That one event that made you pay closer attention to politics

Are you a political activist?  Technically speaking, anyone that has posted on a political blog is an activist.  If you are one, the chances are that one or two events profoundly shaped your interest in politics.

As Jonathan Cait of the New Republic highlighted, most of the bloggers today had that one moment:

Most political activistscan point to one catalyzing event, an episode in each of their lives(or, more often, in the life of their country) that shook them fromtheir complacency and roused them to change the world. You can findmany such stories if you troll through the netroots, the onlinecommunity of liberal bloggers that has quickly become a formidableconstituency in Democratic politics.

But the episode that seems tocome up most often is the Florida recount. For instance, MarkosMoulitsas Zúniga and Jerome Armstrong's book, Crashing the Gate, the closest thing to a manifesto of the netroots movement, begins like this:

Five years ago, the Republicans took over thegovernment through nondemocratic means. Establishment Democrats, forthe most part, stood back and watched as a partisan judicial bodyhalted the counting of presidential votes. While conservative activistsled the charge on behalf of their party, there was nothing happening onour side. That was the spark. Fed-up progressive activists beganorganizing online. Fueled by the new technologies--the web, bloggingtools, internet search engines--this new generation of activistschallenged the moribund Democratic Party establishment.

On a personal note, as I wrote in my author profile, I had a very materialistic outlook on reality prior to September 11, 2001.  Yes, the 2000 election was the first political experience that upset me.  But all in all, September 11th was definitely my official eye-opener.  Only, my situation was much stranger than most bloggers because 9/11 actually caused me to turn Republican.  I was pro-Republican on issues pertaining to foreign policy, and I even thought about officially becoming a member of that party.

Of course, once I began following the issues more closely and put political realism ahead of ideology, I became more of a center-left progressive whose foreign policy views were analogous to those of Richard Clarke and Bill Richardson.

So for me, it was 9/11.  For the rest of you, depending on your age and location, it may have been some other event.  And if I know my audience correctly, for many of you it was Vietnam.

Comments

[George]

For me, it was the first of the 3 presidential debates in 2004. Prior to that I was suckered into accepting the war argument by the President and the media. I was never a Bush supporter necessarily but I did choose to give him and the government as a whole the benefit of my doubts about international terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. However, by mid-2004, it was dawning on me that I put my trust in the wrong people and when I watched that debate it was the emperor with no clothes. A pathetic President without a clue getting his ass handed to him in front of the world.

[The Mexican]

For me, it was reading Race Matters and Democracy Matters by Cornel West. My family had always been center-left to left, and I took it a bit further. But, in a lot of respects, I have conservative and libertarian notions along most my democratic socialist ideals. Each time a major scandal breaks, it reaffirms my interest in the politics of this world. From Clinton's Monicagate till Bush's dealings with Katrina. However, Katrina was the last straw for Bush. I stood behind him, thinking he could get it together, until Hurricane Katrina. After that, I have no more respect for him.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

lol Wow, The Mexican and George, you both turned against Bush later than I did. I'm surprised. Then again, that's sort of how things went with a lot of Americans. For them, Katrina was the last straw. And yes, George, that first debate in '04 was an utter nightmare for Bush. I even felt sorry for the guy because he was getting rhetorically man-handled up on stage.

[granny]

I'll be interested to see the responses. I might have guessed a larger part of your audience was a little younger than Vietnam.

I'm old enough now, that the sequence of events is not always clear :

I remember an immense sense of betrayal - and real shock of understanding, when the pilot Gary Powers crashed in Russia - the Russians accused us of spying, and Dwight Eisenhower got up in front of the Americcan people, and catagorically denied any such heinous acts. And then it turned out he had lied. Powers was a spy, he didn't die, he came home and said so. And the President had lied to us, point blank, bare faced -LIED. That was a milestone for me.

Perhaps it was TV that started it all. I watched the Army McCarthy hearings, in horror, while in high school. We were beginning a whole new and different exposure to real hatred, and fear, and betrayal, unfolding right before our eyes. And we were the lucky, lucky young ones, who grew up with Edward R. Murrow.

In the summer of those hearings, I spent the weekend with a friend, whose family was hosting Joe McCarthy. I was afraid. It was a moment in time when I understood that our parents could not or would not protect us from really bad people.That these icons of morality, actually felt something else was more important than integrity.

Further along, I rode through Florida one spring, and asked why the water fountains had signs that said "black" and "white"; and couldn't believe the answer. Just could not believe ...

I was opposed to Vietnam as soon as I became aware of the inequitable draw the draft was getting. By 1957/8 I was uneasily aware that classmates and friends were getting deferments that really were not honest, or available to others less financially fortunate.

At about that same time, I stood on a balcony in Cambridge, Massachusetts and watched James farmer recruiting students to go south to register voters. I went home for the summer, and watched the ensuing news unfold on the (then black and white) TV. It was truly breathtaking to see. SEE grown men showing such hatred and violence toward completely unarmed/undefended people; such total indifference to the humanity of others.

John Kennedy seemed like a real turn in history to a lot of us. We heard about civil rights, about caring for our country, and our history.

And then the murdering began. When Lee Harvey Oswald did not assassinate John Kennedy on some crazed whim of his private "Idaho".And when it became apparent that he might be more eloquent than anticipated, they murdered him, too. And then everybody else, who had a shred of knowledge about the events, began to "drop dead",too.

Then Martin, assassinated by a man who was so stupid, that in a prior episode, he fell out of his own car after a robbery of some kind, and left footprints in the snow right up to his own front door. Yeah, he thought that up; rented the space, scoped it all out, and then got away to EUROPE through Canada, all on his own...

I was in Chicago in 1968 when the troops were brought in during the Democratic Convention. I stood on a wrought iron railing at an entrance directly at the end of a bridge, watching the jeeps roll in from Lake Shore Drive onto Michigan Avenue, coming towards us with rolls of razor wire lashed to the grills, occupants fully armed; I remember thinking that this was a look at a future we were not raised to imagine.

I thought also about the Nuremburg Trails; how certain we were in our dismissal of the possibility that the young men and women of Germany had let so much go wrong in the name of innocence and disbelief. And here we were now, composing our own mythology of denial...

These were tough, tough times. We were very young; and had babies in arms. It was a hard thing to learn that those who taught us to be truthful could not tolerate the truth themselves...

So we tried to regroup and work toward better things. Aware by then, that we had more powerful enemies within our own country, than we had ever imagined. Bobby Kennedy reminded us to work for our country, to not to be left with T.S Eliot's "hollow apology: That is not what I meant; that is not it at all." And then they murdered Bobby.

So, I know this is long. But it's important, I think, to remember; to get a sense of context, a feeling for how this has been coming a long, long time. Our younger warriors, need to be aware of the history. The long roads taken. The "intention" behind the mess we find ourselves in now.

I encourage anyone who hasn't to read George Lakeoff's book:"don't think of an elephant!" We need to understand the intense, focused, deliberate action that has been taken, over a long period of time, that brings us here. This didn't "just happen", it was planned, and carried out.

It is not an accident that our children who are not schooled privately, no longer receive an education in school. Knowledge is power. If our population (our less affluent population)has to get it's "knowledge" by being TOLD what's right and wrong, by media, TV; if they tolerate being told what they are and are not, by "info-mmercial", by Madison Avenue, rather than being able to read, and research and understand for themselves - well, isn't that convenient.

And, as you show us, everyday: being able to read a newspaper is not enough.

So it's long; but let's say it's a love note to all that follow ... We need you to know the truth, and know how to teach, and lead,to stand strong, and know your own, true, selves and how to make the right thing possible for all beings.

[laura]

I was a sophomore in college during the 2000 elections. I voted for Gore, but really wasn't aware of politics or issues (I was way to self-absorbed and habitually drunk - it was college after all!) - I just wanted to vote because it was the first time I could, and I studied the issues and went with Gore. At that point I would have defined myself as an independent.

9/11 woke me up and made me pay attention, but it didn't cause me to choose a side. That was a slow progression between then and about 2003 when I gave up on the current administration and felt we needed a change. I finally affiliated with the party in 2004. So for me, there wasn't really a defining moment when I "turned against" Bush, it was the progression of stupidity and poor decisions that caused me to look for leadership elsewhere.