Organize and Fight to be Progressive and Winning
Matt Yglesias makes the good point that in order to have a real progressive revival, we need governing majorities. He then questions whether a big tent is necessary for that. The real question is what we do with what we have and who we reach out and expand to include.
The opportunity is to expand progressive majorities by making the election become a mandate for the values/vision and policies that we care about. And the opportunity is more likely to be there if we both fight for things that matter and educate/organize/mobilize and turn out people to vote for the candidates and the issues that are of concern to us. This way, the election creates the demand and can support the change we want to see in that new administration. Organizing, standing up and fighting, and expanding our numbers (and our tent) leads to both winning and being progressive.
The Democrats won two Presidential elections in 1992 and 1996. Was that a "progressive revival"?
September 6, 2007 4:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
As close to one as the left will ever get. Just like the 1960&1964 elections or the 1932 & 1936 elections
jack
September 6, 2007 8:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
hmm, first of all, when you say "both," to whom are you referring? There's an imprecision here that I think makes your post difficult to understand.
Second, a tent is an object which holds people, not policy. A lot of Democrats think that increasing the number of people who will vote Democratic can only be done by expanding our policies until they say absolutely nothing. This is simply not true, and alienates those who are dying for the party to stand for something, anything...
September 6, 2007 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
No.
The Republican Lites won and the Democratic Party became a subsidiary of the Republican Party.
Best to elect Democrats if you want a Democratic revival and a country that is returned to the control of the people rather than elite renamed the Middle Class.
Best, Terry
September 6, 2007 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably the web has a lot of potential to provide a mandate to politicians, but I think it has as yet failed to do that. Evidence: (1) Howard Dean and (2) DailyKOs 'success' in getting Dems, any Dems, elected to Congress, giving us a powerless Dem congress with a three percent approval rating.
The focus must change, as I think Matt is suggesting, from getting Dems elected to promoting policy. Strike the big tent, it didn't work. All it gave us is more Blue Dogs and Bush Dogs.
Progressive Democrats of America priorities:
1. End the War, Redirect Funding
2. Health Care for All
3. Economic Justice
4. Clean, Fair, Transparent Elections
5. Stop Global Warming
details at:
http://pdamerica.org/policy/priorities.php
The message to candidates: If you support these policies you have my vote, but if you don't I don't.
September 6, 2007 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
erica,
"Both" doesn't refer to "we" but to the two general actions that come next in the sentence.
September 6, 2007 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Add a bit about supporting international organizations and international law and I'm with you. I'll add that I'll stop the money, my volunteerism in campaigns, and my vote.
The "big tent" needs some policy statements and then we can go through the exhibit. I'm tired of the careful parsing of words to win an election and then betrayal because once elected the incumbent believes s/he will never be defeated in an election. If this keeps up, there will be damned few party members--and that's probably true right now since so few show up in primaries when party identification is important.
September 6, 2007 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The opportunity is to expand progressive majorities
In order for a thing to be expanded it must first exist. I see no evidence whatsoever for a progressive majority among the voters or Federal politicians. Quite the opposite, in fact.
The voters thought they would give the Dems a chance to get us out of Iraq. (Of course the Dems had no intention of doing so, and they will pay dearly for that failure next year. But that's not the point.) The November election was not a popular expression of waxing liberalism. It was an expression of disgust with the Mess in Mesopotamia and an expression of hope for relief therefrom.
The Congress, with its crop of cryptoGOP freshmen, is probably the most conservative controlled by Democrats since the defection of the Dixiecrats. The backlash of '08 will likely drive the House back into a workable Republican majority.
The Executive is almost certainly destined for safe conservatism for the next eight years by Clinton, Guiliani, or Thompson. If Clinton wins just one term, make that 12 years. (I'll be 72, Vishnu willing and the cricks don't rise. My daughter will be in her mid-forties. Think about you and yours.)
And the Judiciary? Despoiled for at least a generation, more likely two.
Progressivism ascendant? How so?
September 6, 2007 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
UPDATE!
updated 15 minutes ago
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Bin Laden to issue video as 9/11 anniversary approaches
September 6, 2007 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
self-delete
September 6, 2007 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Better Read the Bible. Hint (revelation chapter 18.)
all of it.
September 6, 2007 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink