Adele M. Stan at The American Prospect writes—How to Build a Winning Progressive Infrastructure:
Much discussion is now taking place in liberal and progressive circles about the need for a liberal/progressive infrastructure that’s comparable in strength to the that of the right. You’ll get no argument from me there. But when I hear people enthusiastically cheering models that simply replicate those on the right, I see a flow of donor cash going to efforts that will ultimately fail, while progressive media starve and the work of existing grassroots organizations are never leveraged at the national level.
Our people are not their people. Our movement is a coalition of many parts—different kinds of people with a range of concerns and policy priorities. You cannot create a structure built on that of the right’s and expect progressives to sign up for whatever you’ve built. We don’t roll like that.
What we need is a structure based on needs identified by real activists, not people who barely venture outside the Beltway, or people who want to build “a Breitbart of the left.” And we need spaces—physical spaces.
I’m no expert on political strategy, but I have spent much of my career reporting on the right as it built its infrastructure. While the shape of the right’s political infrastructure is not amenable to the needs of the left, one important characteristic of right-wing infrastructure that is transportable—and necessary—to liberal and progressive organizing is that of interlocking parts. Look at the Koch network: Its parts are entirely interlocking—the get-out-the-vote groups, the think tanks, the events. For progressives, “interlocking” might yield to something less rigid, given the nature of the base. We need physical spaces designed to encourage cross-pollination between the constituencies of the left. To achieve that, the kind of donor cash that flooded certain election-based efforts could, when redirected at building progressive spaces in the cities where they’re needed, help locally based organizations amp up their efforts while encouraging interaction and collaboration between the various constituencies that form the progressive coalition. [...]
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
“A fair and correct history of the native American should be incorporated into the curriculum of public schools. Indians should be taught their own history, and schools created where tribal and Indian thought would be taught on the Indian pattern by Indian institutors. All Americans would benefit, for in denying the Indian his ancestral rights and heritages the white race is robbing itself.”
—Óta Kté aka Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota, My People the Sioux, 1928.
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2013—Republicans start to squirm over sequester:
Republicans are starting to squirm and look for ways out of the upcoming sequester. And no wonder: If it goes into effect, it would deal another blow to the economy. It would be wildly unpopular. And, for all the GOP's efforts to pin it on President Obama, Republicans would be in for blame from the public—as they should be. After all, at the time the sequester was signed into law, John Boehner said he'd gotten 98 percent of what he wanted. So how do you solve a problem like the sequester? For Republicans, the answer is a foregone conclusion. You demand massive cuts to the programs that people rely on, and ultimately give in grudgingly on cosmetic compromises on a few teeny tiny revenue increases that Democrats and voters want and that would help the economy.
Here are some of the blows to ordinary people. Republicans would be willing to trade to get rid of the sequester: raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. Changes to Medicare premiums. "Reforming" federal pension programs. Chained CPI. Changes to Medicaid. Get the picture?
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Senate Dems pull an all-nighter, but Pence puts DeVos over the top. Trump Regrets vs. Trump Worship. SNL haunts WH dreams. Rosalyn MacGregor surveys the nuts & bolts of MI voting. Border Patrol agents pushed for Muslim ban from Breitbart studios.
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