Vermont Leads the Way for Progressives

[depakid]

The Web site of the Vermont Progressive Party, with its moose silhouette as its party symbol, looks like something put together by a bunch of Eagle scouts trying to earn a merit badge. One of its party stalwarts, state Rep. David Zuckerman, could not be reached during the day because he was tending his 16 acres of organic vegetable fields. And the party’s populist message, in the age of corporate money and slick campaign slogans, seems lifted from the era of Eugene Debs. But the party is slowly succeeding at a time when other progressive movements are failing. And maybe, just maybe, this movement in Vermont signals a crack in the political landscape that could allow American progressives to rise from the dead.

Here is a political party, founded in 1999, which really does not take any corporate funds and refuses to discuss any potential health care solution but a single-payer, not-for-profit system. Here is an anti-corporate party that seeks legislation to protect small business. Here is a party that demands workers be paid a living wage. Here is a party that calls for state investment in renewable energy. Here is a party that condemns the “two band-name parties” because they act in concert to “serve the same corporate interests” by “taking the most important issues off the table and preventing discussion of issues important to most Vermonters: health care for all, property tax reform, energy independence.” The progressive candidates, one of whom is making a credible run for governor, seek to represent the interests of the working class. What a novel idea.

“A lot of us do not believe that working within the Democratic Party is possible,” Zuckerman, who has served 12 years in the Vermont House, told me one evening from his farm in Burlington. “On a national scale the party is entrenched in the same money needs as the Republicans. This is not necessarily an individual fault, but it is the reality of politics today. They can’t change. I know many, many good small-’p’ progressive or liberal Democrats whose philosophy is very similar to mine. They do believe they can change the party from within, but I think the institutional need for hundreds of millions of dollars to compete on the national stage makes it impossible for them to turn back into a populist party.”

The rise of the Vermont Progressive Party, which has six members in the 150-member Vermont House, is another indication that Vermont, which has battled back everything from Wal-Mart to urban sprawl to billboards, may be one of the few sane states left in the nation. And the political lessons are important. If progressives want to regain political influence, we have to, like these Vermonters, think local. The corporations, through their network of oily lobbyists and infusions of cash, have a lock on most of the huge national and state offices, including, sadly, the seats in the Vermont state Senate. But Vermont now has the nation’s only independent, socialist senator, Bernie Sanders. Sanders got there by showing Vermonters that a progressive mayor could efficiently run the city of Burlington.

Our hope lies in first capturing seats on city councils and town boards. Our hope lies in building a party from the bottom up. We will have to be patient. It will take time. But it might work. And that is why, in some ways, the campaign for Vermont governor, which pits the progressive candidate Anthony Pollina, a community organizer, against Democrat Gaye Symington and three-term Republican incumbent Gov. Jim Douglas, is one of the most important races in the country.

“If we can show people how to do it, then other people around the country, who are grasping for real change, even if they vote for Barack Obama, will see how to do it,” the 36-year-old Zuckerman said. “The idea will catch fire quickly. The tinder is out there. It is dry and ready to burn. People only need an example. We have an opportunity this year to become a nationwide presence with Anthony’s campaign.”

Zuckerman, like many others in the party, supports Obama for the presidency. He does not believe Obama will make major progressive changes, but he argues that it is always better to have a Democrat in the White House.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/26/9200/

[Oak2004]

1. My Party :)

If only there was an effective and electable Progressive Party on a national scale. You'd watch the political spectrum scoot to the left in the blink of an eye.