[Sosfbay-discuss] Randy Shaw: Progressives Bear Blame for Cal Woes?

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Posted on California Greening, May 27, 2009.


Do Progressives Bear Blame for Cal Woes? 


by Alex Walker







Editor's Note: 

Beyond Chron
 is one of Northern California's most influential progressive
blogs. one of Northern California's most influential progressive blogs.
It takes its title as the "alternative online daily" to the corporate
Establishment San Francisco Chronicle.
Beyond Chron claims to be "We provide coverage of political and
cultural issues often distorted or ignored by the Bay Area's largest
newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle. Beyond Chron presents a
critical look at the cutting edge issues of the day. Beyond Chron is
published by the San Francisco-based Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Clinic
Director Randy Shaw is the paper's editor. Shaw is a longtime San
Francisco activist who has published three books on activism, The
Activist's Handbook, Reclaiming America, and his new work, Beyond the
Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st
Century. "






In the provocative article below, Randy Shaw makes many of the same
points as my Green Party friends and I. Shaw specifically makes a
charge against California's self-described "progressive" Democrats that
I have been making for years: while the Golden State's well-to-do,
well-connected liberals have made great contributions to the current
resurgence of liberalism in U.S. national politics and the election of
President Barack Obama, they have "dropped the ball" on the political
disaster unfolding in California.

0A



This is an interesting piece on a number of levels. Randy Shaw is,
after all, a loyal progressive Democrat and it is instructive how even
here he betrays some of the paralysing biases of the Democrats. Notice,
for example, how he says L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley "did not emerge from
the party's liberal wing." Never mind that it was Bradley's leadership
that dragged right-wing Los Angeles, kicking and screaming, into the
20th Century in the 1970s. Shaw goes on to say California progressives
include "three very powerful constituencies: labor unions,
environmentalists, and women’s groups" with "Latinos,
African-Americans, gays and lesbians, tenants and housing groups" stuck
onto the end of his grand "progressive" coalition as an afterthought.
He wrote a whole book about Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers in the
1970s but cannot imagine "progressive" leadership coming from anywhere
else but people like himself.  








Posted on Beyond Chron, June 2, 2009.


Progressives Bear Blame for California’s Woes  


by Randy Shaw 







As California faces a fiscal meltdown, Democrats blame Republicans for
opposing essential tax hikes. But progressives own failures should not
be ignored. California Republicans have been anti-tax zealots since the
mid-1990’s, yet progressives failed to prioritize passing a ballot
measure eliminating the 2/3 requirement for budget passage in 1998,
2000, 2004, or 2008, each of which offered a great chance for success.
Progressives have allowed conservatives to put them
 on the defensive in
the state initiative process, and have not mobilized on behalf of a
politically viable progressive Governor candidate since Jerry Brown in
1974. And, if Brown and Gavin Newsom are the only major Democratic
candidates in 2010, this pattern will be repeated. California
progressives launched MoveOn.org, created the electoral model for
Latino political empowerment, traveled to other states for Kerry and
Obama, and contribute massive amounts of money to progressive causes
and candidates across the nation -- but when it comes to preventing
conservatives from destroying our state, we have dropped the ball. 





Clearly, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Republican Party deserve
overwhelming blame for the state’s budget crisis. Both led the recall
of Gray Davis over the hike in the vehicular license fee, eliminating a
revenue source that, if kept intact, would have virtually eliminated
the state’s entire budget deficit. But progressives have long
understood the Governor and Republican Party’s game, yet failed to
implement strategies to overcome it.






Poor Leadership Choices





If you want to capture the sad state of progressive political
strategizing/mobilizing in California, consider that the Democratic
candidates for Governor since 1982 have been Tom Bradley (twice),
Dianne Feinstein, Kathleen Brown (Jerry’s sister), Gray Davis (twice,
plus the recall election), and Phil Angelides.





None of these candidates galvanized the progressive base, or
emerged from the Party’s lib
eral wing. In fact, California Democrats
have consistently nominated people to lead the party who lack charisma,
the common touch, or any of the attributes that Barack Obama displays
on a daily basis.









And now it looks like Democrats will choose between Gavin Newsom and
Jerry Brown (Antonio Villaraigosa is rumored to not be running). The
two California politicians who have shown the least interest in working
with legislative colleagues, and who spent the least time in small
meetings with constituents, will be progressives’ default choice.






We can’t blame Republicans for that.






. . .





Read The Full Text And Leave a Comment At:

http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-progressives-bear-blame-for-cal-woes.html







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