Progressive Strategy in the Obama Era

[ProSense]

Deepak Bhargava

Progressive Strategy in the Obama Era

Some 500 days into the new administration, progressives are souring on President Obama's leadership on a range of issues from jobs and energy to immigration and foreign intervention. Paradoxically, it is this precise moment when I propose that the progressive movement turn this disappointment into a reflection on our selves rather than merely on a single political figure. Much of the criticism from left against the White House, has been in my opinion, over the top (This coming from someone who has been a harsh critic on jobs, immigration and was arrested outside the gates of the White House a few short weeks ago).

Yet, in some sense, blaming a politician for being a product of a broken political system which gives too much weight to the powerful interests of the status quo begs the question of how we counter the forces which obstruct the hopes of millions of people. Great changes in our history have always come through mass pressure from the outside combined with receptive leadership in positions of power. Presidents don't create moral urgency; social movements do and Presidents respond.

The central lesson of American history is that it takes social movements to get big things done. Abolition, women's suffrage, and the reforms of the New Deal and the Great Society were not fast or easy wins, nor were they brought about by a single election or by a President handing change down like manna from heaven. The passion and the power for big change came from below in each of these instances.

As we look at the next two years and consider the changes we'd like to see, we need to realize that the important question is not what the Obama Administration does or does not do. The important question is: Are we capable of mounting the kind of mass movement that can create a cycle of transformative, progressive change in the country. Whether President Obama turns into FDR or LBJ, or Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, is only partly about what he does. I'd argue that it's mostly about what we do.

So far we have not done enough. Since the 2008 election, the only mass progressive movement has been the immigrant rights movement, and this absence is worrisome particularly in light of the biggest economic crisis the country has seen in many years. There have been some very encouraging signs of life over the last few months with protests at Wall Street and here in Washington, but in the populist uprising on economic issues, it has really been the Tea Party movement that's held sway in the debate.

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Let me give a historical example from the civil rights era about the power of movement:

As senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson did everything in his power to water down the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This legislation was the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, proposed by the Eisenhower Administration and vigorously opposed by Southern Democrats, which would have placed the federal court system in charge of protecting voting rights nationwide. Thanks to Johnson, the version that eventually passed the Senate bore no resemblance to that original goal. Johnson made sure the Judiciary Committee, chaired by a segregationist from Mississippi, stripped away any real enforcement of voting rights by federal judges. He saw to it that any state-level enforcement would be decided by jury trial rather than a judge's ruling, recognizing that no Southern jury would return a verdict in favor of black plaintiffs. He defeated an amendment to give the Justice Department enforcement authority to sue for school desegregation.

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[Cha]

1. President Obama is the

true progressive and I don't care if it's not instant presto like magic.

[UrbScotty]

2. +1