Tweet
I’m here on the ground at the America’s Future Now conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in DC, and just got up on the Internet. In front of a moderate-sized, Monday-morning-sleepy crowd, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future Robert Borosage called for an independent progressive movement, separate and apart from the White House, organizing independently for change.
To kick this off, CAF, along with MoveOn.org, CREDO, Open Left and 50,000 petitioners, will call for a fully televised and open conference committee for the Wall Street reform bill. “Let’s bring the lobbyists out of the shadows and into the light of day,” Borosage said.
FinReg conference committee chair Barney Frank, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has vowed for an “open” conference committee, but their conception is basically a transparent vote on already-decided policies. The progressive groups’ conception would call for the full proceedings on C-SPAN, and just as importantly, the text of the bill “online well in advance of the vote.” This would give an opportunity for mobilizing the conferees before their vote goes live for all to see. Sunshine and transparency is probably the best hope to get a bill which at least nudges toward some fundamental reforms, rather than nothing at all.
Borosage said that the recent legislative gains brought “the greatest flurry of reform in over 50 years,” but that it was “insufficient to the cause,” and progressives have grown more dissatisfied. “A new generation has been introduced to the legislative process in its full and debauched glory,” Borosage said. And the White House has been an “uncertain trumpet,” too timid with their plans from the beginning and too bendable along the way. Borosage called for the revival of an independent movement, to “stop conservatives of both parties,” and organize independently for ideas and issues. He cited the Blanche Lincoln primary as an example, and hoped the progressive movement would expand the capacity to hold legislators accountable.
In a later speech, Arianna Huffington railed against bipartisanship, saying that every day in the Gulf of Mexico, “we see more pictures of dolphins and pelicans covered in bipartisanship.” Clearly stridency is the order of the day at the conference.
49 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
U.S. Stocks Fall as Goldman Sachs Subpoenaed in Crisis Probe
“U.S. stocks retreated, erasing an early advance, as financial shares slumped after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was issued a subpoena from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.”
LINK.
Sensitive bunch, aren’t they?
Love Arianna’s remark and we are all covered in Bi-partisanship every day. It has a very distinct aroma and will stop you from living.
Finally The 4th Way.
Unfortunately I don’t think that will happen. Criminals don’t like to commit their crimes in the sunlight.
Did anyone articulate what this “independent movement” would look like beyond the current array of email-driven groups (MoveOn, Democracy for America, etc.)? Is anyone talking about the importance of shifting support and resources toward democratic community organizing? A collection of active email lists do not add up to a movement.
Shrill!
who?
The key is to catch pictures of lobbyists talking to legislators, going in and out of their offices while discussions about compromises are going on. By the time we get to the open meetings, it’s over.
Wow, I missed this. When did this greatest flurry of reform happen? I guess I must have blinked or something.
I don’t think there are any dolphins in the Gulf, are there?
Arianna there? Stridency the order of the day? Stridency????
No, the word you were looking for is kabuki. Clearly, kabuki is the order of the day.
It’s a breeding ground for dolphins. They’re all over the place. You can watch their antics from the beach. They come into the marinas. Those days are numbered.
We don’t seem to have very many of these happening, though. Either there need to be more, which will be difficult, or we’re just going to have to make it known that our votes aren’t guaranteed to go to Democrats. Unless Democrats think we will abandon them for not doing enough, they’ll never do enough.
Yes, there were untold numbers of dolphins in the Gulf.
http://exiledonline.com/dead-dolphins-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-the-ugly-reality-that-bp-is-hiding-and-that-the-new-york-times-isnt-showing-ht-hajime/
wonderful!
I don’t think it’s kabuki, – perhaps incrementalism and so, insufficient to the cause, but kabuki at least in my mind requires willful deceit.
Is Moveon still considered progressive?
We’ll see the air breathers first. Turtles and dolphins must come up through the sludge and then breathe in the toxic fumes in the air. There have been reports of dolphins blowing pink matter out of their blowholes. Fish in deep water will simply sink to the bottom and we’ll never know the extent of the kill other than the absence of fish.
You mean they won’t be saying …and, thanks for all the fish?
Did you just say fish?
Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is available: Was George W. Bush Good for Israel?
I’ve never considered MoveOn progressive. They’ve signed on to some progressive issues but remember it took a vote of its members for them to come out against the war. Started by Clintonistas and still run by Clintonistas.
Yep.
Nope.
If you want to get a better idea of where Borosage is coming from, you can find it here:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010062204/progressives-time-go-reservation
His positions are by and large progressive, but his plan for enacting a progressive agenda is very unclear. The best I can tell is that he thinks progressives need to be more independent of Democrats so they can push Obama and the Democrats into taking more progressive positions. To be honest, I think this was the view of many around here just after Obama got elected, and we have seen how well that turned out.
And that’s the problem. I don’t think Borosage has realized just how corporatist Obama and the Democrats are. They are about as likely to be pushed into taking progressive action as the Republicans are. Nor does Borosage really define what “independence” means. Sternly worded letters? Unless and until progressives are willing to stop voting for the “lesser of two evils” Democrat we will have no leverage, and we may not have any even then. I can’t help thinking this is as others above have said kabuki, a way to get us to support Democrats while appearing to be more “independent” of them.
Doesn’t the spill also threaten the already endangered Manatee as well as it continues toward FL and farther?
Oh, no. I hadn’t thought of the manatee. I didn’t think my heart could break further but it just did.
Yes. The manatee like warm water, which is why they’re found around power plants in the winter. They’re slow and have nowhere to go. If, repeat if, we can keep the oil out of the inland waterways we have a chance with the manatee. We spent years working with the brown pelicans to bring them back from the brink of extinction. It seems now we’re back where we started. We have to get to the birds right away because the more oil they consume preening the less chance we have to save them.
Perhaps best no to lose sight of the fact that it threatens ‘endangered gulf coast residents’ as well….
Interesting report in the Guardian today about Chinese ‘cancer villages’. Don’t worry. You’re going to get your turn too.
Arianna is a firmly Marie Antoinettist plutocrat. No criticism of her is allowed on her website. Her recent appearance in that appalling post-WH correspondents dinner morning after self-love fest on tv was the confirmation we needed. Like any good plutocrat worth their salt, her deceit is willful.
This Gulf coast resident doesn’t appreciate your tone this morning.
Thanks, Hugh. As usual, you go right to the heart of the problem:
“…and we may not have any even then.” This is one of my many concerns. Whatever meaningful action progressives can take is a huge risk and has a possibly disastrous downside.
That said, the status quo is intolerable. The current Democratic Party is a subsidiary of Wall Street, and people are smart enough to see this. In disgust, some, or many, will support the Republicans in the next two elections. The consequence in this case, will almost certainly be a truly fascist government that can best be described as a theocratic and oligarchical.
Hugh, your thoughts?
The dialog regarding a,*&%……….. Full stop. If Dkos, Moveon, Think Progress are espousing the term progressive, which then gets interwoven with ‘liberal’; what do we call ourselves? The progressive wing of the progressive wing of the Sellout Party?
Sorry, but what do you want me to say? There is a significant public health risk which will be downplayed, disputed and lied about to the bitter end by both BP and public health officials. I’d expect a response about as credible as the one for Bhopal. Move away from there is my advice. Your health is worth more than anything else.
A little less smart ass attitude would be nice. We’re well aware of what can happen here. Those of us who live here are trying to figure out solutions so that we don’t have to move, so that we have a viable environment. Plus, I’m not a quitter, never have been.
Progressives need to do two things. They need to break from Obama and the Democrats and they need to go populist. Progressivism is about better, better jobs, schools, health, quality of life, and government. We have a better message. We have solutions that will work. We need to start taking that to the people and having faith in them.
Agreed.
Exactly. For example, there is a full-on effort on HP to redefine progressive from a core set of indivisible principles to a group of people with a vague list of malleable interests completely compatible with middle-of-the road liberalism (a redundancy) and with Obamian corporatism. Richard Eskow posted this a few days back:
We must block this effort to co-opt progressivism (a philosophy that, unlike liberalism, supports full regulation of the economy) into the Obama in 2012 campaign!
“I don’t think there are any dolphins in the Gulf, are there?”
On May 31, I saw a pod of six dolphins while sailing with the Sea Scouts on Galveston Bay. In past years I have seen them in the Freeport Channel at Surfside and in San Luis Pass. If they are in the estuaries, they are certainly in the Gulf.
The salient question is, “for how long?”
Thanks. I wasn’t aware of that. I used to live in the Outer Banks and saw them in the ocean frequently. They’re a sight to see.
It’s too late, John Podesta has a trademark patent on it. Besides, if we’re new – let’s be new. The Icelanders shoed in a brand new party that ran as The Best Party.
Let’s totally leave this BS behind, shall we?
It appears the fear of fascism is creeping into America, and almost inconceivably to the American mind even a right wing military coup is being envisioned as one of the potential outcomes of current political and policy trajectory.
The notion that ‘lesser evilism’ is an alternative to the real Kahuna needs to be discredited. Delaying the inevitable cannot be afforded the status of solace. This thing needs a dramatic turn around, and probably the best chance for that lies in ever larger and more frequent, near spontaneous expressions of grass root /populist discontent.
I want to believe that any movement attaching itself to Party, will be considered illegitimate. The libertarian faction in the T-bag movement will not side with the R’s, perhaps not even true conservatives. A leftist equivalent, i believe, would also encourage fence sitters on the right to gravitate towards that ‘perotista’ faction. The ‘lesser evil’ club needs to realize that it does not endanger their fallback status quo position, as their splintering from the Dems is balanced by the splintering on the right.
It takes courage to step out into a brand new world, – let’s not keep on keeping the best of mankind’s ideals closeted.
Or perhaps party should be subordinate to movement, rather than the opposite that we have with the democravens. What I am thinking about is a true progressive third party, running in progressive areas only (the coasts and several large cities like St. Paul and Denver/Boulder), that could act like the NDP in Canada (also concentrated in the progressive areas of Manitoba, Alberta, etc.- they brought single-payer to Canada). But the party would adhere to core principles, and to those principles would be subordinate the need for corporate donations to get reelected. Just thinking…
When I decided to become politically active in 2004 after a 20 year absence, I went to the America’s Future Now convention. Only person from Montana there. I went the next year too. Then in 2006. That was when I realized that the same people came year after year. Same speakers, same panelists. Same messages except for the shots of brilliance from Gar Alperovitz or Harvey Kaye. Nothing radical though. It also seemed hopelessly D.C. centric. So I quit going.
I have no desire to vote for the lesser of two evils. I have no desire to align myself with even these well-meaning people because they are part of the court and so part of the problem. I just can’t do it anymore. Too hard on my stomach.
I’ve always gravitated towards labor leaders more than “progressives”. Seemed there was more muscle combined with brains. Not just brains.
If I could talk to any dead historical figure, it would be Thom Paine. We need a real radical and a “Common Sense Party”.
Three cheers for those members of the American community proactively demanding better of our Congress.
Now, if we could only get the greater blogosphere – that part of it interested in good government – to get out of its individual silos long enough to broadcast this message loud and clear, and relentlessly, in a unified fashion, never mind the spin, or passively reacting to the spin, about What Will Be from the backroom dealers…
As for this:
If Borosage is serious about this, and means independent of the Party leadership, not just the White House, I do believe he’s identified the path to daylight, and is proposing a tactic with huge potential for changing the corrupt status quo.
`If the opposite of PRO is CON, does that mean that the opposite of PROgress is CONgress?
masaccio, I couldn’t agree more about getting photos of lobbyists with legislators – not just on this occasion, but on a regular basis.
We’re always hearing about the lobbyists swarming the halls of the House and Senate, overrunning Members of Congress – but we never see them in action, named and identified.
Who’s requiring our legislators to meet with those lobbyists? Or are they running down the halls trying to escape them – as legislators successfully manage to escape the average citizen, who’s unlikely to be able to obtain a private appointment with their “representatives” on demand – between office and chamber or hearing room?
Someone, somewhere, somehow needs to turn the cameras on the shadow Congress, so that people other than lobbyists and legislators can see with their own eyes how the system really works, and attempting to continue business as usual becomes as painful for Congressional incumbents, as the hundreds of millions of us outside the halls of D.C. power can possibly make it…
Agreed!
O/T
Southern
I’m not trying to annoy you. But it worries me that you are talking about ‘not being a quitter’ in the face of something completely beyond your control. There are times when it is best to retreat strategically and go for a much bigger victory later.
There is a post now up here about something Sen. Bill Nelson has disclosed regarding the integrity of the well. It appears that the well casing is shot, and that hydrocarbons are flowing up the outside of the well bore. Formation pressures are high. The field is giant. The so-called remediation efforts are very likely to have exarcebated these problems.
And though most of us stupidly think of hydrocarbons as ‘every day’ and safe, because we burn them in their processed forms so freely, the raw stuff, in a climate like the Gulf, mixed with sea water, as spray, evaporated off the surface and rained down, or even burned off, and the addition of toxic chemicals in quantities never used before to basically try and hide how bad the spill is provides a carcinogenic hazard of frankly unknown magnitude. Unknown until it’s too late of course. It may be the Guld is lost, no matter how much it pains everyone.
We have yet to see the effects of the first hurricanes. They happily hoover up vast quantities of sea-water and redeposit it on land. This stuff is toxic, and its effects will be noticed miles inland for years to come.