Originally posted on MyDD. There is a growing trend online among some bloggers and commenters to threaten that they will not support Democratic candidates in 2006. It remains a small minority of the online world, but as some of you may have noticed from my posts yesterday, it has really put a bee under by bonnet and I feel compelled to write about it again.
I am, or like to think I am, a progressive. When it comes to policy positions, I believe in the total withdrawal from Iraq in less than one year. I believe in free, universal, government provided health care. I support the decriminalization of personal drug use. I support full marriage equality for all Americans. I believe that public primary and secondary education should be funded equally, and not significantly by property taxes that create massive inequity in education funding. I oppose the death penalty in all cases, and support a women’s right to choose in all cases. I support the mandatory use of hybrid or alternative energy engines in all automobiles within the next ten years. I oppose NAFTA and the WTO. I support national, private sector card check for workers to form unions. I support election reform that allows for verifiable paper trials for recounts. And I believe in a lot of other stuff too, some of which is a lot more radical. However if I listed it all here, the post would take me a lot longer to write, and those beliefs would overshadow what I really want to say in this post.
But, to tell you the truth, I don’t think that believing any of those things actually makes me a progressive. In fact, I don’t think that “beliefs” or “ideals” really make a person what s/he is anyway. I believe, instead, that progressive is as progressive does. I believe that progressive actions are the only real progressive beliefs. I believe that you can best understand what progressive stand for by looking at the fruits that progressives bear. I believe that progressive actions speak louder than words. It is this belief that has led me to be a union organizer, to become a vegetarian, to join a grocery co-op, to be a writing teacher, and now to become a full-time political activist. I believe that those are some of the ways that people can tell I am a progressive, not because of the policy positions I listed above.
This belief also stretches over to other activities in my life. Here are just some examples:
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive to participate n the founding of Neighborhood Networks. Neighborhood Networks is an organization dedicated to building progressive change in Philadelphia by building a volunteer infrastructure organization at the division (precinct), ward and neighborhood level to work for electoral, legislative, and non-governmental change.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive it is progressive to register as a Democrat, so you can vote in Democratic primaries. That way, every year you have two opportunities, rather than just one, to vote for progressive candidates.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive it is progressive to work for progressive candidates in primaries, which I do every chance I get.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive to work with Philadelphians against Santorum, which seeks not only to defeat Santorum, but to do so in a way that will build progressive infra structure for Philadelphia in the future.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive it is progressive to become a committeeperson, and to take up Howard Dean’s call to reform unreformed Democratic parties from the ground up.
- In Philadelphia, I believe that when you become a committeeperson, it is progressive to recall your ward leader if he is not being effective in representing his community.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive to oppose attempts by the local party to close primaries.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive to start a blog with a on local politics that works to coordinate the many young progressives working in all of these areas.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive to work with local Democracy for America and gather together local bloggers, candidates, and activists, as DFA seeks to continue the activist, reformer work it began with Howard Dean’s Presidential campaign.
- In Philadelphia, I believe it is progressive to raise money for local progressive candidates, because small donations can and have propelled many long-shot candidates into serious challenger status.
I believe that being a progressive means living as a progressive and dedicating my time and energy to organizations that are working for progressive change. I do not believe that someone is a progressive simply because they nod in agreement to progressive policy positions. Simply saying that you agree or disagree with something, or that you believe or do not believe something, is politically meaningless. What matters in politics is not what you say you believe, but rather what you actually do in order to have those beliefs realized.
Given this, I believe that if you are registered to vote in Pennsylvania, and you do not vote for Bob Casey over Rick Santorum in the general election in November, then you support the privatization of Social Security (which Santorum favors and Casey opposes). I believe that if you don’t vote for Bob Casey instead of Rick Santorum, then you support the K-Street Project, which Rick Santorum helps run. I believe that if you don’t vote for Bob Casey instead of Rick Santorum, then you think that the minimum wage should only be increased as long as several million workers lose all of their protections nationwide. If you don’t’ vote for Bob Casey instead of Rick Santorum, then you support CAFTA, which Casey opposes and Santorum supports. If you don’t vote for Bob Casey instead of Rick Santorum, then you don’t think there is a difference between a vote for Harry Reid as majority leader, and Trent Lott as majority leader. Or a difference between Arlen Specter as the head of the judiciary committee and Patrick Leahy as the head of the judiciary committee. Or a difference between Barbara Boxer and Russ Feingold running a Senate committee and Tom Coburn or Sam Brownback running a committee. Or a difference between any Democrat running any committee with subpoena power over any Republican running any committee with subpoena power.
And why do I think that people who are registered in Pennsylvania but who won’t vote for Bob Casey in the general election believe these things? Because not voting for the Democratic Senatorial nominee in Pennsylvania is the only way to defeat Rick Santorum with your vote. If you do not take that action, then you are indicating that you do not believe that the difference between Rick Santorum and Bob Casey I listed above matter. And you told the world that you didn’t think they mattered because you did not take your opportunity to cast your vote on those issues.
You may claim that voting for Bob Casey would cause you to violate your progressive ideals. I claim that by not acting and working for progressive change in the many ways I listed above violates your progressive principles. Worse, not acting and not working in the ways I demonstrated above probably demonstrates that you do not actually have progressive ideals, but that you instead inaction is your true ideal. Who cares what you think you believe–I want to know what you do
I suppose this can be turned around the other way as well. I suppose that by voting for Bob Casey, people can argue that I support his position on Iraq, Alito, choice, or whatever. But I want someone to explain to me how not voting for Bob Casey in the general election will actually further the real-world manifestation of the progressive positions on these issues even one iota. For example, tell me how will not voting for Senate in November lead to troop withdrawal in Iraq, or how voting for a candidate other than Bob Casey will accomplish this same goal.
If you don’t work for progressive changes, you are not a progressive. I think I am a progressive because I am working with organizations that will help to defeat Santorum and build influential progressive infrastructure that, in the future, will prevent undesirable Democratic candidates from winning Democratic nominations. If even one person can explain to me how not voting and not engaging in progressive activism will somehow further progressive goals, I’d like to hear it. If someone can explain to me how someone can be a progressive simply by believing progressive things and not taking any action, then I will relent. However, until that time, I say that those of you out there who sit out of the political process because you feel supporting either candidate in a given election would violate your beliefs, then I say you are actually violating your beliefs by a far greater degree by sitting out of that election. Not only are you ignoring the important differences that exist between candidates like Bob Casey and Rick Santorum, you are not helping to build the mechanisms through which we will make progressive change in the future. And I want you to tell me how on earth that is the progressive thing to do.
