to wear a pin before the economy's crumble, say John Kerry in 2004, the refusal would have been met with scorn and powerful attacks by the GOP on Kerry's patriotism that would have stuck (the Swift Boat stuff could have been irrelevant). But Obama's decision to shed the pin and explanation came too far into Bush's term. By that point, the Bush administration's complacency in dealing with Hurricane Katrina had already been well-noticed on the Gulf Coast and everywhere else. People had already sensed that families were losing their brave patriots in a war that shouldn't have been fought. And signs of a faltering economy were already prevalent. Suddenly problem-solving mattered more than symbols. Before the chaos, symbolic warfare may have captivated Americans; following the storm, it didn't matter.

The back-to-basics theme is relevant around a holiday like the Fourth of July, a day on which we commemorate the blood, sweat, tears, and everything else that coalesced into the United States of America. On a day that sees many customs observed, there is none bigger than fireworks. Unfortunately, even the most basic of customs comes with a hefty price tag. Paired with the worst economic climate in decades, the price is becoming too much for many communities to bear, setting up a "y" in the road: pay for an hour-long fireworks show, or retain jobs.

Average Americans have been able to enjoy past Independence Days, free from the burden of severe financial pressure and other things that a bad economy brings. Pleasant memories of these times yield some cognitive dissonance for these same Americans when presented with today's fork in the road: fireworks or their troubled pursuit of happiness?

Euclid, Ohio, profiled in the Los Angeles Times this week, is one of many communities struggling with this very decision.

People have long considered the fireworks a treasure of this Cleveland suburb, where flags fly year-round in neighborhoods of bungalows and stores post signs for passersby to "support our troops."

But the fireworks and singing along to "The Star-Spangled Banner" on a warm summer night -- and the police and firefighters needed to manage the 30,000 people who turn out -- don't come cheap.

So this year, Euclid will have no fireworks. "I'm 55 years old and I can't remember not going to one of these," Cervenik said.

As the economic crisis has dragged on, city leaders around the country say fireworks are a luxury they can no longer afford. Big and small, urban and rural, the skies will remain dark over at least four dozen communities nationwide come July 4.

"It came down to this: Did we want to spend $150,000 on something that would be over in a few hours?" Cervenik said. "Or did we want to use that money to keep city workers employed?"

Fireworks don't mean much when quality of life is seriously threatened, just as flag pins don't carry the same value when the pursuit of happiness we treasure is in peril.

Euclid officials and the leaders of other communities choosing to sacrifice fireworks shows in the name of economic viability should be applauded. This choice, while wrenching, presents an opportunity to shine the spotlight on that which is really the most influential to our collective pursuits. It forces us to recognize that flag pins and fireworks exist because of something bigger. It forces us to separate that SWAG from the non-negotiables of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I was reading a recent article from John Gray of The Observer, a UK publication, whose title/subtitle read: "A shattering moment in America's fall from power: The global financial crisis will see the US falter in the same way the Soviet Union did when the Berlin Wall came down. The era of American dominance is over" In the article, Gray takes note of the “interaction of debt and war” in determining the future of an empire, and cites the British and Soviet Union empires as historical examples. Nevertheless, I must ask, weren’t there Americans who realized that the fall of the United States as a world empire was already taking place before the crash of Wall Street?

In my current fellowship placement at The Greenlining Institute, a multi-ethnic public policy and research advocacy organization, we address systemic inequities. The Green Assets/Sustainable Development Program for example, looks at low-income populations and communities of color accessibility to a world that is increasingly “going green.” This team looks at corporate responsibility and government regulation since history shows that corporations have maintained unsustainable energy practices that have disproportionately affected low-income people of color. For example, the expansion of the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California , contributed to high rates of neurodegenerative diseases and asthma in its population, 49.8% of which is African American. The Higher Education Team looks at predatory lending to and credit card debt among college students, and how California is able to continue expanding its prison system while decreasing financial aid and raising college tuition. Our Media Academy takes a critical look at mainstream media and how certain news make headlines while other issues that matter to our community go unnoticed. Thus, the Academy serves to take back media and feature stories that matter to Greenlining, our Coalition, and the communities we serve. As part of the Bridges to Health Team, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, I look at language and cultural competency in telemedicine, or, the use of technology in accessing health services. Some of my other colleagues are looking at diversity in the University of California’s medical schools, or lack thereof, and how this contributes to a health workforce that is unable to provide quality care to the diverse communities of California.

But, the Founding Fathers have shown when they split from the English King, you can only maintain your power and suppress your people for so long until the pedestal is pulled from your feet. In our situation, America can only intoxicate, lock up, and keep its citizens from being viable contributors society vis-à-vis having access to a decent education and being competitive in the job market, for so long until it too, must face the karma of injustice and meet its end.

So what do we now?

As my time at Greenlining has reaffirmed, maybe we can start by not obsessing over our stock options and instead, begin to invest in people.