Reinventing the progressive movement

[eridani]

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2010/12/progressive-movement-needs-to-reinvent.html

The morally appropriate thing to do, ironically, would have been to break the law (Initiative 1053, which went into effect on December 5th) and raise revenue to cover the shortfall by majority vote.

And incidentally, while I'm on the subject, the reason I-1053 is on our books at all is because the progressive movement didn't organize against it.

Leaders of key constituencies within the movement (who control most of the available resources) concluded that I-1053 couldn't be beaten, and deliberately chose to do almost nothing to stop it.

This is no exaggeration. It's not like they didn't know it was coming. Tim Eyman announced it before 2009 was over, filed the measure in early January, and was collecting signatures by February. He ran out of money midway, but the Association of Washington Business Association of Greedy Lobbyists came to his rescue.

By now, it should be evident that Tim Eyman isn't going into retirement anytime soon. He's going to keep running initiatives as long as he can find a sugar daddy to underwrite him, whether that's wealthy individuals like Michael Dunmire, the gambling industry, asphalt pavers, or Wall Street banks and oil companies.

That was actually apparent to me almost nine years ago; it's why I founded Permanent Defense in February of 2002.

Sadly, Permanent Defense remains pretty much the extent of efforts to fight Tim Eyman year-round. You'd think by now there would be a well-developed coalition working around the clock to organize early, strong opposition to Eyman's next destructive scheme to wreck government. But there isn't. Which leads me to the first major problem I think is afflicting our movement: We don't think long-term or plan strategically for the future.

When the right wing loses, it regroups, plots a return to power, and then attacks. That was the story of the 2010 midterms.

Since Permanent Defense was founded in 2002, Eyman has lost more battles than he's won. But it doesn't matter. Even if Eyman is failing most of the time, his occasional success keeps him relevant. He's relentless.

We need to be relentless. We need to be thinking long-term, and visualizing where we want to be a few years from now. We need to lay the groundwork for our future success. We need idea factories, communication channels, a leadership

[Vincardog]

1. We need idea factories, communication channels, a leadership and $$$$$