Tweet
At the first Coffee Party meeting held Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to interview Annabel Park, the nonideological Coffee Party founder who is a fierce advocate for democracy and has an unshakeable faith in Americans’ ability to unite for the common good. The purpose of the interview was to explore the implications of the Coffee Party for progressives.
After speaking with Ms. Park, I see her effort as neither progressive nor centrist. She is fundamentally a small-"d" democrat who wants to change our political culture. However, I believe her Coffee Party initiative holds many lessons and opportunities for shifting existing progressive organizing efforts from top-down control to decentralized decision-making and empowerment. It also offers progressives an opportunity to begin building new, democratic local infrastructures in their communities.
Here is an excerpt from the transcript of the interview (full transcript available at Democratize the Progressive Movement blog):
Democratize Blog: Many local Tea Party chapters also have very sophisticated democratic structures. How does the Coffee Party differ in that respect? Is it centered around different values about the role of government?
Annabel Park: I’m glad to hear that the Tea Party has a democratic structure. I think the current problem for the Tea Party is that some of the rhetoric that I see coming from the Tea Party – and they might have at the organizational level a set of democratic principles – but I think their output in terms of their rhetoric is alienating to a lot of people in America.
It might not be that all members subscribe to those tactics and that kind of rhetoric, but that’s what we’re seeing at the national level. We definitely want to get away from that kind of contempt that we sense from them towards federal government and people who disagree with them. I think our desire to sit down and talk and have dialogue first is very different from the Tea Party. In the end, we might agree with them about a lot of things, but our journey to getting there is going to be different.
Democratize Blog: Your website has a lot of progressive rhetoric about government responding to voters instead of corporate interests, and some people have seen this as the liberal answer to the Tea Party. But are you hesitant to call the movement progressive?
Annabel Park: The thing is that the problem with that whole discourse is the assumption that the government is an entity that is not dynamic, that doesn’t change over time. What I think needs to happen is that we have to have our government restored so that it represents the people more accurately. Right now, our political process has broken down, so that the representative democracy part isn’t working that well. So we have to figure out how to fix this so it really becomes an expression of our collective will.
The problems that we have right now are special interests having too much power over our government. It’s something that needs to be changed. It’s not a permanent fact about our government, it’s like an illness that it’s suffering from that has to be treated.
Read the full transcript and additional commentary at Democratize the Progressive Movement
* * *
13 Comments
I think her goals are too vague to catch on. What they do express in terms of goals don’t reach me that well. I do think the system is too screwed to repair. I admit that in that respect I agree more with the tea party and I think most progressives feel the same way. I don’t think the dems will reform by just participating in the process. I have more hope in the california student protests than this movement. I am suspicious of calls for civility because the villiage uses it to call anyone that wants to end the war and institute public option uncivil and rude.
“I think her goals are too vague to catch on.” It’s just a blabfest to let people vent and it stops right there. As long as people DO NOTHING beyond talk the Villagers won’t pay any attention to them. The Students know this and we have a long tradition of actual demonstrations at that level of society. I came in here last week and proposed a March, a big one on DC to demand Single Payer, in the same spirit as the student protests going on. I was basically dissed and told marches don’t work, anymore. BS they don’t. Just because the so called MSM doesn’t cover them the way they cover three tea party people and a gun doesn’t mean the pols aren’t paying attention. I was not only dissed here but also at KOS. The Progressive movement and to be honest, I have to gag a bit saying that, because right now I don’t see anything more then a Progressive balbfest online. The Progressive blabfest has got to get out from behind our collective kbs and do something in the REAL world like the students. Other wise we’ll continue to get what were getting, a royal screwing.
The problem is people DID get off their asses as they were drawn in by the populist rhetoric of Barack Obama. They ushered his lying ass into the White House, only to discover they’d been duped — he’s just another Blue Dog Corporatist.
People have to believe Change is possible if they’re to leave their homes. Obama made them believe that, and after he trampled upon an entire young generation’s sense of hope and enthusiasm for getting involved, it will be twice as hard to get them motivated again.
People need to believe that they can overcome the entrenched interests that somehow manages to ensure the status quo every time around. Another way of motivating people is anger — anger that their politicians are ignoring them. Anger that their friends are dying overseas. Anger that they have no job opportunities. The Tea Party has tapped into that anger.
To get together and sip lattes and discuss civility is not what the core of either party — those who are willing to devote real energy — are all about. The energetic members of each party tend to be the ones who have strong feelings and believe in things — they won’t be attracted to shallow blather over lattes.
Peaceful marches can be compartmentalized and ignored if the media won’t broadcast them. And they only cover protests from the right because they protect the status quo. They are confused little brownshirts. If a march is going to work, it would have to be done like the greeks and french do it and that includes serious civil disobedience. Those people shut down as many departments as possible be storming them so business can’t get done. Politicians are warned the mobs are coming and they get out a head of time. http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/
According to the WSJ The 2 day civil servant stike in the UK was just settled.
Thanks for your comment – I share your enthusiasm about the UC protests and am hoping to learn and write more about that. Right now, the Coffee Party is sort of a blank canvas because of its focus on process, and that means whoever shows up at the meetings could potentially determine its focus. I think at the very least, it can offer us lessons for how to build an authentic movement at the grassroots level, and is worth checking out.
“Right now, the Coffee Party is sort of a blank canvas” I agree. I think a big reason why this is so is because there are still many people who voted for Obama that just don’t get it yet. They don’t want to take off their blinders and really watch what this guy is doing. They’ve invested in his regime and now the power of rationalization and denial has taken them over. I have many friends like that. When I pt. out what he and the Dems. have done or haven’t done they just shrug their shoulders and say its to early or the Gopers are to blame or what can we expect Congress is always corrupt etc etc etc. They just WANT to make excuses for him and it drives me crazy.
“People need to believe that they can overcome the entrenched interests that somehow manages to ensure the status quo every time around.” The only way to achieve that kind of dream is to NOT vote for candidates that are nothing more then Corp. shills. The problem is the Corp. shills have most of the $$ necessary to run massive media based campaigns to try to convince them other wise and so far its worked. As for Obama I agree he flat out lied about himself. he was anything but an agent of “REAL” change from a Progressive view pt. He very carefully DRESSED /framed his candidacy in Progressive cloth and then let us all paint in the rest for ourselves. It was a conscious plan and it galls many of us that it was such a blatant betrayal of trust. For his part he says he never was a Progressive to start with and never promised us anything in particular. Still, I agree with you that he’s left a terrible sour taste in the mouths of the young and many of us seasoned veterans as well. I won’t give him any $$ next time or left a finger to help him, etc. Given the choices then honestly I probably will vote for him if only because of the SCOTUS. ( I can’t allow in good conscience a Goper in to be there to make a Court choice like Alito or Roberts again. But, beyond a vote he gets nothing from me and I won’t vote for Corporatist candidates lower down. Sorry, if that sounds some what hypocritical but I have to be honest about it. Obama of course is counting on just that , so be it.
You’re right, he is counting on that. And Rahm probably just read your comment and will use it to prove to his boss that we have nowhere to go, but to Obama. :)
I will intentionally do what I can to make things worse — vote for third party candidate — to make the Dems realize they are completely wrong in that line of thinking. I will not vote for this unsustainable status quo ever again.
I understand, why your bitter, so am I. We’ll have to agree to disagree on the making things worse part. It’s already in my view bad enough.
So you continue to just do what you’ve been doing, expecting different results next time? My intentions aren’t directed towards making things worse (even though I more or less said that :) ), I’m just willing to take that risk in an attempt to let the establishment party (Democrats) know that there is a serious risk for maintaining the status quo.
Picking the lessor of two evils has continued to leave us with a broken government unable to reform itself and unable to legislate in ways that benefit the people of this country.
Sometimes it has to get worse, before it can get better. Obama has proved that much.
Gotta agree with you on this. Starting to think people are dense. Grassroots campaigning/electioneering has been going on now for decades. What has it accomplished? Nothing. I’ve heard it all from change, to getting out and working hard for a real progressive, to voting for lesser of evils, to partisan voting to prove points, to…well you get the idea. It’s never worked. Won’t work now and won’t work in the future. It’s really that simple. I’ve taken part actively in everything I posted above. Was there any changes? Nope. Nothing. One time we did a grassroots heavy duty push for a candidate we thought was lesser of evil and progressive/liberal. Know what happened? He won. Know what happened next? He f*cked up everything he touched and was one of the crappiest politicians ever elected. This is where I disagree with FDL, and every and any other progressive website. You CANNOT make changes from within the current political system. You would have just as much luck convincing as many as possible to support a third party and make the two main parties shit their pants.
That was Lenin’s and the Bolshevik’s disagreement with the Menshiviks back when before the Oct. rev. He argued that until Russia was totally ruined no Revolution was possible. The country did have a rev. and then a nasty nasty Civil War. It was ruined stayed ruined and ended up with something far worse Stalinist murderous regime and endless war. So, lets get realistic here, if things get really really piss poor who do u really think the average guy / gall will turn to for solace ? I think were more like the Germans then the Russians or the British and we’ll turn hard right and end up with some two bit Right wing Dictator 10Xs worse then BV$H. Hell, I was waxing nostaglic for Nixon after a few yrs. of BV$H 2. So, it will only get pushed even further right IMO. A vote for Ralph gave us BV$H so if u want Palin vote for Ralph again. I won’t go that far and I fully realize that I’ll get the neo-liberal Obama. He sucks but he’s NOT Palin and there is no getting away from that as terrible as it is. The Corporatist fucking own 90% of the economy and they pretty much have captured most of the Gov’t that matters as well. Viva La Revolution dude…Game Over! Oh and read your history there was NEVER another successful slave revolt in Rome after Spartacus. The same is now happening here. The Reich wing has worked and struggled against the FDR slave revolt for 80 yrs! They are the ones that can stick to a goal relentlessly even across generations! Why? Because, they’re the RULING Class and they have the most to lose if WE win. Does that mean we will never ever see another FDR. Maybe? Maybe not in any of our life times. Oh and another little fly in our ointment has arisen lately. Its game over for everyone anyway if the latest Global warming facts about huge amounts of Methane ( from methane hydrates) is being released into the Arctic ocean. If that is actually happening, and I have no reason to doubt the Russian scientific teams measuring this and reporting it, then were seriously fucked and all of this is academic. This same kind of event has happened in the past twice we absolutely know of the Permian 99% extinction and the Eocene Extinction both featured a 6 deg. rise in world temps. The addition of huge vols. of methane from the world’s sea beds could trigger another possible 6 deg rise in temps by 2100, this means extinction for most of the human race and the rest of the biosphere. Oh and here’s the rub, the train has already left the station it doesn’t really matter what we do or don’t do, all we can possibly do now is slow it down a bit, but beyond that its coming on fast. Our so called leaders have no intention of doing shit pal so good luck to us.
It sounds to me like you just want to get louder but you’re not willing impose any real punishment or take risks. Obama wont take risks either.
In another context, people that use these tactics are referred to as nagging wives. And they still don’t get any respect.