Cementing progressive gains beyond winning elections.

We have experienced an extremely exciting and historic rout of the mouthbreathing rightwing freaks who have been dominating our national discourse for the last 3 decades. Unfortunately, we need to remember something very important about politics: Elections are important, but they are won or lost based on the perception of the political party built over the periods between elections. Second dose of cold water: The Democrats are not progressive by nature or intent.

We can already see what is happening in the Obama campaign: Lieberman gets a pass, presumably with the tacit (perhaps explicit) approval of Obama. Gates seems to be staying in his position atop the military bureaucracy. Clinton gets Secretary of State. Loads of Clintonite neoliberals (who were a big part of the deregulatory extravaganza that led us into the current morass) getting appointments to advisory and oversight positions in the economic structure. Brennan getting serious attention for a top slot in the intelligence infrastructure…

We should not be surprised or particularly dismayed by much of this, because it is part and parcel of the standard operating procedure for the Democratic Party. The Democrats are, in general, timid reformers at best, tepid when it comes to enacting real change even when they have an overwhelming mandate to do so. Why do they do this? Because their interests lie in the maintenance and survival of the current economic, political and social order.

So, the immortal question… “What is to be done?”

The answer is clear: More of what we are doing, better, faster, stronger. The appeals to populism made by both candidates are indicative of the fact that there is a massive groundswell of general discontent in this nation. The blowout that was this election is indicative of the fact that this is, indeed, a Center Left nation (at minimum), and that people really do want serious change in the way business and government is done.

Don’t get me wrong: The Democrats will no doubt make some serious and welcome changes. The people appointed will be competent and serious for the most part, and will operate inside the government in far more efficient and intelligent fashion than the cretinous idiots infesting the previous administration (Let's not dwell on the fact that a blind goat could do that at this point.) I proudly and happily voted for Obama and for my local Democratic Representatives and voted Democratic all the way down the ticket, and will continue to do so.

At the same time, it is clear to me that the Democratic Party as a whole is not particularly interested in the kind of radical changes that will be required to truly fix the mess that we’re in, not in a fashion that will both get us out of the morass and prevent such a clusterfuck from happening again.

The only answer I have is more community organizing, more engagement on the local levels, more activism on line and off line, more pressure on all politicians at all levels to take off the blinders and see what is going on: massive numbers of people are on the brink of ruin, entire sectors of the economy teetering on the edge of total collapse, infrastructure near decay, industrial capacity in the toilet, and real wages, real employment, and real prospects for positive change all stagnating. Join the PTA (I did), get active in the local schoolboard (I am), keep up the pressure via whatever means best fit your life (resolution for me: blog more!).

It is my opinion that until the financial giants are gutted, their management fired at least, and preferably stripped of their assets and put in jail, the capital they have so mismanaged forcibly taken from them and applied to real growth in the real economy at all levels, the industrial infrastructure retooled and revamped and put to work (Making trains, laying track, making efficient alternative transportation a reality, building schools that are properly designed, paying teachers what their services are worth, and so on) – until these things are the central focus of a sustained nationwide effort done at the expense of the now-moribund giants of capital…. We are going to be spinning our wheels faster and faster and going nowhere.

The Obama administration is a blessing, no question. Serious, competent, aware leadership is far, far better than what could be. But the Obama administration, both because of the structural forces resistant to serious change and because of the inherent resistance within the Democratic Party, is not going to be able to, or really even attempt to, address the root causes of the mess we are in. That, my friends, is up to us.