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A Two-Track Strategy For 2008 And Beyond

By Ken Brociner

In less than a year, America will have a new president. Barring unforeseeable events, on Jan. 20, 2009, the inaugural oath will be administered to either John McCain, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Should the Republicans retain the presidency, we will be in for four more years of darkness. On the other hand, should Obama or Clinton become president, we—the progressive… return to article

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    Couldn’t making a group like America Votes highly publicized simply open it up for criticism?  Can’t it do its coordinating job without being heavily publicized?

    It seems to me that to play a real role, and one worth publicizing, America Votes needs an ideological identity.  It has to be clear that it is organizing groups to do something in particular for it to be useful for everyone to start identifying with it rather than the smaller groups they are a part of.  So of the two things you call for I think that ideological clarity has to come first.  There has to be something to be loyal to and something to organize around before we can start talking about a movement at all.

    United States Posted by Poppolphil on Feb 11, 2008 at 2:01 AM

    There are several quotes that relate to this article.

    The first: “I am not a member of any organized political party.
    I’m a Democrat.” —H.L. Mencken

        He wrote this over seventy years ago, and it is still true.

    The second: “You can fool some of the people all of the time,
    and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool
    all of the people all of the time.”—Abraham Lincoln

        Unfortunately, the portion of people you can fool all of the time
    is growing, and the Republicans are exploiting that.  The very people
    who scream about economic issues and social decay still vote based on counter-intuitive “moral values”, however myopic and hyopcritical that is.  Representational government.

    The third: “Insanity: trying the same thing over and over again
    expecting different results.” —Albert Einstein

        The Democrats whine, complain, and otherwise talk.  Meanwhile,
    Karl Rove and Tom Delay organize character assassinations, gerrymander districts to favor red-voters, massive mobilization of Republican base voters, and coordinates shut-outs of Democrat polls; how quickly forgotten were the long lines of Cleveland, OH. 
        And while both of those characters above are gone, the machine they leave behind will be in full force in 2008. 
    The last relevant quotes are from The Art of War:

    “In war, numbers alone confer no advantage.”

        This is the irony of any Republic, which is what we live under.
    We cannot have a repeat of Election 2000, where numbers did not win.

    “The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man.”

    United States Posted by PhoenixPhan on Feb 11, 2008 at 10:07 PM

    Poppophil,

    You have raised a number of very important points. I’ll try to briefly address each one.

    I agree that it would be better if America Votes had more of an ideological identity. But I think you’re a bit off target when you suggest that in order for activists to come identify with it, it must do something “in particular.”

    It already does - in that it coordinates the electoral work of 42 nationwide   progressive organizations - albeit very loosely.

    But I don’t want to oversell America Votes. I am not arguing that progressives should see it as their primary organizational home every four years. Clearly people are much more likely to identify with the group they feel a real connection to - be it MoveON, a particular labor union, Emily’s List etc.

    The main reason I pointed to America Votes is that it is a national coalition that brings the progressive mvt. together in an activist oriented common effort. And not just any “effort ” -  it is the most important one imaginable -  trying to end the nightmare of the last 8 years.In doing so, it not only helps our chances of winning the election, it also provides some of the glue that we need to bind us together as a movement. (a movement that, contrary to what I take to be your view about this, really does exist).

    Having said all this, though, I am very much in favor of developing a more formal organizational structure on the left (but NOT a third party) - along with some clarification of just what it is we stand for.

    I’ll be exploring this theme in my next column. But if you have any ideas about how progressives should develop more of an ideological identity,
    it would be great if you could post them here. This, in my opinion,  is exactly the kind of discussion we need to be having.

    Ken Brociner

    United States Posted by kenbrociner on Feb 15, 2008 at 3:24 AM
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