Legal Commentary

The Obama Movement, The Democratic Party, And The Progressive Movement

By Big Tent Democrat

While Atrios and aimai focus on different aspects of this Rolling Stone article about the floundering "Obama Movement," I was struck by this:

The decision to shunt Organizing for America into the DNC had far-reaching consequences for the president's first year in office. For starters, it destroyed his hard-earned image as a new kind of politician, undercutting the post-partisan aura that Obama enjoyed after the election. "There were a lot of independents, and maybe even some Republicans, on his list of 13 million people," says Joe Trippi, who launched the digital age of politics as the campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004. "They suddenly had to ask themselves, 'Do I really want to help build the Democratic Party?'"

(Emphasis supplied.) Trippi's question is fascinating to me. As we know, it is hard to figure out what Trippi is about these days (Harold Ford???), but the question Trippi asks is not a bad one. But it is not a question for a progressive to be asking. A progressive would say 'I want to build a PROGRESSIVE Democratic Party, now what is the best way to do that?'

Unquestioning devotion to Obama is surely not the way. That has always been my beef with the new Obama activist - it has been about Obama, not advancing progressive issues.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 12, 2010 (boomark / email).