By Jonathan
Jacobs in RIFuture.org
In 2008 progressives
across America were basking in the warm glow of the nation’s first black
president. A breeze of Democratic victories had blown through Congress and the
long, dark night of the Bush era had given way to the rising sun of the
Democratic super-majority.
A Democratic executive branch and a bicameral
legislative branch teaming with enough blue fruit to overwhelm any red agendas
devised by the defeated and deflated Republican party. The progressive tree was
blooming in the new era sun and progressives across America were able to relax.
Shortly after the 2008
election, the general public was struck with the reality of the total economic
collapse of the American banking system, the bottom dropping out of the stock
market and the the real estate bubble bursting.
Frightening and confusing terms
like “derivatives,” “toxic assets” and “ARM loans” were brandished by the
talking heads on the cable news networks and the true inheritance of the new
electorate was made apparent and they reacted accordingly.
President Barack
Obama consulted with his cabinet, with economists and stepped up, proposing a
Keynesian stimulus package that stalled an economy in free-fall. No need to
further recount the history of so recent a period in history; one in which
wounds are still in various stages of recuperation and rehabilitation.
Suffice it to say, the
Republicans were quickly seeding the sky with storm-clouds. The population,
just months before filled with warm, sunny hope was scared. And rightly so.
Jobs were lost in record numbers. Income was falling while prices were rising
and the conservative, Republican agenda was ready and mobile with a new and
radical group of flashy and simple politicians called the Tea-Party.
They
catered to the three Gs of right wing, fear-mongering: God, guns and gays. They
tied these social-issue weapons of mass distraction to the real, pressing
issues of the day and (quite neatly and effectively) laid blame for the Nation’s
rapid decline, both socially and fiscally, on the President and his socialist
administration.
It worked like a
charm. The 2010 mid-term elections were a cyclonic victory for conservatives.
The super-majority was blown away and the House of Representatives was owned by
the Tea-Party influenced Republicans.
Surely the less than honest messaging of
voices like Eric Cantor and the less than heartfelt tears of men like John
Boehner are worthy of blame for the GOP sweep. Not to mention an entire cable
news network dedicated to promoting untruth, injustice and the Glen Beckian
way. But just as important to consider is the lack of preparedness and
distracted complacency of the Democrats.
Obama promised to
reach across the aisle and compromised in spite of having the power to push
through any progressive agenda the Democrats and their constituencies wanted.
The Democratic message was convoluted and tried too hard to explain why and how
and, in a stagnant economy, it is nearly impossible to use economists to prove
a negative and certainly impossible to win an off year election on that
message. There was no “Go! Fight! Win!” There was no message of solidarity and
spirit.
The 2012 elections
were a very positive message for progressives. The light shone through the
clouds and, once again, the Democratic agenda allows for a deep breath and an
enjoyment of the light of populist understanding. But only for a few moments.
In this administration, there can be no room for error. There can be no time
for compromise. There can be no sacrifice of agenda in exchange for good faith
because the anti-progressive movement, given an inch, will take a mile.
In a lesser known
speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote:
“… Until the
Democratic Party [through this convention] makes overwhelmingly clear its stand
in favor of social progress and liberalism, and shakes off all the shackles of
control fastened upon it by the forces of conservatism, reaction, and
appeasement, it will not continue its march of victory.”
The progressive
movement, if it wants to survive and burn off the cloud-cover of the remaining
storm, it must not rest on this victory. The election may be over but the great
work just begins. The middle class must stand together. Unions must double
their efforts.
Progressive politicians must dissent, speak up and speak well.
They must not merely make their voices louder, but also their arguments better.
The 2014 mid-term elections are just around the corner and, if the issues
embraced by the the majority this year are truly issues of importance to those
who voted, the progressive campaign must begin immediately.
The preservation of
Medicare and Medicaid as we know them and the expansion of affordable
healthcare to everyone and the taxation of the wealthiest while regulating the
disenfranchisement of the working class by those same wealthiest – these and
many more progressive agendas need to be reinforced and protected a little more
every day.
The work is not easy.
Nor should it be. Frederick Douglass, a true American champion of freedom, once
said, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men
who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder
and lightning. They want the ocean without the the awful roar of its many
waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never
will.”
Progressive Democrats want social justice, but they also want to be nice
and expect that if they are nice, so will be the other side.
Although often
mistaken for one and the same, there is a difference between what is safe and
what is comfortable. And, if progressive Democrats believe that there is safety
in American solidarity over the opposition’s beliefs in safety being individual
financial insulation at the expense of those less fortunate, then progressive
Democrats need to be willing to fight, to throw comfort to the wind and to keep
on keepin’ on.
At a rally in Boston’s
Dudley Square last week, a congregation of labor and activists reminded one
another of what the power of unity can do: hello Elizabeth Warren, goodbye
Scott Brown. Hello Barack Obama, goodbye Mitt Romney. “E pluribus unum” has
been proven by the American voters to be a preferable national ideal to “sic
semper tyrannus.” But, like any dream, ideal or hope for a nation , it requires
foresight, strength, perseverance, blood and sweat. It takes a will to fight.
Progressive Democrats remember, “When we fight, we win.”
Jonathan Jacobs
was, until recently, a Senior
Employment & Training Interviewer for the State of Rhode Island Department
of Labor & Training's Division of Income Support, Unemployment Insurance
Sector. Jonathan is also an actor, freelance graphic designer, writer and
community organizer.