To close his YearlyKos Keynote, Markos said that "together all of us will build a true progressive America". The important word in that statement is will, because we haven't gotten there yet, nor are we even close. As evidenced by the recent goings-on in Congress, we're simply not a progressive America. But over these past six months we've seen the traditional media's irresponsible and hype-driven coverage of the presidential race infect the Netroots. We've bickered with each other over small details about candidates who, in the end, will all make strong Democratic nominees, and who all can govern as truly progressive presidents. Once we accept those two simple and obvious realities, we can refocus our energies on continuing what we started in 2003: building a true progressive America.
As Todd Beeton wrote yesterday, it seems that many of us are cocky and confident about gains in Congress. What we should be confident about is our chance to take back the White House. President Bush's approval ratings are at historically low levels, and come election time the already lackluster Republican nominee will be pinned to Bush's ass by Howard Dean's DNC. Americans blame nearly every ill on the Republican Party. All top Democratic presidential candidates beat all top Republicans in head-to-head polling. The Democratic nominee will inherit a sophisticated and mature technology-driven infrastructure that will simply pummel the opposition.
That's why we need to refocus our energies and forget about the presidential race. The early primary calendar just doesn't affect that race: it also affects the many Congressional, state, and local races that we really need to start getting involved with right now. And so, the Netroots priorities for 2008 must be, in order:
None of these goals are particularly ground-breaking, as they are mostly an extension of 2006. They've all been discussed at length before (including in Todd's post linked above). But thinking in these terms can give the Netroots a focus for 2008 that hasn't previously existed this cycle.
The 2006 cycle was so successful for us because the "nationally localized" aspect of the race was a mirror of how the Netroots is structured. The 2008 Presidential Primary, consisting of a couple national campaigns controlled by massive money and traditional media coverage, is simply inconsistent with how the Netroots operates. By focusing on the presidential race, we're simply not playing to our strengths.
In our federal government, a party out of power usually has at least one tool to block legislation: the Senate Filibuster. Democrats used this in 2005 and Republicans used it (sort-of) this year. And so the most important step in building a progressive America is making sure that Republican Senators can't block progressive legislation, and that means winning a 60-seat majority.
Secondly, we need to continue the work of the 50-State Strategy. After all the attention focused on Howard Dean's favorite phrase in 2006, it seems like the Netroots has forgotten about it. We need to get back to living and breathing that strategy, not only by supporting the DNC but by supporting organizations like Democracy for America, 21st Century Democrats, Progressive Majority, and the Progressive States Network, who are all actively working to build a Democratic farm team. Of course, we need to continue running for office ourselves.
And thirdly, we need to make sure that the People's House remains that way, and that we'll be calling her "Speaker Pelosi" until she voluntarily retires. The U.S. House was the main engine for Democratic reform for most of the 20th century, and it should be so for the 21st century as well. We're currently at a +31 advantage, let's shoot for +51. That's a modest goal, as we'd only have to net 10 new seats.
We need to let go of the idea the any of the individual presidential candidates are unpalatable or sure losers. Everything points to a Democratic President taking office in January 2009, and we need to give him or her the supporting cast needed to build that true progressive America. It will be an effort that will last beyond the next presidency. So let's stop with Clinton vs. Obama vs. Edwards, and let's continue with our successes from 2006. Our job is not yet done.
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