”Failure to stop Alito is not Maria Cantwell’s — it’s ours. Cantwell, like every other Democratic senator, really only heard from anti-Alito constituents in great numbers for two or three days before the final vote. That level of frenzy should have started on Halloween, the (appropriate) day Alito was nominated, and never let up for an hour until Alito withdrew his nomination. Nothing of the kind happened, and that’s our failure. Not Cantwell’s. Ours.
Progressives like to piss and moan a lot about being unrepresented in the political process, and that’s true. It’s also true that the deck is stacked against our participation in many different ways. But difficult is not impossible. It’s up to us to build the coalitions, energize the constituents, and field the campaigns that will win us respect and influence when it comes to impacting public policy. That means more than laying out critiques and alternatives and mounting protests and position papers and expecting the world to salute. It means organizing, and it means listening to others and incorporating their concerns and ideas, and it means packaging our issues and candidates attractively and organizing more, and then organizing again, and again, until the world is forced not to salute but to get the hell out of the way of the fast-moving train.”-from Geov Parrish’s post today on WorkingforChange.
I like the way Parrish gives us the power to achieve our political goals, rather than relying on beseeching or pleading with others to follow our suggestions.
Update [2006-2-7 8:53:1 by howieinseattle]: Goldy from Horsesass.org has Geov’s back on this one:
“If we want to start electing more progressive candidates to Congress, then we’re going to have to follow the lead of organizations like Progressive Majority of Washington, who are out there recruiting, training, and supporting progressive candidates at the local level, so we can build the farm team from which future political superstars will rise.
80 percent of first-time congressional candidates who win, have previously won elected office. So if we want a better shot at electing a strongly progressive US senator, then we’re going to have to elect more strongly progressive council members, commissioners, and state legislators.
The reality in 2006 is that we desperately need to put more Democrats in the Senate… any Democrats. And any dissension in our ranks this late in the game only serves to help the Republicans.”
Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com.