Chris Hill wrote:

> As Don exhorts: remember all this on election day...

I think that's _close_ to the take-home lesson, but no cigar. People like
us, who know about murrelets and care daily about environmental issues,
will remember, but we're a small minority. The real take-home lesson is
that as the next election is shaping up we have to think very seriously
about broad political strategies and about forging alliances among people
with many social, political, and economic concerns. The sad fact is that
we live in a society where many people--probably the majority--are
ignorant and alienated. When someone takes the time to poll them, they
turn out to be strongly opposed to the agenda of the current Congress.
But on the whole they don't follow what the Congress is doing, and are
grossly ignorant of the political process and of the issues. If they knew
what people like Gorton are trying to do to the country, they would
generally oppose it, but they don't know, or care. Many of them come
alive just before an election, where they are swayed by slick TV ads to
vote for the Gortons and the Gramms and the Helmses. But the minority who
know the issues and vote intelligently are being outweighed by a highly
organized, increasingly vocal reactionary minority on the other side, the
people largely responsible for giving us the current Congress.

I don't know just what we can do, kids, but I know we have to do something
in a thoughtful, organized way, or the country we love is going to go down
the tube mighty fast. These are terribly complicated political issues.
They involve questions about likely presidential candidates for '96, about
possible third parties, wild cards such as Jesse Jackson and Colin Powell,
and about issues and strategies that will get the majority of thoughtful,
moderate citizens back into the voting booth to elect decent, intelligent,
progressive legislators. We have to put up with the Honorable Senator
from Weyerhaeuser-Simpson for four more years, but we can get rid of the
Smith-Tate-Nethercutt crowd, and we can get a solid progressive majority
into the state legislature. But only if we get properly organized to do
it, allied with progressive people with the right political smarts.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794