Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at theTable

[undeterred]

Walk into almost any hotel here this week and you can find an odd sight: Liberal Democrats starting their day by lobbying moderate and conservative Democrats. The lobbyists are members of the Progressive Democrats of America, an activist group working to keep the party true to liberal priorities, and they have been assigned to every hotel housing Democratic convention delegates.

At breakfast, where they go to get their talking points , we will be there," says Tim Carpenter, a veteran of Democratic campaigns and national director of the PDA. The fact that Mr. Carpenter and his cohorts feel compelled to buttonhole other Democrats to push a liberal agenda is a sign of a quiet tension lurking within the Democratic Party. That tension is a potential complication for Sen. Barack Obama now, and it is certain to be one for him and his party if he is elected president.

Progressives -- the term of art for the party's liberal wing -- contend, with some justification, that they have provided much of the fuel that could propel the party to win control of the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time in 16 years. They have contributed and raised large amounts of money, fired up their troops on the Internet, and generally are thrilled at the prospect of a Democratic sweep.

Yet they aren't sure the party they think they are leading to victory is really following them. Sen. Obama has been essentially nonideological in his campaign, has made much of his desire to reach across the ideological spectrum to Republicans, and spent several weeks this summer moving away from the left and toward the center on issues ranging from warrantless wiretaps to abortion to gun control.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121969145343270091.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

[NJmaverick]

1. BS rightwing meme to try and disrupt the Dem's unity

and excitement

[Dhalgren]

5. That's not a "rightwing meme".

The Democratic Party has moved far into the "center" (I am being kind) and away from "progressive" ideals. Voters who consider themselves "progressives" will vote for Democrats as the "lesser of two evils", not as a party the represents their aspirations.

[NJmaverick]

7. Look where it came from? The print version of FAUX news

[Dhalgren]

10. If that source said the sun rises in the east,

would that make the statement untrue and just a RW meme? I am not saying that the RW isn't using this and other things as ammo to divide the Democrats, I agree that they are, but it doesn't mean that it isn't true.

[NJmaverick]

12. Well let me ask you something, you think they brought this point

because they are concerned about progressives and their causes? What do you think their motives were? To cause division or help out progressives? Which one?

[Dhalgren]

21. As I said, they are using this to divide the Democrats.

I agreed with you that that is what the RW are doing. But that does not mean that what they are saying is untrue. Truth can be used much more effectively as a weapon than lies - this is just one of those cases.

[undeterred]

14. The Wall Street Journal is the print version of Faux news?

Well at least somebody reported on what progressives are doing at the convention; I haven't seen much other coverage. There is a "Progressive Central" forum with John Nichols and some of the congresspeople going on all week in Denver a couple of blocks from the convention.

[NJmaverick]

16. You do know the WSJ is owned by the same dirt bag

don't you?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/06/rupert-murdoch-buys-wall-street-journal/


Again I ask you what do you think the motives were behind that article. Do you think it was written to help progresives further their causes?

[undeterred]

18. the article was sent out by Progressive Democrats of America to its members

If they didn't think it was good reporting I don't think they would have sent it.

[NJmaverick]

20. or they are being manipulated

which is the way I see it.

[undeterred]

22. ...

:tinfoilhat:

[NJmaverick]

23. lol, I am not the one thinking ole Rupert is looking at for the

well being of progressives

[caseycoon]

26. Wrong place.. Yes, you ARE being kind! n/t

[leveymg]

2. We bought that table.

The old-wing DLC types sit because we want them there. Otherwise, they can go the way of Joe Momentum.

[Dhalgren]

3. The Democratic Party is "progressive" only in relative terms.

The Democratic Party is not "progressive". It is more "progressive" than it's Republican sibling, but, hell, Mussolini comes off as more "progressive" than the Republican Party. All this is pretty sad, actually. At a time when the Democrats should be moving forward on a broad progressive front, they are making justifications for domestic spying, working to increase the size of the military, and running away from universal health care. If "progressives" are looking for a Party, the Democrats are not giving them much of an invitation...

[Radical Activist]

4. This is the first community organizer left wing movement activist the party has ever nominated.

Do they not fucking get it?

[ClassWarrior]

6. Does who not get it?

Please be more clear...

NGU.

[Radical Activist]

11. The spin and grasping at straws

to argue that Obama is moving right. That's what they WANT and need to believe to support their attitude about the party. I know they like Kucinich but frankly, we got the candidate with the next most liberal record and platform.

[ClassWarrior]

13. Obama hasn't moved anywhere. But he does NOT have a Progressive record.

True, he has a Progressive background, and that gives me hope. But we need to push him to take Progressive positions today.

NGU.

[Radical Activist]

15. Nearly 100% career rating with ALF-CIO, named environmental champion by LCV.

Death penalty reform, ethics reform, expanding health care. You can't buy the spin from people who cherry pick two years in the Senate. If you look at his entire career it is in fact very progressive. We don't need to push him to take progressive positions. He already has. There was a lot of bullshit in the primary about Obama and I'm sorry to see that has lasted into the general.

[ClassWarrior]

31. You could say much the same thing about...

...Herb Kohl, one of my Senators. But I'd hardly call him a Progressive Dem.

Even my other Senator, Progressive champion Russ Feingold, needs to be pushed once in awhile.

Yes, we need to push ALL of our Dems to reject the tack to the right the Party has taken over the past few decades, and to reclaim traditional Democratic Party values. (The best of American values, as Lakoff says.)

Given the subject of this conversation, by the way, I find your name highly ironic.

NGU.

[Radical Activist]

32. Of course all the Dems need to be pushed.

That doesn't mean Obama isn't a liberal. Even Obama says he'll need to be pushed.

I think I have a better understanding of where Obama is than the knee-jerk critics who are always eager to paint ANY Democratic nominee as centrist/conservative because that fits their world view. That doesn't make me any less of a radical.

There has never been a Democratic nominee with a background of activism so similar to mine. Left wing community organizer, civil rights attorney, liberal voting record. People who ignore all of that and make strained guilt by association arguments to paint Obama as a conservative possibly have some other agenda or bias they aren't revealing in their criticisms. Really, the left should be celebrating but a lot of people seem to be stuck in a 2000 Gore/Nader mentality.

[undeterred]

25. It is a spectacular distortion to say that Obama

is more liberal than Dennis Kucinich, who has singlehandedly fought to hold the Bush administration accountable for all of its crimes, while all of the other presidential candidates avoided the subject.

[Radical Activist]

27. It would be.

Good thing I didn't. I wrote that he was the next most liberal candidate (after Dennis).

[Radical Activist]

30. And let's remember

that Dennis didn't call for impeaching Bush until after he dropped out of the '08 Presidential race. He didn't support it in '04 either.

[Dhalgren]

8. Where do you get the idea that Obama is a

"left wing movement activist"? I have found no evidence of that, anywhere, at all. He most definitely was a community organizer in Chicago, but that in no way equates to "left wing movement activist". Where did you get that? Not attacking you, just asking...

[Radical Activist]

9. Study up on

Saul Alinsky and what community organizing consists of. Everyone should. They would understand where Obama is coming from much better.

[undeterred]

17. I think a lot of people see what they want to see in Obama

Most of my socialist friends think he is a corporate hack because of the advisors he surrounds himself with. I know very few progressives who think he is "progressive". Most people are optimistic but think he will need to be "held accountable".

[truedelphi]

24. I was holding out hope until his FISA vote

Then I realized that "we just got fooled again."

yes, yes yes, I realize McCain is worse. It's just that there are many of us who were wishing we wouldn't have to have a noseclip come election day.

[Radical Activist]

29. There was a very big spin campaign

during the primary to paint Obama as a conservative and I think it convinced a lot of people who didn't spend time looking at his full career record and platform. I don't find guilt by association arguments convincing either. Not when Naomi Klein does it and not when Republicans tie Obama to Ayers. Obama surrounds himself with advisers who have many different perspectives which is a sign of good leadership.

[Dhalgren]

19. I am familiar with Alinsky and his work,

I just do not think that Obama follows in his footsteps in any meaningful way. In Obama's books he makes clear that his admiration for many diverse individuals does not mean that he adheres to their teachings or their ideologies. He makes it clear that he is NOT a leftist, activist or otherwise - that is what I was going on. That was what I was asking - where do you get from Obama that he is a leftist activist

[Radical Activist]

28. I read Obama's books also

and I don't recall him saying he's not an activist or leftist. He did say he isn't an inflexible ideologue, which is something Alinsky would likely have said about himself as well. Isn't it interesting that people on DU today are accusing Obama of running an non-ideological campaign...just like Alinsky's two books.

The person who hired Obama as an organizer and trained him was trained by Saul Alinsky. That's two degrees of separation. Just like Cesar Chavez's two degrees of separation from Alinsky: Yes we can!

I was trained as a community organizer and statements that people interpret as Clintonian third way also sound very similar to the organizing approach of uniting people in a community and building consensus in order to bring power to a neighborhood to act for change against powerful interests. Are you seeing the themes of radical community organizing in his Obama's campaign yet? Have you seen how he ran his campaign in the primary states and how much it resembles leftist community organizing principles?

Of course Obama isn't just like Alinsky. But he does come from a background of left wing activism. Community organizing groups like ACORN are doing some of the most far left wing activism going on today and its all in the same philosophy/tradition that Obama was trained in.

I don't find a couple of guilt by association articles and nitpicking about two or three votes (in times where his vote didn't make the difference) to be a convincing counterargument to what I see in Obama's campaign.

[Dhalgren]

33. Whatever gets you through the night, babe.

You are extrapolating what Obama is and what he believes and how he will behave based upon his associations, training and work background. That just says that you do not know the truth for yourself - that's OK, because that's all you have to go on; it's all any of us have. I hope you are 100% correct in your assessment and that Obama will turn out to be the most leftist and progressive president this country has ever seen. I don't believe it, but I do "hope" it.

:hi:

[Radical Activist]

34. I'm sure you feel comfortable in your sense

of cynical superiority of insight. You never follow the herd, right?

I understand that it doesn't provide a complete picture of who Obama is and how he will govern. But being a major part of his life, I suspect its a more reliable extrapolation than a guilt by association article by Naomi Klein.

And its not all we have to go on. He has a long public career with a solidly progressive voting record.

[Doctor_J]

35. Obama's talking about universal health care, bolstering SS, restoring fair income tax,

spending revenue on infrastructure, and bringing jobs back to the US. Sweeney made a prime time speech. This is WSJ GOP propaganda.