Me and wedge issues have a long history

Michael asked me to share a bit about myself, as I’ll be a periodic guest author on his blog.  I’m a female Tucson transplant in my thirties.  I moved here from Bellingham, WA about ten years ago.  I have a masters in political science and my grad work centered primarily on social movements.

My research and thesis focused mainly on Polish social movements up through Solidarity.  For any history buffs out there, you’ll remember the many uprisings and strikes that rose, fell and failed in Poland until Solidarity.  Up until that time, the communist regime had been successful at keeping disparate groups at odds with each other.  By playing on eons of old resentments and mistrust, the left (mainly Polish Jews) and labor (mainly Catholic workers) were divided.  Sound at all familiar?

The Solidarity movement succeeded, where others failed, largely because as its name suggests, these groups united for the first time.

The situation in Poland isn’t as unique as we’d like to believe.  Governments, ours especially, are masters at using wedge issues that keep us divided and them in power.  Wedge issues are the surest way to maintain the status quo.  Issues like gay marriage, immigration, and flag burning polarize, divide and distract.  They also paralyze – we can’t move forward and solve problems, while we’re standing and shouting at each other from our red and blue corners.

We know this.  It’s not just common sense; we’ve been living with this stagnation for decades.

We know real, substantive change – the kind that results in actual solutions to problems plaguing us – require work.  It requires finding common ground, a willingness to compromise (rather than condemn, hate and blame), and sacrifice.  This is what Obama is all about.

I thought Obama nailed it in the debate last night when he said, in response to a question of critical substance and utmost importance regarding wearing flag lapel pins…"This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and, once again, distracts us from what should be my job when I’m commander-in-chief, which is going to be figuring out how we get our troops out of Iraq and how we actually make our economy better for the American people."

May I just say, Amen, Hallelujah, and please don’t stop.