[Mb-civic] Important Article, Michael

[Michael Butler]

    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).

 

  -------

   Jump to today's TO Features:   


 © Copyright 2005 by TruthOut.org