[lbo-talk] A 'Progressive Conference'

[Nathan Newman]

>That
>the tenor of the US politics is quite conservative and that anything
>smacking of the Left ideas is dead on arrival is due not to shrewd
>maneuvers of a few conservative politicians, or lack of organizational
>skills on the Left, but to bigotry and conservatism of a large share of
>the US population.

And yet MoveOn has been promoting an anti-war and generally progressive set
of campaigns mobilizing millions of dollars and mass participation.  A few
of their recent campaigns:

* Fire Rumsfeld over abuses in Iraqi prisons
* Censure Bush for lying to country about WMDs
* Promoting seeing "Day After Tomorrow" parties to promote understanding of
global warming
* Fight Bush's wrecking of mercury standards-- "Under energy industry
pressure, President Bush's EPA plans to defer controls on mercury emissions
by power plants for at least a decade."

Older campaigns include:
* Campaigning against Iraq war before it started
* Fighting repeal of the estate tax
* Attacking energy deregulation and cappting rates of wholesale energy
prices

Yes, they don't talk about dialectical materialism every other sentence, but
they are pretty much proof that lots of money and volunteers can be
mobilized on a pretty progressive platform, something much of the
traditional left has failed at.  So maybe the problem is not the
conservatism of the American people but the lack of skill of the organizers
on the left?

Nathan Newman