Enthusiasm?: I Am Not Interested in Things Getting
Worse!

By Bill Fletcher, Jr
Progressive Democrats of America
October 27, 2010

http://pdamerica.org/articles/campaigns/2010-10-27-10-51-34-campaigns.php

There has been a lot of discussion about the apparent
enthusiasm gap between Democratic voters and Republican
voters.  While it is beyond question that the Obama
administration has accomplished significant reforms in
its first two years, the manner in which these have
been accomplished, combined with the fact that they
were generally not deep enough, has led many liberal
and progressive voters to despair.

So, what should we think as we quickly approach
November 2nd? First, there were too many magical
expectations of both the Obama administration and most
Democrats in Congress.  Many of us forgot that while
they represented a break with the corrupt Bush era,
they were not coming into D.C. with a red flag, a pink
flag or a purple flag. They came to stabilize the
system in a period of crisis.  President Obama chose to
surround himself with advisers who either did not want
to appear to believe or in fact did not believe that
dramatic structural reforms were necessary in order to
address the depth of the economic and environmental
crises we face.  They also believed, for reasons that
mystify me, that they could work out a compromise with
so-called moderate Republicans.

The deeper problem, and one pointed out by many people,
is that the Obama administration did not encourage the
continued mobilization of its base to blunt the
predictable assaults from the political right.  As a
result, many people sat home waiting to be called upon
to mobilize. Instead, we received emails or phone calls
asking us to make financial contributions, or perhaps
to send a note regarding an issue, but we were not
called upon to hit the streets.

Unfortunately, the main problem rests neither with the
Obama administration nor the Democrats in Congress. It
rests with the failure of the social forces that
elected them to keep the pressure on.  Too many of us
expected results without continuous demand.

Ok, so now that we have gotten this out of our system,
we have to face the immediate challenge. I am not going
to list the positive things that have been produced by
the Obama administration. I am also not going to list
the bad calls or stands with which I disagree. I am
focusing on those on the right attempting to move in,
and frankly they are an unsettling bunch.  You see, my
enthusiasm for voting rests on the fact that I am not
interested in people who worship ignorance,
intolerance, war and the strengthening of a plutocracy
increasing their grip on power and pulling this country
any further to the right than it currently is.  In
other words, the challenge for progressives is two-
fold: one, to beat back the irrationalist right; and,
two, to move against the right-wing of the Democratic
Party and to push for real change.

Liberals and progressives get called out every election
cycle to defend the Democratic Party against the
barbarians at the gates.  We often do that and then
turn away in disgust.  Rarely do we either take on the
right-wing in the Democratic Party or build up social
forces that are energized about keeping elected leaders
accountable.  We keep talking the talk, but we do not
follow through with the walk.  When we get angry we
talk about creating a third party, but we don't move a
strategy to put the heat under the Democratic Party.

Well, we are now facing a moment of truth.  This is not
the boy who cried wolf.  In addition to the Democratic
Congress as a whole being under assault from the
Republicans, there are some liberal and progressive
Democratic elected officials who are under siege, and
about whom we should be concerned.  There is an
energized, right-wing army waiting to turn back the
clock. So progressives should be enthused right now;
enthused to defend our friends, but also to defeat our
enemies. But we should also be motivated to put into
practice a different set of politics.  We have got to
get off the defensive and promote a different sort of
vision, an inspiring, progressive vision. That may mean
that we part company with some elected leaders who call
themselves Democrats, but the time has come when we
cannot afford to simply push the button because we see
a donkey.  Frankly, I am tired of being kicked in the
ass.
__________________

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior Scholar with the
Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past
president of TransAfrica Forum and the co-author of
"Solidarity Divided:  The Crisis in Organized Labor and
A New Path Toward Social Justice".  The views
represented in this essay are his and do not
necessarily represent those of any organization.  He
can be reached at [log in to unmask]

Check out the Youtube interview regarding Solidarity
Divided:
http://www.youtube.com/user/afgeonline#p/a/u/1/ek9Sz5R6lgU

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