We Must Put on the Pressure for Big Change to Happen

In his latest post, Mike Lux, author of The Progressive Revolution, argues that...

the stars are aligned for another Big Change Moment: an era like the 1860s, early 1900s, 1930s, and 1960s where a lot of big transformational changes happen in a very short period of time.

Lux, however, says something is missing from this Big Change Moment.

But every day there's another reminder that we are not there yet, that -- as in all other Big Change Moments in our country's history -- big change will not come without a big fight. As Frederick Douglass said in perhaps the greatest single quote in American history:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will... men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get.

Our struggle today is against special interests who have blanketed Wasington DC and every state capital with campaign donations...

And we struggle today against the power of massively wealthy special interests -- big oil, big insurance and pharmaceutical companies, big banks -- to make big change. The struggles aren't always as dramatic as they were in past times, but the nature of those fights is very much the same. We don't have the same level of physical violence, but the economic and political violence is just as real as in those historical struggles.

You want specifics? I'll give you specifics:

• The defeat of banking legislation that would have let 1.7 million homeowners restructure their mortgages
• The warnings of Arlen Specter and Ben Nelson and Olympia Snowe- and, of course, the health insurance lobby- against including a public health plan option in health care reform
• The complaints- by some Democrats!- against being able to pass health care reform measures with 51 votes in the Senate
• The trouble Obama's energy/climate change legislation is already running into in both the House and the Senate
• Complaints against Obama's plan to help students get better deals on college loans at the expense of lenders
• Complaints from some Democrats about Obama's plan to tax overseas investment and outsourcing of American jobs
  

The powers that be, who have bestowed millions of dollars in campaign contributions to their friends in the House and Senate, are fighting big change with everything they have.

This post reminds of what David Sirota wrote following the innauguration in an article about putting pressure on Obama and Congressional Democrats to get progressive legislation passed.

As former House Republican leader Tom DeLay said, he and his colleagues deliberately started "every policy initiative from as far to the political right" as possible, so as to shift "the center farther to the right." The formula emulated Franklin D. Roosevelt's fabled admonishment to allies: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it." [...]

Of course, that triumph was the country's loss, as Republican policies thrust the political center off a conservative precipice and America into an economic freefall. And as we plummet, we are desperately groping for a lifeline.

If we are lucky and we end up snagging one that saves us - a huge if - it will be one that is strong enough to snap the center back from the conservative brink. This super-durable bungee cord must have the force of law, meaning it will be woven by Democratic legislators now exerting as much pressure on President Obama's left as congressional Republicans focused on President Bush's right.

The Progressive Revolution: Interview with author Mike Lux

Last month I attended a blogger meeting with Mike Lux, author of The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to be.

Lux was in Des Moines to speak at the ICAN 30th Anniversary Celebration. Lux said he was excited to be back in the state because he got to see some old friends and he loves the politics of Iowa because it is the classic Midwest swing state.

Lux worked as executive director of ICAN in the 1980's before taking a leave to work on Biden's 1st prescidential campaign. He later worked for the Clinton campaign and recently was part of the Obama transition team. Lux currently blogs at Open Left.

The Progressive Revolution focuses on how the progressive movement has produced many of the great changes in American history.

The book develops a coherent, compelling narrative about the historic battle between progressive and conservative thinking, and makes the case that when our side has won the day, the big changes that happened moved America forward and built a country we can be proud of: the Bill of Rights, the abolition of slavery, the national park system, women's suffrage, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, the New Deal, the civil rights movement -- all part of a progressive heritage that is the best of America.

A lot of the talk centered around how he marketed his book, blogging, and the progressive movement in general.

Lux used his blogging connections to help market this book because he had a very small budget from his publisher. Blogs are donating ad space and writing reviews. So far, 21 blogs gave free ad space including Iowa's Bleeding Heartland. As they were marketing the book they emphasized building a progressive movement and be putting book profits will go back to building the progressive movement.

They viewed the book tour as a movement building tour by speaking at independent book stores, contacting local bloggers and community organizing groups. Lux said that he participated in book discussions at Firedog Lake and Crooks and Liars and the following each one they saw a jump of sales on Amazon. This shows there is a market out their for progressive ideas and it's just a matter of reaching that market.

Through this book tour we are learning a great deal about books. We want to help other progressive authors and even progressive musicians to help build a progressive media.

Lux stated that this movement building is important because progressives have been the leaders in American history. Progressives have been the ones to produce the change we have seen and will continue to do so.

I asked him about what the progressive solution to health care crisis is and if there was any chance to for a single-payer health care system.

He said that it is a 2 step process. First, we must prohibit insurance companies from denying care for pre-existing conditions. Then we must offer a public alternative to private insurance. Tell the American that if you like your plans and love your insurance companies, then stick with your current plan. If not, here's a public plan that will be same as Congress's. The public plan can compete with private insurance and the market can decide which one is better. He said Republicans will fight this because they know the private, for profit health care plans will lose to the public plans. Once this plays out then maybe in a few years it will be politically possible to pass a single-payer health care system.

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