Thom Hartmann: 1980: So the question for Progressives is...was it worth it?

With November looming, the fate of the Obama Presidency hangs in the balance. Billions of dollars are being bundled to be spent against him. Voter suppression ID laws are kicking his voters off the rolls. And Republicans in the House are sabotaging his`2 economic recovery. Right now - there's a chance that this election will be a replay of 1980.

Barack Obama could be Jimmy Carter. And I'm telling you right now that it's up to us - it's up to Progressives to make sure that doesn't happen. We've seen this movie before. As investigative journalist Robert Parry points out in a new column on consortium news.com - the progressive anger toward Obama is nothing new. It's the same sort of anger that Jimmy Carter faced in his 1980 bid for re-election - and the same sort of anger that eventually cost Carter a second term and set the stage for the Reagan Revolution - which we're all still trying to put an end to, even now.

Progressives blamed Carter for being too moderate and shifting Democrats to the center. He even faced a serious primary challenge in 1980 from Ted Kennedy. So when the election came around - Progressives stayed home - so Carter lost, and we got stuck with Reagan for 8 years - and his policies for the next 30 years. But think about it for a second...imagine if Progressives hadn't turned on Carter in 1980. Imagine if they'd fought to give Carter a second term. What might have happened? For one - we likely wouldn't still be dependent on dirty fossil fuels imported from people who don't really like us in the Middle East. That was one of Carter's main missions: energy independence and investments in renewables.

Instead - we got Reagan - who took the solar panels off the roof of the White House - and made our nation's addiction to Middle East oil far, far worse. Had Carter won - we might have had peace in the Middle East with a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, which Carter was tantalizingly close to achieving. We know for a fact that had Carter won we wouldn't have seen the air traffic controllers union decimated by Reagan - kicking off a thirty year war against labor that is still playing out today in the streets of Chicago. We know we wouldn't have seen massive tax cuts for the rich that exploded our budget deficits - that widened the enormous gap between the rich and the poor - and that eventually crashed our economy, which we're all dealing with today.

We wouldn't have seen the rise of the neo-con war machine that's led to every President since Carter starting their own brand new war. We wouldn't have seen the gutting of social safety net programs, the destruction of public education, the trashing of financial regulations, and ultimately the disintegration of the American middle class.

So the question for Progressives is...was it worth it?

Was it worth holding Carter up to a purity test in 1980 - and then leaving him behind in the election since he didn't pass that test? Knowing what we know now - knowing how the last thirty-two years in America have played out - can we as Progressives really say that a principled stand against Carter's moderation was really the right move? I don't think so. And so today - we're in the same situation. Today - there are progressives who are turning on President Obama because he's "not progressive enough."

Or they're turning against him because of the drone wars - and the indefinite detention - and his continuing the war in Afghanistan. These are all legitimate gripes - and should be vocalized loud and clear. But we cannot let these criticisms lead to a repeat of 1980 - they cannot lead to the Carter-ization of Barack Obama. Think about it: all those criticism - from drones to detention...can we really say that sitting this election out - or voting third party - will bring us closer to a world free from those things?

No - it will bring us to a world in which Mitt Romney wins - and doubles-down on those same exact policies. Mitt Romney is not a gifted politician like Ronald Reagan - but make no doubt about it - his administration has the potential to be just as destructive as the Reagan administration - and we would all pay dearly for it. Carter had just gotten the ball rolling on energy independence when he lost a second-term - and as we know today - we're nowhere near energy independence. Similarly, President Obama has just gotten the ball rolling on health care reform - and even though it doesn't have a single payer system or even a public option - it's at least a start. The ball is rolling.

But if Romney wins - that ball stops - and we snap back to the status quo before Obama. We snap back to Bush and the Reagan Revolution. Will that really be worth it? This election we all have to understand something that's absolutely crucial. It's something that Progressives didn't think about enough back in 1980 - which led to our downfall. It's something that activist Tom Hayden told me just recently, "Progress comes by the inches,"

That's not to say we don't need the vanguard in the streets - those demanding Progress right now - people like Jill Stein - and movements like Occupy. We do need those - and the inch by inch we do gain is thanks in large part to those who are demanding change now. But we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We can't be willing to throw away inches in pursuit of miles - and end up slipping backward and losing everything. President Obama may not be the progressive we all hoped for - but he's at least started something.

And if Progressives fail to recognize it - and if they fall into the trap of cynicism - then guess what? Mitt Romney wins, and adds a couple more Scalia's to the Supreme Court. And thirty years from now - when the corporatocracy reigns supreme and the middle class is dead - we'll all look back and regret the purity test we imposed on Obama. dThere's too much at stake for that kind of black-and-white thinking...

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings