For the past 24 hours you may have noticed the site has been down and in its place a message saying, “This site has been suspended!” The reason the site was down was because of you: there were so many people trying to get into the site that it overwhelmed the server and they had to shut it down. In order to get the site running again, I had to reduce bandwidth and cut images, etc. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the site will make it through the Election Day deluge.

There is a larger message in this that has nothing to do with this site and everything to do with the American people. I have no illusions that this site has any great words of wisdom. I believe the site was overwhelmed not because of the site itself but because this year American voters are exerting a huge effort to find information about this election. In short, this election has generated more interest than any election in my lifetime and historically since at least 1960.

People are hungry for information–even from a place like this one. They are willing to read the longer essays on here because they want issues covered in depth. The site had 800,000 hits in September and is headed to a similar number this month–not necessarily because of superior content but because they are willing even to come here for information.

To me this is a testimony to the American people. It has become fashionable at both extremes of the political spectrum to decry the sad state of the American voter and the American people. Those on the far left wonder how people could support George Bush and now John McCain and people on the far right wonder how they could support Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama. Both sides view people as ignorant dupes who can easily be convinced to vote for anybody or support anything.

At both extremes lies a thinly veiled contempt for not only their ideological opposites, but also for all Americans. But this last 24 hours has convinced me that both extremes are wrong. It reaffirms my belief that people will do the right thing if only given help to overcome the occasional bad luck that befalls them, education to cope with those who would take advantage of them, information that is predicated on fairness, and the right to cast their vote and have it fairly counted.  Democracy is, by nature, a liberal institution, for it is founded on the notion that the collective wisdom of the people serves as a force for good. The level playing field depends on this view. If you believe people are by nature good then you believe they should all have an equal chance.

No matter how this election turns out it has a different feel than any Presidential election in my lifetime and that feel is due to the American people. It is as if they have said enough is enough and we are going to reassert ourselves. We are going to turn over every stone–even obscure web sites like this one–in order to track down the information we think we need or hear ideas that we cannot hear in the mainstream media.

Something bigger than this election is going on in this country that the 24 hours of this blog being down because of too many visitors signifies. Mike at Crooks and Liars refers to sites like this as “off the beaten path.” He does not do so out of contempt but merely as a statement that people normally do not find their way to sites like this.

Americans seem to be heading off the beaten path. Maybe it is because of this economic crisis where the usual experts do not seem to have any answers and those that do shout too loudly that they do have the answers are suspect. Americans feel it is time to get off the beaten path and explore other options for themselves and their country. They are looking for alternatives, for new answers, for new perspectives.

Over the past year, poll after poll has shown that people are pessimistic about the future. Most Americans believe their children will face a tougher time than they had. Last January, a New York Times-CBS poll showed an ominous spike in those who thought the economy was getting worse. Three quarters of the survey’s respondents echoed those in Iowa a year before who believed that the nation had “seriously gotten off on the wrong track.”

Yet if America has gotten off track, the American people are willing to go off the beaten path to help the nation get back on track. It is a old truism that in a crisis you can have several reactions: you can panic or freeze, you can deny it is happening, you can run away from it or you can deal with it. The unprecedented response this election has generated suggests the American people have chosen the latter. Rather than panicking or running away from the crisis they are actively seeking answers.

People do not find their way to web sites like this without some effort on their part. They do not read two thousand word essays if they do not care. So I take the fact this site had to shut down because so many people were trying to get into it not as an affirmation of this site but as an affirmation of the American people.

In his book The Conscience of a Liberal, the late Paul Wellstone wrote,

Politics is not about left, right and center. It is about speaking to the concerns and circumstances of people’s lives.  People yearn for a politics that speaks to and includes them.

To quote Winona LaDuke,

We are all ultimately interconnected.

The unrpecedented interest this election has generated says to me that no matter what the results are Tuesday that America is going to be just fine.

NOTE:

Apologies to all of you who tried to get into the site during the shut down–AND thank you for coming.

PREVIEWS:

With the election looming closer I will publish copies and analysis of the “Predict Your Own Results” charts that became so popular during the primaries. The charts will allow you to fill in data as it becomes available on election night so you can make your own predictions.

Tagged with: 2008 election • American people • American voter • Barack Obama • collective action • economic crisis • George Bush • information • john mccain • new perspective • political extremes • Presidential election