The Wild Wild Left - Progressives

A New Language To Describe It

Rusty1776 — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:26:23 GMT

The Founding Fathers gave us democracy. We have the moral responsibility to restore what was given to us, to take back what has been taken away by corrupt politicians of both major parties. There is no longer any doubt that the two-party system has been used to Establish, Maintain, and Expand corporate Tyranny. It has been used to divide and conquer, to prevent We the People from uniting in defense of our rights as citizens.

The false paradigm of We the Left against We the Right must be rejected. Americans must embrace a new ideology of Citizen Empowerment, they must speak a new language of Political, Social, and Economic Activism, they most forge a new movement, a local, state, and nationwide alliance encompassing the values and goals they share in common. They must cast aside the dead language of We the Left and We the Right, for among the victims of corporate Tyranny, there is no We the Left nor We the Right anymore, there is only We the Powerless.

A Declaration

When in the course of outrage after outrage, it becomes necessary for American citizens to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with the Democratic and Republican Parties, and to attain empowerment as We the People, our common respect for the Constitution and the rule of law compels us to declare the causes which impel us to this separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that both major parties are complicit in war crimes, in massive Wall Street fraud, in crimes of banking and finance so malicious and extensive as to beggar description. The repressive corporate agenda of both major parties has been exposed, it is self-evident that they no longer believe that all men are created equal, they serve only the corporate masters of America, they have granted them unalienable Rights, that among these are the right to plunder the Treasury, the right to control the media, the right to subvert the banking system, to corrupt the electoral system, to ravage our economy and reap the illicit profits of shock doctrine capitalism.

Tradition dictates that a political systems long established should not be rejected for light and transient causes; but when a long train of two-party system abuses and betrayals, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce an entire nation under corporate Despotism, it is the right of We the People, it is the duty of We the People, to condemn that system, and to establish a new system for our future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of Americans; and such is now the necessity which compels us to dismantle the corrupt two-party system. The history of that system is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of corporate tyranny over the United States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

Both major parties have refused to pass campaign finance reform, which is most wholesome and necessary for the public good, thus investing in corporate lobbyists the power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

They have refused to enforce oversight and regulatory Laws of immediate and pressing importance, they have refused to enforce the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they have utterly neglected to conduct themselves in accordance with the foundational principles of representative government.

They have refused to investigate the corrupt banking industry, and have empowered corporate interests to bribe and intimidate our elected representatives, thus rendering American citizens powerless to defend themselves against repeated exploitation and abuse.

They have kept among us, in violation of the Bill of Rights, NSA spies who are monitoring with impunity every phone call we make, every email we send, every form of communication we engage in no matter who we are or where we are.

They have engaged in punitive and arbitrary taxation without representation, for being ignored cannot by any measure be called representation. They have confiscated 10 trillion of our taxpayer dollars and given it to the Federal Reserve, which has handed it over to Wall Street criminals with no oversight and no accountability.

They have engaged in systemic abuses of power and obstructions of justice, in violation of our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving their Assent to unconstitutional Acts of repressive Legislation such as the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act.

They stand condemned:

For enabling the Bush Administration to launch wars of aggression and occupation in violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law.

For protecting them from criminal investigations, thus conferring upon them legal immunity from prosecution for war crimes, torture, and other heinous assaults on human rights and dignity.

For decreeing that telecoms engaged in massive violations of the 4th Amendment are above the law and immune from criminal or civil action, thus ensuring that they will not be held accountable for their crimes:

For complicity in depriving American citizens in many cases, of the benefit of habeas corpus and Trial by Jury:

For complicity in transporting them beyond the Seas to be tortured for pretended offenses:

For complicity in abolishing the regulatory system which protected our banking system and economy from corporate exploitation and Wall Street fraud, establishing therein an Arbitrary government of Plutocrats with unlimited power:

For complicity in taking away our Bill of Rights, for complicity in abolishing our most valuable Laws, for complicity in fundamentally altering the Forms of our Government, leaving only the illusion of democracy behind:

For complicity in plundering our Treasury and burdening us with monstrous deficits in blatant disregard of the consequences.

For complicity in torture, inflicted with Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized nation.

For complicity in funding and funding and funding yet again large Armies of troops, Blackwater mercenaries, criminal contractors, and CIA operatives in in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, with consequences counterproductive to our national security, and productive only to the furtherance of defense industry profiteering.

In every stage of these Oppressions, Americans have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms, but our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated betrayals. The Republican and Democratic Parties, whose destructive legacy has been characterized by every act which defines corruption and moral bankruptcy, are unfit to be supported by any American citizen.

We have reminded the politicians of both major parties time and time again of our grievances. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, we have implored them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably sever our connections and support if they continue.

But they have been deaf to the voice of justice, they have been deaf to our repeated appeals. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity of declaring our Separation, consign the Democratic and Republican Parties to Oblivion, condemn the two-party system as an abusive and corrupt anachronism, and call upon every American to grab the nearest shovel and bury it in an unmarked grave.

We, therefore, the citizens of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of History for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name of, and by Authority of the Founding Fathers who gave us this democracy and asked us to preserve it, solemnly publish and declare, that we will embrace a new ideology of Citizen Empowerment, that we will speak a new language of Political, Social, and Economic Activism, that we will forge a new Movement encompassing the values and goals we share in common, that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to both major parties, that all political connection between us and those mercenaries of corporate power is and ought to be totally dissolved, that we will unite as We the People and take our government back.

As American citizens in support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance upon one another, with unwavering support for the Constitution and the rule of law, we mutually pledge that we will restore American democracy, no matter what sacrifices are required, no matter who stands against us, until this Dark Age of Corporate Tyranny ends, and government of the People, by the People, and for the People in America shines once again, shines as it was meant to shine, as a Beacon of Empowerment to every oppressed human being throughout the world.

(Cross-posted at Docudharma and Firedoglake)

Fire Under Their Seats - Pt 4: Progressives & The Democratic Party

Edger — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:39:03 GMT

This is the fourth and last segment of Paul Jay's interview of journalism professor Jeff Cohen of FAIR and the Park Center for Independent Media.

In Part 3 Cohen talked about the struggle for power and direction within the Democratic Party from the days of the Viet Nam War to the present, and wound up with "Frankly... I would love to see a primary challenge to Obama when he's up for re-election... Because unless you build a base through elections and then you hold the officials accountable, then you'll never get anywhere."

Here in the conclusion of the interview Cohen expands on those ideas and fills in some of the outlines to draw a rough set of guidelines or roadmap of how to get from where things stand now with the Democrats as out and out corporatists to a world of the kind of progressive populism they have been well known for at various points in history, and how it is going to take a no more Mr. Nice Guy approach from progressives and a lot of very hardnosed and fearless aggressiveness, of the kind that I think Muhammad Ali meant when he noted so many years ago "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

Real News Network - February 6, 2010
Cohen: Far right Republicans are dangerous, but also need to primary against corporate Democrats

All 4 parts of this interview are at DocuDharma here.

Growing Discontent with Democrats & Access-Bloggers Leaves an Opening for Genuine Progressives

Michael Kwiatkowski — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:06:12 GMT

Lately there has been a spate of diaries at such web sites as FireDogLake and "Open" Left wherein lay members - typically under attack from site moderators, who act as Democratic Party hacks and gatekeepers - have sought ways to bring back the Progressive Party, or join the Greens, or build up some other institution, that will allow progressives to act together as a cohesive political unit. (I posted an entry there myself, only to end up being attacked by site moderators, threatened with banishment, and ultimately banned when I refused to back down against their incessant bullying.)

FDL's iphelgix explains the reason for leaving the Democrats.

Fellow FDLer TalkingStick points out the wisdom of studying the teabaggers for ideas about how we progressives can rebuild our own movement.

Mason calls for progressives to join him in building a Progressive Party from the ground up, apparently not aware that it already exists in states such as Vermont and Washington, and as Green Party affiliates inMissouri and Wisconsin. He is joined in this effort by MadHemingway, who posted the 1912 platform the Progressive Party ran on.

FDL members are not alone in Left Blogsylvania in expressing their utter disgust with the Democrats; at "Open" Left, such lay members as Arthur Lukas gripe about where progressives are and asks where we should go from here. Even at the Daily Obama, whereupon I also post, a poll I put up asking if it is time for progressives to break away from the Democratic received a fifty percent yes-vote.

Such discontent is often met by moderators and site owners with derision, insults, threats, and banishments of the "offending" members. Nevertheless, it has grown more difficult for the access-bloggers to bully progressives into submission, a lesson FDL's Jason Rosenbaum refused to learned after the beat-down his contemptuous post before the Massachusetts special election received. In short, no one on the left is buying into the Big Lie that Democrats are any different from Republicans in terms of substantive policies, nor are we responding to threats and insults anymore for "failing" to be bullied into supporting Democrats no matter what.

This discontent and refusal to be bullied has created an opening for progressives seeking to organize the left back into a cohesive and more importantly, effective movement in opposition to the far right. There are angry voices aplenty, people outraged by the betrayals of the man they though they were electing president in '08 and the endless capitulations to the GOP made by Democrats. Here we have an advantage.

The only thing lacking in the new political environment is effective leadership among progressives. We will not find it among the self-appointed "leaders" of the 'netroots, the access-bloggers like Chris Bowers, Markos Moulitsas, and the aforementioned Rosenbaum whose only real goal is to gain access for themselves - and only themselves - to the inner circles of "serious" political power and corporate media recognition. It is therefore up to us to take on leadership roles and organize the left.

If we can take charge, we the progressive base, then we can finally begin the work of taking back America from the fascist elements that have usurped it for their own ends to the detriment of everybody else. The Full Court Press is one tool for doing that, and it's a very good start.

Fire In The Belly - Progressives & The Democratic Party

Edger — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:17:55 GMT

Crossposted from Docudharma

Journalism professor Jeff Cohen of FAIR and the Park Center for Independent Media on the struggle within the Democratic Party, starting from the Viet Nam War:

There's no doubt that there's an awakening. What concerns me is that the liberal base, the Democratic Party base, has never been more educated, in my view, and that's because of the independent media. The democratic base is against an imperial foreign policy. The democratic base is for real medicare for all, or at least the strongest public option that would really hurt private insurance. There's an understanding of history, and again it's largely because the independent media is giving us the news in real time, every day when we click on the computer and we watch Real News, we watch Democracy Now.
What hasn't translated is while we have this boom in independent media on the Internet, we don't have a boom of independent politics.
What I believe are needed are new groups, that will be on the Internet, mobilizing the millions to make the kinds of demands of the Democrats that the right wing base, which has clearly transformed the country, the right wing base in the Republican Party not only took over a major party, they haven't let up on that party until their agenda is put in place, whereas on our side we don't have that.
What needs to happen, this is what a few groups are doing, Progressive Democrats of America is one, the idea is we need to take over that major political party.
When people talk about change, and then they deliver only for insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street, you vote them out. You primary them. You know this is what the right wing has done for decades. It's what they're doing now.
What we get from MoveOn historically and other groups is apologies for democratic office holders who have faked left with their rhetoric and then governed for big business. And what we need is to primary these people.
Frankly... I would love to see a primary challenge to Obama when he's up for re-election.
Because unless you build a base through elections and then you hold the officials accountable, then you'll never get anywhere.

Real News Network - February 6, 2010

This is Part 3. Part 1 and 2 of this interview are at DocuDharma here.
Part 4 is still to come...

Enough waiting. Let's rebuild the Progressive Party of the United States.

Michael Kwiatkowski — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:42:38 GMT

At what point do progressives stop being Democrats' whipped dogs and start acting like a movement capable of putting the Dems in their proper place as the party of the people? David Sirota wrote today about Obama's latest call to increase war spending beyond its already ludicrous proportions.

How many of the extreme right-wing and criminal policies of Bush-Cheney has Obama adopted? How many of those extreme right-wing policies has he exceeded? Last month, knowledge that Obama has gone a step further than Bush, authorizing the executive branch to murder American citizens on the flimsiest of rationales, became more public. This sh__ has GOT to end.
My political activities now are focusing on the building of a viable third party as a tool of a reinvigorated and independent progressive movement. No efforts to reform the Democratic Party from within can succeed so long as the upper-level of the party establishment is able to crush dissent from within, as is explained here.

[T]the Democratic primaries will be where the action is ... Maybe someone like Kucinich, Feingold ... It will be a "good liberal," not a radical, advocating positions that are reasonable but declared "unrealistic." ("You'll throw the race to the Republicans, we can't have that!") The basis of the campaign will not be a sudden embrace of Bolshevism, but rather Obama's embrace of Wall Street. It will be a mix of angry rank-and-file and disgruntled party machine.
The insurgent candidate will lose. The candidate will not call for a 3rd party, will support Obama after the primaries -- will make a concession speech that would shame the Moscow Show Trials. Many of her or his followers will follow suit. The candidate will not personally work to create an independent infrastructure within the Democratic Party. Obama will probably win, not because of his impressive performance but because the foaming-at-the-mouth Republicans will be splitting. After the election, the Democratic challenger will not lead a 3rd party.

This has been the pattern for decades. There is no one within the Democratic Party willing to lead a progressive breakoff. The day Dennis Kucinich kisses all party support for his re-election to Congress goodbye is the day I will rejoice, but it's not going to happen. So it's on lay progressives to take charge, organize from the ground up, and lead the way to building both the movement and the political organization that will bring it to power within the halls of our nation's capital.

This won't happen overnight; it will take decades for a fully functional progressive political organization to be built, and we will be opposed every step of the way by Democrats, Republicans, and corporations now empowered to spend as much money as their executives want to sway public opinion against us. But we have got to start sometime, and now is as good a time as any.

Those who claim this isn't the right time will not tell us that the "right time" is never going to come -- there will always be the next election cycle to worry about, too much at stake to "risk throwing it to the GOP." Never mind that all Democrats ever do is throw elections to Republicans simply by behaving like they're members of their counterpart political party. We must ignore such admonitions and press on. There is no such thing as perfection in politics, to be the enemy of good things that will never come to fruition so long as the existing political structure continues. And there is nothing more to be lost by doing what is right and necessary to take back our country.

The good news is that a Progressive Party already exists in some states. In Missouri, Vermont, and Washington, progressives began rebuilding the political party that bears their name from the ground up, and they used smart strategies and tactics to gain power first at the local level and then at the state level. They are now starting to branch out into national-level politics by running candidates for the House of Representatives, with a Vermont Progressive having run for the House of Representatives in 2008 on a platform that included calling for Bush's impeachment. And David Sirota has written previously about New York's Working Families Party, which has gotten results at the local and state levels.

So the foundation exists for progressives to rebuild our movement. The will is there. What's lacking is leadership. If no one in the 'netroots is willing to assume vital leadership roles, then it is up to each and every one of us to take charge and lead. Enough is enough. Progressives must stand up to the far right, which dominates both major political parties, and end its rule. No more excuses, no more capitulations, no more waiting. Let's get it done.

"I told him he was full of sh*t"

Edger — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:22:29 GMT

MSNBC's Ed Schultz talking at the AM950 Blue State Bash on Saturday night to a crowd of progressive talk radio fans in Minnesota lets go with both barrels at Robert Gibbs, at Barack Obama, at the "people who have infiltrated the Democratic progressive movement", and at the whole delusional idea of bipartisanship.

"I told him he was full of sh*t is what I told him," Schultz said. "And then he gave me the Dick Cheney f-bomb the same way Senator Leahy got it on the Senate floor. I told Robert Gibbs, I said, 'I'm sorry you're swearing at me, but I'm just trying to help you out."

"I'm telling you, you're losing your base," he continued. "Do you understand that you're losing your base? And that the American people don't want public option, the American people want single-payer!?'"

Watch this...

Sing It If You Understand

Rusty1776 — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:51:50 GMT

When Obama needed the votes of progressives to get elected, his message was Change We Can Believe In. But now that he no longer needs us, now that he has power, he has a very different message for progressives . . .

That blunt message is echoing from one end of the Beltway to the other, from the White House to Capitol Hill, it's echoing from K Street to Wall Street and across the corporate media airwaves. Corporate power must not be challenged. Don't even think about it. Byron Dorgan got the message. Chris Dodd got the message. Robert Wexler got the message. We all got the message.

2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?

I don't have to tell you what her latest mistake was, I don't have to tell you when she made that mistake, I don't have to tell you because she wasn't the only one who made that mistake. 100 million other Americans made the same mistake on November 4, 2008, they believed the lies, they voted for liars and frauds and career criminals up and down the ballot.

So here we are.

"Pragmatic" progressives tell us we can't jump the track, the corporate media tells us we're just cars on a cable, the "Christians" tell us life's like an hourglass, glued to the table, so go to church unless you want to be damned to Hell for eternity like the Muslims and the Jews and the heathens in Africa and Asia. Well we've seen this movie before, we know who the killers are, we know who the victims are, we know who the warmongers are, we know who the hypocrites are, we know how it ends, we know how it always ends, but no one can find the rewind button, no one can ever find the rewind button.

Sing it if you understand . . .

An Uneasy Feeling . . .

This is a society in deep, deep trouble and the fixes currently in the works are in no way adequate to the enormous challenges we're facing. The fault lies everywhere. The president, the Congress, the news media and the public are all to blame. Shared sacrifice is not part of anyone's program. Politicians can't seem to tell the difference between wasteful spending and investments in a more sustainable future. Any talk of raising taxes is considered blasphemous, but there is a constant din of empty yapping about controlling budget deficits.

It won't be empty yapping for long, Lieberman and Conrad and Nelson and Snowe will see to that. Social welfare programs will be shredded, "entitlements" will be gutted, no Democrat will defend them, they've seen the writing on the wall, the ones who aren't "retiring" will say what their corporate masters tell them to say and do what their corporate masters tell them to do.

Hypocrites . . .

They're all there for the very same reason--POWER.

Digby . . .

The deficit scolds are coming out of the woodwork now that the Republicans brought us to the brink, slashing taxes for the wealthy, larding their own contributors with earmarks, solidifying the notion that military industrial complex spending is a sacred, untouchable icon, and fetishing and deregulating the market until they finally brought the whole system to its knees.

There's a light at each end of this tunnel, we shout, but we're just as far in as we'll ever be out, and these mistakes that we've made, we just make them again, like we did in 1980, and 1982, and 1984, and 1986, and 1988, like we've done every two years ever since the Reagan/Bush years, over and over again, by reelecting corrupt corporate Republicans and corrupt corporate Democrats.

We're trapped in that two-party tunnel to nowhere, we're just as far in as we'll ever be out. We've always been just as far in as we'll ever be out, we always will be just as far in as we'll ever be out. We've been wrong. We've been wrong every time. There's no light at either end of that tunnel. There's no light at the Corporate Democratic end of that tunnel and there sure as hell isn't any light at the Corporate Republican end of that tunnel.

Sing it if you understand.

May he turned 21 on the base at Fort Bliss. "Just a day," he sat down to the flask in his fist. "Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year." Just a day. Just another day in the tunnel, just another demoralizing day like the one before it and the one after it, just another demeaning day for the powerless, for the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who have no choice but to obey their commanders, for the working people of this country who have no choice but to obey their bosses. Just another day in the tunnel, just another demeaning day in a demeaning life in a dying nation being destroyed by criminals.

Sing it if you understand.

Mike Prysner understands . . .

I threw families onto the street in Iraq only to come home and find families thrown onto the street in this country in this tragic, tragic and unnecessary foreclosure crisis; only to wake up and realize that our real enemies are not in some distant land. But not people whose names we don't know, and cultures we don't understand. The enemy is people we know very well and people we can identify. The enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable. The enemy is the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable; it's the insurance companies who deny us health care when it's profitable; it's the banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Poor and working people in this country are sent to kill poor and working people in another country to make the rich richer.

Mike Prysner understands: "Our enemies are not 5000 miles away, they are right here at home" . . .

We need to get organized, we need to fight back. Take a deep breath. Take as many as you need. Then face the truth. There's only one way out of this. Working within the system is no longer an option, it just plays into the hands of the corrupt criminals who control the system.

Sing it if you understand.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing these words,
If I get them down on paper, they're no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life they belong to.

The writers and poets, the songwriters, the activists, the seekers of peace and justice who who speak truth to power, who will not sell their souls for a corporate paycheck, who have seen enough, who will not submit to a criminal government, who know what has to be done, who are ready to do it, could use some help. From you. From every American who still gives a damn, from every American who still believes that justice matters, from every American who is ready to be the change they seek, from every American who is ready to get arrested if that's what it's going to take to restore democracy and the rule of law to this country.

I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd,
'Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud,
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to.

I can't speak for anyone else here, but I know why I'm here. I'm here to find the words, to use them as they were meant to be used, to make Americans understand, to find a way out of this tunnel, to forge a movement, to show those criminals in Washington what accountability looks like, to show them what massive civil disobedience looks like, so we can take back our government, so the rule of law can be restored, so democracy can be redeemed.

Somebody needs to get the fuck out, but it's not us, it's not progressives, it's not We the People, it's the criminal bankers and corrupt politicians and corporate media hacks who have the blood of the innocent on their hands, who have bankrupted an entire nation, who have turned America into a wasteland of lies, into a cauldron of corruption, into a corporate dictatorship. They have shamed us all. They are beneath contempt. They are the ones who need to get the fuck out of Washington, out of Wall Street, out of their propaganda studios, out of their corporate boardrooms, out of this country and out of our lives. If they won't go, we will have to make them go. One way or another.

Sing it if you understand.

(Cross-posted at Docudharma)

It's Time to Play Hardball

Michael Kwiatkowski — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:40:52 GMT

Because that's what it's going to take, the netroots joining together to actively campaign against the Dems, in order for the left to be taken seriously. This will require playing genuine political hardball going into next year's midterms, and building up going into 2012.

Before I proceed, let me just point out that I am a progressive first and a Democrat second. This is because as an activist, I recognize that movements must control political parties, and when the reverse is true, bad things happen. See this column for elaboration. Therefore, I recognize that it is time for the left to start waging all-out war.

The following is based largely on the entry, "For a Full Court Press". It proposes action going into the 2012 elections, but it seems to me that we can and should begin building the foundations next year (which is only days away) for the midterms. The point is this: if progressives don't start getting genuinely tough with the Democrats, and start making the party accountable to us, then it's going to continue behaving like a party of Republican-wannabes that simply use and abuse us while implementing Republican policies - which we all know are utterly disastrous for the country. Here is what I propose.

1.) Draft an 8 or 10 point list of progressive policy principles that encompass a broader array of more specific issues (for example, on the economy: tight regulation, public investment in infrastructure through direct job creation, and steep, direct taxation of the wealthy).

2.) Get as many Democrats as possible to sign - in physical writing - a commitment to support and implement these policy principles. If they refuse, deny them all fund-raising and votes in next year's primaries.

3.) Seek out vetted candidates to run in primaries against incumbents who refuse to sign the pledge. Also, we must have independent progressive candidates ready to run in the general elections as a backup plan.

4.) Instead of giving money to Democrats, use it to target them in newspaper, television, and Internet ads on their many failures to follow through on voter expectations. Use grassroots on-the-ground campaigning to encourage voters to go with primary opponents from the left or with independent candidates from the left - but get them out to vote. Incumbents benefit from low voter turnout, and we want higher turnout. Having left-wing candidates on the ballot against right-wingers will offer voters a true choice, and perhaps get them to the polls.

5.) Offer full support to any Democrats who do sign on to the pledge. If they sign and then renege, be prepared to follow through on #3 and #4.

I hate to say all this, because I've been a registered and loyal Democrat since I was old enough to vote, but we will probably have to punish the party at the polls next year. The leadership won't take us seriously unless they know for a fact that we will no longer cave in and support them unless they do as they're told by us. And if they decide they'd rather be Republican-wannabes out of power in perpetuity, then so be it. The left doesn't need the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party needs the left. It's time we prove that to them.

I want to conclude this entry by pointing out that I fully support Jeff Roby's Full Court Press idea, and that we should begin building the foundation now. Obviously we are not going to accomplish much in 2010; it shall take years to build the progressive movement back up, and we'll be facing stiff opposition every step of the way from right-wingers seeking to thwart a growing left-wing movement. But the sooner we begin building, the sooner we can start putting the Full Court Press plan into action.