It is my job to bring to you not just the news that took place, but the news that has yet to happen.
Today, that's exactly what we have.
There is a war coming to try to change Social Security from a social safety net to a "revenue stream" for certain corporate interests, and that war is set to begin Tuesday morning, according to information that was provided to me yesterday afternoon.
Follow along, and you'll be both forewarned and forearmed.
All of us at OpenLeft neglected to mention earlier in the week, but Monday kicks off the America's Future Now conference (formerly Take Back America). It's a giant gathering of some excellent minds in progressive politics, including some great organizing discussions, training sessions, fundraisers and parties. Every year I leave with some better organizing ideas and new information.
I'm most looking forward to Darcy Burner and the Center for Community Change's Deepak Bhargava sparring on the role progressives play in and outside the Administration (as has been noted here and written extensively about by Mike Lux, probably one of the top 5 most popular netroots discussions). Details on that below. Lots of other healthy discussions going on, too. Chris, Mike, myself, and probably a number of other folks you read and interact with will be there.
Online reg has closed, but you can register on-site. Details are here.
The Great Debate: Progressives In The Obama Era
Many progressives have gone all in to support Obama reform agenda -- on health care, energy and financial reform.
Others believe that Obama has been disserved by the absence of an independent left, pushing hard for far bolder reforms, challenging the limits of the current debate and pushing not just the Congress but the White House for a bolder agenda.
To explore, two progressive leaders will debate at America's Future Now! June 7, 12:20 PM at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC.
Deepak Bhargava -- who went all in with the Center for Community Change to help create the Health Care for America Now! coalition, and
build an immigration reform coalition.
and
Darcy Burner -- progressivecongress.org -- who was part of the effort to build independent pressure for the public health insurance option,
and argues that progressives need to build an independent movement to challenge limits of current debate.
The debate will be immediately followed by a conference-wide group discussion moderated by Gloria Totten of Progressive Majority.
Every year in Washington, D.C., the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) convenes the largest conference of activists positioned anywhere to the left of wherever the center has drifted off to. Labor and community groups and civil rights groups play a big role, most of them strictly loyal to the Democratic Party. The focus is on domestic issues, and the approach is an inside strategy of nudging and honoring those in power. You can sense my cynicism, and yet this year I was very pleasantly surprised.
Who was not moved by the sight of hundreds of thousands of people of all colors gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to cheer Barack Obama's election as the 44th president of the United States?
Obama needed to win by a big enough margin that the Republicans couldn't steal the election again, and he did it with a campaign that harnessed the populist power of the Internet and an indefatigable army of young volunteers. Now the corporate pundits are trying to limit the damage Obama can do if he follows through on his promises.
Before the election John McCain and his right-wing allies were saying that Obama was a "socialist" with plans to soak the rich and "redistribute wealth." But after the election, the right's revisionists denied that Obama's impressive victory gave him any sort of mandate to enact socialist reforms or redistribute wealth. They claimed that the US remains a center-right nation.
As progressive writer David Sirota notes, the "center-right nation" phrase is being parroted with the propagandistic discipline of Cuba's Ministry of Information.
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