The 2008 Elections and Building a Progressive Majority
by Mark Solomon
The 2008 primary season continues to be a high water mark of citizen participation in an electoral process with the greatest stakes in recent memory. Record numbers have registered and voted, tens of millions in small contributions have been collected and thousands have been active in grass roots organizing. Driving this unprecedented upsurge has been a hunger for change. That hunger has been expressed most forcefully in support for Barack Obama. But it has impacted all campaigns, forcing virtually all candidates for President to adopt “change” as a repetitive mantra.
Despite the seeming ambiguity of a generalized demand for change, it has not arisen in a vacuum. It is fueled by intense anger and disgust over George W. Bush’s tenure which has been marked by a disastrous illegal war, criminal neglect of climate change, assaults on the US Constitution, tax and other economic policies that have benefited the super rich at the expense of the middle and working classes, a serious recession and a five year high in joblessness, a growing economic crisis aggravated by the collapse of the unregulated sub-prime mortgage market that has triggered a global liquidity breakdown, rising inflation stoked by the escalating price of oil and a series of scandals that should have led to Bush’s impeachment.
Socialist and other left forces, whatever the activist arena in which they are involved, have a crucial responsibility to reach out to the legions engaged in the electoral process, especially to the broad multiracial, multi-generational and multi-class coalition that has emerged in support of Obama’s candidacy. That coalition, marked especially by a youth awakening and a powerful African American component, constitutes an important fulcrum of a progressive majority. Left activists cannot afford to ignore or decline to engage with that coalition. Nor should they confuse the grass roots’ movement with the Democratic Party and the centrist programs of candidates. They are not the same.
A strong independent voice for ending the Iraq war has had a measurable impact on the positions of the candidates. That voice needs to be continuously galvanized in these critical days of revived catastrophe in Iraq, serious threats against Iran and deepening economic crisis. While the remaining Democratic candidates have formally carved out centrist positions on some issues, Obama in particular has virtually implored the emerging social movement around his candidacy to create a progressive political space essential to moving his candidacy in a substantively more progressive direction. “Change comes from the bottom up, not the top down,” he has repeatedly declared. It is up to all socialist, left and progressive activists whether in the electoral arena or elsewhere, whether committed to independent candidacies or working in Democratic campaigns to unite on the crucial issues.
This is a potentially transforming moment in the nation’s political history. The right wing is certainly aware of this and every day poisons the political water with fear mongering about terrorism and attacks on Obama’s “patriotism” as well as on the patriotism of the entire movement for change. Every day, racist poison is injected into the campaign by the right wing and slyly abetted by the Clinton camp. Those attacks have to be met head on by all progressive forces in and out of electoral politics. They have to be strenuously challenged in the arena of ideas and in sustained campaigns for progressive alternatives for peace, economic survival and unity to combat racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia.
The crucial battle against racism has been given a powerful assist by Obama’s historic “Towards a More Perfect Union” speech answering ferocious attacks on him, on his minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and on his predominantly African American church. Few commentators have noted that in the speech Obama not only documented the deep historic roots of African American anger in slavery, segregation and in persistent discrimination, but also how the racial resentments of white workers obscure the fact that they are ultimately not all that “privileged” by a system that denies them secure employment, adequate health care, secure home ownership and quality education for their children. That message can be the basis for constructive battle to unite working people of all races and ethnicities. It is solid ground for a genuine “conversation on race” in which progressives can play a major role in their work places, communities and organizations.
The primary election campaign urgently needs the injection of an independent voice to link and sharpen issues, build coalitions and set the stage for an historic turn in the nation’s politics.
With the Iraq “surge” now showing signs of collapse and with the costs of the occupation escalating to a breaking point even for this economy, the linkage between the intolerable war and the growing domestic crisis is more compelling than ever. That staggering cost has now been widely acknowledged by leading economists, notably by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes who have estimated long-term outlays for the war to be an unimaginable three trillion dollars. The liquidity crisis in the financial sector has been deepened by the absorption of tens of billions of dollars in Iraq, mainly on borrowed funds that have escalated debt and have contributed to the drying up of capital reserves and sources of credit. The rising price of oil, inflating the entire economy, is in part due to the instability in the Middle East engendered by the Iraq war and threatened attacks on Iran.
Never in the nation’s history has there been such an urgent need to totally end the US occupation of Iraq and redirect billions into the real economy. A rotting infrastructure needs massive investment in rapid transit, bridges, roads and cities. That infrastructure needs to be environmentally transformed, thus creating millions of “green collar” jobs with decent wages and sufficient benefits. Unemployment insurance must be extended with provisions for first-time job seekers. An emergency federal program is needed to save the homes of millions facing foreclosure. Billions freed by ending the Iraq occupation are needed to buttress Medicare and Social Security.
The issues of peace and economic survival are now inseparably linked. Economic survival and the creation of a “green economy” further link the movement for economic justice with the environmental movement. Those connections give great political muscle along with programmatic depth and coherence to the vast new electoral upsurge. They are the foundation for broadened coalitions that constitute the progressive majority. They give all activists in all areas, electoral and non-electoral, independent party advocates and Obama supporters, etc., the focus and substance of a progressive platform to defeat reaction, to pressure the candidates to adopt substantive, progressive positions on the issues and to make a transforming turn in the nation’s politics.
CCDS members and supporters should lend their voices to uniting the emerging progressive majority by joining and aiding the political and organizational mobilization of labor, women, peoples of color, youth, gay and environmental forces. Participation in voter registration and get out the vote campaigns are important. From the bottom up, organizing of community forums, street vigils for peace and economic justice, delegations to members of Congress, letters to the editor, pressing the issues through comments on Internet blogs, resolutions to city councils and aldermen on ending the occupation and funding economic survival, even simply unfurling signs at political rallies calling for ending the war and funding jobs – all make a difference and contribute to advancing the progressive majority.
The country and the world are at an historic crossroads in 2008. We can experience a decisive turn toward peace and progress if we meet the challenge of connecting with new mass political movements and help infuse those movements with a unifying program, giving them a foundation for independent permanence. This is a time for renewed energy and purpose. With our “eyes on the prize,” we can win – yes we can!
Mark Solomon has been a long-time activist in peace and justice movements. He is a National Co-chairperson of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Solomon is a former union printer, and a retired history professor. He has written extensively on US Foreign Policy, peace issues, and anti-racism. His latest book is "The Cry for Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917-1936.
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