[Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [Activists] Happy 5th Birthday to PDA]

[Fred Duperrault]

Take a look at David Swanson's remarks (below) about the credibility of 
the "Progressive Democrats of America."

I think his remarks imply that the Green Party is ineffective and would 
be more effective if it dismantled and joined the the PDA.

Food for discussion,

Fred D.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[Activists] Happy 5th Birthday to PDA
Date: 	Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:18:00 -0400
From: 	David Swanson <david at davidswanson.org>
Reply-To: 	david at davidswanson.org
To: 	activists at lists.mayfirst.org <activists at lists.mayfirst.org>



*/Happy 5th Birthday to PDA!/*
By David Swanson

The most useful tool progressive political activists have in the United 
States, at the local, state, and national levels, was created from 
scratch five years ago, and has been developed and sharpened while 
proving itself time and again in each and every week since.  Progressive 
Democrats of America has stood strongly behind truly progressive, 
majority positions more consistently than any other activist group with 
national weight that I'm aware of.  And at the same time, PDA has 
maintained good working relationships with more members of Congress than 
probably anyone outside of corporate lobbyists.  How can this be and 
what should it teach us?

PDA puts progressive first and Democrat (with a capital D for the 
political party) a distant second.  Groups that do the reverse are a 
dime a dozen.  Organizations like MoveOn.org, True Majority, Democracy 
for America, Campaign for America's Future, Center for American 
Progress, and others can be counted on at least 75 percent of the time 
to compromise progressive positions in order to follow the wishes of the 
Democratic Party's national leadership.  This approach leads to cynicism 
among grassroots activists, and further compromise and defeat of 
progressive goals.  PDA opposes wars, not when they are Republican wars, 
but when they are illegal and aggressive wars.  PDA supports 
single-payer healthcare, not when Rahm Emanuel says it's appropriate, 
but when the public wants it, the evidence supports it as the best 
solution, and its advocacy appears likely to lead to the best outcome 
even if that outcome is a compromise.  PDA favors impeachment and 
prosecution of high officials, not when an opposing party agrees, but 
when crimes and abuses have been committed. 

But standing by such positions must mean exile from the inner halls of 
power, right?  And once you're on the outside, you can't get anything 
done, right?  Wrong.  PDA is on better terms with more Congress members 
than are most organizations that sell out for access.  One reason for 
this is the degree to which PDA's positions actually are supported by 
many members of Congress, even though opposed by both parties.   
Single-payer healthcare has a bill to establish it that has been backed 
by a sponsor and 85 co-sponsors.  No other healthcare plan has that much 
support or comes anywhere close to deserving it.  And while many of 
those 86 Congress members who have put their names down for a real 
solution are prepared to sell out, they also know that their best hope 
of looking good to their constituents and justifying themselves to their 
donors and the corporate media, while selling out as little as possible 
or not at all, is if there exists a major public push for what people 
really want.

A great many activists and activist groups around the country take a 
different approach.  They want nothing to do with the Democratic Party, 
seek to destroy it or at least ignore it, and hope to build a new party 
independent of it.  Many of them oppose not just parties but Congress or 
government as a whole.  They seek to change the culture and organize 
massive protest and resistance, but without targeting such action at any 
particular weak link in the chain of corporatist power.  The problem 
with this is that, given the grotesque and corrupting power of the two 
parties to dominate our electoral system and our legislature, there is 
no way for independent activism to have an impact until it becomes 
absolutely immense and overwhelming.  And it's hard to build it to that 
point in the absence of any small victories along the way.  PDA works 
inside as well as outside the system, organizing rallies and protests as 
well as meetings and briefings.  I think activism independent of any 
party influence is absolutely essential.  I want more of it, not less.  
But to do without an inside strategy is to tie one hand behind our 
backs.  To run candidates only in general elections and not primaries is 
a further unnecessary handicap.  You can believe as I do that the 
influence of parties should be drastically reduced or removed.  Or you 
can believe that salvation lies through a particular third party.  Or 
you can dedicate yourself to the reform and strengthening of the 
Democratic Party.  In any of these situations, however, if you place 
progressive change at the top of your agenda, you'll find that joining 
and supporting Progressive Democrats of America is one of the smartest 
things you can do.

But here's the deal.  Being skilled at an inside-outside approach, 
standing up for the public while sitting down with the Congress is 
difficult and valuable, but it does not translate into an ability to 
please the upper echelon of power, to satisfy those at the very top, to 
ingratiate with funders and string pullers, to attract corporate backing 
or corporate media hype.  And so, while other organizations do less in 
every way, some of them bring in many times over the amount of money PDA 
raises from its grassroots supporters.  And activists have been known to 
say that they prefer PDA but will donate to a larger group because it is 
larger, just as people say they'll back their second-choice candidate in 
an election because their television told them it would be silly not 
to.  The analogy is awful though, because backing one organization 
instead of another does not eliminate, but merely reduces, that other 
group.  In choosing organizations, there is no spoiler factor.  If you 
support PDA, it cannot mean that the Free Republic gets to take over 
MoveOn.org.  On the contrary it can mean that Democratic progressive 
groups are forced to move to where the progressive Democratic groups 
are.  Please think about it.

Happy fifth birthday, PDA!  Many happy returns!

http://PDAmerica.org

-- 

David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the 
Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories 
Press.  You can pre-order it and find out when tour will be in your 
town: http://davidswanson.org/book. Arrange to review it on your blog 
and Seven Stories will get you a free copy. Contact crystal at 
sevenstories dot com.

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http://afterdowningstreet.org/user/register

To subscribe to other lists go to

http://davidswanson.org/node/921 





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