Radicals on the Outside, Reformers in the Inside

I read an article by Howard Zinn in the Progressive Magazine last year. He was glad that Obama got elected, but Zinn felt that Progressives should not be expecting Obama to be going too far in a Progressive direction unless he is pressured by Progressive grassroots agitation. I think Zinn is right. I'm actually not that surprised at Obama's more centrist direction. Most of what Obama is doing now is what was stated in his campaign website when he was running for President.

I think that any liberal or moderate Democrat who becomes President is going to run into a fierce opposition to even moderate reforms from conservative Republican groups, corporate interests, conservative Christian activists, and entrenched lobbyists. Politicians only go as far as the public will let them, and if the tea party is making all the noise right now, Obama is going to go in a more centrist direction. In a book I read Paul Wellstone wrote that the only way to overcome the corporate sway in politics is a sustained and loud Progressive grassroots effort.

I personally think the Left needs radical agitation from outside the system and reformers working for change within the system. Radicals may not believe in the system, but I think their involvement in protests is important, because their agitation brings light to important issues, and they provide the ideas for change. Radicals often get frustrated at reformers inside the system because they see reformers making only incremental change, but I think reformers are needed to make radical ideas palatable to the vast majority of Americans who are in the middle of the road. Radicals and liberals are necessary for progressive change. Radicals and reformers often do not agree with each other, but it's important to have both radicals and reformers working in conjunction for any sort of change to take place. The more the radical activists work to educate people and create a mass movement and change attitudes, the more progressive will be the changes that reformers can make within the system.

William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and the radical abolitionists constantly provided the pressure to force Abraham Lincoln to take stronger positions against slavery, and Lincoln's Presidency was the better for it. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the women's suffragists were constantly agitating for the right of women to vote, until the nation finally passed the Nineteenth Amendment and the nation was the better for it. Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, and the Wobblies constanty led protests for worker's rights, which pressured the government to pass the 8 hour work week, child labor laws, the right of workers to organize, and the country was the better for it. The Freedom Riders and Civil Rights activists of the early 1960s pressured Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to pass Civil Rights legislation and their Presidencies were the better for it.

Recently I heard that President Obama was heckled by gay rights protesters who want Obama to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Though I realize the difficulty that Obama will have in repealing that policy, especially after witnessing the fight over health care reform, I think the protesters are doing the right thing in keeping the pressure on the President so that Obama doesn't back off due to the political difficulties.

I like Obama, and hope he succeeds. I'm going to vote for him in 2012. Though I like Obama, I don't think liberals and progressives should just be his cheerleaders. Like the abolitionists, women's suffragist and civil rights workers, in previous eras, progressives should constantly press Obama into taking stronger progressive stances. I generally like the direction that Obama is trying to take the country, but I think progressives should constantly agitate and make their voices heard. The Democratic Party benefits when the progressives and centrists in the party engage in a lively debate and progressive voices have as much influence as the centrists. As the issues of climate control, immigration, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and financial reform come before the Congress, a strong Progressive voice will benefit both Obama's presidency and the nation as a whole.