It is up to the Progressives in the House and Sentate.

[tekisui]

What we did, as a Party, in electing Obama as the Nominee, was choose someone who met two very important criteria.

1-He is a Democrat.
2-He knew how to win.

Now that we have a Democrat in the WH, albeit a centrist, I do believe progressives will find an ally. He didn't run on a progressive, far-left agenda, but I don't think he will work against one being promoted from Congress, either.

I believe he will be receptive to progressive legislation that can get moved through a Democratic Congress. Unfortunately, I think the Democratic Party is roughly 50% progressives and 50% centrist/corporatist. And, the centrist have added support for their agenda from moderate repukes.

I think that socially liberal issues could move quite quickly and pass Congress and get signed by President Obama. The Economiclly liberal issues will be much harder, but not impossible.

The Democratic Party is the party that progressive must work within, for now. We have the best chance at effectively moving the progressive agenda now, than we have in a generation. The work has just begun, we are in a good position, but will have to work very hard to maintain it, and work from it.

[NV Whino]

1. Wow, you're going to lay this whole thing on Kucinick's shoulders?

[tekisui]

3. He's not alone.

He has support in the House. He may be the most prominent, but there are many great progressives in the House, and several in the Senate.

Really it is up to us to move our reps. and elect more progressives.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. WHAT progessives in the House and Senate?

Lemme see, there's Kucinich, Feingold (sometimes), Boxer (sometimes) . . .that's all I can think of.

[tekisui]

4. dupe

[tekisui]

5. Here's a list:

Congressional Progressive Caucus

Co-Chairs
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-6)
Hon. Barbara Lee (CA-9)

Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5)
Hon. Hilda Solis (CA-32)
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-2)
Hon. Phil Hare (IL-17)

Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)

House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-1)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-2)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo (GU-AL)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-1)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-3)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-8)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay (MO-1)
Hon. Steve Cohen (TN-9)
Hon. John Conyers (MI-14)
Hon. Elijah Cummings (MD-7)
Hon. Danny Davis (IL-7)
Hon. Peter DeFazio (OR-4)
Hon. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3)
Hon. Keith Ellison (MN-5)
Hon. Sam Farr (CA-17)
Hon. Chaka Fattah (PA-2)
Hon. Bob Filner (CA-51)
Hon. Barney Frank (MA-4)
Hon. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4)
Hon. John Hall (NY-19)
Hon. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Hon. Michael Honda (CA-15)
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hon. Hank Johnson (GA-4)
Hon. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11)
Hon. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9)
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Hon. John Lewis (GA-5)
Hon. David Loebsack (IA-2)
Hon. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
Hon. Ed Markey (MA-7)
Hon. Jim McDermott (WA-7)
Hon. James McGovern (MA-3)
Hon. George Miller (CA-7)
Hon. Gwen Moore (WI-4)
Hon. Jerrold Nadler (NY-8)
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC-AL)
Hon. John Olver (MA-1)
Hon. Ed Pastor (AZ-4)
Hon. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Hon. Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Hon. Laura Richardson (CA-37)
Hon. Bobby Rush (IL-1)
Hon. Linda Sanchez (CA-47)
Hon. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9)
Hon. Jose Serrano (NY-16)
Hon. Louise Slaughter (NY-28)
Hon. Pete Stark (CA-13)
Hon. Bennie Thompson (MS-2)
Hon. John Tierney (MA-6)
Hon. Tom Udall (NM-3)
Hon. Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Hon. Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Hon. Mel Watt (NC-12)
Hon. Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Hon. Peter Welch (VT-AL)
Hon. Robert Wexler (FL-19)

There are more, too.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. You do realize, of course,

that a good portion of those you listed voted "yes" on the IWR and both Patriot Acts. By what stretch of the imagination is this progressive?

[cali]

6. Bernie Sanders ring a bell? Barbara Lee?

Edward Kennedy? Pat Leahy? The CBC is largely progressive. Then there's the Progressive Caucus with members such as Lynn Woolsey, Raul Grijalva and many more.

The Progressive Caucus was founded by Bernie, btw.

[Odin2005]

7. Obama is a LIBERAL, not as centrist.

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Barack_Obama.htm



People need to quit regurgitating this "Obama is a centrist" lie.

[Phred42]

8. You're kidding yourself

[Odin2005]

16. refering to a site that analyzes politicians issue by issue is kidding myself?

:eyes:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. *cough*

This squares more with reality.

[cali]

10. actually none of those charts square with reality

and I'm more interested in what Obama does and how he governs than with pigeon holing him.

There are conflicting indications as to where Obama falls.

We'll just have to wait and see.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. It certainly squares more realistically than the other chart.

Besides Sanders, no Senator is left of center.
Perhaps 40 in the House.


It's not a knock on Obama. It's just a fact.

[cali]

12. No, it's not a fact. Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, Pat Leahy

are all left of center. And there are a few others. And there are 70 members of the Congressional Caucus. I agree that your chart is more realistic than the other, but it's a marginal thing None of those charts really reflect reality.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. MA and WI in just about the same place as Obama.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/charts/statesbysenator.php?sl=ak,az,il,ma,ny,wi



We obviously have different opinions on what "Left" means. :shrug:

[Odin2005]

15. The Political Compass's placement of American and British politicians is flawed.

I remember there being a Political Compass thread a while back and the vast majority of DUers were plotted as more left-wing then where the Political Compass placed Kucinich, something I find very hard to believe. I dare say that the flaw is intentional, I am suspicious that the Political Compass has an agenda in making post-Reagan/post-Thatcher left-wing Anglo-American politicians all look like neo-liberal corporatist tools when they are not, IMO Obama and Biden belong in the lower-right corner of the red quadrant and Kucinich should be 3 notches leftwards of where they place him, which is about where I am on the chart (I'm -7 on economics axis and -4 on the authoritarian-libertarian axis).

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Funny.

They ARE neo-liberal corporatist tools...for the most part.

However, I understand the point you're making, re: Pol. compass, but it matches my observations.

You have Kerry and Clinton voting IWR. Hello!
You have zero oversight. Hello!
You have corporate bailout fever. Hello!
You have minimal grumbling at torture and domestic spying. Hello!

Need I go on?

We have NEVER had a left government. FDR did what he did under enormous pressure from a crumbling economy and an active Socialist Party. I love him but absent those two things and he would have been Clinton.

[Odin2005]

21. 3 of those 4 are relavent to the authoritarian-libertarian axis, not the economic axis.

Not that I agree with what I consider bad choices, a lot of which seems to have been simply fear of getting called "soft on terrorism" when 9/11 was still fresh in people's minds. Many politicians seem to have simply panicked and did what was politically expedient, thats being human more then anything else. And bailouts of economic enterprises is not in and of itself a left-right thing, it's the motives for doing it that can be labeled Left or Right and it's obvious (at least to me) that the Dems and Pukes have different reasons for the bailout.

[Mari333]

18. not if he wants to send 20,000 more troops into afghanistan

thats no liberal.

[Odin2005]

20. So everyone that wants Osama's hrad on the end of a pike are not liberals?

:eyes:

[gravity]

19. Obama is running the show

and knows how to get a progressive agenda passed better than anyone else.