Date: January 20th 2010

I don't know this guy, but he seems to be a pretty nifty thinker. He one of the people who writes legislation and stuff but does it in his spare time. He sends things to me. Sometimes I forward them. I think that what happened in Mass. was pretty interesting. To me, all this does is re-affirm my disgust for a 2 party system. But if people are pouring energy into something with the intention of a progressive agenda I'd be remiss not to at least forward an email.

He right. We need to be bolder. All of us. Stand our ground. This wishy-washy excuse/expert mode is a cop out. Real change is gonna fucking hurt. You can't have all of it both ways. You can't have all of it. You can't have it both ways. You certainly can't have all of it both ways. Settle for some of it one way. Instead of none of it anyway. The House of Reps reminds me of a bad divorce. Where everyone compromises and no one gets what they want.

here is Rob's note:

Friends,

I'm sure many of you have heard that the Republicans won a Massachusetts Senate seat in a special election yesterday.

Prepare yourself for a wave of propaganda, as corporate media and conservative Democrats try to convince progressives that the Democrats were simply too far to the left, and that's why they lost.

Could it be? Democrats simply tried too hard to help out middle class Americans? They simply were too hard on the banks and insurance companies? They tried too hard to stop climate change? And they simply didn't escalate the wars in the middle east sufficiently? And that's why they lost?!

I don't think so.

Democracy for America had Research 2000 poll voters immediately after yesterday's election ended: Even those who voted for Republican Scott Brown want Democrats to be bolder and they want healthcare reform that includes a public option.

By a margin of three-to-two, former Obama voters who voted for Republican Scott Brown yesterday said the Senate healthcare bill "doesn't go far enough." Six-to-one Obama voters who stayed home agreed. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want the choice of a public option in the bill.

Massachusetts didn't suddenly become a conservative state. Obama won Massachusetts with 62% of the vote, by speaking up for much more progressive change than what he actually fought for once in office. What happened was the Democrats, after winning power, continued down their foolish path of thinking that they can outflank the Republicans by becoming more like them, instead of repudiating them, and fighting for regular people, thus channeling populist outrage into a victory for Republicans.

Please sign this petition by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, asking Democrats to truly fight for progressive change, not capitulate further to corporate interests, both so progressive reform can happen, and so that they don't hand the keys of government back to the Republicans:

http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/reconciliation/?akid=243.250069.-geW6B&rd=1&source=e1&t=2

Here is another interesting article on this topic:

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=7724#more

– Rob Arnow