Bicycle Advocates Are Like Democrats
We’re weak-willed. We’re scared. We’re cowards. We’re wimpy. We’re pathetic. We’re thin-skinned. We are so afraid of criticism from car people and others that we’ll settle for half-baked ideas and non-solutions.
I can’t say this is my entire impression of the bicycle advocacy movement over the past few months that I’ve been reading about it and ‘doing it’ — to the extent that I’ve done anything at all — but there are definitely times when I think, “Wow - this is exactly like the last eight years. We’re Democrats.”
The full truth about the behavior of Democrats is more complex than the simple ‘coward’ explanation, but for this post I want to focus on making sure bicycle advocates don’t mimic Democrats in this respect.
I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican or something else - this post is riffing on the general consensus among many Democrats that Democrats are pathetic. That consensus ebbs and flows depending on which action or inaction Democrats cave on, but it has been loud and clear over the last few years. Just google ‘Democrats are cowards‘ and you’ll find no shortage of people from across the political spectrum ripping Democrats for being ’spineless.’ There’s a reason this Congress’s ratings are the lowest in recorded history.
The primary criticism that I have for the Democrats over the past few years is that they failed to act as an opposition party. And even when they were the majority party they did next to nothing. Even if every single one of Bush’s policies was absolutely perfect and genius, the opposition party has the duty to provide…opposition. This is to make sure that even perfect-sounding ideas are subjected to scrutiny - to make sure we get good public policy. It rarely happened. Democrats often seemed to base their actions (and non-actions) on whether or not they thought Republicans would criticize them. At times, it seemed this was their entire mode of operation. ‘What can we do that the Republicans will not criticize us for?,’ and, ‘If we do that, Republicans might criticize us.’
This mode of operation seems to permeate the bicycle advocacy movement all too often. It has to stop.
When the abolitionists started agitating against the economic and social order of slavery, their intention was to stop injustice. Too bad if somebody didn’t like it. Too bad if someone was going to criticize them for being so outspoken. The abolitionists were convinced - there was right and there was slavery - pick a side.
Car culture in America is similarly entrenched - and it, too, needs to end. That it exists today is not a justification for its continued existence.
William Lloyd Garrison demanded “immediate emancipation, gradually achieved.”
We should demand the same — Immediate emancipation from car culture, gradually achieved.
And we need to demand it - not ask for it. That’s an important difference. If you are ‘asking’ for something, you probably don’t really believe you deserve it. If you ‘demand’ something, you know that your cause requires it. It can simply be no other way. It will happen because it has to happen.
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