Citizenship. We all have it and we mostly take it for granted. We don't understand the breadth of our Rights nor the depths of our Responsibilities as Citizens. Nor do we appreciate the power of citizenship to purposefully press for change. Too many citizens avoid participation in civic life because they equate it with partisan politics. Everyone knows that is full of vile, malevolent, and abusive people who are self-centered and self-serving.. Who in their right mind would want to engage and encourage such behavior.
This is especially true of those comfortable, content, complacent, and too often compliant people in the Centre of the political spectrum. There are strong ideological drivers of identity politics that define and motivate those on the Left and the Right. There are tribal instincts that give a sense of self and place and even purpose. Labels like Socialist and Capitalist define the adversarial power struggle mostly directed toward defeating the "Other."
Our political culture is broken. The old ideologically binary hobbles of Left versus Right political options is oversimplistic. It is proven to be inadequate in the face of the complexity, magnitude, pace of change, and enormity of the consequences of poor political judgment on the challenges Albertans face.
Citizenship, not partisanship, is the energy source available to bring forth positive, inclusive, just, and pragmatic political change. Continued insolence, arrogance, and indifference by Moderates to the responsibilities of citizenship and the duty for political engagement is not an option
The admonition for the majority of Albertans, who are in the Moderate Pragmatic Center, is attributed to Edmund Burke who allegedly said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
The time has come for the majority of Albertans in the Moderate Center to become radical if we are going to repair and rebalance our political culture. We need to wake up, show up, clean up and, yes, grow up as we take up the challenge of complexity and causes.
If you are ready, willing, and able to take up the challenge, Reboot Alberta is a place for you.
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