Jimmy Carter: "Stay engaged. Stay involved."

Jimmy Carter Convention Speech
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
2016 Democratic National Convention

The full message, pre-recorded by President Carter, is only two-and-a-half minutes, so you might be willing to take the time to listen to all of it. My impression is that hardly anyone in the convention hall was paying the slightest attention. One has to dig around a bit to find any mention of it. President Carter has, on the whole, not been well treated by his party in the years since he was in office. From the first, he was outside of the establishment, and even being elected President was not enough to bring him into the fold, it seems.

Because so few people would have noticed, I think it important to highlight one part of his message, the part that I think was what the former President most wanted to communicate:

I thank Senator Sanders for energizing and bringing so many young people into the electoral process. To all of you young Americans, I say:

Stay engaged. Stay involved. And be sure to vote this November.

The parent site for this link appears to be a good source for those who might wish to listen to any of the convention speeches; they are all here, or will be once they have been presented.

I have heard President Carter, whom I revere. I am not interested in the rest of them.
Not even Senator Sanders.

I am not surprised that the allegations we have made all year about the Democratic National Committee being essentially a branch of the Clinton campaign have proven to be true. And I am not surprised that Senator Sanders is trying to bring his followers into line to support Secretary Clinton. “Democracy is messy,” I think he said.

I cannot bring myself to listen to Sanders' speech, nor that of Senator Warren, whom I used to admire (but no longer).

Nonetheless, on a day when I am angry, and almost in tears over the direction our people have chosen – either Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump – I repeat what I wrote a few weeks ago, quoting from Robert E. Lee:

I think it is the duty of every citizen, in the present condition of the Country, to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony. It is particularly incumbent upon those charged with the instruction of the young to set them an example.

I do not see any good way forward for our country. Or rather, I think that (as with the choice between Reagan and Carter) we have been presented with a good choice, and chosen the path of darkness.

I want to tune out, in disgust at the whole sorry mess. I know that many other Sanders supporters want to tune out, especially many of the young people, finding out for the first time how ugly it can be – a lesson I first learned under the tutelage of Richard M. Nixon, with a refresher course under Ronald Reagan.

And I think, again, of Mr. Lincoln sitting in that telegraph office, or late into the night in the White House. And of Lt. Col. Faith on Hill 1221 in the freezing cold.

Stay engaged. Stay involved.

What will this look like?

I recall the young volunteers and paid staff for the Sanders campaign with whom I worked before the Iowa caucuses. What strikes me in retrospect is how different they were from me; it was a cultural divide. They lived via social media; they worked hard, some of them sleeping on the floor of the campaign office in the final weeks.

They believed in progressive ideals, things like gender rights, inter-cultural respect, a guaranteed minimum wage, single-payer health care, breaking up the Wall Street banks. I share these beliefs. But they believed they could actually do something about them.

Most of them absolutely loathed Mrs. Clinton, and I suspect that they still do. They recognized that she embodies the Status Quo. Four (or eight) more years of things exactly as they are, but a little worse every year. And the alternative -- Mr. Donald Trump, with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, firm control of all three branches of the Federal government, and Republicans controlling most of the states as well -- might be even worse.

What now?

Perhaps it might be working for "down-ticket" candidates, such as the two people on a "Sanders ticket" that will be on the ballot this fall for our local County Commission. Perhaps it might mean running for office yourself.

Here is a cold, hard fact that must be addressed. Since 2009, some 900 legislative seats have been lost to Republicans in state after state throughout this country. In fact, the Republican Party now controls 31 state legislatures and controls both the governors’ mansions and statehouses in 23 states. That is unacceptable.

We need to start engaging at the local and state level in an unprecedented way. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers helped us make political history during the last year. These are people deeply concerned about the future of our country and their own communities. Now we need many of them to start running for school boards, city councils, county commissions, state legislatures and governorships. State and local governments make enormously important decisions and we cannot allow right-wing Republicans to increasingly control them.

I hope very much that many of you listening tonight are prepared to engage at that level.... I have no doubt that with the energy and enthusiasm our campaign has shown that we can win significant numbers of local and state elections if people are prepared to become involved. I also hope people will give serious thought to running for statewide offices and the U.S. Congress. (Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a speech on June 16, 2016 at Burlington, Vermont)

To any young adults (and older ones, too) who have every right to feel discouraged: "Stay engaged. Stay involved." It is going to be a hard and long fight. Senator Sanders is not likely to live long enough to see the things he believes in come to pass. You might not, either, even if you are an idealistic eighteen-year-old in your first election.

Today (as I update this post on Saturday) is the Feast of William Wilberforce, M.P.
Read about him; he is a reminder of what can happen, with God's help.

From the bio by James Kiefer (linked above):

[Wilberforce] introduced his first anti-slavery motion in the House of Commons in 1788, in a three-and-a-half hour oration that concluded: "Sir, when we think of eternity and the future consequence of all human conduct, what is there in this life that shall make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice and the law of God!" The motion was defeated. Wilberforce brought it up again every year for eighteen years, until the slave trade was finally abolished on 25 March 1806. He continued the campaign against slavery itself, and the bill for the abolition of all slavery in British territories passed its crucial vote just four days before his death on 29 July 1833. A year later, on 31 July 1834, 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the British West Indies, were set free.