Ten New Year’s resolutions for North Carolina’s progressive community

Despite hard economic times, progressives have a lot of reasons to feel good about the year that just ended. In Washington, the Obama Administration (along with an occasionally helpful Congress) took several important steps to halt the nation’s disastrous slide on several fronts. From the economy to healthcare to the environment to matters of war and peace, things are decidedly better and more hopeful than they were 12 months ago.

Perhaps the best analogy is to one of those commercial disaster teams that comes in to fix up a house after a fire or a plumbing failure.  In Washington, the Obama team has just about ripped out all of the old carpet and has the fans running full blast. Now, the question is, will they muster the will and support to properly repair the flooring and the foundation?

Here in North Carolina, we‘ve also seen grounds for optimism. Not only did state lawmakers put together a reasonably solid and successful legislative session in the face of a deep and difficult economic crisis, but forces of reform are making real headway in the ongoing effort to clean up the state’s “good ol’ boy” power structure.  

Here, in other words, the foundational repair work on has already begun. State leaders are taking real and important steps to build a better, fairer, more open and sustainable government. The question for 2010 is, will this work be allowed to continue or will naysayers on the right succeed in scuttling things and halting the work mid-project?

Progressive resolutions

Ultimately, the answers to both of these overarching questions for the New Year depend in large measure upon whether progressive activists remain active and engaged. While it’s not hard to imagine scenarios in which progress and reform efforts grind to a halt in the face of mid-term election jitters and the reasserted power of the corporate class, it’s also possible to envision 2010 as a breakthrough year – a time in which progressives cement some important and hard won victories and lay the groundwork for many more to come.

Here, therefore, are ten pragmatic New Year’s resolutions that progressives ought to consider adopting as they look for ways to assure that 2010 is the year they want it to be.

#1 – Don’t forget what’s at stake. The easiest way to do this is to simply refresh one’s memory every now and then about what things were like in the Bush-Cheney era. Whenever one gets discouraged with the frustrating pace of change or the periodic flubs of the Obama or Perdue teams, take a minute to imagine what things would be like if things were turned over to the conservative ideologues who have come to constitute the opposition. Imagine Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh running the country. Imagine Art Pope and Tom Fetzer running North Carolina. That ought to be enough to get anyone who cares out of bed on a dark, frigid, January morning.   

#2 – Harbor no illusions about the far right. In keeping with #1, progressives would do well to pay much closer attention to what the far right is saying and doing. In 2008, many progressives were temporarily stunned by the meteoric rise of Palin because they simply couldn’t fathom that a serious candidate in 21st Century America could espouse such shallow and absurd views (impressions, really) on the major issues of the day. Believe it. Read the right-wing blogs. Read the comments posted on the major news sites by the sad characters who listen to Glenn Beck and Limbaugh. It may cause you some heartburn, but you won’t be caught off guard again.

#3 – Continue to demand progressive policies. One of the great dilemmas that has always confronted progressives is this:  How does a movement based on tolerance, open-mindedness and love for humanity and the planet develop the requisite toughness to get things done? Go too far one way and you’re ineffective and wimpy. Go too far the other way and you start acting like the other side. In 2010, progressives would do well to tap into their tougher, “get things done” side. If we’ve learned anything from the healthcare debate in Washington or the recent debate over schools in Wake County, right now, there is little risk that progressives are coming on too strong.

#4 – Resist the temptation to embrace the quick fix. In keeping with #3, progressives should do their best to push for real, “big picture” changes. Political pragmatism will always have a place, but 2010 is not a year to settle for “living to fight another day.” From health care to consumer protection to tax reform to protecting the environment, this is a year to get important things done.  

#5 – Fight for real, long-term fiscal policy reform. No other issue presents a greater threat to long-term economic well-being than this. For three decades, the debate in the U.S. and North Carolina has been dominated by the trickledown, anti-tax crowd. The results have been predictable: a defunded and inadequate public infrastructure (in everything from education to transportation to mental health), rapid growth in wealth and income inequality, waist-deep public debt, and a culture that celebrates greed and consumption rather than widely-shared prosperity. Now is the time for progressives to redouble their efforts to change this pattern.

# 6 – Support and celebrate the health care reform package.  It will be imperfect and only set the stage for a lot more battles to come, but the passage of federal health care reform will still be a monumental achievement for the nation – especially a nation in which giant insurance monopolies can spend vast sums on disinformation and in which many people consider Joe Lieberman a “liberal.” Celebrations will be in order.

#7 – Stick together. Unlike the right, which tends to be a top-down, monolithic movement (both ideologically and culturally), progressives are and always will be a diverse and unruly crowd. Consider, for instance, the spectacle of so-called Christian conservative groups attempting to make the estate tax (a tax that hits only the richest of the rich) a “family issue.” Now look at the phenomenon of progressive groups repeatedly parting ways over whether any tax – however unfair or inadequate – is better than no tax when it comes to funding important public systems and structures. In 2010, progressives should look for ways to make more common ground and to spend less energy on divisive, inner-movement quarrels.

And here are three special, North Carolina-centric resolutions:

#8 – Demand that victims of eugenics experiments be compensated now. The obscenity of the state’s refusal to pay the victims of its racist and discriminatory mid-century policies of forced sterilization can no longer be excused – whatever the size of the state budget shortfall. Maybe it can’t afford a truly equitable package, but the state can do a heck of a lot better than more studies and a hard-to-find plaque. Twenty-five thousand dollars per person would be a nice first step.

#9 – Demand that elected officials pass more and tougher ethics and campaign reform laws.  There are only two real solutions to the corruption virus that continues to afflict state politics:  a) tougher laws when it comes to the revolving door between public service and private interests and, most importantly, b) real, statewide public campaign financing.

And, last but not least:

#10 – Pay attention to state government. For many North Carolina progressives, the goings on in Raleigh can sometimes seem a bit dull and backwaterish – especially in comparison to the glitz and drama of Washington. Who can be bothered to follow the often dreary debates in North Carolina’s humble capital city with such a big and exciting show just up I-95 – especially with the constant reductions in mainstream news media coverage?

Well, actually, the far right – that’s who. Give a listen to local AM talk radio just about anywhere in the state sometime and you’ll quickly get a better handle on one of the main reasons that state politicians seem so attuned to the demands of dyspeptic, middle aged, white men. The right pays attention to the debates in the General Assembly – sometimes in remarkable detail.

If North Carolina progressives want to make 2010 a year to remember, they should turn their heads toward Jones Street with a bit more frequency in the months ahead. It may cause folks to want to roll their eyes and cover their ears on occasion, but it’s sure to make just about every other progressive resolution just a little easier to achieve.