[Dialogue] Why we keep losing elections

[LAURELCG@aol.com]

Forwarded by Jann McGuire from the Univ. of Creation Spirituality D.Min list.


Power Versus Issues---or Why We Keep Losing Elections?

 

I recently attended a lecture by Rob Stein of a newly formed Progressive

organization called Democracy Alliance.   Rob worked in the Clinton

Administration and in Democratic Politics.  He recently has written  a

well-researched article on the Conservative movement for the New York Times.

I would like to share a few bullets from that presentation as a way to

encourage you to read some of Rob's work more deeply and get involved in

helping to create this new thinking in Progressive Politics.  I think the

audience felt like they had been kicked in the stomach by what they learned.

 

There is a collection of Conservative think tanks and advocacy organizations

in the country that spend about $400,000,000 a year to consolidate an agreed

message about certain policies.  They don't agree on everything but are good

at putting aside differences in order to win elections.

 

The main players in this group include organizations like the Heritage

Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Cato and fundamentalist church

political organizations.

They come from several different wings of the Conservative movement.   The

Neo-Conservatives are only interested in foreign policy and military

spending, the Wall Street Republicans are only interested in tax and

economic policy and the fundamentalists are only interested in cultural

issues.  

 

What they all have in common is their agreement that POWER is the goal.

They want the votes.

 

They began their coordinated effort back in the 1970's in response to the

war protests on college campuses and they have strongly succeeded in taking

over Congress,  governships, state legislatures and courts. They have built

a powerful message machine that includes the think tanks that produce

scripts for its friendly media such as Fox, WSJ Editorial and talk radio.

 

There is a Progressive movement as well but it is much smaller and not

coordinated.  Many people are more interested in the environment, poverty or

family planning issues than they are POWER.  These are all important issues

but our message is not coordinated and we are splintered.  POWER doesn't

even feel like something a Progressive should be seeking.   The Progressives

fight over what is important instead of how to win elections.   We end up

blaming the candidates instead of the fact that we are being outsmarted and

outworked by a well-oiled machine.

 

The good news is that that began to change in this election.  We found out

that we wanted to win and had time and resources to fight for our

candidates.   Our losses really disappointed us because we came up against

their highly efficient machine and got beat.  We thought our hard work would

pay off and everything would be good again. Unfortunately, the fight has

just begun.  

 

It is time to organize a Progressive Movement where winning elections is

more important that winning our individual issues.  I think supporting

people like Howard Dean for Chairman of the Democratic Party maybe one way

to signal our support for this idea because Howard understands this

material.   However the movement is not dependent on any one politician. The

movement needs to become more important than the politicians.   The

Republicans didn't care that their candidate was the mediocre George Bush.

 

I realize that this will cause some of you to argue principle over power.

The Conservatives have learned how to do this in order to win elections.  We

may need to give  up some principle in order to hold unto the country that

we all want . 

 

Victor Bremson

January 11, 2005