I believe that what's missing from the Democratic Party and the left in general is a cohesive economic philosophy that could guide our policies and present a compelling vision of the future to the general public, allowing us to build a real movement for change.
While President Obama's election was an important victory, he doesn't provide us with much of a vision beyond vague promises of hope and change. He himself comes from an organizer's perspective: it doesn't matter what the issue is, just find out what people care about and bring them together to do something about it. This has shown as he has backed away from some of his key policy proposals such as the public option in health care reform.
We need both a world-class messenger like Obama, and a message that's worthy of his skills. Now that there's some semblance of an effective political operation based on the Obama campaign, the netroots, and a united (on the issues at least) labor movement, what we need now is something to rally around that's not just a specific issue or policy goal, but a simple, compelling view of the world, an overarching political and economic philosophy.
I propose Rise Up Economics.
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