I'll cast my own two cents into the ongoing debate about what progressives and liberals should do in response to the dire situation health-insurance reform is currently in, some of the Obama administration's worrisome policies and priorities, last week's Supreme Ct. ruling and Scott Brown's election.
I think it's simple: we need to take to the streets. And the papers! And the phones! Our efforts in opposition to the Iraq War and the Bush Administration's policies defined a moral majority that led directly to two-watershed elections and shifted power to the Democrats. We need to make it crystal clear to the Democrats we collectively sent to Washington who it is they work for.
And, of course, we can't do that if we're divided.
When it comes down to it, few among us are anything but disappointed with President Obama's first year and with the state of our dysfunctional Senate. Fewer still are the people who wouldn't like to see stronger policies, especially in the economic arena and on Obama's and the Democrat's "signature issue" of healthcare. And, sure, there's many issues where we don't - and won't - agree. That's OK.
Nothing has changed since millions of us took to the streets in opposition to an illegal war. Nothing's changed since we rallied in support of an historic candidate for President. We disagreed plenty on the issues back then. In those times, we tended to focus on our areas of agreement. What's changed is for the first time in a decade many - maybe most of us felt hope. Many of us still feel hopeful, and that's a good thing. I certainly don't want to lose hope!
And I believe President Obama is a good man. I think there's plenty of reason to hope. Even if there wasn't, we have to be hopeful.
But the events of the past year coupled with the events of the last few weeks demonstrate how the high the stakes are. And they're astronomically high, hope is not enough. Trust is not enough.
As Elizabeth Warren described to Jon Stewart the stakes are the potential death of the middle class! Do I think President Obama wants to lead this nation while the middle class has its last vestiges of economic security stolen by the Wall Street bankers and corporate America? Absolutely not. But it is happening whether or not we think the President wants that or not. It's happening, because the Wall Street banksters and Fortune 500 CEOs have grown powerful. It's happening because one of the nation's two main parties panders to the elite while simultaneously and relentlessly sowing lies and fear to a traumatized people.
Our disagreements are meaningless in the face of this one fact: the middle class is done if we don't rebuild our movement (and fast!) and take to the streets as we did between 2003 and 2008. We should take to the streets to oppose the policies of the Obama administration and the Democrats when those policies are bad for the middle class and working people. And we should definitely take to the streets in SUPPORT of the Obama administration's policies when they help the middle class and working people.
We have no choice but to continue supporting Obama when he's right. It'll be suicide if we can't come together to oppose him and Congress when their wrong! That's the lesson of the past year and the past week: we'll have to trade in just enough hope and trust to be good citizens and to do the work of citizens. The smart, pragmatic things to do are 1) to deal with this administration on a policy-by-policy basis and 2) to organize so we can make our voices heard when we find ourselves in the opposition.
And we have to give up the notion that we progressives will ever agree on everything. All that matters is the that we have enough consensus to regain our mojo and rebuild our movement!
And when it comes down to it, that's exactly what I heard the President beseeching us to do in his wonderful speech on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Challenges of a New Age at the Vermont Baptist Church.
Support the President or not - trust, like the President or no, it is our collective responsibility to hold his feet to the fire!