The progressive blogosphere: A "movement" without a manifesto

This sentiment was inspired by a diary on Booman Tribune that I read...

For all of its sturm und drang... does the progressive blogosphere actually have a concrete declaration of sentiments and aims put together?  Not necessarily a "platform" -- just a simple, articulable manifesto?

For the last four or five years, the blogosphere has been  nauseatingly crammed with talk about "movements" -- either of bloggers, of political parties, or of candidates -- and yet, when you ask about where the manifestos for these movements are, all you get is a blank look.

"We're having a conference in New York," someone will say to you.

Great.  When will the manifesto be presented?

"We're having breakaway working groups.  You can sign up for as many as you want.  And then, the keynote event will be an address by [insert famous politician name here]."

Terrific.  When will you read the manifesto?

"Huh?"

Famous manifestos in history:

95 Theses
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Sentiments
The Communist Manifesto
The Port Huron Statement
etc.

Some of these declarations were for successful movements, others for less successful ones; but the fact is, it's really hard to have a genuine movement without one.  How are people supposed to get a clear picture of what you stand for?  

The big-box bloggers seem to think that they, in themselves -- their activities, their passion, their small amount of celebrity, their buzz -- are the manifesto, but that's really b.s, isn't it?  To date, they've articulated very little of anything concrete and if they did articulate something, they would have realized sooner that they haven't been reaching those 80% of Americans cited in the original Booman Tribune diary I referenced.  Even worse, they'd realize that they're not really doing anything terribly revolutionary by just trying to game the existing pay-to-play system that excludes those vast tracts of Americans.

In fact, it benefits the gameplayers very much if they DON'T articulate their ideas in publishable, straightforwardly disseminable form, doesn't it?

•  What Holds Together

  I see the progressive blogosphere more united by a sensibility than a program.  A manifesto that all would agree on would either be too simple to be meaningful or too complex to be adopted.  

  by Athena on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 07:49:34 AM PDT

  •  bingo

    and truth be known, anyone who came up with that manifesto, i'd probably stop reading them entirely (if i ever read them anyway)

    i don't want no steenkin' manifesto!

    by cookiebear on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 07:58:38 AM PDT

•  i don't want no freakin' manifesto

  maybe some people do. i don't.

  i come here for information. i don't come here to be told what to think or to do. and i don't care if the front page disses Hillary or Obama - i'll make my own mind up about them.

  movements emerge organically. manifestos for movements - or those which actually function as manifestos - also emerge organically.

  you can't force them. you can't decide one day we have to have a movement that looks like this therefore we must write a manifesto which forces the movement into looking like this.

  that's like deciding you want to paint your living walls that nice color of fog, then trying to catch that fog in an envelope to take to the paint store so they can match it.

  ain't gonna happen.

  as for Markos thinking he's the manifesto? well, it seems to please some people to think he thinks that. so be it. i suppose it's better than them doing - whatever. it's just one of the fashionable stances in the blogosphere. the stance of OMG, i'm being oppressed! when in actuality, the self-described oppressed one is free to think and do as they please. but that doesn't get a lot of mileage.

  besides, if Markos has a manifesto, i sure don't follow it or even have any idea what it is, other than electing Democrats.

  by cookiebear on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 07:57:22 AM PDT

•  The progressive...

  ...blogosphere is too diverse and broad to have a unity statement or manifesto. This site, for example, has pro-Hillary Clintonites, Anti-Hillary people, pro-capitalists, socialists, moderates, communists, libertarians, ex-Nader voters, proud Naderites etc., etc.

  Despite all of this, there is a "movement" afoot. Things are definitely changing. The pendulum is swinging back to the "left". The information distribution and fundraising capabilties of the blogoshpere are improving with each election cycle.

  by lams712 on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:02:33 AM PDT

•  This blog's mission, of course, is to elect Dems

  As for myself, I consider divesting one's nation - both solo and with cohorts - of colonization ventures, as being very progressive. I think we might start with that and look to the mid east.

  Do I expect the big box blogs to rally around this position, to say end the insanity re Israel/Palestine, as they feel free to do re Iraq? To fashion this into a manifesto?

  Lol, NO. But some who come here and flit elsewhere will look, listen, join with, bring to, bring away... so it serves a purpose in that regard.

  Look at Lebanon, last summer. Look at what was posted here, front page. It wasnt happening, that ugly bombardment and smashing of a country that GOP and Dem parties called Israel's right to defend, which wasnt at all about that. Same old Lobby entanglement and fealty to hardline Israel. That's how the GOP two steps, the Democrats two step and in two stepping with Dem Establishment, that is how the blogs that support Dems two step.

  I expect no progressive movement here. I expect only that progressives will move thru what is here, to whatever extent we can, and in that regard, do whatever good can be done.

  by NYCee on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:05:21 AM PDT

•  The Manifesto!

  "We, the readers of DailyKos, hereby declare that this disseminable (!) Manifesto is whatever you want it to be, as long as it helps elect Democrats so we can all have some power to do what we want. We declare this manifesto to be manifest!"

  Dead horse. Read "Crashing the Gate."

  by ormondotvos on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:05:52 AM PDT

  •  That's the DKos manifesto

    That's easy.  But DKos isn't "the progressive blogosphere."

    by Free Spirit on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:10:57 AM PDT

•  the problem

  is that a manifesto is usually a statement of principles, followed by a statement of intended action or desired goals guided by those principles.

  The principles that tie together the progressive movement are very general, universal ones. If I were to reduce it to a single sentence, I might say, "all people have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." But what are the roadblocks to these things?

  a conservative will argue that government is the oppressor and that the market is the liberator. A liberal actually extends that, saying that govt and the market can both be oppressors, and both can be liberators. In essence, liberals allow for double-edged swords - which means now we have to take care which way we swing.

  And in the decision to swing our swords of govt or markets, we will disagree. Consider the Euston Manifesto, deried by most proressives as a tool of neoconservative imperialists. I am a signatory. The principles underlying the Euston Manifesto are essentially liberal ones, not conservative ones. How then do we reconcile ourselves when we interpret the end products of the shared principles so differently?

  At Nation Building I am an advocate of principled pragmatism and liberal interventionism. note the qualifiers: liberal, pragmatic. Therein lies the rub.  I think that we need to focus on the principles, and recognize that they are universal enough to lead us on different paths. But as long as the tent is a big one, I dont think a true manifesto can ever be drafted. Nor does it necccessarily need to be if instead we think of the progresive movement as an encouragement away from mono-thinking and conventional wisdom and towards the grecian ideal wherein we are all philosopher kings, and the wisdom of the majority is fueled by the wisdom of the individual.

  by azizhp on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:07:50 AM PDT

•  Progressive?

  A few more reformed fundie, Republican newbies, and we'll outright LGF.

  by dkmich on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:35:44 AM PDT

•  Different problem

  As the Disney people say, "Don't mess with the Mouse."  

  When you ask what it is that progressives "believe in" or "stand for," you are asking what is a progressive. More important, you are asking if there is any really such thing. This is not a question that most people who wear the label really want an answer to.

  by Free Spirit on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:42:27 AM PDT

•  Watching a manifesto be created

  It's well to the left of what goes on in the Democratic "left" blogs, but I have joined the revived Movement for a Democratic Society which is at present working through collectively the development of a statement of principles, which is something akin to a manifesto.  Those participating in the discussion include some of the people involved in the preparation of one of the manifestos you mention, the Port Huron Statement.  Although on the periphery of the organization and an observer not (presently) participating in the discussion on the MDS listserve, it is fascinating to see the politics, both general and internal, such a process involves.  I am planning in attending the Port of Providence conference mentioned on the MDS website next weekend, where presumably the "Big Ideas" focus of the discussion will be a substantial contribution to the development of the incubating statement/manifesto.

  by ActivistGuy on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 08:54:35 AM PDT

•  50 Simple Things ... Fight the Right

  The first part has a damn good overview of principals and mission. Would certainly suffice for a manifesto for me.
  http://www.50simplethings.org/...

  by gypsy on Sun Apr 08, 2007 at 09:17:08 AM PDT