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The seeds were first sown by Masoninblue in February 2010, and began taking root just six months ago. House and Senate Democrats were about to be swamped in the 2010 midterms, a veritable deluge of distrust most of us had seen coming since the health insurance debacle.
Worsened by the lame excuse for financial regulation approved last summer, the judgment passed in November on congressional Democrats was swift, harsh, and totally warranted. Those whose votes the party rode to an historic victory just two years before would not be bothered going to the polls to support what – it’s now quite clear – is anything but the lesser of two evils.
Just before the midterms, MyFDL readers - prodded by diarist jeffroby - had begun seeking a primary challenger to President Obama in 2012. After the election, the effort gathered steam.
By mid December, readers had chosen 10 preferred challengers, identified five crucial platform points to which any primary challenger – and an eventual Independent or third-party nominee – must commit, and approved a name for the effort: the New Progressive Alliance.
Since those heady days, wheels have been turning:
- The NPA is now registered as a non-profit 527 political organization, free to become a party itself if necessary.
- Volunteers continue signing on to help the NPA grow.
- A steering committee of diverse, devout Progressives was assembled and has twice met.
- An invitation to challenge Mr. Obama has been sent to Elizabeth Warren, whom My FDL readers ranked first among prospective challengers, and
- Work on a Unified Progressive Platform is under way, with the five points chosen here last fall at the top of the list – and the next six winning strong consideration.
More than any other factor, it was the participation of MyFDLers – with the cooperation, though not the official endorsement of FireDogLake and its family of sites – that enabled the founding of the NPA, and for that we are eternally grateful. We knew, however, that sooner or later we’d have to give the effort a home unto itself, and that’s today’s news: The NPA web site is up and running!
Long before the NPA’s quite organic development, I found FDL and began participating, under the username “themalcontent.” I love it here at the Lake; this community sustains me. FDL’s influence, and many of its diarists’ uncompromising support of a most basic Progressive tenet – that government exists to help make better the lives of all people – have on countless occasions convinced me to keep fighting when I was more than ready to give up. I am proud to be a member of FDL, and encourage all who have not yet joined to do so, to whatever extent your finances allow, by clicking “become a member” at the top of this page.
The New Progressive Alliance’s guiding belief is simple: To give Progressive values the voice they deserve at the national level is going to require rewriting the electoral script that has abetted the erosion of those values by Democrats for more than 30 years. And we have a strategy for doing that.
So now’s the time – as the 2012 elections approach – to seize the Progressive movement that is manifesting in the Mideast, our own Midwest, and with labor organizations which are finally seeing the folly of continuing to support Democrats as they sell out workers’ rights and interests to corporate influence.
For proof positive of what can happen when Progressives speak with one voice, we need look no farther than across our northern border, where Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) last week relegated the Liberal Party – analogous in many way to our neo-liberal Democrats – to parliamentary meaninglessness.
It didn’t happen overnight. Then again, for much of the NDP’s existence, there was no Internet.
The NPA will continue to share with the FDL community the growth and the progress of our mission, and we hope you’ll help us spread the word. We’ve made it easy: Just drop by NewProgs.org MyFDLers, to see and share what you started!
Thanks so much for all you do.
- Anthony Noel, NPA Facilitator
53 Comments
Well done! I shall have to stop by. I am certainly not going to support obama this time around. I happened to hear a short bit of Randi Rhodes’s program on Air America this evening. She was just gushing with happiness about how smart obama is and the great decisions he made in re the obl pictures. Some people just want to believe. I have no more respect for that than for any t bagger.
I assume that the candidate search continues. One question I have long wondered about is what we, the general public, can do to create a better environment for a candidate to step forward in the next couple months, whether under NPA auspices or under their own steam.
Some might argue that continuing to expose the depredations of the Obama White House serves that purpose. I would say that is so only at the lowest level. It leaves open the fantasy of “moving Obama to the left.” It leaves open the option of voting for Obama while holding one’s nose (or other appendage).
I would argue that any diary exposing the Obama scourge should include the call, plea, polite request, demand, whatever, to Dump Obama, using the Democratic primaries as the first battleground.
Making clear that Dump Obama sentiment is still widespread, it would increase the pressure on a progressive candidate to step forward.
The second battleground is within the organizations that present themselves as progressive. Their leadership is going to be revving up their Obama endorsements, and getting dollars to get out the vote for Obama. Depending on the specific terrain, organized blocs could urge them to endorse the NPA backed candidate or, at minimum, make “no endorsement.”
Great start and a great website! Bill Maher was right when he cautioned, “Obama is not your girlfriend.” I am finding that for some the irrational emotionalism of Obama lovers rivals that of jilted lovers. It is not good that both tea partiers and many democrats are making their own reality. The NPA is a needed movement. Because FDL has been so supportive I will also support them financially.
There’s organizational evidence here – but looking at the website, personally, I need those top 5 not the bottom 5 of 10 issues worked out and candidates aside from just an invitation to Warren.
Moar pleeze.
Anthony,
Thank you for crediting my contribution to the effort to create a new progressive political party. I regret that difficult financial circumstances overwhelmed my wife (Crane Station) and me from time to time. Negotiating financial tsunamis isn’t fun and sometimes there isn’t any energy left over to do other things even when you want to do them.
I thank and congratulate you for all that you have accomplished. I fully support your efforts and I urge everyone to join the cause. Obama and the Democrats are not an acceptable answer to me. It’s time for all of us to break away from the awful Democrats and create a new future together.
Re “8) Regulate of the Constitutional Rights of Corporations” of the platform, you might see “FREE THE CORPORATIONS!!!” (video) and read “SWANSON: Law professors and former Attorneys General call for constitutional amendment” (Oct. 4, 2010) then go through the website including the webinar.
looking at “Not All Responses to Citizens United Are the Same”
Local action webinar tomorrow!
OT: The recommend button here at FDL has been fixed.
Just sayin’.
Good work, Anthony. Looking to hear more, and perhaps contribute as circumstances and opportunities dictate/
As the nation’s largest firefighter union has dumped Dems (financially) at the federal level, at least for this election cycle, maybe one of the smartest things to do is to stop by local fire stations, drop off some NPA flyers, and explain why you want to Dump Obama and his henchmen.
IF the union leadership came on board, that would be huge. However, it’s not smart to wait around for union leadership, in general. (Or any putatively progressive leadership.) Members can, and should, be approached directly, also.
I still believe that the phrase “Dump Obama” is particularly potent, much like “Dump Johnson” was all those years, ago. Maybe a slightly watered down version that would still work well is “Dump Democrats”.
Also, why not ask Canada’s NDP for support, both as an organization, and via a redirected appeal directly to their own membership? Even if they can’t formally support NPA, their members can, individually.
“It’s time for all of us to break away from the awful Democrats and create a new future together.”
As a person who has been saying this since NAFTA, it’s an unexpected pleasure to see a consensus gathering around it. That troublesome demographic, white working class men, will appreciate an alternative to the D’s and R’s. I guarantee it. Remember – Labor creates wealth and Solidarity creates power.
The problem with NPA or FDL for that matter is that they are top down organizations. What is needed is something that attracts people rather than seek people out and attempt to persuade them to join the cause. I thought organizing by towns, the smallest political unit, by providing something of interest-the town checkbook, real estate offerings without brokers, student appraisal of teachers-whatever makes people want to join. Once you get the network, you can consider other uses for it.
I also believe we can begin here on FDL to attempt to create a real community run by the membership. It means developing ways to hold meaningful conversations on line with a way for the membership to reach consensus. The membership only FDL is a step in the wrong direction.
I also believe primarying Obama is a pipe dream. The Dems are as bad as the Repubs. We need a new political organization. We need to do it online and it needs to be member driven. Think our space rather than myspace.
A primary challenge is an expediting tactic in a much broader strategy. The fact is that the huge majority of Americans only pay attention to politics for about four months every four years, and a primary challenge is the surest way to raise their awareness that the powers that be are facing a real challenge – and to win them over to the opposition.
I agree – they are just as bad. From the diary: “The NPA is now registered as a non-profit 527 political organization, free to become a party itself if necessary.”
Based on your comment, ekunin, I wonder if you’ve visited newprogs.org yet, and at least given it a read? I think you’ll find you are in agreement with much of what you’ll find.
- Anthony Noel
The example of Tunisia segueing to Egypt comes to mind. Canada is not just a pretty face!
Recommended!
Steps going in the right direction, FINALLY!
Kelly, thanks for the comment!
“Moar”
is being worked on, and we need help. Position papers on each platform issue are next, and we’d welcome your help in writing them, so please consider volunteering.
The invitation to Warren is the first of up to ten that will be sent – and followed up on – to the list chosen here last fall. If none accepts, we broaden the search, and the fact of the refusals themselves helps prove how unwilling partisan Dems are to challenge “their” party’s machinery. And we will be trumpeting that eventuality, when it occurs, loudly indeed.
Thanks Masoninblue, and no regrets necessary. You and Crane Station are contributing wonderfully to the conversation here at FDL, and the power of a well-timed comment cannot be overstated. I sincerely appreciate your continuing support of the NPA effort and your energy in getting it started.
Many of us are keeping you and Crane Station in our thoughts, and will continue the fight on your behalf.
Thanks BeachPopulist! We’ll appreciate any help you might offer, especially as a volunteer.
The importance of the NDP’s success in Canada last week is huge, and Americans – American workers in particular – need to sit up and take notice.
After the vote, Alan Maki, who is Director of Organizing for the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council and a member of the NPA Steering Committee, sent out this note:
Alan has traveled Canada extensively, talking to workers and supporting their efforts to win committed, principled representation at the national level. He was recommended to the NPA steering committee by Cindy Sheehan, and in just the couple of months we’ve been in contact has proved an invaluable addition to the effort.
You can read Alan’s blog here.
Thanks PeasantParty!
I think one way to create that environment, Jeff, is by individuals pressuring the people on the NPA list with letters and e-mails. I also believe that as each refuses, it increases the pressure on successive prospects to step up; each refusal is evidence of the extent to which Democrats at the national level are prevented from thinking for themselves. Exposing that reality is critical to educating the broader electorate about the completely theatrical nature of our political process as it now operates.
Thanks for your comments and other observations, all are spot on, IMO.
- Tony
I desperately do NOT want to vote for Obama in 2012 and I’ll do what I can to avoid that.
Cynicism aside, I couldn’t vote for Trump. Although if his dead wombat ran I’d at least look at it’s positions.
Boxturtle (Though you DO have to ask if Trump could do worse)
Yay! Recommend. NPA!!
Thanks IsIs!
One possible move is to make the appeal to Warren, et al., more public. You may recall my open letter to Kucinich. Quite apart from whatever impact it may have had on Kucinich himself, its purpose was to build public sentiment for primarying Obama.
One soft spot in the NPA setup is that there are two (for the sake of this discussion) kinds of people out there — (1) people who will commit to an actual organization with all that entails, and (2) people who may want to be part of a more amorphous anti-Obama movement for all sorts of reasons. Making more direct appeal to (2) should, in fact, build (1).
In other words, movement and organization are two quite different beasts, and conflating them either constricts the movement or muddles the organization.
I can’t say you aren’t raising serious issues. But I think we have to start from the premise that failure may be our fate regardless of whether we make all the best possible moves. What we are trying to achieve is extraordinarily difficult.
That said, let me address a few points:
(1) You say, “Once you get the network, you can consider other uses for it.” That’s not true at all. For instance, one can organize around legalizing marijuana (which I’m all for). Many stockbrokers would like that, providing them a safer alternative to cocaine on their lunch breaks. But there is no reason that they would then support regulating Wall Street because YOU had organized them around marijuana.
The strength of the NPA approach is that — while it doesn’t fetishize program or platform — it puts forward a distinctly populist platform. Regardless of what its candidate may or may not do, the people organized by the NPA will have those populist beliefs, and can hopefully be mobilized in other ways consistent with those beliefs.
(2) “The problem with NPA or FDL for that matter is that they are top down organizations.” Yes, that is a problem. But what can a poor boy or girl do but to play in a rock and roll band? Once a bottom-up process had created the candidate list and rough outlines of a platform, it went top-down in consolidating that. I thought excessively so.
But in all honesty, I have to ask whether a more process-oriented approach would have worked. (Again, recall that what we are attempting is extraordinarily difficult.) For a time, I was responsible for organizing volunteers to keep spreading the message throughout the blogosphere — not a particularly difficult thing to do, as sentiment against Obama was running high at that point. But what I got was like “I can do an hour or two this week, maybe,” or “I’ll start putting in an hour once I clear up some school stuff.” Or health stuff, or personal business. In a few weeks.
Tony made the choice to go for a more centralized operation, and did so. At this point, we have something that a looser periphery can be organized around, with some degree of organizational stability. The issues you raise remain. They have been around since Jesus and the disciples, and they’ll be around long after the Rolling Stones have stopped touring.
So what can you do with what we’ve got?
I hear ya, Jeff, re more public approaches to prospective challengers, and largely agree. However, there are circumstances involved in contacting some which must be taken into account. In the case of Warren, she holds a federal position. Politicking from federal offices is prohibited by law. Not to mention that in her current position of setting up the CFPB, she reports directly to the President.
The NPA volunteer strategy has a vibrant component for appealing to the 2′s you mention, but for many (both 1′s and 2′s), the lack of a website was a obstacle to committing – so we addressed that first. I do disagree with notion that conflating movement and organization is somehow a problem. I believe we can have both and should strive to, because poorly organized social movements are pretty much the reason we not farther along than we we are today.
But don’t let that stop you, Jeff, from rousing the rabble! (I know it won’t!)
-Tony
Allow me to clarify:
Conflating them would be a problem. But as you say, “I believe we can have both.” Obviously you understand the distinction. It’s just that many do not.
jeff
How nice; you’ve worked hard. ;o)
Thanks for this. I just hope it’s still ongoing if and when I become solvent again and can offer more support than just words. Well done.
Recommended.
“Many of us are keeping you and Crane Station in our thoughts, and will continue the fight on your behalf.”
Too cool, because you will be helping a whole lot of people out there, who simply do not have resources and do not have a voice.
Thanks Crane. That’s the whole point, of course. NONE of “us” has a voice at all, and these criminals in the corporate and congressional halls of power have hoodwinked just enough poor suckers into believing the opposite is true to hold sway.
Time to call them on it.
Thanks wendydavis! You continue to work hard too, and FDL is a better place for it
At the proper moment, Margaret, words can be as valuable as time volunteered or money donated. I’ve had two close relatives declare bankruptcy in the past year, and know what you’re dealing with. Thanks for taking the time to voice your support.
Recommended.
But I have a question:
Is this an attempt at a new party, or an attempt to reform the Democratic party from the inside?
Cool so whats the next step?
“Is this an attempt at a new party, or an attempt to reform the Democratic party from the inside?”
My impression is either will do. At this point it will take a viable third party to reform the democrats. From the website:
“This effort has two main objectives:
(1) To supercharge the founding and growth of a viable third party representing the American Left; and/or
(2) To return the Democratic Party to its historically underpinning ideologies of unremitting support for the working class, dogged regulation of commerce, reluctance to enter into armed conflict abroad, conservation of our environment; and equal opportunity for all.”
Great work, Tony!! So good to see this taking off!!
Thanks for the recommend, jest!
In my opinion, and I think the opinion of a growing number of people, the leadership of the Democratic Party is irretreivably compromised in favor of perpetual war, corporate welfare, and “deficit reduction” at the expense of the basic rights – let alone the protections and benefits for common citizens – inherent in Progressive doctrine (Social Security, Medicare for All, public education, workers rights, equal protection under the law).
The NPA is a dual approach with the objective of bringing about long-term, systemic change using electoral activism as a primary tactic. The NPA is organized with the freedom to become a party unto itself, but our first goal is to unite the Progressive community – disaffected Democrats, Greens, Socialists, Independents, labor, sane Libertarians (there are some out there), and most of all, the huge group of Americans who have stopped voting altogether because they long-since recognized their disenfranchisement by the so-called “two” parties, which are actually on the same side: The side of Profits over People.
The object of primarying Obama is to attract the first group in the foregoing list, disaffected Democrats, and to unite/awaken the others, putting all on notice that there’s a real effort under way to create an uncompromising voice and lasting presence for Progressivism at the national level. It uses the 2012 election as a catalyst. The primary effort will not defeat Obama for the nomination; neither Democrats – nor Republicans, for that matter – are going to allow anyone other than the sitting president to carry his (ersatz) tribe’s flag. But through the primary challenge, a spark can be ignited.
Perhaps the NPA-endorsed General election candidate will be an Independent, a Green, or a New Progressive. That remains to be seen. But challenging Obama, and then refusing to support him in the General election, sends the undeniable, immediate signal that in the class war, we are the resistance – and the alternative – to the ever-more fascist policies enacted and perpetuated by both corporate-owned parties in the guise of “freedom.”
- Tony
As invitations to prospective challengers continue being “worked,” we are organizing and mobilizing the volunteer effort, TCU. Initially there will be five volunteer groups focused on specific needs: Platform committee, promotion, oganizational outreach, state outreach, and administration. Please click here if you’d like to volunteer some time; even an hour a week will be helpful. And thanks!
- Tony
Spot on. The Democrats can’t be reformed while the people in power are focused only on retaining that power to the exclusion of everything else. That’s part of the problem. There comes a time when an automobile frame is too rusty to salvage or the tree’s core is too rotten for it to remain standing. Such is the Democratic Party.
The New Progressive Alliance at http://newprogs.org/ will fight for real change including a primary for Obama or running an independent candidate. The time for hoping to get the 2008 candidate back is long gone.
If you read the full strategy section, ed2291, you’ll note that thinking has evolved somewhat:
Hi Julia! Thanks for all your support. Round us up some Michigan Greens!
Margaret, as another who is ‘running on empty’ (and probably will be till my life ends)let me also say that your words do more than you know. I used to know all the words to Milton’s “On His Blindness” but the line that has stayed with me is:
They also serve who only stand and wait.
You do more.
[And by the way, the julianna who is posting videos here isn't me. My old computer can't even show me videos, so please direct your praise to the appropriate spelling :~) ]
I guess that’s why I asked. In order to primary Obama, they’d have to be a Democrat to qualify or vote in the primary. That excludes Greens like myself, so it would have to be an “inside job” by reformed Democrats. At least for the primary related stuff.
Nevertheless, I like the way this is going.
“the second “main objective” – attempting to bring the Democrats back to their senses – has been dropped.”
This makes a lot of sense. I’m glad to see that change in thinking.
Well, as the Oscar winner for best documentary of the same title – Inside Job – makes clear, the Democrats were complicit in the deregulation which brought about the global financial crisis, so there’s a certain symmetry in gutting their corrupt organization from the inside.
Obama signed up millions and millions of African American and first-time voters to the Democratic Party ranks in 2008, and just two years later they stayed home in disgust – but they’re still registered Democrats. They, largely – but not completely – comprise the disaffected Democrat component of the coalition the NPA seeks to build, and their support for a primary challenger can help catalyze the NPA effort.
One could register Democrat for the sake of primary leverage, then re-register — or just vote — independent for the generals. This is going to be a long fight.
One merit of the NPA is that its platform is solidly populist. Thus it can appeal both to progressive Democrats and progressive independents. The various 3rd parties are well to the left of that, but in my opinion that makes it difficult for them to capture the bulk of progressive independents (recall that those not registered in the 2 parties constitute 40% of the electorate).
See How to Destroy the Democratic Party for some strategic thoughts on this.
It’s easy to say “been there, done that” to the inside track of working within the Democratic Party. I personally recall the efforts of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which had a left program and wanted to take over the Democratic Party. But the DSA had to take a blood oath to support the DP as part of their price of admission.
The NPA pays no admission price, and while I hope it can build a base within the DP which can ultimately go independent, it has no illusions of taking it over.
Precisely!
Thanks mzchief, for the links! Duly noted for background as position papers are drafted.