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document.writeln(' TAPestry
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document.writeln(' OPINION / COMMENTARY
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document.writeln(' Making Change: Progressives in the Obama Moment, by Robert Borosage. President Obama has deep and strong support from progressives. But in Washington, the media is increasingly focused on areas where Obama\'s base is disappointed or restive. ... We\'re on the verge of the greatest era of progressive reform since the 1960s. The crises we face - the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and the unprecedented and accelerating deterioration of the environment - leave no choice. We can\'t simply recover and go back to the old economy. We have to build a new economy from the ruins of the old. ... For all the talk of cooperation, these reforms face entrenched opposition from corporate and special interest lobbies. ... read entire article here.
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document.writeln(' America\'s Future Now progressive conference taking place June 1-3 in Washington DC. You can listen to audio files of the lectures at this link.
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document.writeln(' America is turning progressive. The results are in: Americans are now more closely aligned with progressive ideas than at any time in memory. On issue after issue, significant majorities of Americans favor progressive solutions to the nation\'s problems and reject the right\'s worldview. Article by Joshua Holland. Click here to read more.
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document.writeln(' Green Jobs. Susan Shann, of Earth Revolution, interviewed Nell Levin, (Coordinator of TAP) and Dr. Sekou Franklin (Political Science Professor at MTSU). They discussed their work to create a Green Jobs Corp in Nashville, to train and provide solid, living-wage and career-track jobs for potentially thousands of Tennesseans.
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document.writeln(' A new socialism and a new vision from The Nation. The Republicans have called Obama a "socialist," and Obama and his allies have vehemently denied it, and Newsweek recently said "we\'re all socialists now." The word "socialism" apparently has many meanings -- it may refer to the healthcare systems of France and Sweden (much more effective than our own, for much less money), or the dictatorship of the now-extinct USSR, or "socialism for the rich" such as the bailouts of the thieves of Wall Street. Among most of us who now call ourselves "socialist", I think the word doesn\'t have a very specific meaning. (This editorial paragraph is by Eric, your webmaster, and represents no one else\'s views.) It simply means that we are ready to question the basic assumptions of our economic system, including the sanctity of the "invisible hand" of the unregulated market, and the right of rich people to shape the lives of poor people. Until recently those assumptions have been as invisible and unnoticed to most of our society as the air we breathe, and they are never been mentioned in the corporate news media; but perhaps now the time is ripe for a more open discussion.
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'); document.writeln('Recent issues of The Nation include numerous articles by people who are "out and proud" as socialists. The articles -- a forum titled "Reimagining Socialism" -- were inspired in part by an essay by Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher Jr., "Rising to the Occasion: Do Socialists Have a Plan?" The forum led to many responses, and Ehrenreich and Fletcher responded to all of those with another article, Change Socialists Can Believe In. That article includes their definition:
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'); document.writeln('The Nation recently published a book of essays: Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered our Financial System and How We Can Recover. (You can buy it from TAP\'s Bookshop if you like.) To mark the publication, The Nation held a panel discussion in New York on March 6, on the topics of the book. At this link you can watch videos of several excerpts, or listen to an audio recording of the entire1½ hour discussion. I was greatly heartened to hear the fundamentals discussed so openly. Apparently many other people felt the same way -- the response was overwhelmingly positive -- and so the editors have "decided to take our \'Meltdown\' show on the road": they\'ll have another panel discussion in Detroit on May 23. They are viewing that event as a "preview" of the next U.S. Social Forum, which will be held in Detroit in 2010 -- tentatively in June.
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'); document.writeln('Also in The Nation, though not using the S-word, William Greider is very very inspiring in his The Future of the American Dream. He talks about how we can live better with less stuff. "Instead of asking what will be good for the economy, government should start by asking what will be good for our people and society." And Greider even suggests a bumper sticker slogan: "Smaller Cars for Larger Lives."
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'); document.writeln('Recent issues of The Nation include numerous articles by people who are "out and proud" as socialists. The articles -- a forum titled "Reimagining Socialism" -- were inspired in part by an essay by Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher Jr., "Rising to the Occasion: Do Socialists Have a Plan?" The forum led to many responses, and Ehrenreich and Fletcher responded to all of those with another article, Change Socialists Can Believe In. That article includes their definition:
We--Ehrenreich and Fletcher--are not entirely unanimous about the nature and outcome of this discussion ... But we are both socialists, which means, fundamentally, that we believe in the human capacity to solve our common problems collectively in an egalitarian, participatory and democratic fashion. As we wrote in our original essay, we share the conviction that the time has come for so-called ordinary people to step into history and take control of their own destiny.
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'); document.writeln('The Nation recently published a book of essays: Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered our Financial System and How We Can Recover. (You can buy it from TAP\'s Bookshop if you like.) To mark the publication, The Nation held a panel discussion in New York on March 6, on the topics of the book. At this link you can watch videos of several excerpts, or listen to an audio recording of the entire
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'); document.writeln('Also in The Nation, though not using the S-word, William Greider is very very inspiring in his The Future of the American Dream. He talks about how we can live better with less stuff. "Instead of asking what will be good for the economy, government should start by asking what will be good for our people and society." And Greider even suggests a bumper sticker slogan: "Smaller Cars for Larger Lives."
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document.writeln(' Lux says progressives need to be more bold. Mike Lux says that "the entire history of American political debate can, in some sense, be described as the argument between the hope of progressives for a better future versus the fear of conservatives who want to protect the way things are now." The Republicans have aggressively overreached, while the Democrats "have been so beaten down by the conservative attack machine that they have allowed themselves to get into the habit of being cautious." Lux has posted, as an article, chapter 8 of his new book, The Progressive Revolution. He describes the many kinds of fear that are mongered by conservatives, and urges progressives to end their habit of rolling over for conservative rhetoric.
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document.writeln(' Waldman on the evolving Republican party. In his 2006 book Being Right is Not Enough, Paul Waldman advised the Democratic National Party to simply write off the south, which they lost when Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nixon\'s "southern strategy" of implicit racism held the south for the Republicans for decades; former Census Bureau Director Richard Scammon called Nixon\'s coalition "the unpoor, the unblack and the unyoung." But Obama won Virginia and North Carolina in 2008. The whole country is changing, even some parts of the south; the coalition Scammon described will no longer hold together. Some Republicans are accepting that fact and looking to form a new coalition; others are in denial about demographic changes. Waldman discusses this in his latest article.
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document.writeln(' Will the real Barack Obama please stand up? For years, some progressive theorists -- foremost among them Paul Waldman and George Lakoff -- have advocated being more agressive, not just on issues, but on ideology. Don\'t let the conservatives define us; proudly state what our underlying principles are; point out how conservatism has been bad for the country and has failed. Many of us progressives hoped that Obama would follow this advice. Certainly Obama has seemed progressive in much of his writing and speaking and many of his votes (though some of us have been puzzled by his support for the FISA bill, the bailout, and a few other measures that don\'t seem particularly progressive). And Obama is a brilliant speaker; if anyone could make the case for the progressive brand, surely he could. But Obama never quite got around to attacking conservatism head-on, and when Rachel Maddow finally asked him point-blank whether he would, he said no. Throughout his campaign, Obama surrounded himself with advisers who were more often described as centrist than as progressive, and the same is now true of many of his post-election appointments. The claim here is that pragmatism must win out over ideology; but that notion has been widely debated among progressive theorists -- see for instance, the views of Scahill, Zaitchik, Sirota, Hayes, and others. And now finally Waldman is coming to accept Obama\'s seeming ambiguity. In his latest article, Waldman guesses that "Obama will be pursing an agenda that is as progressive as any particular moment will allow," but will not necessarily call his agenda "progressive." Thus, he may accomplish good or even great works of a progressive nature, but the ideology of progressivism will not be given credit for them. That\'s not the strategy that Waldman has been advocating for years, but it may be the best we can hope for right now, or at any rate it may be what Obama considers his most effective strategy for now. If Waldman is right, then what "any particular moment will allow" may depend very much on us, the progressive movement, to make our voices heard and shift the attitudes of society.
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document.writeln(' Pundits wrangle over what is now revealed to be our national identity. Conservative pundits -- and even some centrist Democrat politicians -- have begun making the ludicrous claim that, despite the evidence of Tuesday\'s election, America is still a "center-right nation." The absurdity of such a claim is discussed in recent responses by progressive pundits Robert Borosage, Joshua Holland, Cenk Uygur, and David Sirota. That last article, by the way, includes a link to OpenLeft\'s petition drive asking Obama not to appoint Summers as Treasury Secretary.
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document.writeln(' Realizing the Promise: The Meaning of This Moment (Part 1), by Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of Center for Community Change. We’re seeing the convergence of several powerful forces that together create the possibility of transformative change: the rise of community organizing principles in our national political life; the dramatic erosion in the ideological standing of free-market fundamentalism; the seeds of a progressive alternative; and the emergence of a new progressive coalition. (read more)
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document.writeln(' How Universal Health Care Changes Everything, by Sara Robinson. With one fell stroke, giving Americans universal access to health care will undermine some of the deepest and most persistent myths of the conservative worldview. Read more ...
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document.writeln(' Obama the Philosopher, by Linda Hirshman. "Barack Obama is finally telling Americans why enacting his economic programs is the right thing to do. Not just prudent, not just efficient, but right. ... After thirty years of conservative, \'greed is good\' political philosophy, Obama faces the daunting task of explaining to Americans why they should once again care for one another." You can read the rest of Hirshman\'s article at this link. She goes on to describe how Obama has found a new way to teach empathy (which, incidentally, Lakoff now points to as the heart of progressivism). The now-infamous "Joe the Plumber" had asked Obama, essentially, "I\'ve worked hard and earned my higher income; why should I be penalized with higher taxes now, just when I\'ve finally begun to reach the American dream?" Me, me, me. Hirshman points out the new wrinkle in Obama\'s reply. He did not simply ask "Joe" to share his wealth with complete strangers. He asked Joe to show empathy for Joe\'s own earlier self, for other plumbers who are still struggling so hard to make it up that same ladder. And not only is Obama a great messenger, but this is a great time for the message. When McCain invokes the code phrase "spreading the wealth," he is disappointed to discover that it no longer works its old magic; it no longer fills people with fear and anger. Our society finally seems to be ready to overthrow Reagan\'s teachings of selfishness.
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'); document.writeln('Older items are available in our archive.
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