PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT ALIVE AND WELL!

In a message dated 5/21/2006 7:36:41 PM Eastern Standard Time, david@davidsirota.com writes:
2006: The Year the Progressive Movement Became a MovementBy David SirotaThere are a lot of reasons to be optimistic these days if you are aprogressive. A look accross 2006's campaign landscape shows that ourmovement is no longer theoretical - it is very real, and increasingin power every single day. But as the Denver Post today notes in apiece about our growing movement (attached below), progressives alsoface stiff opposition in the form of a corrupt politicalEstablishment desperate to preserve the status quo. The confrontationbrewing between this new movement and the Establishment is not to bedownplayed - it is escalating, and it will have profound results thatgo far beyond just one election.The Denver Post notes that those defending the status quo are, to besure, entrenched. "Political corruption comes in two varieties," thePost notes. "There are brazen payoffs, and then there is a kind ofgooey rot: the venal abandonment of principles, spurred by the favorsof corporate lobbyists and the need for campaign cash." Ultimately,"All but the toughest pols and pundits get seduced, and over time,the party establishment starts to stipulate: globalization is ablessing, free trade is sacred, billionaires need tax breaks, jobloss is inevitable, workers are expendable, wages will decline, thewar in Iraq is necessary."The Post is absolutely right - there is a "gooey rot." But it isbeing challenged everywhere you look. Though both parties'Beltway-based political operatives and consultants have tried todownplay what's going on throughout the heartland, we can see thetell-tale signs of a true progressive populist movement emerging. We see grassroots organizations outside the Beltway like (to namejust a few) Moveon.org and the Progressive States Network beingbuilt. We see huge numbers of readers purchasing books like Crashingthe Gate, How Would a Patriot Act?, Lapdogs, The Motherhood Manifestoand (here comes a bit of shameless self-promotion) Hostile Takeover -readers who want to join the fight. We see millions of dailywebsurfers learning about the day-to-day political battles at siteslike Escaton, Dailykos, MyDD, Common Dreams, Working for Change, theHuffington Post and hundreds of others. We see a crop of aggressivewriters like Ari Berman, Matt Taibbi, Chris Hayes, Harold Meyerson,Molly Ivins, Matt Stoller , Chris Bowers and Thomas Frank who rejectthe mealy-mouthed style of liberal writers in the past, and aren'tafraid to infuse their work with conviction and ideology. We seemeetings like the Cleaning Up Our Statehouses conference, theYearlyKos convention and the Take Back America conference beingovercrowded with attendees. And perhaps most striking, we see majorcandidates for major office championing the cause.In two major Senate races, for instance, top-tier candidates SherrodBrown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT) are both using their campaigns toput Corporate America's destructive "free" trade policy on trial - apolicy pushed by Wall Street Democrats that has undermined Americans'wages, health care/retirement benefits and job security.Brown recently told the Cleveland Plain Dealer this week that "Peoplewho like these trade agreements typically are very insulated. They'reeconomists in ivory towers. They are journalists in wood-panelededitorial boards. It's senators and presidents who rely on majorcorporate campaign contributors and don't walk through thosefactories where workers are so anxious about job loss." Brown isrunning in arguably the most important Senate race in the mostpolitically important state in America - and, unlike otherhigh-profile Democrats in the Senate club, he's not running toembrace right-wing ideologues - he's instead running as an unabashedprogressive. As he told the Washington Post, "This is a chance tochange the direction of the state and the country [because] it canshow a progressive Democrat can win in a state like Ohio. It's goingto show that in 2008, there's a very different political dynamic inthis country."Similarly, Tester told the Billings Gazette that he's sick and tiredof "free" trade deals being justified by those who dishonestly claimthese pacts help farmers - a courageous stand in an agriculturalregion, and in a state where both U.S. Senators are ardent supportersof "free" trade. "As a farmer, you better believe [corporate-writtentrade deals] are a problem," he said. "The current market is justplain unfair. The United States has been pushing us into free tradeagreements that have been hurting Montana workers and Montanafarmers, and resulting in the outsourcing of jobs. We need to beengaging in fair trade so that everybody is playing on a level field.This is an issue I'll work hard on because it's important to Montanaand it personally hits home with me."The same thing is happening on Iraq. In Connecticut, first-timestatewide candidate Ned Lamont (D) exceeded steep expectations anddramatically vaulted onto the primary ballot to challenge Sen. JoeLieberman - the guy who has spent the last three years makingheadlines as the chief Senate advocate for the Iraq War, and chiefattacker of those who have opposed it. Lieberman and hiscorporate-funded sponsors at the Democratic Leadership Council inWashington are now in an apoplectic frenzy, frothing like rabid dogsto national reporters, complaining about their plight, fearing thatthe ordinary citizens they so despise have broken down the palacegates. They should be afraid - we have broken in, and come primaryday in August, we're headed for the throne room to depose Lieberman.Even some courageous leaders in the Establishment are taking noticeof our new movement, and are reacting favorably. House MinorityLeader Nancy Pelosi (D), for instance, "has informed colleagues thatshe intends to force Rep. Jane Harman (D) to step down" from theintelligence committee, according to the Los Angeles Times. Pelosimade the announcement after many Democrats expressed concern "thatHarman is too moderate and inclined to accommodate the Republicanagenda." And remember - Pelosi's move has not come in a vacuum. Itcomes as Harman faces a primary challenge in her Los Angeles-areadistrict from Marcy Winograd (D), who is hammering Harman for heraggressive support of the Iraq War.Not surprisingly, much of this movement building has been met withdisdain from the pundit class's most brazen Establishmentmouthpieces. Time Magazine's Joe Klein, for instance, used a recentcolumn to call senior progressive African American Members ofCongress "embarrassments," and then proceeded to hurl raciallycharged insults at them on behalf of the GOP. His column was adisgusting and not-so-subtly veiled effort to scare the public aboutwho will be in control of Congress if the progressive movementcontinues to build power.Top New York Times columnists have (albeit, without the racialcomponent) ably backed up Klein's attacks on the progressivemovement. For example, Thomas Friedman appeared on television againthis week trying to extend the Iraq War and American troops'deployment there. Thankfully, watchdog groups nailed him for hisdishonesty. Friedman also this week penned another in a long line ofpublic service announcements trumpeting the benefits of eliminatingAmerican jobs and shipping them overseas. It's Tom Friedman asCorporate America's paid public relations flack.The Times' David Brooks chimed in with Friedman. In a recent screed,Brooks was shocked - shocked! - that ordinary people are unhappyabout the economy. Brooks, a conservative Bobo in Paradise, justcannot understand why when the stock market is doing well and overallGDP growth is steady the vast majority of citizens outside hiscomfortable, country-club-Republican life on the New York-DC cocktailparty circuit are not as thrilled as he is. "Forget about wage,benefit and job cuts ordinary folks are suffering through," Brooksseems to be saying, "Let them all eat cake while I slurp down anotherglass of scotch, puff on my cigar, and marvel at my new silk ascot."And, of course, he says we must look down on those movement builderswho want real change. "The pseudopopulist renegades who rail againstthe establishment are being eclipsed by the cannyestablishmentarians," Brooks breathlessly claimed. "They're the oneswho know how to use the levers of government to get things done." Ifonly he had said "get things done exclusively for rich elitists likeme" he might have actually displayed a bit of honesty.Thankfully, our movement is sturdy. It flourishes without approval ofthe powers that be - which is why it is so frightening to theEstablishment. Ours is a movement that has seized the year 2006, andfinally declared that it is time to put core conviction aheadpartisanship, and time to ignore the insulated, arrogant know-it-allswho populate the cushy confines of Washington's think tanks, CapitolHill offices and pundit circles - the know-it-alls who either havenever worked on winning campaigns or who have consistently worked onlosing campaigns yet spout off as if they were campaign gurus; theknow-it-alls who pocket corporate cash and then tell Democrats to bowdown to the corporate forces that are waging a war on our country'smiddle class; the know-it-alls who told Democrats to embrace the IraqWar, because neither they nor their families have to personally bearthe blood-and-guts consequences of the policies they advocate; theknow-it-alls who, in short, are trying to sell out America.To be sure, this is a long battle against powerful forces. But as Inote in the conclusion of my new book Hostile Takeover, the newmovement we are building is on the side of history. "In one way oranother, every great American social movement has been about peopletaking back their government," the book concludes. "Once again,America must find its voice, and act on its justifiable outrage – anoutrage that comes with being abused by politicians and cheated bythe establishment, insulted with lies, and denied honest answers. Itis that outrage which has fueled our past battles. And it is thatoutrage that will always lead this country to a better future."*********************http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3839175{http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3839175}
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