Are You In The Choir?

Are you one of us?

Are you increasingly uncomfortable about the direction this country is going in, but don't quite know what to do?

Are you reluctant to think of yourself as one of those 'political' people? Would you rather just get along with everyone, and leave religion and politics out of the discussions?

Are you disgusted with politics and politicians in general?

Do you feel as if there's no use to your bothering to vote, because it won't make a difference anyway?

Does it seem as if world events are spiraling out of control?

Is your voice being ignored by those in power?

Do you wish there was a way to stop this madness?

Would you help if you thought it would do any good, but you're afraid it won't?

Then you're one of us.

Who are we?

We are the choir.

I've spent the past couple of years trying to find a way to have discussions with conservatives about what's been going on since 2000, but I have been disappointed time and again. The animosity and name-calling has been so bitter ever since Newt Gingrich re-framed the debate that right now I don't see a way to find common ground.

What I've come to realize is that it might not be possible in today's polarized climate. It astonishes me that people with ostensibly the same goals and values - as Americans, as parents and spouses, as people of faith, people of integrity - can look at the same set of circumstances and come to completely different conclusions. But it's obviously true.

How many of you, like me, have the family members who you simply can't talk to about national or world issues without it devolving into a shouting match? And these are not strangers. These are people who we have grown up with, known all our lives - people we love. But many of these people have decided to place their faith in leaders who have promised to keep them safe (even though they have manufactured the danger to begin with), and anything that threatens that is terrifying.

This is not something that can be argued logically.

After a while, you decide to quit hitting your head against the brick wall. So what next?

Conservatives like to accuse liberals of operating in an 'echo chamber', of 'preaching to the choir'. By this they mean that we all sit around and echo each others' opinions instead of thinking independently, of only talking to people who agree with us. Then in the same breath they accuse us of having no common values, of being in disarray.

The part about not having values I reject utterly. The part about being in disarray has a crumb of merit. Liberals are, well, liberal. We believe in freedom. Not just freedom for ourselves, but freedom for other people as well. The kind of freedom we were promised as Americans in the Constitution. We are not anarchists. We believe in the rule of law. We respect authority when it deserves our respect, but not authority for authority's sake. And what that means is we don't 'march in lockstep'. We don't take orders from above. This results in a less-than-unified Democratic party, as compared to Republicans.

But we are the majority party, and we tend to forget about that. If we can bring in the people who are not ordinarily political, but who share our values, we have a chance at tipping the balance back toward sanity.

We need you desperately, fellow choir members. This is one of the points in history where every person is important. It's not enough anymore for the usual suspects to make all the noise. To have a good choir, you need a lot of voices, not just a few screeching as loudly as they can. That's not singing.

If everyone sings, no one has to scream.

In the following days, we'll have a list of little things you can do to get involved. Links to all kinds of resources. And guest posts and articles by people who have gone from passive to active - from watchers to workers. They'll tell you what made them decide to get involved. And maybe you'll recognize something of yourself in their stories.

Lift up your voice and join us.