Something happened in Florida this week that I think every American should pay attention to.
And I’m not saying that because it was a Democrat.
I’m not saying it because the winner calls herself a democratic socialist.
I’m saying it because of how she won.
State Representative Angie Nixon ran for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate in Florida.
Her opponent, Alex Vindman, had establishment support.
He raised more than $16 million.
Angie Nixon?
Less than $1 million.
Her opponent raised more than sixteen times as much money.
He spent millions on advertising.
She couldn’t afford a single television ad.
Now, normally, you’d look at those numbers and say:
“Well, this one’s over.”
Big money wins.
Big organization wins.
Big endorsements win.
Everybody else goes home.
Except that’s not what happened.
Angie Nixon won.
And how did she do it?
Grassroots organizing.
Volunteers.
Social media.
People talking to people.
People showing up.
And that fascinates me because it demonstrates something I’ve been talking about for weeks.
Ordinary people have far more political power than they realize.
We’ve developed this strange idea in America that political power belongs somewhere else.
Washington has the power.
Politicians have the power.
Billionaires have the power.
Corporations have the power.
Lobbyists have the power.
Political parties have the power.
And certainly, all of those institutions have enormous influence.
Money matters.
Organization matters.
Advertising matters.
Name recognition matters.
But eventually Election Day arrives.
And something very simple happens.
People vote.
A dollar doesn’t vote.
A television commercial doesn’t vote.
A PAC doesn’t vote.
A corporation doesn’t walk into a voting booth.
Citizens do.
And when enough citizens participate, strange things can happen.
Sixteen million dollars can lose to less than a million.
That’s worth thinking about.
Now, before everybody starts yelling at me:
I’m not saying Florida suddenly became socialist.
It didn’t.
I’m not saying Angie Nixon is guaranteed to win the general election.
She isn’t.
Winning a Democratic primary and winning statewide in Florida are two very different things.
And I’m certainly not saying money suddenly doesn’t matter in politics.
It matters enormously.
But that’s exactly why this result is interesting.
Because the candidate with the enormous financial advantage lost anyway.
And Florida isn’t the only place where we’ve seen unexpected primary results.
We’ve seen voters challenge assumptions elsewhere too.
Different states.
Different candidates.
Different circumstances.
So maybe something is stirring underneath American politics that we’re not paying enough attention to.
Maybe people are tired of being told:
“Here’s your candidate.”
Maybe they’re tired of being told:
“Here’s what you should believe.”
Maybe they’re beginning to realize:
“Wait a minute.
I actually get a say in this.”
And that is where things get interesting.
Because here’s the secret nobody talks about enough:
The political establishment only has as much power as citizens allow it to have.
Think about it.
Politicians need votes.
Political parties need voters.
Corporations need customers.
Television networks need viewers.
Social-media companies need users.
Every enormous institution ultimately depends upon millions of individual human beings making individual decisions.
That’s us.
And yet we walk around saying:
“What difference can I make?”
That’s the contradiction.
We’re simultaneously the source of the power and convinced that we’re powerless.
And I think that’s one of the biggest problems in America.
I’ve been going around Greensboro for weeks talking to people about the Truth Party.
Fire stations.
Coffee shops.
Businesses.
Neighborhoods.
Anybody willing to listen.
And what I’m discovering is that people are frustrated.
But underneath the frustration, I keep hearing something else.
People don’t think they can change anything.
“What can I do?”
“I’m only one person.”
“Nobody listens to people like me.”
“The whole thing is rigged.”
I understand the frustration.
But here’s what I want to say:
You’re not powerless.
The problem is that we’re underparticipating.
And there’s a huge difference.
If you’re powerless, there’s nothing you can do.
If you’re underparticipating?
That’s fixable.
Suppose I talk to five people.
Five.
That’s nothing, right?
But those five people each talk to five people.
Now we’ve got 25.
Those 25 talk to five.
- 125.
Again.
- 625.
Again.
3,125.
Again.
15,625 people.
Where did they come from?
One person started talking.
That’s grassroots organizing.
That’s social media when it’s used for something besides arguing with strangers.
That’s community.
That’s democracy.
And eventually those numbers become large enough that people in power have to pay attention.
One citizen calling an elected official might be ignored.
Ten?
Maybe.
A hundred?
Interesting.
Ten thousand?
Somebody’s picking up the phone.
A million?
Now you’ve changed politics.
And every one of those million started as one person.
That’s why I keep coming back to this distinction:
Citizen versus spectator.
A spectator watches politics.
A citizen participates.
A spectator complains about candidates.
A citizen votes in the primary.
A spectator complains about money in politics.
A citizen organizes people.
A spectator says:
“Somebody ought to do something.”
A citizen says:
“What can I do?”
And here’s the really important part:
You don’t have to agree with me to be a citizen.
In fact, please don’t.
If everybody who comes to a Truth Party rally agrees with everything I say, something has gone terribly wrong.
I don’t want another tribe.
We’ve got enough tribes.
I want Republicans.
I want Democrats.
I want independents.
I want progressives.
I want conservatives.
I want people who haven’t voted in twenty years.
And I especially want people who say:
“John, you’re completely full of shit.”
Great!
Come tell me why.
Let’s talk.
Because that’s what self-government is supposed to look like.
And that’s why the lesson from Florida isn’t:
“Democratic socialism won.”
That’s one interpretation of one primary.
The bigger lesson is:
Participation won.
Organization won.
Volunteers mattered.
People mattered.
And that’s something Democrats, Republicans and independents should all understand.
Because citizen power isn’t left-wing.
It isn’t right-wing.
It’s American.
The whole experiment depends upon it.
Think about what would happen if Americans suddenly decided to participate at extraordinary levels.
Not just presidential elections.
Primaries.
Midterms.
Local elections.
School boards.
City councils.
State legislatures.
Imagine people actually knowing who represents them.
Imagine citizens reading about issues instead of simply reading memes about them.
Imagine calling representatives.
Showing up at meetings.
Organizing neighborhoods.
Asking:
“Where did the money go?”
“Why did you vote for that?”
“Who benefits from this?”
“What are you going to do about this problem?”
Imagine elected officials realizing:
“They’re watching us.”
That’s accountability.
And accountability doesn’t require violence.
It doesn’t require revolution.
It doesn’t require burning the system down.
It requires something much simpler.
Participation.
And here’s what I love about that.
Nobody needs to give you permission.
You don’t need a political science degree.
You don’t need $16 million.
You don’t need a television commercial.
You don’t need a lobbyist.
You don’t need a blue check mark.
You don’t even need the Truth Party.
You already have what you need.
Citizenship.
A voice.
A vote.
A community.
And the ability to organize.
That’s power.
So what should the Truth Party do?
I don’t want the Truth Party accumulating power.
I want it multiplying citizen power.
There’s a difference.
I’m not interested in building another organization where somebody at the top tells everybody underneath them what to think.
We’ve already got plenty of those.
I want somebody to walk into a Truth Party event thinking:
“Nobody listens to me.”
And walk out thinking:
“Maybe I can do something.”
That’s success.
Then I want that person to talk to somebody else.
And somebody else.
And somebody else.
Until participation becomes contagious.
And that brings us to Sunday.
Our first Truth Party rally.
I have no idea how many people are going to show up.
Maybe twenty.
Maybe fifty.
Maybe a hundred.
That’s not really the point.
Because if twenty people come and every one of them leaves believing they have the power to influence their community—and each one brings another person next time—we’ve accomplished something.
Every movement begins small.
Every movement has a first gathering.
Every movement has somebody who shows up first.
And the people who show up at the beginning rarely know where it’s going.
They simply know:
Something needs to change.
So when you look at what happened in Florida, don’t just look at the candidate.
Look at the mathematics.
More than $16 million versus less than $1 million.
Establishment support versus an underdog.
Millions in advertising versus grassroots organizing.
And the underdog won.
That doesn’t prove money doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t prove what will happen in November.
But it proves something important:
Outcomes aren’t predetermined.
And neither is the future of this country.
We’ve spent too much time asking:
“What are politicians going to do?”
Let’s start asking:
“What are citizens going to do?”
We’ve spent too much time asking:
“Who’s going to save us?”
Nobody.
That’s the point.
We’re supposed to do this.
That’s self-government.
We inherited the right to have a say in how we’re governed.
But that right comes with a responsibility.
Use it.
Vote.
Organize.
Speak.
Listen.
Question.
Volunteer.
Participate.
And bring somebody with you.
Because one becomes five.
Five become twenty-five.
Twenty-five become hundreds.
Hundreds become thousands.
And thousands become something that money can’t simply ignore.
People.
Organized people.
Participating people.
Citizens.
So here’s what I want you to remember:
You are not powerless.
You may be frustrated.
You may be angry.
You may feel ignored.
But you are not powerless.
Your voice is power.
Your vote is power.
Your neighbors are power.
Your ability to organize is power.
Your participation is power.
And when enough ordinary people understand that?
That’s when politics changes.
Not because somebody in Washington suddenly decides to give us our power back.
Because we finally realize:
We had it all along.
So wake up.
Realize your power.
Show up.
Organize.
Hold power accountable.
And then help somebody else discover their power.
Because democracy doesn’t belong to the person with the biggest bank account.
Ultimately, democracy belongs to the people who participate.
The power isn’t somewhere up there.
It’s right here.
It’s us.
And Sunday—
we show up.
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