Tag: Progressives

For those of you who’ve already donated to Dennis’ congressional campaign, thanks!  We know he’s one of the leading progressive voices in Congress, and it would be a shame to lose his voice in the House.

According to CBS news, Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Caucuses. Not that there’s any surprise in that, since she and Obama were seen as the true possible winners most of the way through. No, Nevada’s just telling us what we’ve known all along. The big two media darlings are going to be the front runners. Let’s look at the results:

Clinton – 54%, Obama – 45%, Edwards – 4%

buzz-it!

Admittedly I did not apply the philosophy below to my own local elections this year.  But this is the method I followed to help a Progressive Democrat win in Western New York.  The candidate had been posting some things on a site I ran and I noticed his campaign site needed help.

1. Make sure your coding is correct so that the search engines will be able to index your site properly.  Your site should be ready to go before you announce, if not make it a priority ASAP as media articles referring to you will sometimes include links to your site and you don’t want it to look like a mess. Yes a blog is a must.  An events calendar is also very helpful as people feel welcome to join in the fun right away.

2. Post photos of the candidate interacting with people at local events.  At the same time begin advertising the site in every conceivable location, if the site is broken down into issues register those sections of the site with indexes that are related to the topic, register news feeds with aggregate sites and search for local engines and link lists.

It would seem now that the only people who ever supported Joe McCarthy were John Birchers and other rightwing loons far out of touch with sanity.  Somehow Tailgunner Joe not only got elected himself but struck terror in the heart of liberals.  A recent book described the ability of Joe McCarthy to destroy Democratic politicians who opposed him.  Oddly it was a Republican, Eisenhower, who really did Joe in.

I was young and foolish once, instead of old and foolish as I am now.  I believed.  I believed in Joe McCarthy, the virgin birth, heaven and hell, everlasting fire and torment for sinners.  And then I volunteered for Vietnam.

Way back when you all first stumbled onto a political blog or message board you may have felt overwhelmed with what you didn’t know.  You may have felt it an almost impossible task to get up to date on important topics being discussed so that you too could have something of value to add.  I know I did.  I also felt frustrated because by the time I got up to date, everyone else had moved along to another topic.  The frustration quickly left however when I realized that there were other people in the same situation and that we all needed help.  So I made it my task to ask simple basic questions of the top posters so that the rest of us could understand the material as well.

When others were looking to emulate Wonk in all it’s glory, I saw that as elitist and adverse to the cause of including more voices.

Once comfortable in the community(ies), the facts and information begin to flow quicker, until you feel you are at the same wavelength as the information you are receiving and it is processed in real time.

Occasionally a spark will happen that will galvanize the community.

A mother of a dead soldier stands in a ditch waiting for a President to open his door.

A massive Hurricane strikes and your friends are on the ground there and need help.

Photos of flag draped coffins are deemed unpatriotic.

This is when it is possible to advance to another level.  You go from responder, to actor in the world stage.  People are looking around and wondering what to do, you step up to bat, you realize you must perform to the best of your ability.  Everything you learned about communication skills come into play.  All of your contacts become utilized and turned into resources.  In one hour you can change the world.  Why?

What a day,

This was all foreshadowed recently on Bill Maher’s show when Kos was speaking of the netroots in the past tense, apparently without even realizing it.  He said that news media wasn’t allowing critical voices to be heard a few years ago which is why DailyKos became so popular but failed to point out the critical work being currently done and did not even mention the future of the netroots.

On a previous media appearance Kos said that anyone who posted photoshopped pictures on his website was an idiot. I figure that ruled out about 35% of the top posters who were now completely ignored as idiots by the guy they were helping to make rich.  Arrogant?  Hell yes.  Self serving?  Ahuh.  

So perhaps we need better leaders.  Perhaps here we need A leader.  Because right now we aren’t accomplishing a hell of a lot.

Did the netroots go boom?

Is it worth salvaging?  Or have our leaders already left us for the country club?

I’ve been drawn over here by buhdy’s diary at Daily Kos introducing the Manifesto Project, which is a laudable and long-overdue project.  I look forward to participating in that effort.  But who will the Manifesto address?

The conservative movement, which has been dominant in American politics for almost three decades, is dying before our eyes.  This will create a vacuum in our politics which will be filled, but with what?  Recycled, rancid corporatism from the usual suspects?  Nativist racism and fundamentalist hatred?  Progressivism is the only visible, sane alternative to become the next dominant philosophy of American politics, but we’ll have to be ready or else lose the chance.

So I have another question to raise along similar lines beside the Manifesto Project:  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?  Come below the fold if you’re interested in exploring further.