A failure to plan is a plan to fail. So said a poster here on a different diary today and it got me to thinking. What is the progressive plan for dealing with the Conservadems in Congress who’ve sold us out time and again since the Reagan years?

(crickets)

Yeah, that’s the problem. The debate always comes down to this: Vote Dem or let the Repugs rule. And that’s what happens. Dems lose their base in disgust and Repugs take over. I’m just as guilty. I’ve voted Nader every election until the chance to elect a black man president outweighed the knowledge that this guy was being foisted on us by the corporatocracy.

Instead of worrying about polls, or what the Dems should be doing or what Obama isn’t doing, we should be wholly focused on getting progressives past their primary challenges and replacing Conservadems on the ballot. But we aren’t.

Case in point: Alexi Giannoulias.

It’s hard to believe this is the candidate whom the Democrats wanted as their nominee. As Ben Smith dryly noted, Giannoulias “is about as un-changey as you get.” The Republicans are obviously delighted to have such a target-rich opponent. I suspect this will be another seat added to the political gurus’ ”leans Republican” lists.

Where was coverage of the primary? Where was the grassroots effort to stop this guy from getting the nomination? Where was there even mention that this election was coming up?

Nowhere.

When did I first hear about him? After it was too late. This guy had already won his primary and where were the progressives? They weren’t online trying to raise grassroot support for a progressive candidate.

Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Who’s going to challenge Harry Reid?

Harry Reid may soon have one more Republican opponent in Nevada’s race for the U.S. Senate, and his numbers remain in troublesome territory for an incumbent. Reid, like a number of Democratic Senate incumbents, appears to be suffering from voter unhappiness over the national health care plan and the continuing bad state of the economy.

If anybody needed a primary challenger it was Harry Reid.
The base is fed up with him. Let’s put some of his numbers into focus:

Seventy-eight percent (78%) in Nevada say the federal government has become a special interest group, while 75% say the government and big business often work together to hurt consumers and investors.

That’s the right wing base AND the left wing base talking there. That’s common ground people. Give the left a progressive to vote for and they’d be there for him. And yet nobody is challenging Harry Reid, after all he’s done to sell us out. The option is re-elect Harry Reid or give Nevada to the Republicans.

WHY?

16% of Nevada voters have a very favorable view of the longtime senator, 46% regard him very unfavorably.

Only 16% of Nevadans like Harry Reid. Are you telling me that NOBODY could have defeated him in the primary?

You know what the real point I’m trying to make is? I don’t even know when Nevada’s Democratic primary is. How’s that for not having a fucking plan to get a progressive in office to replace a highly disliked conservadem?

That’s freaking pathetic people! And totally freaking unacceptable.

Let’s take a step back for a moment and reflect upon what’s at stake here:

3,000 Americans are dying every month for lack of healthcare. How many tens of thousands are dying every month because they DO have healthcare but their plan won’t pay for the treatment they need? How many more thousands die each month because as soon as they got sick, their plan dropped them?

People are dying. This is ten times worse than 9-11. EVERY MONTH!

So people, let’s start putting together a freaking PLAN here. The Democratic Party is not going to help us, they’re going to do everything they can to fight us. There are going to be obstacles galore set up to get in our way. The only way we’re going to ever see real change is if we start it right here on FDL.

So I am asking that this website set up a section devoted NOT in reporting what the Dems are doing, but to be used by us, to work and to plan and to recruit candidates and to raise money and to do whatever it is that we can do to get progressives, homegrown from our own ranks, up and running for office and challenging Dems in the primaries in 2012 and beyond. I am asking that more attention be paid to upcoming primaries and that said attention start being paid to them sooner.

I am asking for those of you represented by conservadems find the courage to stand up and run against them and count on our support.

Alan Grayson did it. So can you.

As members of Congress begin to report their fourth-quarter fundraising totals, here’s a number that will pop a few eyes: $850,000.

That’s the amount raised by Rep. Alan Grayson, the freshman Florida Democrat dubbed a "wing-nut" by the New York Times – he set a record on November 2 when his "money bomb" raised $514,000 in one day.

He now has roughly a million dollars in cash on hand for his reelection campaign.

Grayson says that money came in small contributions, averaging roughly $35 a piece, from more than 10,000 donors.

"The main thing is that it’s clean money," Grayson told HuffPost. His ability to raise a substantial sum from a small and broad base of donors holds the potential to change the way campaigns are run and Congress operates, Grayson said.

It’s time we stopped being reactionary. It’s time we started having a plan.