Basetree -- A 10-Step Guide to Surviving Bush

A 10-Step Guide to Surviving -- and Fighting -- Bush's America
By Mariva H. Aviram
November 7, 2004

The Un-Victory

Leading up to election day, a giant ocean wave of volunteers from California had spilled over the High Sierras and into the Great Basin of Nevada. Thereafter, I experienced the stages of grief as half the country did. On the evening of Tuesday, November 2, at what was supposed to be a victory party at the Reno Hilton hotel and casino, I was in denial, which was pierced by moments of shock. I didn't sleep well. On the morning of November 3, I woke up depressed, felt more shock when Kerry conceded so early and wept through his moving concession speech. Reeling, reeling. As though someone I loved had died. The only comforts during the half-day's drive back to San Francisco were listening to Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio ("Get pissed! Pissed is good!") and watching the steady stream of cars with Kerry bumper stickers on I-80 West, heading back to the western Sierra foothills, Sacramento and the Bay Area.

When I returned home, the internet was full of articles and discussion boards apologizing to our international friends and asking what happened?, what the hell happened?! Gone was the perpetual call to action on MichaelMoore.com, only to be replaced by a single black page with the names of all the soldiers who'd died in Iraq under Bush's mismanagement, followed by "May they rest in peace. And may they forgive us someday." The Daily Show was atypically unfunny that night, with Jon Stewart's quip, "Apparently democracy worked…I miss voter fraud!", stinging more than making me laugh. Eric, having taken photos at an anti-war/anti-Bush rally in the morning, told me that San Francisco was a good place to be depressed in, because we had lots of company. I threw my Kerry sign (along with my Howard Dean sign, which I hadn't brought myself to take down throughout Kerry's campaign) into the recycling bin and taped a Post-It note to the American flag on my mantle that read "R.I.P. 11/03/04."

Glimmers of hope

In the last few days, however, I've noticed a shift from grief, despair, panic and paralyzing helplessness to the first signs of hope and creativity. A flurry of articles on how to move to Canada appeared in the press, followed by Common Dreams's "Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada" and Mark Morford's sharp and poignant "Hello, Uranus? Got Any Room? Must. Move. Away. Cannot endure more Bush. Soul about to implode. Right? Not so fast." Organizations like MoveOn, America Coming Together, True Majority, Howard Dean's Democracy for America, Faithful America, Working for Change, Planned Parenthood and Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush emailed their members somewhat navel-gazing but genuine lists of accomplishments: record-setting voter turnout, mind-bogglingly immense volunteerism and activism, Barack Obama's landslide victory. With his distinct wit, animated cartoonist Mark Fiore reminded us of the consequences of Bush's own actions that he is now faced with. Michael Moore sent his mailing list "17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists," and the humor of The Daily Show -- particularly guest commentator Lewis Black -- came back with a vengeance. A musician friend was hard at work on writing a political song, Basetree has been slammed with hits all over the world -- and I started writing this article.

This quick turnaround -- within 24 to 48 hours -- from shock and depression to anger (a powerful form of energy), creativity and humor is not insignificant. It is a sign of who we are: smart, creative, funny, quick-thinking, organized, active, positive. We've talked ourselves off the ledge and we're figuring out what to do next. By next week, we might have a solid, multifaceted plan of action.

What follows is my own plan, a 10-Step Guide to Surviving -- and Fighting -- Bush's America, which I humbly submit to you:

1. Take care of yourself.

This is first and foremost. We've just been through political and emotional hell, and we need to be kind to ourselves. Take a break, breathe, laugh, cry, meditate, take walks, call friends, spend time with animals, read, watch enjoyable movies and TV shows, listen to the radio, rest. Enjoy the holidays.

Next, plan for long-term health. If you're already healthy and in good shape, great -- keep doing what you're doing. If you'd like to be healthier and have more energy, make time for exercising every day, preparing healthy meals and getting enough sleep. Schedule regular medical and dental exams, practice good sanitation and safer sex methods consistently and avoid drugs, including cigarettes and excessive alcohol. It's always a good idea to live a healthy lifestyle, but now you'll really need it for whatever follows, whether it's to emigrate to another country, lower your health care costs, or outrun the police at the next political protest. (Seriously.)

2. Dust yourself off.

It's true that things look dire. We've lost our three branches of government, which means there are no official checks and balances left. One left-of-center pundit said that we're adrift in a political diaspora, a political party without a home in the United States, strangers in our own land. Worse, we're sharing the land, culture and language with a nation of greedy sociopaths, nuts and idiots.

So what do we do next? A lot of people, including me, have indulged in blaming and finger-pointing. It's a natural response to our deep disappointment, our chaotic swirl of panic -- and it's only human.

Stop. Take a deep breath.

Now is the time to circle the wagons. While the Bush cult would love nothing more than to see us at each other's throats, and for our nation to devolve into a survivalist "every man for himself" mentality, the fact is, we need each other now -- more than ever before. The unbearably arrogant gloating of the G.O.P. is designed to make us give up the most powerful thing we have on our side -- our hope for a better future -- and we can't let them take that away from us. They've stolen our democracy in various sinister ways; let's not allow them to steal our souls and our humanity as well.

If you're feeling isolated in your despair, as I've been, realize that you are not alone. Half the country shares your grief and, in fact, we are with the majority of the world. So untie the noose and put down the cup of Jim Jones Kool-Aid. Reach out to your friends and neighbors, get outside and talk to people, both the hopeful and the depressed.

And if that doesn't make you back away from the abyss, then read your history. Where are the Egyptian, Roman, Ottoman and British empires today? How did the residents of the homelands of those empires fare after the empires started to crumble? Remember: the reigns of tyrants always end -- and the harder they come, the harder they fall. The arrogance of Bush and his cult is their Achilles' heel. When they're busy gloating, they're not working. Mark my words; this will be their undoing. And we'll be ready to take back our country once and for all.

3. Analyze.

OK, so what happened?

What happened, what happened, what the Dick Cheney happened?!

Most of us are familiar with the prevailing theories:

Inaccurate exit polls -- mostly in precincts that just happened to use auditless electronic voting machines.
The potential prevention of this scandal that never materialized (JohnKerry.com never linked to BlackBoxVoting.org, because neither the candidate nor the Democratic leadership took this threat seriously).
Swift Boat Veterans ads.
Karl "The Brain" Rove.
The angry white straight male vote.
"Moral values" -- i.e., the pervasive obsession with what other people do with their own private body parts, whether it's gay sex legitimized in the context of marriage or the sexual liberation of straight women without punishment (the risk of unwanted pregnancy or disease).
The failure of the left to clearly define our own morals and values, such as protecting children from poverty or promoting responsible environmental stewardship.
"Defense" and the so-called "War on Terror," a purely Bushesque construct.
Stolen yard signs.
Intimidated voters.
The downward spiral of ignorance: an uneducated public voting to further defund education.
The few in Iowa and New Hampshire deciding for the many who the best Democratic candidate was.
Kerry's nuance, seen as flip-flopping by the right (or flip-flopping, seen as nuance by the left).
The worldly but weird Teresa Heinz Ketchup. (While I admired her for being able to speak five languages -- especially since Bush can barely speak one -- she was a definite liability in the campaign. A widowed senior I stayed with in Reno posited that Kerry wouldn't do anything to help her with her mounting bills. "He doesn't care about people like me," she said. "I mean, look who he married.")
A combination of all of the above.

Other questions to ask:

What did swing voters like about Kerry? What did they dislike?
Whom did Kerry listen to too much? Too little?
What messages and strategies worked? Didn't work?
Who helped us? Who hurt us? Why, and how so?
Which successful strategies can we expand, and how?
How and from whom did we raise the most money?
If we build a new broad-based organization, who should be involved, and who should lead it?

4. Strategize and organize.

I had seen the writing on the wall years ago: though I'd continued to support it in some ways, I knew the traditional Democratic Party was dying. November 2, 2004 was the final nail in the coffin. R.I.P.

Please don't tell me about how the Democratic Party is "too liberal," or how we should reach out to the red-state churches more. We've been victims of our own squeamish caution for too long: the mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy, waffling pandering hasn't worked for us. Tom Daschle's fate made this glaringly obvious. Trying to out-Republican the Republicans led us down the Joe Lieberman road, and look how far that's gotten him. You've probably heard the much-quoted definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results means you're crazy.

We're in a new era, in which the reactionary right will stop at nothing to maintain and expand their power. This means that historical examples (FDR, JFK, Goldwater, Watergate) may not be entirely useful to us. We have to think forward, not backward.

We blue people can create a new democratic party (small d for democracy), whether it's a new Democratic Party -- a phoenix rising triumphantly from its own ashes -- or a loose coalition of decentralized organizations, or some combination of both. Gone are the well-meaning but second-rate candidates, those who try to be all things to all people but just end up boring their audience with long sentences. We'll find intelligent, progressive and charismatic leaders who are gifted communicators, straight-talkers who appeal to folks at a visceral level. For better or worse, the mythic trumps the intellectual.

Priorities:

Organize a new series of Meetups with long-term political goals.
Start fielding presidential and congressional candidates in 2005. While I admire Hillary Clinton in a number of ways, I don't think she's electable in a country that seems to hate women -- and her in particular -- so much. Look for charismatic progressives emerging in the Midwest, South and prairie regions.
Replace Terry McAuliffe with Howard Dean in the Democratic National Committee. Keep McAuliffe on as a fundraiser, because that's the only thing he's good at -- and he is good at it.
Reframe the language. Candidates from now on should hire linguists George Lakoff and Geoffrey Numberg as advisors, when they're not busy working in the organizations that we'll be supporting. Support progressive economists who see protected wilderness areas as an asset and accelerated outsourcing as a deficit.
Grow our burgeoning Liberal Media: support Air America Radio, Pacifica Radio, NPR, PBS, The Nation magazine and other publications and the blogs.
Focus on electoral reform: pass same-day voter registration and instant runoff or ranked voting, eliminate or circumvent the Iowa/New Hampshire primary process and abolish the electoral college, which favors the legacy of the slaveowning republic. This will take a while, so be patient and start now.
Run for office locally, or organize support for local progressive candidates. Everything from school boards to tax assessor matters. Heck, even the local progressive dog catcher needs your support.
Make money. We'll need lots of it. (See Step # 6 below.)

Some devious but still ethical schemes:

Start referring to Bush as a lame-duck president now. This will start to isolate the Bush cultists into a margin of irrelevance.
At the same time, follow up on the outstanding issues of the first Bush term: the Plame affair, Halliburton, manufacturing intelligence, the failure to prevent 9/11.
If Republican Senator Arlen Specter will be heading the Judiciary Committee, consider sending him donations. Massive ones. Not because we like the guy, but because we want to own a large piece of him. This may be our last defense against the impending reversal of reproductive rights.
Find a Republican loser who wants to run for president in 2008 and back him. Remember Bob Dole? Let's find another one. Consider registering Republican so that you can vote for the loser in the next Republican primary.
Remind moderate Republicans that they won by allying themselves with political gay-bashers, women-haters, and Confederate flag-wavers. This is not an overstatement; it's literally true. They are accomplices to crimes against humanity, an idea they're not comfortable with. The wedge issues of the religious right may come back to haunt them, especially if we don't let them forget it.
Lobby the Bush Administration to replace John Ashcroft with Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General. Giuliani is a jackass, but he's good in an emergency situation, and he is a moderate. He doesn't hate gays (he's lived with them, for crying out loud!), and he might even remove that ridiculous blanket from the statue of justice.

5. Form alliances.

Most people are comfortable with others like themselves. We tend to isolate ourselves in echo chambers of people who look like us, talk like us, think like us. Instead of becoming further isolated, see if you can find common ground with people outside of your group. For example:

Third Wave, a foundation for young feminists, periodically sends vans of volunteers to regions not typically associated with feminist activity. (That would be the red states, in case you were wondering.) They offer workshops for local teens and come back with a plethora of contacts for future outreach.

Planned Parenthood is careful to avoid partisan labels because there is a surprising number of pro-choice Republicans. The funding of reproductive clinics in Texas mostly comes from Republican women.

Utne magazine published an article about "crunchy conservatives": fiscal conservatives who care about the environment and buy organically grown food.

A Bay Area friend has been organizing the Garrison-Martineau Project, a series of open dialogues between atheists and religious believers.

Form your own unconventional alliances. Be creative. Invite someone of another ethnicity to dinner. Seek out liberal Catholics and evangelical Christians. And don't forget the rest of the world, most of whom were on our side. Learn other languages, join multinational organizations, find international pen-pals, travel if you can.

6. Make money.

On Halloween, in the parking lot of the Speakeasy Hotel and Casino in Reno, I met former governor of Texas Ann Richards, the feisty lady who'd joked at the 1992 Democratic National Convention that "poor George" [Bush Senior] had been "born with a silver foot in his mouth." A young man was talking to her about his ideas for starting a liberal think tank.

"The question is," she admonished, "where are you going to get the money for it? I don't want to hear about ideals unless you've got the money to fund your organization."

Seasoned by years of reality in American politics, Richards is a pragmatist -- as we all should become. First and foremost, we need to make money and fund our own organizations. This isn't as difficult as it might seem. We've proven that we have access to huge amounts of money that rivaled the Republican war chest.

We've lost political power, no doubt about that. But we can make up for it -- at least somewhat -- with economic power, which can sometimes trump political power. We sent Sinclair Broadcast Group stock tumbling and boycotted its advertisers en masse (although, thanks to individual sponsorships, it was able to broadcast "Stolen Honor" to millions of homes in Ohio and Florida within three days of the election, but that's another story). The campaigns of Dean and Kerry raised record amounts of funds, which belied the conventional wisdom that the G.O.P. is the party of money. At the end of the day, the left was able to come up with as much money as the right. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly called financier George Soros "a real sleazoid," most likely because MoveOn (one of Soros's organizational beneficiaries) turned out to be a fundraising powerhouse. The upper-crust urban elite supported Kerry, partially because they knew that Kerry's economic and foreign policies would be better for business.

The densest concentrations of wealth (the New York metropolitan area, the Bay Area, the Los Angeles area) are well within the politically blue regions of the country. There's a reason that Steve Jobs and other business leaders of Silicon Valley backed Kerry: we're the party of ideas, creativity and productivity, education, innovation, science and technology, internationalism and modernity. We drive the economy and -- for better or worse -- generate the most tax revenue and support the ignorant, church-indoctrinated, lazy bums of those in the red regions.

Let's embrace the much-derided label of the "liberal elite," at least economically. Let's create and manage our own wealth -- not only to take care of ourselves and others we care about during Bush's impending economic disaster, but also to fund the causes and organizations we care about: left-of-center political and social organizations, think tanks, microloans of community-based and socially responsible businesses, the true liberal media, educational programs, secular groups and progressive religious communities.

On a personal level, I recommend developing good financial management skills. Live frugally -- below your means -- and, if necessary, create a plan to eliminate unsecured debt. Develop a realistic savings plan.

How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously, by Jerrold Mundis

Earn What You Deserve: How to Stop Underearning & Start Thriving, by Jerrold Mundis

9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying, by Suze Orman

Get A Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties And Thirties, by Beth Kobliner

Debt Free by 30: Practical Advice for Young, Broke, & Upwardly Mobile, by Jason Anthony and Karl Cluck

Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence Completely Revised and Updated: Practical Solutions for Busy People

Women's Guide to Financial Self-Defense, by June Mays

Local organizations associated with the nonprofit National Foundation for Credit Counseling offer free or low-cost debt management plans, financial management workshops and assistance for first-time homebuyers. (Note: Many for-profit organizations use the term "credit counseling" in their titles, so make sure that your local organization is an official member of the NFCC.)

In addition, let's spend our consumer dollars wisely: buy produce from local organic farmers, gifts from local artisans, big-ticket items from merchants we feel good about. Trade in your American SUV for a Toyota Prius. Another tactic: buy enough stock in a corporation you despise so that you can get into their private shareholder meetings and raise hell, or at least do some reasoned convincing.

Learn how to start, manage and grow a business. If you're unemployed, think entrepreneurially, one-man-band style. Run a shoestring operation on the internet to bring in extra income. (A friend and I co-founded FreeAfterRebate.info, an informational service specializing in free and almost-free deals on the web. It's been profitable since its first week.) Consider niche markets, especially in unglamorous, recession-resistant areas. If you're successful, hire smart liberals.

Growing a Business, by Paul Hawken

The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

The Entrepreneur and Small Business Problem Solver: An Encyclopedic Reference and Guide, by William A. Cohen

Innovation and Entrepreneurship, by Peter F. Drucker

Secrets of Self-Employment: Surviving and Thriving on the Ups and Downs of Being Your Own Boss, by Sarah and Paul Edwards

Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business, by Gary Erickson

Marty Nemko, pragmatic career counselor
(I don't agree with him on everything, but he does offer solid practical advice)

Study the principles of sound investing. Abandon mean-spirited industries that create a lot of pain around the world (fossil fuels, health care management, big pharmaceuticals, weaponry -- in other words, all the industries whose stocks soared on November 3) in favor of more stable, responsible or forward-thinking markets (renewable energy technology? stem cell research? organic farming co-operatives? water treatment and desalinization plants? community microlending funds? private space travel? Canadian real estate investment trust funds? the euro?). While socially responsible funds are frustratingly steady, we probably won't experience an Enronesque betrayal with them. Let's start our own funds, pool our resources and invest in new businesses.

7. Educate yourself.

Whatever we decide to do, wherever we decide to go, whether we prefer to be formally educated or autodidactic (or some combination, which is ideal), we need to study and learn. Knowledge is power that can make us better people and increase our income potential (see Step # 6 above). We need experts in many fields: law, business, nursing and medicine, computer technology, science and engineering, mathematics, media and communications, religion and culture, languages, history and the liberal arts. If you have artistic talent, spend time developing it; other countries value the arts more than the United Red States does.

If you're fortunate enough to have a solid formal education, don't stop there -- and don't overrely on its existence, especially now that Bush's gang is hell-bent on bankrupting public schools and financial aid for higher education. Learn how to teach yourself. Read a lot. Visit libraries (while they're still open and free). Become more computer and media literate. Attend lectures and watch documentaries. Practice your communication skills. Learn at least one other language. Share ideas and listen to other people's stories. Commit yourself to being a life-long learner, and inspire others to do the same.

8. Support and protect the blue regions.

Perhaps you've seen this map by now:

(Click here for larger image)

After seeing this map, my first instinct was to urge my compatriots to batten down the hatches in our cities and beloved blue regions -- the West Coast, the Northeast and the Upper Midwest -- and to spend my domestic travel dollars in blue areas other than my own as well as liberal bastions of the red areas. (Various other maps reveal a bit more complexity and analysis.)

I predict a reversal of the liberal-federal/conservative-states alignment. The Bush cultists have apparently forgotten their beef with "big government." While I've always touted the idea of taxing wealth reasonably to support the common good -- health care, education, libraries, public transportation, scientific research, investments that grow the economy in environmentally and socially responsible ways -- I was appalled to have found myself turning into a libertarian overnight, at least as far as the federal government is concerned. ("How dare they steal my hard-earned money to fund their war machine and corporate boondoggles?!")

The blue regions might be able to staunch the damage, at least locally. California resoundingly passed the stem-cell research initiative, which may be a first sign of rejecting the Bush agenda. Let's whittle away further: pass state and local initiatives to protect reproductive choice, privacy rights, gay rights, natural habitats and more.

9. Reach out to the blue people in red states.

In early November 1984, in a dreary suburb on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, I was only student in my ninth grade class wearing a Mondale/Ferraro button. The day after the election, my classmates made extra sure that I knew that Reagan had won a second term. (What is it with right-wingers and gloating? How did they ever develop the reputation for "maturity" and "responsibility"?) I couldn't have felt more alone. (Just a couple of weeks shy of my nineteenth birthday, I moved to San Francisco and never looked back.)

I tell this story because I was once a blue person stuck in a red state. I had some progressive mentors -- I worked hard to find them -- but I wished more people had somehow found me and helped me through that difficult time.

Many blue people have decided to live in red regions permanently. Maybe it's their jobs or businesses, their (more affordable) homes, their love of the land and the communities in which they grew up, their families -- whatever the case may be, they're there and that doesn't make them any less blue (pun optional). We've learned from the various Democratic campaigns that many of our kindred spirits are blues in red land. As Barack Obama eloquently said, "We love our gay friends in the red states."

Short of air-dropping "Invest in solar" and "It's OK if you're gay" pamphlets over the Heartland, let's brainstorm other ways to reach these folks, especially the young ones who will inherit the political dominion. The internet helps, but keep in mind the rural/urban digital divide. Think small and local, like low-bandwidth community blogs, low-wattage radio stations and handwritten letter campaigns.

10. Embrace lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendereds.

I have mixed feeling about the actions of Gavin Newsom, our mayor in San Francisco. I'd been nervous back in February when he launched his gay marriage campaign. Couldn't he just wait a year? I thought. He was both lauded as a visionary and derided as an irresponsible Democrat. He took a huge political gamble and, unfortunately -- for all of us -- he lost that gamble.

Still, I couldn't help being happy for the thousands of ecstatic couples lining up to get married under the rotunda in City Hall. Since my teens, I've always cared deeply about gay rights. Here in San Francisco, I'm surrounded by LGBTs. Half the residents of my building are gay or lesbian, and we live on the hill just above the famously gay Castro District. I organized the Vote 2004 Project contingent in the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and donated the rainbow "VOTE" banner to the LGBT Community Center afterward. I was honored to serve a community I have so much respect for.

If you're straight, please don't turn your back on LGBTs. The haters, not the lovers, cost us this election. I submit that we wouldn't have done as well as we did without LGBTs. They raised huge amounts of money through their communities and organized like nobody's business -- and they had a fabulous time doing it. Again and again, LGBTs have been the foot soldiers of community organizing and volunteerism, whether it was lesbians participating in abortion clinic defense (with little to gain from it) or colorful drag queens marching in high heels against the war. What the red states don't know is that where LGBTs go, so go the cultural creatives: the entrepreneurs, the scientists, the artists -- those who generate economic and cultural wealth. LGBTs make our communities and our lives beautiful and fun and wonderful, and the world would be much bleaker without them.

If you're an LGBT and you're feeling alienated and scared, please take heart. We will not abandon you. Some day we'll live in a world in which being gay is considered no more "deviant" than being left-handed. Until then, know that you are not alone and some of us straight folks are still paying for Showtime just so we can see Queer As Folk and The L-Word.

Share the love

Hope is gone only when you've decided it's gone, or when you're dead. You're still alive, and I'm guessing that if you're reading this, you have a roof over your head, food to eat, clean water to drink and clothes on your body, at least for the moment. We are rich compared to many in the world. We still have email and The O.C., our friends and the glorious sunrises over our beautiful land. Let's count our blessings.

Finally, please send a thank-you note and maybe some flowers to the folks who gave so much of themselves to the cause: Michael Moore; Howard Dean; Markos Zuniga of Daily Kos; Dan Chavez, Democratic organizer in Reno, NV; John Edwards, for sending some hope our way when he said that all the votes would be counted; George Soros and the many others at the organizations and alternative media outlets who care as much we do. (I'm sure the Kerry-Heinz family could use some love, too, especially after putting up with all those dishonorable Swift Boat Vets ads.)

Take care and stay in touch.

Sincerely,
Mariva