5 Things Progressives Need to Do to Move the Country Forward:

It seems that an ever increasing amount of bandwidth is being dedicated to constructing lists of various things like kittens, movies, ridiculous selfies, and even what passes for political analysis these days (I’m looking at you Buzzfeed, VOX, and Cracked). In an attempt to evolve (and hopefully stave off Darwinian obsolescence), I figured that I would try my hand at this. To be honest, some information is actually better presented as short, punchy, easy-to-remember tidbits. So without further ado, this is my list of the five things that progressives/Democrats need to do in order to move the country forward.



1) Forget about purity:

There’s an old saying that goes something like, “liberals look for heretics, while conservatives look for converts”. I’m not particularly interested in debating the past validity of that statement. What I would like to point out is that conservatives are currently engaging in their own series of ongoing and increasingly ridiculous purity tests. Seriously, if Mitt Romney is a RINO (Republican In Name Only), and David (Axis of Evil) Frum can be excommunicated from their movement, how does a Republican stay in their party’s good graces? (I have an answer, but it’s pretty inflammatory so I’ll leave that be for the moment.)

This presents progressives/Democrats with an opportunity. Sometimes observing the actions of your adversary can illustrate potential pitfalls that one can hopefully avoid, and I think there are few bigger mistakes that progressives can engage in than infighting amongst ourselves over what amounts to small differences when viewed in comparison to what is on offer from the other side of the aisle. Don’t get me wrong, we’re a big country and part of that entails having as many, or more, opinions than people living in it; but if you’re not one of the people that are trying to decide whether tax cuts for Donald Trump, requiring mandatory prayer in public school, or adding Ronald Reagan’s face to Mt. Rushmore is at the top of your political agenda, then you’re not on their team. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll gladly take your vote, but don’t expect for your concerns to be addressed.

I know that may sound overly simplistic, but here’s why it’s not. Our political system is structured in such a way that the creation and maintenance of two, and only two, viable national parties is inevitable. I could get into a long-winded discussion of why this is, but for the moment just take my (and the entire political history of the country’s) word for it. In a public sphere as vast and as diverse as ours, boiling down every issue into an either/or proposition and then insisting that people conform uniformly to a set of positions in order to be a member in good standing of one of the dominant political factions is a recipe for widespread public disengagement. (Gee, I wonder if that’s one of the reasons that only a little more than half the population votes?) Given what is happening in the Republican camp, if what they’re doing, or stand for, makes you uncomfortable, then you need to be with us. And in turn, we need to be accepting, check that, we need to be welcoming, of people that may disagree with us on priorities, or even on some issues. Doing otherwise is a recipe for seeing both houses of congress, the majority of state legislatures, and governorships as well, in the hands of a political party that has lost the ability to govern responsibly. (In case you didn’t notice, that is exactly the current state of affairs) Do we really want to get into fights about whether we should prioritize the environment or working and middle-class economic security at the expense of losing the opportunity to advance either cause, to people that are hostile to both? This leads me to my second point.



2) We’re all in this together, but you can’t please everyone:

Regardless of how you feel about the Occupy Wall Street movement (if you’re still reading this I’m assuming you’re not completely hostile to everything they publicly stand for), the way that they were able to frame the debate of the 1% versus the rest of us was invaluable. While that may be an oversimplification, what can’t be denied is that the wealthy in this country continue to see their economic fortunes prosper while the rest of us see our prospects stagnate or decline. Another thing that I would find it hard to argue against is the idea that the economic interests of everyone (with the possible exception of defense contractors, hedge fund managers, and oil company executives) are better represented by the Democratic Party. It’s not just about economics; Democrats are better on women’s rights, the environment, worker protections, education, healthcare, defense--basically every policy area you can think of. I won’t sit here and pretend that every elected Democrat is excellent on all of those issues, but remember we’re not going for purity; we’re looking for better than the alternative.

Of course there are going to be folks that aren’t convinced; people that think that Reagan single-handedly defeated communism and that tax cuts always produce economic growth. We shouldn’t be trying to convince them otherwise. I’m not writing them off completely, but we need to stop chasing them. Honestly, after the last three decades if they’re not already converted, there’s nothing that can be said to change their minds; their positions have more to do with tribal identity than with anything rational. There’s even research that suggests attempting to debunk their misconceptions results in them digging in their heels even further. That isn’t to say that there will not be some that eventually see the light, but in a country with as many nonvoters as this one, we need to convince the people that are not currently involved in the process, that getting out and voting for the Democratic Party will improve their lives (notice I said improve, it isn’t a cure-all and we shouldn’t try to sell it as such).



3) There are no unimportant elections:

Here is where the rubber begins to meet the road. We have to get people to the polls, every election. Let me say that again for emphasis; we have to get people to the polls every election. Yes, the presidency is important, but so is congress, so is your state legislature, so is your city council. These other institutions are making decisions that affect your life and mine; we need to have people there that are representing our best interests. That is the essence of a democratic republic. I know that it can be tough to get out and vote. You’re busy—you have things to do, kids to run to after-school events, grocery shopping that needs to be done, resting up for another tough day—I get it. It’s important though. If you don’t think it is, ask yourself why so many Republicans are working so hard to limit your ability to do it. Nobody said that changing the country was going to be easy work that you could easily do without getting up from the couch.

I know that there is a tendency for some to throw up their hands and say that the whole thing is corrupt, and that they aren’t even going to bother. Some even go so far as to say that we would be better off if the whole thing collapsed so that we could start over fresh. Let me say something to those people—pull your head out of your ass, and stop acting like a Tea Partier without the white nationalist streak. (Yes, I just went there, and no, trotting out Alan West or Ben Carson out doesn’t change a thing.) I don’t know how else to say it. Government matters, it is essential to the well-being of all of us. Food safety, education, keeping the lights on, things that a lot of us take for granted are there to be taken for granted because government is on the job. Look, I’m not thrilled with its recent performance either, but that’s why it’s incumbent upon us to work to make it better. I can guarantee that if our current experiment in democracy should fail, it will be replaced by something even worse. Look to history if you doubt me.



4) Work for concrete policy changes:

The next step is to have a set of concrete policies that we can lobby and instruct our elected officials to support. Of course we all want things like justice, fairness, equality, and prosperity, but those things are just empty concepts without a set of policies designed to get us there. Fortunately, we already have ideas that would be a good start towards improving the lives of millions of Americans. We need to push our elected officials to support increasing the minimum wage, to strengthen and expand Social Security, to begin to rebuild our infrastructure—the roads, bridges, electrical grid, and more—that allowed us to become a prosperous country in the first place. We need to pressure our elected officials to support our schools through increased funding, greater support of our teachers, and to move away from the endless standardized testing that has replaced educating our children with the act of filling in bubbles on a test form. There are other things too, ideas that haven’t even been widely articulated yet. It will be our responsibility to identify these things, and to pressure our leaders to support them with their votes. Will every Democrat always vote in lockstep with our preferences on these issues, of course not, but remember point #1, insisting on purity will do worse than get us nowhere, it will lead us backwards.



5) There are no saviors: 

Finally, we need to realize that there are no political saviors. The people that we think of as our great historical leaders—Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Martin Luther King—were not successful just because of their personal talents, of which they had many, but because they were able to harness the dreams, hopes, ambitions, and yes, the talents of thousands of people that you’ve likely never heard of. They would have accomplished little if they did not have the support of men and women who trusted that with work and perseverance, the gap between our ideals and our reality could not be closed. As our current president, and a man who will no doubt be added to that list of historic leaders, has often said—“We are the change that we seek.” It is up to each one of us to contribute in the ways in which we are able to the cause of building a greater country, a better today, and a brighter tomorrow.