Taking back our rights

David Sirotta in The Nation offers some good advice to progressives who are frustrated with the lack of focus in the national Democratic party and its namby pamby pandering for votes in every election cycle at the expense of taking a strong ideological stand.

He rightly points out that inside DC is not the place from which to take back the party. The national guys mostly sold out to the lobbying firms long ago. The new base of power is in state legislatures and towards that end Sirotta has founded, PLAN, the Progressive Legislative Action Network. He describes it thusly.

PLAN will give state lawmakers the tools they need to more effectively fight for a progressive agenda. We will develop model legislation applicable in all fifty states, using the best and most successful models from all over the country. We will build a war room of policy experts to help support those lawmakers as they introduce the legislation and move it forward in their legislatures--something that is absolutely critical to most understaffed legislators. We will build a database of experts who will be available to testify on behalf of bills, and publicize legislation within a given state. And we will work with grassroots groups to run issue advocacy campaigns in states. Using both free and paid media, we will support those lawmakers who are serious about fighting for a progressive economic agenda.

As Sirotta says, "Now it is time to fight back." They won't give up willingly. We need to wrench our country out of the neo-cons' sweaty paws and give it back to the people by developing our own political force.