Sep 26 2007

The Questions

My two allotted essays today are going to focus on two pieces of the puzzle picture that is the progressive netroots movement.

This essay is going to review the essential questions that have been put forth of progressive blog authors about attributes, membership, functions, mission and agenda of the progressive netroots movement.

I am also requesting that you provide blockquotes and hyperlinks to pertinent comments across progressive blogs that you frequent in the comment thread here, so that they may be added to the body of this post as they are discovered.  The intent is to provide a broader and deeper range of coverage of questions which are important, fundamental and germane to a foundational wide discussion about the progressive netroots movement.

A caveat:  I am acting solely as a group facilitator in this endeavor.  I don’t have any interest, knowledge or aim at setting myself in a leadership role in the progressive netroots movement, whatever that entity is. I do have project management and leadership skills from my former career, and to the extent that I am still able, I am interested and willing to share them as a single framework within which to move forward.  You don’t have to participate.  You don’t have to agree with the framework.  It’s simply a tool and skill set that I’m sharing for your elective use.  Please don’t continue to accuse me of trying to usurp a leadership role.  There is a clear distinction between facilitating a process and leading an organization, movement or entity.  I am engaging in the former.

The sole reason that I am presenting concepts and examples of project management is that I continue to see stagnation in blogs, disaffection with the status quo, a deep frustration in the disconnect between the actions of s/elected representatives and the polled will of “we, the people”, and finally, it’s about the only “thing” I have left to be able to contribute.  Like the drummer boy, I’m just making some noise and hope that it has some utility. If it has no value for you, please ignore it and don’t condemn me for offering it.

Buhdydharma set the tone for the question when he declared the mission of Docudharma as “blogging the future”.

He has written several essays which are beginning to address the characteristics of a progressive netroots movement.

Budhy explains one of the limitations of progressives as

Wtf is a Progressive

.

He also expressed dissatisfaction with the extant activism via blogging when he wrote:

what should we do next? What do we do now? What is the Big Picture?

Dallasdoc presented an essay yesterday in which he asked more foundational questions:

How do we build a progressive movement?  We in the Netroots are but one part of the progressive movement.  Who are the others?  How do we come together to build a coherent, strong, mature movement to inherit politics in the post-Bush era?

Armando wrote to the question of what successful leadership results are when he quoted Chris Bowers

vote totals on key pieces of legislation

Armando continues to posit the possible results affected by the use of collaboration when he stated,

Consider however, if the activists had joined Feingold, Reid, Dodd and the Out of Iraq Caucus in adopting and agitating for the only strategy that can work on Iraq – the not funding strategy. Suppose we had jointly and tirelessly urged our representatives,

.

I wrote about some of these fundamental questions and the processes by which they can be addressed. They follow the themes expressed by Buhdy, Armando and Dallasdoc.

There is plenty of good food to chew on within the questions and concerns articulated above.

Let’s ask these questions to start the journey:

1) What are the characteristics of a progressive?

2) What is the definition of a progressive?

3) What are the core beliefs, values and ethics of a progressive?

4) What is the definition of a progressive netroots movement?
  (Subset question – what is the definition of netroots?)

5) What is the mission of a progressive netroots movement?

6) What is the vision of a progressive netroots movement?

7) What are the core beliefs, values and ethics of a progressive netroots movement?

Commenters here have already been addressing some aspects of these questions.

From searching the comments for the term, progressives, here is a link to the results.

Our challenge, should we wish to take it, is to survey the progressive blogosphere, online progressive entities, and traditional progressive entities, and bring back answers to these questions with references from all of these entities.

Only when we have a clear sense of who we are, what we do, our reason for being, and a clear vision for a preferred future, can we take the next steps of determining the methods and business – the agenda, if you will – of a progressive netroots movement.

15 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. is the bricks and mortar of a solid and lasting foundation. Get the building ingredients right and in the right proportion, and then the building design can take shape. But place the bricks and mortar randomly and spontaneously, and no utility of design will likely be affected.

  2. I have a bit of a concern the Manifesto is going to become too weighed down in policy minutiae to even get off the ground.

    Better IMO to seek broad agreement on big principles first, by which we can then judge specific initiatives as to whether they fit with these principles.

    Your questions are a good first step in the process of building this overarching consensus.

  3. I think we are all pondering right now. My mind is in percolation stage after yesterday

    I cannot even BEGIN to try to answer those questions right now!

    The best I have come up with so far is just the words: We care….which I find valid but vapid.

    But I will include your questions as part of the next manifesto piece….if that’s ok?

    You have framed them very well.

  4. ‘the question’, it struck me (at the time I received it as an email) as a damn good starting point, as far as what progressives are/do.

    The Life of Joe Republican

      A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN

      Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee.  The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication.  His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

      All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance — now Joe gets it, too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs.  Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

      In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.  Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries & government from polluting our air.  He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

      Joe begins his work day.  He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker’s compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

      Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

      Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

      Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. 
    His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.  The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

      He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

      Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show.  The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good.  He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.

      Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

     

Comments have been disabled.