Bringing it all together

[OnBackground]

As discussion about how or whether pieces of a progressive puzzle come together, one cannot help but notice that too few groups see the connections. An article on the front page of today's New York Times suggests that the Human Rights Campaign might be willing to endorse the Administration's efforts at partially privatizing Social Security</a> in exchange for allowing gay partners to benefit from the program. This, not unlike unions who refuse to recycle, public interest advocates who squash unionization drives, and humanitarian groups that ignore internal sexism and discrimination, seems like a failure to see how the pieces connect.

There is a lot of thought going into developing a new progressive politics that addresses real needs and can actually create change. One person with ideas is Adam Werbach; without endorsing anything, let me recommend to you: http://www.alternet.org/story/20689/ and http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1112-34.htm It is about building something bigger than just a skirmish today over x or a campaign against y this year. It makes you think...