We at Open Left are taking the New Year's weekend off. Golden Oldies will run in their place. Regularly Scheduled programming will resume on January 4th--Chris Bowers
A Matt Stoller Golden Oldie
Tue Jan 06, 2009. Original HERE.
Well, I suppose I had to make the announcement at some point, so here goes. I won't be blogging at OpenLeft for some time. I've taken a job inside the House of Representatives (more on that when I've cleared what I can say) to see how the place works and to help create the space for more progressive policies.
Ultimately what I've learned, from many of you as much as from the task of writing for the public for the last five years, is that there is a serious leadership gap in this country. And by leadership gap, I mean something very specific, so specific that I'm going to give it a name. I call it a 'rootsgap'. A rootsgap occurs when a leadership is dramatically out of step with its base or the public at large. In the 1970s, the conservative base felt consistently sold out by its politicians, like Gerald Ford, who pushed centrist unpopular pieces of legislation, like the Panama Canal Treaty, through the levers of government. Birth control, abortion, public sector unions, civil rights, consumer rights, the Equal Rights Amendment - all of these provoked a fierce reaction from the conservative base who felt betrayed by the Republican politicians who did not oppose liberalization fast enough.
Now's as good a time as any to announce that I'm working for Alan Grayson (FL-8) as his senior policy advisor.
The Financial Services Committee had a hearing yesterday with a variety of witnesses, and one of them was the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, Donald Kohn. The Fed has lent out $1.2 trillion over the last few months in response to the credit crisis, and won't tell anyone who they lent the money to.
If you haven't already, watch this clip, it gets good.
We need your help. About a half hour after this hearing, I got a call from the VP of Public Policy for a major bank, who assured me that they have taken no capital aside from ordinary discount window financing from the Fed.
Where do you think this money went? What kinds of questions should we pursue?
A lot of changes going on here at Openleft. Stoller is going away for a while, and we will sorely miss him- I will especially miss him in part because we don't always see eye-to-eye, and I loved the debates. I have been away for a while when I was doing the transition thing, and am now back and will try to get back in the swing of doing more posts. I like the fact that Matt and I have taken turns going inside, it will be fun to see how that works.
Anyway, you never know what will happen next here at OpenLeft, stay tuned and we'll try to keep you entertained.
(I wanted more people to see this, and not just because I am running errands today and won't be able to blog until later. Best wishes to Matt, who for three years has been the best writing partner I could ask for. If our efforts to create a progressive governing majority are to succeed, we need people organizing on the inside, too. Also, Open Left isn't going anywhere, and over the next couple of days, we will have a series of announcements on our new content. Stay tuned
- promoted by Chris Bowers)
Well, I suppose I had to make the announcement at some point, so here goes. I won't be blogging at OpenLeft for some time. I've taken a job inside the House of Representatives (more on that when I've cleared what I can say) to see how the place works and to help create the space for more progressive policies.
Ultimately what I've learned, from many of you as much as from the task of writing for the public for the last five years, is that there is a serious leadership gap in this country. And by leadership gap, I mean something very specific, so specific that I'm going to give it a name. I call it a 'rootsgap'. A rootsgap occurs when a leadership is dramatically out of step with its base or the public at large. In the 1970s, the conservative base felt consistently sold out by its politicians, like Gerald Ford, who pushed centrist unpopular pieces of legislation, like the Panama Canal Treaty, through the levers of government. Birth control, abortion, public sector unions, civil rights, consumer rights, the Equal Rights Amendment - all of these provoked a fierce reaction from the conservative base who felt betrayed by the Republican politicians who did not oppose liberalization fast enough.
I'm doing an event with a brilliant friend, Jessamyn Conrad, a historian who came out with a new primer on politics: What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues. We're going to have a good discussion. She really believes in good useful information, and I'm a strong partisan. Should be fun.
The event is at:
Book Culture (formerly Labyrinth Books)
Street:
536 W 112 (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
A brilliant friend of mine, Jessamyn Conrad, just wrote What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't. I'm going to be doing an event with her on October 14th in New York at 7 pm at 536 West 112th Street at Book Culture, which is apparently a very cool book store.
Conrad's book is a very useful primer on politics, good for people who feel they don't know very much but also a nice reference book for those who know more about the issues. Jesse's extremely passionate about making sure people are educated, she believes first and foremost in the power of good information.
You can RSVP on Facebook, and more details are on the Book Culture web site.
This began as a comment on Matt's diary How a Liberal Becomes a Lieberman. I took issue with Matt for likening Mark Udall's softening of some of his environmental positions to Lieberman's virtual defection to the Republicans. I think that there is too much emphasis placed on ideological purity and too little emphasis on the need for progressives to remain united and loyal to one another. I've expanded it into this diary in the hope of making my position more clear and to add some supportive evidence.
A successful democratic political movement doesn't need to demand ideological purity from its members. The New Deal coalition succeeded because of its ideological flexibility. One can argue that the FDR democrats were too willing to accept southern opposition to integration - they certainly were - but I don't know if the goal of civil rights for African-Americans could have been achieved without the foundations created by the 'New Deal' democrats.
Unity does not require ideological purity. It requires loyalty to the overall movement. There are many different causes represented within the movement. Some people are focused on environmentalism, some focus on pro-choice issues, for others gay rights are most important. We all have our own unique mix of issues which are preeminent. Everyone who champions Progressive causes, needs to be willing to compromise on an overarching agenda for the movement.
We should certainly judge politicians by their adherence to Progressive principles, but we must allow some room for both principled disagreement and practical political consideration.
Big Telecom: An Emerging Threat to Our Democracy? Sat, 07/19/2008 - 3:00pm, Ballroom F
Massive telecom companies control virtually all of our voice and internet communications these days-and new evidence shows a near-total lack of commitment to our democracy. AT&T has proposed filtering all content traveling on its network. Verizon tried initially to block NARAL's pro-choice text messages. Most telecom companies are fighting net neutrality. Can democracy survive an assault by those who control the tubes?
PANELISTS: Cindy Cohn, Michael Kieschnick, Matt Stoller, Nancy Keenan, Timothy Karr
Crashing the Party: Transforming Netroots Activism into Grassroots Action Within State and Local Parties Sat, 07/19/2008 - 1:30pm, Ballroom F
One of the challenges facing the Netroots in creating a progressive movement is the transformation of Netroots activism into grassroots action. This panel will discuss the benefits and challenges in working within the Democratic Party on the state and local level. This discussion will include a primer on how to get involved, as well as a discussion on the resistance one may face "crashing the party." The goal of this discussion is to encourage more Netroots community members to actively engage in politics on the state and local level.
PANELISTS: Chris Bowers, Jason Melrath, Dante Atkins, Steve Thibodeau, Brian Keeler
Lobbying Congress: Advocacy and Digital Empowerment Sat, 07/19/2008 - 1:30pm, Room 18B
How has digital technology changed advocacy? What should influence look like in a networked social environment? How can individuals best affect government? What role should intermediaries, advocacy organizations, opinion leaders and movement organizers play in organizing government?
PANELISTS: Matt Stoller, Ben Scott, John Wonderlich
Chris' Session Here. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Matt's will be netcasted. I don't see a feed for Room 18B.
I will live blog Chris' session inside. If you're watching (or attending Matt's), please stop by and make some comments.
A progressive organization doesn't get to 50 states without a lot of friends along the way - and we want to take a minute to thank Open Left for being one of our most crucial friends when we were aiming for what seemed to be impossible.
As of today, North Dakota is the only state without a Living Liberally chapter. Loyal readers will know that we've spent the last month trying to spread our network of progressive groups into all 50 states, with only four standing in the way: the aforementioned North Dakota, and Hawaii, Oklahoma and West Virginia. We reached out to the Open Left community for help in plugging the holes, and largely thanks to your help, we now have chapters in 49 states - in Martinsburg and Charleston, West Virginia, in Norman, Oklahoma, and in Kahului, Hawaii.
But as much as we appreciate the OL readership's role in helping Living Liberally expand, we'd like to make a special shout-out to Chris, Matt and Mike. In the past year, we've had some amazing experiences and incredible milestones alongside this terrific trio - producing film and book reviews tailored for leftie readers, tracking the growth of the social side of the progressive movement, and, of course, completing our 50-bar strategy.
That's why we're asking two things of you this Tuesday afternoon:
1. If you know anyone in North Dakota, yourself included, who would like the honor of spreading Living Liberally to our 50th state, then contact us at info (at) livingliberally (dot) org.
2. If you haven't yet had the chance to participate in OL's fundraising drive, we humbly ask you to help out some of the progressive movement's best friends:
So on Saturday, I got smacked in the face. I've been snacking on Advil for a few days, musing on violence and its somewhat surprising (to me, anyway) impact. A month and a half ago, a women across the hall from my apartment threw herself out the window, and a few days ago some very angry dude decided that my face needed a redesign.
Unprovoked violence is evil. I've had headaches, my neck hurts, I'm spitting a bit of blood, and I think I'm going to have to get checked out by an ear, nose, and throat person. My family is freaked out and upset. More than that, I've been jumpy, looking over my shoulder and generally just worried about sudden movements. Violence messes your head up and dehumanizes everyone involved. And this wasn't very bad, it's just one sucker punch to the face. Lots of people get it much worse every day, and start in much worse condition with limited family support.
The psychological impact of violence was pretty unexpected. It makes me less trusting, more prone to withdraw, full of rage, and more suspicious.
I do not understand why pacifism and/or the avoidance of war are sneered at.
Here are six annoying scenarios. Most of them play off of an Obama victory, which we define as anything less than a 20 delegate gain for Clinton. A Clinton blowout would be self-evidently annoying in all sorts of ways.
Throw your annoying scenarios in the comments.
The Winner Praises McCain's Service
Bin Laden Video Released After Obama Victory
Obama Repudiates Partisanship
Obama Distances Himself from Bloggers After Winning, Goes on O'Reilly
Chris and I are making annoying predictions. This will be a victory for (a) hope (b) change (c) experience (d) change you can experience (e) hope you can change (f) bloggers are dirty and superdelegates are teh awesome (g) hope you can change bitterly if you are elitist and (h) let's fucking obliterate Iran.
Who's with me? Also, I'll be on the Young Turks and then Al Jazeera tonight. Go flag lapel pins!
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