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Will the real progressives please stand up?
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Sen. Arlen Specter is surrounded by members of the media as he arrives for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on April 28, 2009. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Senator Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic party on Tuesday is symbolic of the change in United States politics...both parties are moving more to the right.
Whereas the Republican party received a right-wing makeover under the Bush administration, the Democratic party has steadily become more moderate. What Senator Specter's defection from the Republican party really represents is not the fall of the Republican, but the rise of the moderate Democrat. During the Bush years, Republicans consistently criticized the "liberal" ideas and policies of the Democrats in office. However, the portrayal of Democrats as the liberal party is a fallacy that was drummed up extreme right-wingers and has now permeated our social consciousness.
This assumption repeatedly resurfaced during the 2008 presidential campaign with the right denouncing then candidate Barack Obama as a "socialist" while the left marketed the future president as the liberal candidate. What we have discovered through his cabinet appointments is that President Obama is more conservative than we had initially been led to believe. Several Republicans, most notably Defense Secretary Robert Gates (who served under President Bush), were appointed to key positions within his administration along with many moderates such as Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
As CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider put it, “Democrats, under President Obama, are really moving to claim the center of American politics.”
So what will happens next?
Since we're moving more towards the middle, it appears we are in a new era of what I've coined as "just enough policies." These policies do "just enough" to satiate the needs, desires, beliefs of all citizens. Meaning that our government is working to appease citizens and not resolve the deep seeded issues that continue the divisions of class, race, and access to equal education and health care that our deteriorating our country and has led us into our latest crisis.
Instead of American politics swinging from right to left like a pendulum, like we've been led to believe, we are more like a justice scale. But instead of tipping the scale to the side of justice (or gross injustice for that matter), our government puts the same amount of weight in both pans in order to maintain the status quo.
As we continue on with "just enough policies" we will find ourselves in a game of give and take. Our rationale will begin or has begun to look as such: because we have a Black president there's no need to continue a conversation on race; we can bailout Wall Street but leave Main Street to ruin; we increase access to health care but not examine the quality of care patients are receiving; and we can decide to re-work No Child Left Behind as opposed to exploring alternative methods of learning.
America's balancing act
The only way in which to sway the centrists and right wingers is to re-vision and finance a cohesive progressive movement with a sustainable and workable alternative model to challenge the current system. The keys words here are finance, cohesive, and sustainable. We must first have the dollars behind our cause to actively compete with Democrats and Republicans. I know this may be a challenging thought for some progressives; however I believe that we can beat them at their own game without playing by their rules BUT first we must get in the race! Second cohesion is the key. Political third party platforms have been largely unsuccessful in this nation because of dissension. One example is Ralph Nader's decision to run for president independently after the Green Party had elected Cynthia McKinney as it's candidate. In order for us to be successful we must unite around one candidate and one vision--if they can do it, so can we! ...remember Clinton vs. Obama? Last creating sustainable models of governance and sustainable policies are vital in order to prove that progressive politics can and will work in the United States. We must build credibility amongst the American public and our political peers. Frankly "the proof is in the pudding." We know our policies can work, now it's time we show the country.
So as liberals, Democrats, and maybe even some progressives celebrate Senator Specter's political rebirth, I ask, will the real progressives please stand up?
