Mon Nov 10, 2008 at 18:12:43 PM EST
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| A lot of dismayed progressives and liberals are lamenting president-elect Obama's choices for his impending administration, which include Rahm Emanuel and Jane Harman. That he has moved so quickly to stack it with right-wing insiders bodes ill for the hopes his followers placed in him, for they suggest that the tiny window of opportunity progressives have to influence policy is even smaller than we thought, and closing more rapidly than is warranted. We haven't got until January to line up outside Obama's Oval Office; we don't even have until December.
That is why it is imperative that progressives succeed in storming the proverbial gates to make sure he listens to the people who actually elected him president and handed him a sizable majority in Congress. David Sirota, Paul Krugman, and Al Gore, among others, have all chimed in with this common theme: do not let timidity and the politics of caution thwart badly needed progressive policies. Americans gave Democrats a mandate to govern from the left, albeit an undeserved one. If they let the public down by replaying the worst failures of the Clinton and Carter years, I shudder to think what shall happen after.
November5.org was formed with the help of genuine progressive Ralph Nader, who had sense enough to lay the groundwork for citizen action after the election to pressure Obama and the Democrats to use the mandate given them to implement progressive policies. This is but one tool of many we on the actual left can and should use to shape things to come.
You may have noticed the added links on the left side of the page. I've put up links to news sources, both mainstream and alternative, as well as links to the Congressional Web Sites. I or one of the other administrators here will be putting up more, so as to provide you with the information you need to take action. Progressive Independence was created to organize the left into a cohesive unit, and last week's elections are not a signal to grow complacent. We have tools; now let us use them. |
| Michael Kwiatkowski :: Obama would do well to listen to these people. |
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