I'd like to share with you all this comment that was placed in my diary yesterday by DKos user lascaux, as I think it sums up what we as Progressive activists and the Democrtaic base MUST accomplish in order to effect REAL CHANGE we can believe in.
What I learned
What this reform fight has taught me:
it is not enough to elect a progressive president, we need to elect liberals and progressives in congress as well.
The frustrating inability of this Democratically controlled Congress is PROOF that our job did NOT END when Obama won the Presidential election in 2008. In fact, our work has just begun, and we must face it with the same dedication, intensity and enthusiasm that we did in 2008, or we WILL lose, because we simply don't have the money to compete with the special interests that control our Government.
But we DO have the people, and they can't beat that.
So, here's how we should FIGHT BACK.
We need to treat EVERY Republican candidate like George W. Bush. Ideologically they are all following his failed agenda still. The more we can point that out, the better it is for all of us as Progressives.
But, more than that, we need to understand the fact that Obama is NOT the King of Congress. Until we get MORE and BETTER liberals and progressives in Congress we will NOT get any better legislation coming out of Congress than what we are getting right now.
We have all seen how Democrats can perform against this version of the Republican party in 1 on 1 matchups such as the 5 consecutive special electuions we have won against them. I take that as proof voters nationally are rejecting the GOP. We have also seen what happens when we don't run real Progressives in elections by what happened to the failed Gubernatorial Campaign of Criegh Deeds. This was a set back and unfortunate for Virginia, but it proves a point. But pessimism and self-defeating attitudes will NOT do it for us, they hurt us and do not help bring about Progress, rather, they stand in the way of it.
We need to be JUST AS focused, dedicated and enthusiastic in EVERY election, not just the Presidential cycle.
Just look at what we can accomplish when we have that focus!
We need MORE and BETTER progressives. We need to DRIVE OUT the Stupak's, LIEberman's and others within our party who are making the President's job harder. In the GOP that's called a purge, in the Progressive movement that is called electing BETTER Democrats.
We need a strong, sustained GOTV effort centered around phoe banking, volunteering and small contributios to worthy candidates. We CAN NOT blame this Congress for Obama's failures, nor can we be discouraged by that. Instead, it should motivate us to work even harder for a Democrtaic party that is more represntative of what is best for We The People, ot the corporations or bipartisanship with people who hope WE FAIL.
Everything that we did right in 2008 MUST be repeated in 2010, startig NOW, if we hope to give President Obama a Congress that will work WITH him and FOR him, and us, and not the Special Interets who care not for the needs of the people over their profits.
Ad we CAN DO IT! Yes We Can!
We can NOT blame Obama for our Legislative bodies failures, but we CAN give him a Better Legislature to work with. Simalarly, we can NOT be discouraged and give up Hope. No one said this was going to be easy, nor did they say that our job was finished on Inaugauration day.
The fact is, the powers of Big Business are stacked agaist us, both in the Republican party and our own. But we CAN overcome that, we have before, and we'll do it again, but in order to prevail and pus progress forward we MUST be as focused, dedicated and enthusiastic, if not more, going into each new election cycle as we were thhe last time.
We did it before, and we can do it again. Yes We Can!
So, how will we accomplish this. It is already November, Elections are only a year away. We CAN energize the base again, we CAN dump bad Democrats and elect Better ones while beating Republicans here and there again, just as we did last time, we CAN sell the ideas that i order to get MORE Progressive Change out of Obama we need to elect MORE Progressives to Congress, and we CAN beat Republicans by making tem all = George W. Bush, because, ideologically, that is what they are.
But we need to do it ourselves, and we need to start NOW, because we are the ones we've been waiting for.
So are you FIRED UP? Are you READY TO GO?
Good, there is a lot of work still left to do.
Crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com and Docudharma.com
