Bernie Sanders has made a direct plea to progressives:
Hopefully if we'll have more progressive support than just Mr. DeMint.
This may sound really radical, but it’s not just the Tea Party that can do demonstration.... We need a massive grassroots effort all over this country. We can put these people on the defensive if we are mobilized at the grassroots level.
If we concede this issue....what do you think is going to happen the day after?
Bernie is right. If we don't get off our asses and take to the streets, all is lost. For. Good.
President Obama has turned his back on the progressive movement and his own campaign promises. He doesn't give a rat's ass about holding himself accountable, and he insults the progressive movement when we try to hold him accountable.
I've given him the benefit of the doubt more times now than I can count. When he appointed an economics team that looked suspiciously like the team that landed us all in the soup. When he couldn't stand up to the generals in Afghanistan. When he wouldn't do anything other than give gorgeous speeches for the Public Option. When he decided that the Bush era domestic spying policies needed to be retained. He's said to disdain "negotiation." He's aloof to real horse-trading and arm-twisting, and boy! do we have the proof of that.
He's done, but we can't afford for him to destroy the progressive movement in America, or what is left of it. And I have no intention of going down with him. I've put too many years in to sit on the sidelines and watch the whole thing go up in smoke.
We have to take to the streets.
The people are on our side.
Even if President Obama has given up on change and inspiration, I haven't. I'm willing to drop everything and head to Washington. I'm willing to burn a copy of Obama's campaign promises on the streets, and I'm willing to picket my own Democratic representatives. I've done it before.
I'm getting a little long in the tooth for this sort of revolution, but my heart is young, and I'm fully game.
We need to push groups like PCCC and MoveOn and DFA to get up off the keyboards and into the streets.
Thanks, Bernie, for the wake-up call.