Obama Offers Vision, While Dems Offer a Laundry List

On the final day of a largely inspiring Take Back America progressive conference, Sen. Barack Obama offered in a powerful, well-received speech a searing critique of Bush administration policies, borrowing from Newt Gingrich's recommended attack phrase, "Had enough?," yet at the same time providing reassurance and hope for progressives. He told us that we know who we are and we stand for goals that appeal to the best in Americans: "The time for our identity crisis as progressives is over. Don't let anybody tell you that we don't know what we stand for."

He won the applause, though, without providing a specific plan for withdrawal from Iraq. Divisions over Iraq among Democratic leaders became the focus of much of the mainstream coverage of the event, missing the broader "Common Good" agenda for change offered by some Democratic leaders and activists at the conference.

Obama captured that uplifting theme well and showed in a smart way how to put forward a positive program for Democrats. After attacking Bush administration failures and its Social Darwinism, he proclaimed:

Yes, our greatness as a nation has depended on self-reliance and individual initiative and a belief in the free market.

But it's also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, our sense that we have a stake in each other's success.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, that everybody should have a shot at opportunity.

Americans understand this. They know the government can't solve all their problems, but they expect the government can help because they know it's an expression of what they're learning in Sunday school, what they learn in their church, in their synagogue, in their mosque, a basic moral precept that says that I have to look out for you and I have responsibility for you and you have responsibility for me; that I am your keeper and your are mine.

That's what America is.

And so I am eager to have this argument with the Republican Party about the core philosophy of America, about what our story is. We shouldn't shy away from that debate.

On the same day that Obama was giving his speech, the Democratic leadership offered a litany of ideas, billed as a "New Direction" for America, such as lowering the cost of prescription drugs, raising the minimum wage, etc.

What was missing from this Democratic list was the broader big idea, "The Common Good," best articluated by Michael Tomasky in a recent, highly influential American Prospect article about Democrats moving beyond single-issue ideas and interest groups into a broader civic republicanism.

It was that idea that animated the Take Back America Conference, and was liberally borrowed in John Kerry's speech. In fact, an entire luncheon was devoted to Tomasky debating with Barbara Ehrenreich over this idea, with Tomasky seeking to put at ease her concerns that such a broader vision would undermine the fight against the attack on the poor and the working class. In his talk, he cited as an example LBJ promoting the Civil Rights Act for the way it would help all Americans, not just blacks, and cited polling that straight class-war populist apeals are unlikely to win a majority of the public. You can read their speeches at this link (scroll down to luncheon talk on Tuesday).

At the end of the conference, Robert Borsage, the co-director of the sponsoring organization, the Campaign for America's Future, pointed out, "The right has not failed because it's corrupt or because it's incompetent. It failed because conservatism is wrong for America. "The Common Good Agenda charts a new direction of politics guided by the sense that we're all in this together."

Read more about the progressive agenda and the Take Back America conference at MoJo Blog.