I just got back from a trip to Oregon, Washington State, and Montana. A little bit of work (4 book events, a lunch w/Ron Wyden's Chief of Staff, meetings and discussions with various progressive-minded folks in each state) and a little bit of play (a glorious long weekend in Glacier National Park). I was relieved and delighted to get out of DC and spend time with real people on the ground who are working to make things better, but also frustrated (as I always am) by how big the disconnect is between the activists on the ground and the politicians in DC. From the stories I heard in Montana, for example, it is clear that now that Max Baucus was re-elected last year, he could truly care less about what the good people of Montana think should be done on health care. He is spending far more time meeting with (and raising money from) health care lobbyists than he is in actually listening to people back home, and the frustration of these folks back home is palpable.
But I did come away very encouraged by the healthy kind of progressivism I saw in those states. Having grown up in Nebraska, it's a brand of politics I relate to very much: a healthy fusion of progressive libertarianism and populism.
There is, of course, a dark side to both of those things. Right-wing populism of the kind that the teabaggers, Limbaugh and Palin practice can turn racist, xenophobic, and ugly really fast. And reflexively anti-government libertarianism would lave us handicapped by a lack of investment in badly-needed public capital (schools, infrastructure, etc.) and defenseless against the rapaciousness of unrestrained big business interests.
A blend of the best of libertarianism and populism, as practiced by the kinds of people I was talking to out west, is in my view progressivism at its best. From the libertarian side of things, you get a healthy skepticism of government and authority, and a rejection of fundamentalist religion's over-reaching into our personal lives. From the populists you get the equally strong skepticism of big business, and a push for government to take on the wealthy and powerful. That fusion makes for compelling politics, and is the reason that the Western states have been moving more and more towards the Democratic coalition in recent years.
Every time I go out west, I feel drawn to the region. The combination of the people and the mountains may get me out there for good one of these days.
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STATE BLOGS
