[Mb-civic] Important Article, Michael

[Mary Louise smn]

I received  6  messages today from Civic members as new today.   The dates 
were (1) Jan 5  (1) Jan 6   (2) Jan 7  (3) Jan 11th.Are there problems 
within the site?        Marylouise

>From: Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com>
>Reply-To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
>To: Civic <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
>Subject: [Mb-civic] Important Article, Michael
>Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 12:46:25 -0800
>
>
>    Go to Original
>
>    Turning Up the Heat on Bush
>    By Robert L. Borosage
>    The Nation
>
>      Friday 14 January 2005
>
>      For a nanosecond after November's election defeat, the Democratic 
>unity
>forged by the radical provocations of George W. Bush seemed intact. From 
>the
>corporate-funded Democratic Leadership Council to Howard Dean's new
>Democracy for America, Democrats drew similar conclusions from the election
>about what needed to be done: Challenge the right in the so-called red
>states and develop a compelling narrative that speaks to working people -
>don't simply offer a critique of Bush and a passel of "plans." Champion
>values, not simply policy proposals. Don't compromise with Bush's
>reactionary agenda. Expose Republican corruption, while pushing electoral
>reform. Stand firm on long-held social values, from women's rights to gay
>rights. Confront Bush's disastrous priorities at home and follies abroad.
>
>      But this brief interlude of common sense and purpose quickly 
>descended
>into rancor and division. Peter Beinart of The New Republic and Al From of
>the DLC rolled out the tumbrels once more, calling on Democrats to purge
>liberalism of the taint of MoveOn.org, Michael Moore and the antiwar
>movement. Apparently anyone who worries about the suppression of civil
>liberties at home, doubts that the reign of drug lords in Afghanistan
>represents the dawning of democracy, prematurely opposed the debacle in 
>Iraq
>or isn't prepared to turn the fight against Al Qaeda terrorists into the
>organizing principle of American politics is to be read out of their
>Democratic Party. Then, normally staunch Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi
>floated for chair of the party former Congressman Tim Roemer, a New 
>Democrat
>distinguished mostly for his opposition to women's right to choose, his 
>vote
>to repeal the estate tax and his ignorance of grassroots politics.
>Consolidating its corporate backing, the DLC solemnly warned against
>"economic populism" or "turning up the volume on anti-business and class
>welfare schemes" - despite the corporate feeding frenzy that is about to
>take place in Washington and Bush's slavish catering to the "haves and
>have-mores," whom he calls "my base."
>
>      After a year in which progressives drove the debate, roused and
>registered the voters, raised the dough and knocked on the doors, the
>corporate wing of the Democratic Party is trying to reassert control. Its
>assault on MoveOn.org and the Dean campaign - the center of new energy in
>the party - is reminiscent of 1973, when corporate lobbyist Bob Strauss
>became head of the party and tossed out the McGovern mailing list, insuring
>that the party would remain dependent on big-donor funding.
>
>      This time, however, the entrenched interests aren't likely to 
>succeed,
>no matter who becomes party chair. That's because progressives have begun
>building an independent infrastructure to generate ideas, drive campaigns,
>persuade citizens, nurture movement progressives and challenge the right. 
>It
>includes a range of new groups such as MoveOn.org, Wellstone Action,
>Progressive Majority, the Center for American Progress, Air America, 
>Working
>America and America Coming Together, along with established groups that 
>have
>displayed new reach and sophistication such as ACORN, the NAACP, the
>Campaign for America's Future (which I help direct) and the League of
>Conservation Voters. These groups - and their state and local allies - came
>out of this election emboldened, not discouraged. Just as the 
>infrastructure
>that the right built drove the Republican resurgence, these groups and 
>their
>activists - not the party regulars or the corporate retainers - will stir
>the Democratic drink.
>
>      The challenge to the electoral malfeasance in Ohio provided an early
>example. Inside the Beltway, protesting the President's electors was
>unimaginable. But progressive organizers, together with third-party
>activists, liberal lawyers, Internet muckrakers and civil rights groups,
>kept the heat on. Representative John Conyers responded with a report
>detailing the outrages in Ohio, where the Secretary of State - shades of
>Katherine Harris - was co-chair of the Bush campaign. The Rev. Jesse 
>Jackson
>and others called on senators to support progressive House legislators who
>were demanding a debate. When Senator Barbara Boxer stood up, the public
>learned more about the shabby state of our democracy and the need for
>drastic electoral reform. The lesson is clear: When progressives move,
>Democrats will follow. "Don't expect this place to lead," says
>Representative George Miller. "Organize and force us to catch up."
>
>      As the buildup to his inaugural address shows, Bush's provocative
>agenda, which unified movement progressives and party regulars in the last
>election, will help organize the opposition in Bush's second term. By 
>posing
>a continued threat to America's future, Bush also provides the opportunity
>for movement progressives to frame a large argument about the country's
>values and direction. Progressives should be mobilizing unremitting
>opposition to Bush's wrongheaded course, and demanding the same from their
>elected representatives.
>
>      A majority of Americans already express doubts about Bush's handling 
>of
>foreign and economic affairs and the Iraq War. These doubts will increase 
>as
>Bush pursues an economic policy that rewards the few while the many lose
>ground, fails to respond to the broken healthcare system, opposes a living
>wage and defends trade and tax policies that accelerate the flight of jobs
>abroad and the decline of incomes and security at home [see John Nichols, 
>"A
>Fight We Can Win"].
>
>      Bush's drive to privatize Social Security, the centerpiece of his
>agenda, will expose the right and put Republicans at risk. Bush touts a
>fraudulent immediate crisis in a program that's in relatively good shape to
>rationalize deep cuts in benefits while borrowing $2 trillion so Wall 
>Street
>can feed on the savings of citizens. Progressives will use the fight over
>privatization to contrast the benefits of shared security with the risks of
>the right's policies, which leave citizens on their own in a global economy
>of accelerating instability. Opposition will enable progressives to forge a
>broad coalition ranging from the Catholic Conference to the AARP and the
>AFL-CIO. This fight to defend America's most successful retirement and
>antipoverty program can and must be won.
>
>      Bush's new budget will call for extending tax breaks for the 
>wealthiest
>Americans while cutting investment in education and healthcare. This 
>offends
>the common sense of most Americans and offers progressives the opportunity
>to challenge the President's perverted priorities while making the case for
>public investment in areas that Americans agree are vital to their families
>and our country's future. Bush's pledge to pack the courts with zealots 
>will
>mobilize progressives in defense of equal rights, women's right to choose
>and corporate accountability. (Spooked by Senator Tom Daschle's defeat in
>South Dakota, many Senate Democrats are skittish about this battle, and 
>will
>need to feel the heat from the activist base of the party.) The debacle in
>Iraq indicts the militarist unilateralism of the Bush Administration and
>provides progressives with the obligation to push for an exit strategy from
>an occupation that a majority of Americans now oppose. In this effort, the
>antiwar movement can make strategic alliances with much of the realist
>establishment, from George Bush Sr.'s national security adviser Brent
>Scowcroft to growing portions of the uniformed military as well as
>intelligence and State Department professionals.
>
>      At the same time, progressives should develop and push positive ideas
>for change: minimum- and living-wage campaigns, progressive tax reform,
>strategic initiatives like the Apollo Project for good jobs and energy
>independence. A "blue-state strategy" - elaborating a state and local 
>agenda
>on such issues as healthcare and education reform - can provide models and
>demonstrate the attractiveness of progressive ideas.
>
>      None of this will be led by the lobbyists and retainers of the
>Democratic Party machine, such as it is. In the House, minority leader
>Pelosi will keep the caucus generally unified in opposition to the Bush
>agenda, but House boss Tom DeLay brutally locks Democrats out of the room
>whenever he pleases. Progressive champions like Jan Schakowsky, Hilda 
>Solis,
>John Conyers, new Black Caucus chair Mel Watt, Barney Frank and others will
>help guide and support outside progressive mobilizations. The barons of the
>Senate are less organized and more frightened, as illustrated by minority
>leader Harry Reid's bizarre public acceptance of the idea of Antonin Scalia
>as Chief Justice. Senators Dick Durbin, Jon Corzine, Barbara Boxer and 
>newly
>elected Barack Obama will help define the debate, but external pressure 
>will
>be vital.
>
>      All stripes of Democrats agree on the need to persuade voters, not
>simply mobilize the base. But persuasion requires committed activists,
>passionate in their cause, ready to enlist and challenge their neighbors.
>Progressives haven't yet made up for the decline of union halls, nor 
>matched
>the right's ubiquitous media clamor. But the pathbreaking house parties
>organized by MoveOn.org and the Dean campaign, and the extraordinary
>training provided by Wellstone Action, provide new models for educating
>activists and encouraging them to organize their neighbors.
>
>      So forget about the chattering classes and the corporate wing of the
>party, now fantasizing about purging the new energies unleashed in the last
>election. What matters isn't what they say in Washington, but what
>progressives do on the ground across the country. We have just begun to
>build. The radical agenda of the Bush Administration - and its abject
>failure - will continue to set the stage not for a retreat to the center 
>but
>for a fierce, passionate reform movement.
>
>      Robert L. Borosage is co-director of the Campaign for America's 
>Future
>(www.ourfuture.org).
>
> 
>
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