Building a Progressive Majority

by: Matt Stoller

Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 16:36

Look, it's obvious Obama's going to be on a muddled centrist course, now and after November. Whether he is tacking right because he is a conservative or because he's a savvy politician who has read the tea leaves doesn't really matter. If we want to end the war, deal with global warming, enact health care reform, change our tax code, and protect the internet, we're going to need our own people in Congress to do it. And I'm not talking about Jerry McNerney or John Barrow or Chris Carney or any of the other wankers who were elected in 2006 and decided to spend their time voting for expanded wiretapping authority and money for Bush. Our people.

Matt Stoller :: Building a Progressive Majority

And the way to know that they will be our people is if they run as progressives and piss off the big interests. They have to be in favor of net neutrality and anger the telecom PACs. They have to explicitly commit to ending the war and make the David Broder's squirm. And they have to step up strong on FISA and upset the Democratic leadership.

Our opponent is only sort of the Republicans and the media. It is a set of elite actors in DC, in academia, the entire Republican Party, in think tanks, in Wall Street, and in pockets of leadership in the Democratic Party who created a constant social, political, and financial pull on decision-makers. It is the ridiculous and insane DC culture which made sure that, after the FISA decision, not one Democrat criticized Steny Hoyer, Kit Bond, or Nancy Pelosi. It is the incumbent protection racket that has intimidated progressives so much that not one would stump for Donna Edwards against Al Wynn earlier this year. That is our opposition.

Better Democrats is about changing this dynamic. We must put in place new and better Democrats who have a demonstrated willingness to organize progressives in Congress and fight conservative frames. I'm not talking about mouthing against the war, which is what Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer do perpetually while lauding right-wing warmongers, I'm talking about actually taking on the fearsome AIPAC and genuinely committing to spending political capital on torture. That is what we need. Not people who get to go to cocktail parties with a D on their name tag instead of an R.

People like Donna Edwards, Eric Massa, Darcy Burner, Tom Perriello, and Jeff Merkley.

In other words, Better Democrats. Give if you can. It's worth it. This is probably the best chance we will ever have to put some real progressives in Congress. Our people.

UPDATE: The MyBO group against FISA just hit 5468 members, up from 4700 a few hours ago. It's rather explosive.

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Building a Progressive Majority | 14 comments

I agree, Matt. I will contribute $25 today and more later. (4.00 / 3)

If we want to end the war, deal with global warming, enact health care reform, change our tax code, and protect the internet, we're going to need our own people in Congress to do it.

This is the only strategy. And we have to take the long view. People like Darcy and Jeff merkely are the future leaders. The ones who will refuse to triangulate.

by: Tom Wells @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 20:43:39 PM UTC

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I am really excited about the prospect (4.00 / 2)

of electing Burner and Merkley. Two NW progressive Democrats who have a strong hold on their values. It's not in Jeff to capitulate and vote for something he doesn't believe in. It's just not who he is. This is the guy who worked for the Defense Dept and spoke out against investing in the B2. He's not afraid to stick his neck out, that's for sure.

Netroots Director for Oregon Senate Candidate Jeff Merkley

by: sarahlane @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 21:46:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Just did this at DKos before this was posted (4.00 / 2)

After I commented in a diary below, I went to Dkos and found their Act Blue list of candidates. I contributed to Darcy Burner and Al Franken (for now).

I don't believe I'll be contributing any more to Obama. Possibly, but probably not.

by: Semblance @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 20:48:02 PM UTC

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Indeed. Donation made directly from (4.00 / 2)

my Obama fund.

by: xscinx @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 20:49:26 PM UTC

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The MyBO Group (4.00 / 4)

Matt, thanks for mentioning the MyBO group against FISA. Please keep mentioning it. It's my judgment that the majority of Obama donors are against FISA... The MyBO group could get 500,000 members if people know about it.

by: T Maysle @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 21:00:57 PM UTC

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idealism (4.00 / 1)

To paraphrase one of our illustrious leaders: "you fight with the politicians you have".

Waiting to get a better crew in government is an appeal to inaction in the present, perhaps not by the motivated that visit sites like this, but by the mildly outraged who sit on the sidelines.

The FISA Obama group shows the kind of approach that should be undertaken while waiting for electoral utopia. I've changed my mind after reading a recent book - "Moral Clarity" by Susan Neiman and now think that appeals to idealism are a worthwhile effort.

Look at how many revolutions that we have seen in the past two decades that have used the ideals of Jefferson as their justification. There needs to be a continual effort to alert people to actions that compromise their ideals and ask them to speak up.

I think that there are a larger number of pols who would like to do better than they are currently, but are afraid or intimidated. If they see that the people support them and that, therefore, they will be reelected they may tend to do better. Call it the "George Bailey" effect - they need an angel to remind them of why the ran for office, just as Bailey needed to be reminded of his duties as a banker.

Expecting to get a presidential candidate to do anything controversial in the midst of a campaign is unrealistic, but the rest of congress is fair game. One "macaca" moment can throw a candidate for a loop, so pressure from the netroots has more impact than it did in the past, when letters and phone calls were filed and forgotten.

Any clever youtube video which gets support from like-minded people has a good chance of being seen by thousands. Elected officials need to be reminded that we are not as powerless (or voiceless) as in the past.

Policies not Politics

by: robertdfeinman @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 21:27:43 PM UTC

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Only 4 more! (4.00 / 3)

I contributed some more this morning, to Darcy Burner and Sam Bennett. Did others over the weekend. Matt's right--these are much more likely to be our people. The next 2 years will be the best chance to get progressive agenda items passed. Let's get over the top.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

by: Mimikatz @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 21:35:31 PM UTC

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i think i am going to donate to merkley (4.00 / 2)

the post-primary sting is far gone. i was going to wait until merkley did something exciting, but i think he deserves credit and a donation just for continuing to endorse the responsible plan for iraq. novick would have been better, but now i think merkley may be our best chance to get a progressive in the senate.

end the blurring--vote steve novick for u.s. senate in oregon

by: petrichor @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 21:54:36 PM UTC

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Glad to have you on board (0.00 / 0)

and thanks for the donation and support!

Netroots Director for Oregon Senate Candidate Jeff Merkley

by: sarahlane @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 22:37:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Now almost at 5750. (4.00 / 1)

Seems this has become fashionable. Exponential growth, anyone?

What happens when it becomes the biggest group by far on MyBO? Will Obama respond to the pressure? Will he make a big show of it?

If he does, will some people claim that this was obviously his secret master plan all along?
(Don't answer that.)

by: illissius @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 22:15:12 PM UTC

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Exponential growth indeed (4.00 / 2)

It just lit up digg ... here are the numbers of diggs for alapoet's open letter as it caught fire and made the front page.

5:25 - 240
5:30 - 278
5:35 - 315
5:40 - 348
5:45 - 399
5:50 - 425
5:55 - 456
6:00 - 492

Current count at 7:30 -- 764. (Speaking of which: digg it.)

Setting it in the context of Matt's post: getting steadily more effective at strategies like this is key to furthering the progressive movement, both for the election and beyond. Part of the reason I try to capture statistics is so that we can learn -- and go back and try to understand. For example, it seems like the biggest impact yesterday came from the Crooks and Liars story (not the front-page posts here or dKos) ... what to learn from that? It's relevant to lots of different topics, not just FISA....

by: JonPincus @ Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 23:37:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

6100... (4.00 / 1)

IIRC, the biggest group on there is something like 13000 strong? Seems to be growing at (very roughly) around 100 an hour, so at this rate we'll catch them in ~3 days.

by: illissius @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 00:29:31 AM UTC

[ Parent ]