It's the Courts, Stupid!

[LadyVT]

We progressives sure have a lot to learn, always focussing on the cause and the hope and forgetting the means and the mechanisms. The GOP had a long-term plan: Conservative Congress, Conservative President, Conservative Supreme Court. This was a plan espoused by the late Jerry Falwell, Bill Krystol and other think tank giants. The idea was to change the constitution in favor of conservative values.
We are kidding ourselves if we think progress of any sort will result *exclusively* from this election alone. The energy of the current campaigns are encouraging, but are supporters for Clinton, but especially of Obama, going to be around after the presidential elections to continue fighting for a congress with sweeping democratic representation? If either leader is to bring about the reform upon which their platform is based they will only be able to do it because the people supporting them now sustain their current efforts long after the Nov Elections by writing, calling, faxing, emailing their congressional representatives in support of progressive values and in protest of lobbyist influence; their neighbors whenever an important vote is at stake; and their local media representatives when biased reporting is aired. Only a concerted effort can help us reclaim a court whose mission is to interpret the constitution in such a way as to keep it a living, relevant and dynamic document.