If you were reading the news last week, you may have noticed that the Congressional Progressive Caucus (no link here, because their website is hella old, maybe this is part of the reason these guys don't get any play in the media?) was talking up a new progressive articulation of values to be released this week.
As promised, they released this value statement on Tuesday. It was covered, as far as I can tell, by no one. It turns out this isn't the first time they've made "the progressive promise," as is evident from this statement on Common Dreams about the CPC's (re-)hire of Bill Goold:
This will mark Goold's second stint of staff service to the Progressive Caucus. He worked as part-time Staff Coordinator for the CPC while serving as Washington Staff Director for U.S. Congressman Bernie Sanders between 1994 and 1998. During that period, CPC membership doubled to 60 members and the Caucus crafted The Progressive Promise, the first comprehensive, 10-bill alternative to the Contract with America.
More below...
If you never heard that first iteration of the progressive promise, you're not alone. Anyway, they've reformulated it and now it's posted on
Congresswoman Barbara Lee's website.
I've included it below.
- FIGHTING FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND SECURITY IN THE U.S. AND GLOBAL ECONOMIES.
- To uphold the right to universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all.
- To preserve guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protect private pensions, and require corporate accountability.
- To invest in America and create new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, re-building America's schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security.
- To export more American products and not more American jobs and demand fair trade.
- To reaffirm freedom of association and enforce the right to organize.
- To ensure working families can live above the poverty line and with dignity by raising and indexing the minimum wage.
- PROTECTING AND PRESERVING CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES.
- To sunset expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and bring remaining provisions into line with the U. S. Constitution.
- To protect the personal privacy of all Americans from unbridled police powers and unchecked government intrusion.
- To extend the Voting Rights Act and reform our electoral processes.
- To fight corporate consolidation of the media and ensure opportunity for all voices to be heard.
- To ensure enforcement of all legal rights in the workplace.
- To eliminate all forms of discrimination based upon color, race, religion, gender, creed, disability, or sexual orientation.
- PROMOTING GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY.
- To honor and help our overburdened international public servants - both military and civilian.
- To bring U. S. troops home from Iraq as soon as possible.
- To re-build U.S. alliances around the world, restore international respect for American power and influence, and reaffirm our nation's constructive engagement in the United Nations and other multilateral organizations.
- To enhance international cooperation to reduce the threats posed by nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction.
- To increase efforts to combat hunger and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases.
- To encourage debt relief for poor countries and support efforts to reach the UN's Millennium Goals for Developing Countries.
So our progressives in congress have (again) been going through the same message exercise we kicked around here on dKos lately. Unfortunately, theres is just one of many such statements, and it doesn't get any play in the media because the progressive message is fractured - you won't see democrats on the press shows repeating these talking points.
We are getting our ass kicked on message, and still don't have (hell, we may never have) a broad consensus about what to say. But this seems like as good a place to start as any. The faces of the party need to start hammering these points until they resonate with Americans like "family values" does.
If you think these points need work, say so! Feedback to Bill Goold for the CPC at (202) 226-5161.