Needless to say that when you wake up one morning and find yourself the subject of the lead editorial in the largest conservative publication on the planet, it is a bit jarring. However, I flag today's Wall Street Journal topline editorial today not because it is about Van Jones and me, but because it makes a genuinely important point for the progressive movement.
After citing my earlier post about how the firing of Jones "will inevitably create a chilling effect on the aspirations of other movement progressives," the Journal says this:
Mr. Sirota is speaking for many on the movement left who believe they helped to elect Mr. Obama and therefore deserve seats at the inner table of power. They are increasingly frustrated because they are discovering that Mr. Obama will happily employ "movement progressives," but only so long as their real views and motivations aren't widely known or understood. How bitter it must be to discover that the Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck, who drove the debate about Mr. Jones, counts for more at this White House than Mr. Sirota.
Bitter? Not quite. Unsurprised is a better word, really. As I had been incessantly writing before and after the presidential election (and indeed, for years before Obama ever announced as a candidate for president), Barack Obama has ties to the progressive movement, but he is an inherently cautious -- and, at times, frightened -- politician. He is first and foremost desperate to appease his opposition, even if his opposition is political terrorists who can never be appeased. And that's especially true as the progressive movement refuses to "make him do it" -- that is, refuses to put real, organized and even unfriendly pressure on him to deliver.
The Journal is absolutely, and unfortunately, correct -- right now, today's White House officials answer more to Glenn Beck, Blue Dogs and Republicans than it does to progressive members of Congress and the progressive base of the Democratic Party that got them into the White House in the first place. You can see that in the negotiations over health care and climate change. You can see that in the plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan at the urging of people like Karl Rove, and the refusal to stop Wall Street bailouts and push real Wall Street reform. You can see that even in who the president opts to give exclusive interviews to. You can, in short, see it everywhere.
Progressives don't just "believe" they deserve a seat at the table -- we actually do deserve that seat, not just because we worked to elect this president, but because our stance on major issues like the public option, climate change, Wall Street reform and the war are the majoritarian positions in America. That's not speculation -- polls show that's an empirical fact.
But we won't get that seat at the table unless we demand it. That means the Washington-based progressive groups have to stop kissing the White House's ass and selling out their grassroots membership. It means rank-and-file Obama supporters have to stop framing legitimate progressive pressure on Obama as some sort of disloyal desire to see Mitt Romney elected President in 2012.
It means, as I said in my last newspaper column, that we have to start thinking and acting like a real movement, and not just like sycophantic political partisans. If we do that, we'll get that seat at the table -- and more importantly, we'll get the legislative results Obama originally promised, but now hesitates to champion.
This is going to take real work -- and it's not going to be psychologically easy. As a personal example, my email box has been flooded with the worst kind of threatening hate mail today and over the last few days, as the conservative hate machine is keyed up by the Wall Street Journal's editorial and the CNN appearances I made this week. And I'm sure that's emblematic of the larger blowback all progressives are feeling right now as we work in communities across the country.
But that's to be expected. We are fighting for real change, and if there is one lesson from history, it is that exactly the people we are confronting today -- the right-wingers, corporatists, Establishmentarians, and status quo devotees -- will do everything they can to intimidate us. We can stand down or stand up -- and it's long past time for the latter.
Where is My "Andrew Shepherd"; I wanted a "Liberal Decider" to follow up "The Decider" -- Not someone who decides what to do with Liberals.......
The diatribe continues at http://www.suburbanempire.com
Please try to get your message straight, if you wish to actually sway thinking people who pay attention to the world.
Semper fi
You state it as empirical fact. I agree. While I don't have the actual polling data, it is quite obvious that we are in a situation where the political color spectrum has shifted from Blue and Red, to Blue and something like Green. The evidence is everywhere, especially in advertising.
Go into any solid red district and you'll see every product and lifestyle being promoted as 'green'. Even oil and coal companies know how to sell soot these days; by stressing positive environmental impacts.
What we are seeing is the political alignment lagging behind the social reality. That's nothing new.
What's our job now? 1. Realign our attention to the new social reality. 2. Stop reinforcing the idea that it's Dems and Reps. It's Dems and us. Let the Republican organzation continue its movement to the right wing fringe, just as the Communist Party, the SWP and those organizations are the left wing fringe. 3. Organize, organize, organize, and run as something really new.
"Barack Obama has ties to the progressive movement, but he is an inherently cautious -- and, at times, frightened -- politician."
I was thinking about how intelligent and centered, and to some extent, wise his remarks were to questions from students I watched excerpts of on CNN, and wondered why that kind of character could be an actor who pretended to be a progressive during the campaign and now revealed himself to be a neoliberal DLC conventional corporatist as he seems to be now - the opinion of him I have held for many months?
I wonder if he is frightened and timid, or just showing his true colors now. It's hard to believe he could be so timid and frightened to do back deals with PhRMA, be so aggressive in his ramping up the war in Afghanistan, contiuning Cheney et al's trampling of the Constitution, and VOLUNTARILY appointing an economic team in bed with Wall St. and Mr. DLC, Rahm Emmanuel as his chief of staff last November. Call me cynical, but I don't buy the timid explanation. He may have held progressive beliefs at one stage in his life, but it appears he has abandoned them for corporatist estblishment cozying up to the powers-that-be "principles."
Someone convince me that I'm wrong about this.
Hope, it's all I've got left.
Here's some love for ya: this post was one of your best yet. Keep up the good work!
That is where you are tripping. Majoritarian? Ha.
I support taking care of the environment.
Wall Street reform... Do you mean end deregulation? That is part of what caused the first Great Depression. Yes, there are things we can do there, too, but for the most part Wall Street is going to have to keep having its ups and downs and we need to stop using tax payer dollars to protect people from the downs while helping unions prevent the ups.
The war? Having been part of the war, I can tell you it was a good thing--that simply went on too long. Most Americans are not against the war, only indefinite commitments.
Finally, the public option is deeply unpopular at the moment, which is why Obama is struggling to pass anything like it.
The Progressive movement that counts today is the 912 movement, because it moves us forward, not backward or sideways or inside out. I can't believe anyone would subscribe to a movement led by people like Van Jones. I can believe in one led by the Constitution.
i've come to believe that governments -- any government -- are simply appeasers.
even Obama has come to seem like an appeaser...
Your computer must be about to burst at the seams from all the crazy. Hang in there.
I would like to get what has been promised at least once in my voting history. I'm 64 and I'm not sure I'll live to vote for another president. Very disappointed. I think that are all thieves and liars and we need a real revolution to make progressive change.
Keep up the good work and "rocking the boat."