INNOVATION. The American Left's Only Hope

[iconoclastNYC]

Remember MoveOn? What's the next move on. Where's the left's thinktank? We need new models of activism and activation. If we don't innovate the American left will end up in reducation camps. I really think it's headed in that direction.

[dusmcj]

1. no quarter on principles

Personally, illustrating why Republicans suck it long and often whenever possible in public discussion works for me. At one point we weren't namby-pamby assholes who wondered why people were so mean as to use 'liberal' as a slur. Now too much of the time it seems that we are.

We allow the GOP to silence us. They play no-holds-barred and indulge themselves with thoughts that they rank high enough on the evolutionary scale to declare us "fair game". And yet most of these retardates fail utterly to defend their positions when challenged directly - that's why they need to resort to the "shit happens" mode of doing business - those who can, do; those who can't, harass and play word games - they have no legitimate content, so they are unable to make it prevail on its merits.

We by contrast made the American promise of opportunity for all a reality for everyman and turned this nation from a patchwork of closed cultural enclaves into a hetergenous transcontinental nation. Since the advent of modernity and the demands it places on human individuals and communities, we have established the programs that attempted to make life liveable for all Americans while keeping this country safe and strong. The Republicans didn't, we did.

The Republicans by contrast offer as a solution human greed and its untrammeled pursuit - the strong must have been meritorious to attain their strength, and so their strength is proof that they are meritorious. We used to know how to address this abruptly, let's recall that skill. Beating the GOP back into its hole where it belongs requires sustained mass commitment and engagement (like we saw in 35 years ago), it's not something to do on a Sunday afternoon and then go back to a comfortable apolitical centrist life for the rest of the week. To borrow from Barry Goldwater, extremism in defence of liberty is no vice.

[democrank]

2. I`ve thought about this so many times.

Have you got the latest issue of The Nation? They sort of tackled this very issue, which I read today. I`ll go dig it up.

[Emit]

3. I've been trying to keep track of this guy,

Rob Stein, and Democracy Alliance. I read about him in 2005, sometime after the (s)election.

Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks
Aim Is to Compete With Conservatives

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page A01

At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.

The money will be channeled through a new partnership called the Democracy Alliance, which was founded last spring -- the latest in a series of liberal initiatives as the Democratic Party and its allies continue to struggle with the loss of the House and the Senate in 1994 and the presidency in 2000. Many influential Democratic contributors were left angry and despairing over the party's poor showing in last year's elections, and are looking for what they hope will be more effective ways to invest their support.

~snip~

The alliance is the brainchild of longtime Democratic strategist Rob Stein, who spent years studying conservative groups -- in particular their success in sustaining GOP politicians and achieving many of their policy goals. Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, is working with Stein and is a leading promoter of his effort.

~snip~

Stein has spent considerable time in the midst of internal Democratic wars, having served as chief of staff to the Clinton-Gore transition in 1992 and strategic adviser to former Democratic National Committee chairman Ron Brown. In recent years, he has become a venture capitalist.

~snip~

Stein, who closely examined the finances of institutions on the right and left over the past two years, contends that there is a huge financial imbalance favoring conservatives that he puts at $295 million vs. $75 million.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080600848.html


Here's another piece at this link, the one I read originally:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21192/

Their website:

http://www.democracyalliance.org/

isn't up yet.

[orwell]

4. Liberalism...

...has become meaningless because it has broken with its historic ties.

The bedrock of Liberalism is liberty and justice for all. The tree of Liberalism's root's are planted in the enlightenment, breaking the shackles of mass serfdom and ignorance, carefully forged over millenia by the alliance of Church and State (the Monarchy).

The RW is busy trying to reforge these chains under the false flag of economic and personal liberty. In other words, they are taking the core appeal of Liberalism (freedom) and co-opting it. How? They did it by making liberalism synonomous with big government (oppression).

When big government was enacting laws that many progressives felt "leveled the playing field", they were all for it. But now that it is in the hands of the new royalists (large corporations, moneyed elites) and fundamentalist Christians, we are all beginning to feel the whip of slavery once again.

In some respects, you can't decry the new fascism without recognizing the fact that we have all stood by while the executive branch became a throne, and Congress became an ATM window for fat cats. The lapdog media has always served power, they are now just more blatant about it. The mass consumer branding (brainwashing) is almost complete. The Judicial takeover will be the final nail in the coffin of liberty.

Benjamin Franklin was prescient when he said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

All the think tanks, media outlets, attractive candidates will all be for naught if we don't recognize our fundamental principles as Liberals. Those principles are liberty and justice for all.