Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

  • Shop
  • Subscribe to BMG
  • Contact
  • Log In
  • Front Page
  • All Posts
  • About
  • Rules
  • Events
  • Register on BMG

On “Resurrecting The Liberal Project”

December 22, 2013 By markbernstein

A century ago,  a popular ex-president stood before a presidential nominating convention and concluded:

We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.

And, for the following century, liberals and progressives have lived under the shadows of each of the clauses of that summons. We are right, yes, but we have always been embattled. And, for a generation, it seems, we have been fighting — often desperately — to defend the achievements of our grandparents and great-grandparents from the onslaught of that coalition of corporate greed and nativist know-nothingism that we call today’s Republican Party.

As jconway observes, our defeats have been bitter and we have come to define victory as leaving things not much worse than they were before. Social security is damaged but not yet privatized and discarded? We have prevailed. Contraception and abortion are shunned and stifled but are not yet made crimes: we have prevailed again. Food stamps are restricted while hungry people fill our streets and homeless children crowd our shelters: at least we have preserved part of the program for some of the people who need it.

This has been our world. But — again jconway has it right — it might not, it need not, be our future. We have been winning. We should be winning: we believe, after all, in reality. And there is every reason to expect that we can continue to win. Nationally, we just won an extremely challenging presidential election: if we won in 2012, we should be able to win on any given first Tuesday. Virginia is turning blue. Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico: all are coming to their senses.

On issue after issue, we are winning. I’m not old, and I remember a segregated South and Northern neighborhoods with restrictive covenants against Jews. People throughout the country now overwhelmingly agree that people should love whom they love, that women should be free to work in whatever field they like, that life-saving medicine should be available without question to those who need it. These were progressive, liberal positions only yesterday: now, they’re common sense.

And locally, too, we’re winning. When we desperately needed to reclaim a senate seat — when it seemed Scott Brown could be the Republicans’ 51st vote — we did not settle for a tolerable conservative. We ran the best of all possible Democrats, and we won. We put Ed Markey in the senate and Katherine Clark in the House. The echoing horns of the Busing battle still make Beacon Hill a tough place for progressive ideas, but, even there, we’re gaining ground.

If you meet a stranger at dinner, and you know only that she is an eminent surgeon or an acclaimed novelist, a top scientist or a software artist, you don’t need to worry about talking politics because you can pretty well assume you’re both on the same team.

So jconway is right. It’s been a difficult spell. It had to be: for a century, the American progressive was necessarily allied with the American racist, and breaking those shackles hurt. But that’s over now. We’ll lose some elections, sure, but we’re going to win a lot more than we lose and, for the first time in years, we can elect the people and support the policies we really want.

This adjustment is going to be hard on progressives and liberals. All we have to do is to decide what to do with the time that is given us, and roll up our sleeves. There are people to feed, art to make, science to discover, sickness to cure, a climate to preserve, and winter is coming. It’s time for liberals and progressives to stand up, to speak out.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0
0

Filed Under: User Tagged With: barack-obama, global-warming, history, progressive, reading, strategy

Comments

  1. jconway says

    December 22, 2013 at 8:16 pm

    For the kind words and shoutout! We must always be the party of the worker as well as the thinker, the doer as well as the dreamer, a party of actions as well as words, and a party that continues to boldly move forward advancing the cause of freedom, justice, and equality at every turn with the best and brightest ideas to ensure progress while also defending nearly a century of tangibly real political achievements. It’s always time to change the country for the better-no better time than the present.

  2. bluewatch says

    December 23, 2013 at 12:11 am

    It’s time to speak out against the corporate capture of our politics. Spending huge sums of money, Wall Street bankers and Chamber of Commerce corporations are corrupting our system of government and lying to the public. Here is a quote from a former President, who was a republican:

    “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.”
    ― Theodore Roosevelt

Recommended Posts

  • No posts liked yet.

Recent User Posts

Predictions Open Thread

December 22, 2022 By jconway

This is why I love Joe Biden

December 21, 2022 By fredrichlariccia

Garland’s Word

December 19, 2022 By terrymcginty

Some Parting Thoughts

December 19, 2022 By jconway

Beware the latest grift

December 16, 2022 By fredrichlariccia

Thank you, Blue Mass Group!

December 15, 2022 By methuenprogressive

Recent Comments

  • blueeyes on Beware the latest griftSo where to, then??
  • Christopher on Some Parting ThoughtsI've enjoyed our discussions as well (but we have yet to…
  • Christopher on Beware the latest griftI can't imagine anyone of our ilk not already on Twitter…
  • blueeyes on Beware the latest griftI will miss this site. Where are people going? Twitter?…
  • chrismatth on This site (will be disabled on) December 31, 2022I joined BMG late - 13 years ago next month and three da…
  • SomervilleTom on Geopolitics of FusionEVERY un-designed, un-built, and un-tested technology is…
  • Charley on the MTA on This site (will be disabled on) December 31, 2022That’s a great idea, and I’ll be there on Sunday. It’s a…

Archive

@bluemassgroup on Twitter

#mapoli

brianna_asavage Brianna Aloisio Savage @brianna_asavage ·
26m

Alongside YW Boston, I am grateful for Rep Nguyen, Rep Shand, and Sen Miranda's leadership on #ParityonBoard, filed this month! #ParityonBoard #mapoli #equity #representationmatters https://lnkd.in/efxNCWAk

Reply on Twitter 1620117417677524993 Retweet on Twitter 1620117417677524993 Like on Twitter 1620117417677524993 Twitter 1620117417677524993
homesforallmass Homes for All Massachusetts @homesforallmass ·
27m

“A group approx. 25 Lynn activists drove to Boston Sat morning, where they rallied outside the State House — alongside dozens of housing justice advocates, labor union leaders and tenants — in support of a legislative rent control package.” https://www.itemlive.com/2023/01/29/lynn-activists-rally-for-rent-control/ #MApoli

Reply on Twitter 1620117240896163841 Retweet on Twitter 1620117240896163841 1 Like on Twitter 1620117240896163841 1 Twitter 1620117240896163841
andreabaldy55 Andrea Baldwin @andreabaldy55 ·
27m

Too funny @massgop #mapoli #DumpJimLyons

Kenneth Glennon @kennethglenn06

Jim Jones Lyons @JimLyonsMA team of Spaceballs are running out of time to further take the @massgop from suck to blow! Don't get your Schwartz twisted, Lyons, Door-Dash Diehl and Motormouth McMahon are preparing to jump to LUDICROUS speed to finish the job! #DumpJimLyons #mapoli

Reply on Twitter 1620117094988931073 Retweet on Twitter 1620117094988931073 Like on Twitter 1620117094988931073 Twitter 1620117094988931073
alisonkuznitz Alison Kuznitz @alisonkuznitz ·
35m

"We are taking every single precaution and really sparing no expense to ensure that both patients and providers can feel safe, that their personal information will not be shared." #mapoli https://www.masslive.com/politics/2023/01/mass-launches-abortion-legal-hotline-in-new-push-to-defend-reproductive-care.html

Reply on Twitter 1620115202388955137 Retweet on Twitter 1620115202388955137 Like on Twitter 1620115202388955137 1 Twitter 1620115202388955137
bncordeiro Brock N. Cordeiro @bncordeiro ·
39m

Rep. Rodney Elliott of the 16th Middlesex district is the newest cosponsor (34th) of An Act to reduce incidence & death from #PancreaticCancer (House Docket #393/Senate Docket #264) THANK YOU! #magov #mapoli @ACSCANMA @PanCANBoston @PanCAN @letswinpc @lustgartenfdn @worldpcc

Reply on Twitter 1620114111085559810 Retweet on Twitter 1620114111085559810 Like on Twitter 1620114111085559810 Twitter 1620114111085559810
prof_eob Dr. Erin O'Brien @prof_eob ·
42m

Compared to state leg districts in MA, districts in other New England states have higher likelihoods of women running for office:
- 108% higher likelihood for Connecticut
- 183% for Maine
- 412% for New Hampshire
- 90% for Rhode Island
- 314% for Vermont

#mapoli #NEpoli

Reply on Twitter 1620113407197446145 Retweet on Twitter 1620113407197446145 Like on Twitter 1620113407197446145 1 Twitter 1620113407197446145
Load More

From our sponsors




Google Calendar







Search

Archives

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter




Copyright © 2023 Owned and operated by BMG Media Empire LLC. Read the terms of use. Some rights reserved.