"The Empire Strikes Back" - and what progressives can do about it

Deepak Bhargava
Executive Director of the Center for Community Change
Posted: November 3, 2010 12:07 PM

The Empire Strikes Back: Explaining the Republican Wave

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As we move forward it's critical for progressives to do four things:
Engage and mobilize our people and NEW people. Change doesn't come from one election cycle - it comes from building a strong and vibrant movement that can demand shifts in our economy from the top and bottom and from inside and outside. Too many of us on the progressive side celebrated 2008 and then went home to wait for the President to deliver change. That's not how it works. Strong grassroots community organizing will be critical in counterweighing the political clout of the moneyed and powerful corporate interests.

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The President and progressives must lay out a vision that does not shy away from ideology. The choice not to trumpet a progressive vision has left our side vulnerable to the simplistic but effective attacks of those who desire to obstruct real change for ordinary Americans. Consider that Obama has won legislative battle after legislative battle, including health care reform and financial reform - two of the most far reaching reforms ever passed by government in any age. Yet, the overall debate was lost. His approval ratings are in a free fall, the midterms were a body blow and many of the reforms are now unpopular. On the other hand, Ronald Reagan had one of the least successful legislative records of any President, yet he's remembered as the creator of the so-called "Conservative Revolution." The lesson is simple: real change requires a sea shift in public opinion about values and structures, not merely tactical changes in policy direction.

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Resist the temptation to out flank the Right by joining them. Bill Clinton was the master of this strategy after the 1994 midterm disaster for Democrats. One of the outcomes of that choice was eight years of George Bush. Why? Voters could no longer tell the difference between the two parties, and it became easy to hand over control of government to such a bumbling corporate puppet. It's more critical now than ever that we give voters clear choices: Main Street vs. Wall Street, profits or people and greed vs. shared prosperity.

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Engage the new GOP leadership in Congress on a common solution to our biggest economic problem: unemployment. Republican control of the House of Representatives will change the dynamic in the run up to 2012. The GOP will no longer be able to adopt a purely obstructionist strategy and then claim the credit. If the system remains largely broken, they'll no longer be capable of pointing and ducking all responsibility. They might well still choose obstruction, but now they'll partly own what they break. Progressives must lead the way for a bold economic program that has these action principles:

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