Stick a foot in the door -- now! Then round up some extra feet

Digby at Hullabaloo had a good insight this morning. We would do well to jump on this idea too, we Progressives have a lot of catching up to do. To quote:

I realized that I need to remind people of something that's very important for successful governance:

FDR was, of course, a consummate political leader. In one situation, a group came to him urging specific actions in support of a cause in which they deeply believed. He replied: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

He understood that a President does not rule by fiat and unilateral commands to a nation. He must build the political support that makes his decisions acceptable to our countrymen. He read the public opinion polls not to define who he was but to determine where the country was – and then to strategize how he could move the country to the objectives he thought had to be carried out.

If Obama wants to govern as liberally as the political circumstances allow, then we need to work to make sure that the political circumstances include a strong liberal base. Mindlessly cheerleading out of a misplaced sense of loyalty will not help him. As Roosevelt understood, politics are interlocking interests and constituencies that have to be brought to bear to achieve certain goals.

In the current political world, I believe that Obama and the Democrats need a strong left wing that is out there agitating in order that we can continue to build popular support and also give them a political excuse to do things that the political establishment finds too liberal. Being cheerleaders all the time, however enjoyable that is, is not going to help them. Leaving them out there with no left wing cripples them.

One of the problems for Democrats has been that there has not been an effective progressive voice pushing the edge of the envelope. Therefore, when they inevitably "go to the middle" as politicians often feel they must do, the middle become further and further right. It is my belief that one of the roles of the progressive movement is to keep pulling the politicians back to the left, which often means that we are not being publicly "supportive," in order that we really do end up in the middle instead of farther to the right than the country actually is.

I'm not an idiot and I know very well that Obama needs room to govern. A big historic victory, a village predisposed to at least give him a chance and a set of very serious crises to confront will give him that. My role is to make sure that the progressive agenda is pushed as well

The whole post is well worth reading, as Digby always is.

May I add a point to remember? I used to say "Someone has to go too far, so we can go far enough." There's a term for it (can't remember at the moment), but basically if you are bargaining, you never make your best offer first, or you are guaranteed to win less than that as the bargaining goes on.

There's a reason why the right wing is pre-preemptively screaming about the extreme left-wingedness of Obama -- it's to move the window of his possible choices as far to the right as they can, before any bargaining begins. Every time one of those rat-barstuds screams "commie!" they are like the barstud I met in Minnesota forty years ago who accused me, out of a clear blue sky, of being a "nigger lover".

There were no black people around, I didn't know my accuser, we hadn't been discussing race issues, but he slammed that label on me for two reasons -- to remind me he was mindlessly dangerous, and turn me against (or prevent me from cooperating with) a group he took pleasure in hating. Yes he was a jerk, but jerks do much of the killing in this world.

With people like this, reason and niceness will make no impact whatsoever. Aggressive and constant left-wing action won't affect them either, but it will affect the great mass of the population who can still reason -- and further marginalize the jerks.

So, go lefties go! ~flap flap flappity flap~

Noni