A candidate whose record demands progressives’ support [View All]

This Is the Race
A candidate whose record demands progressives’ support

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2407/

By David Sirota

As anyone who’s spent time working on Capitol Hill knows, Washington, D.C., is really just an elaborate pressure system designed to turn corporate money and conservative conventional wisdom into congressional votes. With nearly every bill, there is a disconnect between what lawmakers tell the public they are doing and what they are actually doing and why.

In such a corrupt system, it seems nearly impossible to fight for the progressive agenda while ascending the power structure. The standard narrative says stay pure and be marginalized, or sell out the public and rise. But there are rare leaders who break this stereotype. One of them is Sherrod Brown.

A congressman from the Cleveland suburbs, Brown has both the fiery tenacity of history’s progressive champions and the seasoned political skills necessary to forge a different path to prominence. Over the years, he has defied the axiom that legislators who confront Washington’s corrupt pressure system don’t live to tell the tale. In fact, Brown has flourished.

On nearly every major issue, Brown has held the torch for progressives, even in the dark, lonely days when there was neither a blogosphere or infrastructure designed to support and promote progressive champions...