Bar Fight

Matt Stoller has offered some very articulate analysis. I believe this is an important discussion for political progressives to have. Progressives need to establish some ground rules. What is the progressive political movement willing to accept from people running for office. Are we going to be reactive or proactive when it comes to policy?

For a long time progressives have suffered as wimps, in their attempt to be adults. While we argued in good faith, tried to listen to both sides on complex issues, and find common ground, conservatives have been hitting us with a pool cue, hard and often.

For the past twelve years conservatives have framed the issues, managed the debate, hit below the belt, and played with an "end justifies the means" attitude about the rules of the game. It is only conservative overreaching that has allowed progressives to grab a gulp of air.

Conservatives can talk compromise all they want but, make no mistake, they believe they are in a win/lose war. You may think that our democracy is the art of compromise. Unfortunately, democracy, in these past twelve years has changed. The officials have been pulled from the football field. Now the teams are out there with a few useless rules and a winner take all, fight to the death, attitude. This is not the democracy I remember. Perhaps it has always been this way. I think that Matt may be right about how we move forward,

"Just as Reagan said he'd unify the country by pushing the liberals out of
the way, we need someone who will unify the country by pushing irresponsible
right-wing power centers out of the way. They crushed our unions, we need
to crush their talk radio, you know, that kind of thinking.

My assumptions here come from a basic love of country. I believe that there are very bad people that have destroyed our capacity to govern, and that we need not just a new President but a new set of leaders willing to neuter these bad people and
make real decisions about where we go as a country."