In yesterday’s post, I shared my stunned reaction to the people described in Tim Alberta’s book, “The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.”
I have always known that there are people who–for one reason or another– are emotionally or mentally unable to cope with the world they actually inhabit. I’ve also recognized that conspiracy theories and flat-out lunacy have increased significantly over the past few years. (QAnon, Jewish space lasers, etc., etc.) But I’m willing to wager that those of us who go about our daily affairs without interacting with the millions of “bible believers” Alberta describes simply haven’t grasped the degree to which these angry and fearful folks have rejected contact with reality.
Their bizarre beliefs explain Trump’s narrow win.
So much for an explanation. We are left with the question: what do sane folks do when the inmates are running the asylum? Granted, we must resist the efforts of a federal administration to pander to MAGA dysfunctions, but–as the Brookings Institution has recently counseled–there are other steps we can and should take.
At the national level, bipartisan collaboration to identify the systemic sources of our economic and social distress will be a long time coming. In the meantime, voters still want someone to address the chronic challenges they see in front of them in the places where they live and work.
In short, the rise of the digital world means that in the real world, we have more work to do than ever to solve problems. The good news is that in the remaining places where people mix and encounter those they don’t already know—whether that’s their neighborhood Main Street or downtown—the seeds of solutions already exist. At this hyperlocal level, individuals and institutions avoid ideological arguments, build trust, and do the on-the-ground work—often starting with public spaces—across the civic, nonprofit, private, and public sectors.
The authors remind us that neighborhood quality of life has been shown to be a key determinant of both personal well-being and voter satisfaction, and argues that–contrary to the argument that hyperlocal efforts are somehow a form of secession– they are actually the opposite: a way to keep people and places engaged.
The article traced former actions of people the authors call “local champions—sometimes residents, other times businesses or local civic entities”—who have previously taken action focused on the local public realm, creating business improvement districts, parks conservancies, creative “placemaking” groups, community gardens, public markets, and community development corporations. As the article noted, these hyper-local efforts stimulated place-based vibrancy and culture, and rebuilt social and civic infrastructure.
In recent years, some of these entities have expanded to co-managing and programming a major new category of public space in partnership with transportation advocates: streets and sidewalks (and plazas created on them). At the same time, some of the most promising experiments in addressing specific issues such as homelessness, crime, education, health, and small business support have focused on a place-centered approach, integrating an array of public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic players at the place level.
The “moral of the story” is obvious: in the face of coming dysfunction at the national level, Americans can lean into and improve the place-based partnerships that build community, trust, health, and wealth at the hyperlocal, zip-code level.
Such efforts should start with research into past successes and failures.
How can we learn from—and improve upon—the last 50 years’ of place-based partnerships that played a key role in reversing urban decline? Who has succeeded in building and sustaining strong places? What are the legal, regulatory, governance, and management mechanisms that link those players with government at the hyperlocal level and incentivize their working together for the common good? Which bureaucratic barriers hold them back? What are the financial mechanisms that sustain place-centered institutions? Where are these place-centered partnerships not happening and why not?
I think this is sound advice. Focusing on local improvements encourages and facilitates participation by citizens who feel powerless to affect national policy. While we certainly should continue to do what we can to resist dangerous and damaging federal actions (emailing our representatives, attending protests, funding resistance organizations), an individual’s ability to effect change is far greater at the local level. And citizens who participate in local successes are much more likely to take an interest in all policy issues and to vote.
Even some of the rabid “believers” Alberta described might be induced to visit reality, however briefly, if reality visits their zip codes.
So true! It’s the daily good news stories that help us hold off despair and it is harder to demonize someone who has just done something that benefits you or worked with you on a local project.
People like to avoid stress—all of us do. We each have different DNA and cultures that determine who we are. Even if age robs people of short-term memory, for the most part, the brain consciously or subconsciously remembers every moment along the way, with some judgment made at the time about threats and opportunities. We don’t stop being who we are once we have been formed.
Of course, there are a few exceptions, but most of us live in anonymity. Our noteworthiness and ability to influence are limited to friends and family. I like that we do, but MTV (Musk, Trump, Vance, and Taylor Swift do not. Their business is their recognition.
Our DNA and culture, individual by individual, define the context in which we live. Every day, I come here to read what others say, write something, and maintain a mental picture of each of you, and I’m sure you are one of me.
After I do my thing here, I do other things in the context of who I’ve become. You too.
At the moment, those who voted for the President and his entourage outnumber those who voted against him by a very slim margin; due to that, the national culture will change under the influence of those facts and the facts of every other country in the world based on their influence.
We are motivated to change that, or we are not.
The possible impacts of our collective actions on election day will accumulate in our history and on our national culture.
Predicting the next four years went from somewhat inevitable to very uncertain.
Small strategic initiatives that have long term consequences to national and global scale.
All politics is local. That is where we need to begin to make changes.
Well said, Pete!
I took Brookings’ advice over a decade ago and began my muckraking website at the same time because the local Gannett-run newspaper was trash. I was able to run a republican mayor out of town. She was unequipped to manage a city of diverse individuals, but the Gannett rag painted her as a white-hat cowboy taking on the good-ole-boy network. It was a joke, much like what is happening nationally.
Now that the automotive industry has left town, we aren’t a huge community, so it didn’t take long to see who was pulling the strings and how they were doing it. Some of my original articles are now the most visited pages on my website.
Because of my efforts, the YMCA banned me, the newspaper maliciously attacked me many times, and Ball State University and Ivy Tech blackballed me. They even prevented me from becoming the president of our neighborhood association because it involved Ball State. They placed an employee (funded by a grant by the Ball family) at the helm, who does everything they want—another sycophantic puppet. Even the minority leaders in the community suck up to the Ball family because they control the purse strings. The town has become a giant nonprofit with the Ball family as the ATM.
I no longer waste my time on local issues unless someone approaches me with a good story. You have the oligarchy and the underworld controlling everything in this community. I don’t want to participate in either one.
Sorry for the self-centered post, but it explains why I no longer bother with local issues. The local oligarchy does what it wants. Even its so-called steering committees are hand-picked to reach the decision the puppeteers expect. It’s hilarious to watch!
Most of the professors at Ball State receive a Ball family endorsement for their “excellence.” It has nothing to do with “excellence!” It has everything to do with obedience. LOL
By the way, Judge Merchan said there would be no negative consequences for Trump. Even the judicial system is caving. What’s worse, though, is Tulsi Gabbard caving into her negative opinion of FISA, the illegal national surveillance act, so that she can get confirmed by the uniparty. That’s pathetic! So much for that anti-establishment crowd.
I’m on the BOD of my local county library’s “Friends of the Library,” and I was just
advised that a spot in my community garden is mine, but I am not built to be able to engage with either the crazies, or the simply bigoted folk fearful of loosing their white hegemony. Nor are the couple, few, of them with whom I’ve come into contact.
The advice Sheila cites is reminiscent of the “Think globally, act locally” advice from the ’60’, or ’70’s.
Todd – It is unfortunate that uncovering the truth about local politics and the Ball family’s influence on everything in Muncie caused you to be banned from BSU, Ivy Tech and the YMCA. Like JoAnn always says – follow the money. It takes courage to fight powerful oligarchs. I believe the Koch Bros have also paid to play at Ball State, in addition to so many other universities.
I wish you luck in continuing to expose the truth – it can be a very lonely path to walk.
So … Smekens … you say you were banned by the YMCA (in Muncie?). That is a gutsy admission to reveal in public view.
I don’t know why it would be gutsy, Norris. The Ball family has controlled the local Muncie YMCA since they first brought the white male-only club into town. Without the Ball’s money, the YMCA would have closed down years ago because they can’t turn a profit. When I ran for city council, the YMCA closed its only facility in the poorer working-class side of town to open one in a bigoted county west of Muncie, but it contained most of their upscale members. It was a pathetic move, and I wrote about it. The CEO and BODs thought I was a threat to their club.
It is a badge of honor for holding the whole sycophantic lot accountable. By the way, the YMCA and Ball family just forced themselves onto the local high school property because they still can’t make a profit. They wanted to build the Y in the park across the street from me, but there was too much opposition. 😉
As a member of my neighborhood association board (with voluntary dues) for the past decade and more, I have often encountered complaints about the city’s lack of services by many in the area. It always astonishes me because those same people are the ones who do not clear their sidewalks of snow, don’t clear their curb gutters of debris to keep storm drains clear to prevent street flooding and erosion. Those same folks ignore the stop signs and the speed limits voted on by the majority to protect themselves and their neighbors. Trash gets thrown onto the street only to stay for days. All of those ordinances that require residents to maintain their property can be ignored but the city is to blame for street erosion and flooding?
Our neighborhood association is fast aging out of existence as younger residents use their houses as a brief stopover, a starter home, showing no interest in the long term health of the area.
Local action starts at home. When the home is just a temporary step in the constant need for more and more, those actions are left to the people too old or too poor to manage. Add the avarice of so many out of state predatory real state investors whose only goal is collecting high rents without having to expend funds for maintenance of the property and withdrawal of interest in local governance, even at the level of the neighborhood, hardens.
Over the years, it has become more and more evident that most people have no idea regarding civil services, who funds them and how they can be manipulated to political advantage. A perfect example is how a formula enacted by the GOP GA super-majority determines the road funding formula for the capital city, a blue dot in a deep red state. Starving the city of much needed funds for lane mile maintenance allows the GOP to crow about how incompetent the city is to manage a system they themselves set up to fail.
With a sorry excuse for a newspaper (Gannet) reporting mostly crime, entertainment and sports, those interested in local governance have only a very few options. Many of those options depend on media access that is limited to those with enough money to pay for it.
Finding anyone else to blame for their lack of interest or participation becomes a spectator sport of its own if online forums are any indicator.
The states/counties/towns/cities are the “laboratories of democracy”…unless they are deliberately not…
Thank you all for giving us, the readers, some ideas of “LOCAL” alternative actions we might all engage with. It seems to me “local” is a better place to see how we can do work and maintain a balanced and quiet sense of “doing what we can” when the larger community might not agree with our vision of the world in which we live.
Perhaps we just might have a bit of influence in those realms if we love the small influences we might be able to make.
Thank you Sheila fie addressing this issue
Todd. Being in rabid dog attack mode often produces opposite the desired outcome. The more intense the attack, the stronger the defense response, including counter attack. Vicious attack is appropriate only if your objective is to start a war.
Sharon,
Telling the truth isn’t the same as a “vicious attack.” When you start peeling back the shiny veneer of a community where the oligarchy controls everything, including the media outlets, it’s bound to get ugly. The oligarchy paid good money to maintain its shiny image and pretend it was doing good deeds in the ivory tower. They had never been held accountable for anything. I am sure they didn’t like it, but tough shit. Even their fixer lawyers couldn’t prevent the truth from getting out, like when Ball State lost $15 million to a West African con artist. Mitch Daniels tried to hide the case by moving it to the SDNY and using the words (Midwest College) during the case to avoid embarrassment. It showed up amazingly on a feed, so I broke that story on Facebook and nailed the President and the Governor. To the dishonest rubes, it may feel like a vicious attack because I am sure Jo Ann Gora was never held accountable in her career. She was an East Coast Elite.
The trick is that you can’t rely on them for a job or position in their community. You have to make sure you operate with outstanding morals and ethics because they will look for ways to discredit you. You have to be untouchable.
As Nancy said, it’s not for the faint of heart. This is also why several books are on the market, with more instructing liberals on how to fight against oppression, but not by protesting. Tulsi Gabbard’s FISA flip-flop and Trump’s silence say a lot to many people.
Todd, I can appreciate your disdain for local engagement when less than 9% of the electorate in City Council District 2 Muncie showed up to vote in your loss to an opposing candidate. At least you showed up.
Lack of public interest in local elections provides an opportunity that I think the Indiana Democratic Party has not effectively capitalized on. In the most recent local elections, I noted Democrat vote totals approaching or exceeding 40%. Simply getting stronger participation of people “leaning left” could change the faces of city and county govts, and ultimately, state govts. The question is, how to reach the non-voting public consistently and persistently. As a starting point, why doesn’t every county in Indiana have a Democratic Club that meets regularly, formulates ideas, builds a “group sense,” and recruits strong candidates for the school and library boards?
When we will put “Party” tribe aside for getting real governing done for “the People”? The current Democratic Party has shown over and over that it is more interested in itself, its power and its ideological factions.
It’s likely no one will ever see this, but I have to say a word about Todd Smekens. I sometimes disagree with him but I appreciate that he brings a different energy to the commentary.
Is he a little out there? Yes, sometimes he does go a little way around the bend. Sometimes I do, too. Where I am old and have been engaged in our civil systems since my teen years – I used to go after school and work to register people in the “projects” on East Raymond in Indy – I expect it to take time to do even the small things. Todd, on the other hand, still believes that change shouldn’t be that hard. It’s a good thing to have that energy in any group.
Todd, don’t stop being you.