It's time for this destructive meme about shutting up during elections to stop, [View all]

[woo me with science]

Last edited Mon Oct 8, 2012, 12:36 PM - Edit history (1)

once and for all.

We have in recent years witnessed a creeping, growing, extremely disturbing line of argument on political discussion boards about shutting up during elections, as though it is a given that good citizens must silence themselves so as not to disturb the delicate strategies being implemented by our parties. Or that they should not ask questions, because they will upset these delicate plans...

This week, we actually heard this garbage move beyond political discussion boards and come from one of the the campaigns itself:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021483594



This bid for silence is an affront to everything our representative political process is supposed to be about. It is a flagrantly antidemocratic demand for passivity by the governed, and it's an outrageous, dangerous meme that we need to stop dead in its tracks. Our entire political system is built around and depends upon government responsiveness to the people's voices. It's called representative government, and vigorous citizen participation in the political process is at the heart and the core of it. Especially during election seasons.

This new, outrageous claim that citizens should silence themselves during elections is a corruption of everything elections are supposed to be about in this country.

We have a serious problem of growing corporate control and authoritarianism in this country and in our two political parties. We are living in a time of "free speech zones," ....as though our entire country should not be a zone for free speech....and assaults on peaceful protesters.

It is well past time that the people of America speak out clearly and remind our politicians on both sides that they work for us....not the other way around.

So the next time someone tells you that you need to be quiet because it is election season, let them know in no uncertain terms they have it exactly backwards. The very health and survival of our representative government depends on our willingness to speak out and make clear what we expect from our elected representatives. Our power and our responsibility are in our voices....*especially* during elections.