Progressives

Progress NC has joined with a number of other progressive groups to present a united front against the far right leadership in Raleigh that called for the January 5th post-midnight secret legislative session. We have created a website to explain what is happening in Raleigh, the events leading up to January 5th and the implications of the far right agenda for North Carolinians and their daily lives. Please visit the site and help us spread the word, especially to people who are not yet paying attention: www.outofcontrolnc.com. Thank you!

How do we build the progressive brand and create demand for our policies?

The New York Times ran a piece recently about a study of pop song lyrics and other studies suggesting increasing narcissism in America since the 1980s. (Big news, huh?) They found "the words 'I' and 'me' appear more frequently along with anger-related words, while there’s been a corresponding decline in 'we' and 'us' and the expression of positive emotions." This must make the Randians proud. Their world is all about them, and it's a view they have sold successfully for decades. Progressives will not change that outlook just by promoting programs people don't want to pay for, sponsored by a government they distrust, with benefits they would rather do without than see help neighbors they see as parasites.

A progressive America is less about me and more about we.

An activist in one national progressive organization asked me yesterday about Mecklenburg homophobe Bill James. "Should we go along with the commissioners' resolution or call for James to be censured?" he asked. Too bad he didn't listen to my advice.

http://www.progressivebookclub.com/pbc2/browseBooks.pbc?m=c&id=222

Not only do you get bargains from online shopping, but you designate a good cause (I use Daily Kos) to get the benefits of your membership buys.

I'm interested in who is progressive for real in NC's state legislature. After asking around and digging through some basic election issues reporting, here is what I have at the moment.

Do these people all qualify as progressives? Any examples of why? And ....Has anyone collected any info on any other progressives there might be so we can work to help them? It's easy to track federal level progressives, but it's not so easy to see at the state level, which in my mind is as important if not more important.

Here is the beginning of the list. Please comment and suggest adds, edits, etc...:

House

Paul Luebke (Durham)
Jennifer Weiss (Raleigh)
Susan Fisher (Asheville)
Pricey Harrison (Greensboro)
Rick Glazier (Fayetteville)
Verla Insko (Chapel Hill)
Joe Hackney.

Senate

Ellie Kinnaird (Chapel Hill)
Josh Stein (Raleigh)
Bill Purcell (Scotland)
Doug Berger (Franklin)
Martin Nesbitt (Asheville).

Any close watcher of the sausage-making in Washington and Raleigh has witnessed first-hand the general impotence of progressive voices. From where I sit, they are largely irrelevant, having not much impact on agenda-setting, and even less on actual public policy.

Someone wrote a while back that progressives in both the North Carolina and US Senate would have much more clout if the two chambers were more evenly divided. A big Democratic majority, the writer argued, means that small factions have no influence. If the margin were cut to one or two seats, progressive votes would be much more valuable. Then again, so would the votes of our Blue Dog equivalents.

I'm not holding my breath for a strong progressive front in Raleigh, or in Washington. Because even when they have votes, it's not clear they know how to use them.

I think of independents as a herd of cats, a pack of dogs, a murder of crows, and a gaggle of geese, all wrapped together with a word that means little more than rejection of the two party system in general and the two parties we have, in particular. Trending more left than right over the past few cycles, they are Libertarian on bedroom issues, pragmatic on budget issues, fair minded up to a point, and all over the place on everything else.

With the baggers coalescing around an agenda of racism and hate, only the lunatic fringe will want to associate them. The remaining "clean" independents will trend more left than right, but not all the way to progressive by any stretch.

Hope folks will find today's "Weekly Briefing" column (which is posted on the N.C. Policy Watch website) of interest.

Building momentum for change
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Ten New Year’s resolutions for North Carolina’s progressive community

Despite hard economic times, progressives have a lot of reasons to feel good about the year that just ended. In Washington, the Obama Administration (along with an occasionally helpful Congress) took several important steps to halt the nation’s disastrous slide on several fronts. From the economy to healthcare to the environment to matters of war and peace, things are decidedly better and more hopeful than they were 12 months ago.

The New York Times today has a fascinating article about brains and how they continue to learn, or not learn, as people get older. The facts suggest that there may be fundamental differences in lifelong learning and intellect between those who continually challenge their own beliefs and experiences and those who stick with a monolithic ideology.

This health care fight may be the defining issue of this Congress, this administration, maybe even this decade – and a bellwether for other progressive agendas.

On Saturday, Aug. 29, four events across North Carolina will send a strong pro-health care message. Here are the details and contact information for organizers of events in Asheville, Charlotte, Greenville and Raleigh.