Day Twenty One: Message to Jason

Sancho Panza's Got Some Advice For You

A Green Party candidate will never win a meaningful election.

That's not all. The Greens, and other progressive groups, will never have a significant impact on the feckless centrists that now refer to themselves as Democrats. I appreciate your maintaining your True Believer status, especially as we get older and so many of our peers have begun slouching toward middle of the road, doing-what-I-gotta-do-for-my-family apathy. But there comes a time when we have to grow up and face the facts. I'm certainly not suggesting that you abandon all of your progressive ideals, I just think now would be a good time to start aligning them with the hard-to-swallow realities with which we're currently faced:

Reality #1: Most of us aren't concerned about anything that doesn't affect our own, personal, easily identified bottom line. As a result, we don't care that the Earth is dying, or that every cancer is a homicide, or that wealth is continuously being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. As long as we can have our televisions, and our SUVs and our fast food, and our unfettered access to instant gratification, we're good.

Reality #2: Most of the "progressives" that I know are misanthropic. Further, they tend to believe that people, in general, are stupid. This is one of the primary reasons why the momentum of the progressive movement is not unlike that of a beached whale. Conservatives learned a long time ago that the majority of us don't want to be reminded that we don't know much about the world. Hence, conservatives wage successful mass appeals, often to the lowest common denominator. Progressives are too busy being disdainful of the great unwashed to come up with creative ways to win us over.

Reality #3: White progressives still have a problem with race. This is because they're just as oblivious and arrogant as white conservatives.

So, my friend, instead of continuing to joust at political windmills, I think it's time for you to adopt a more pragmatic approach. The Greens and other leftist political groups aren't the answer now, nor were they ever. Perhaps you need to consider changing your mind about the way things are before you go about changing the world.