Before the end of his first term, President Franklin Roosevelt denounced "the economic royalists." He said: "They are unanimous in their hate for me -- and I welcome their hatred."
Today, we need much more willingness to push back against the Republican Party's ideologues and the forces they represent. We need principled backbones in high places -- and stronger progressive activism at the grassroots.
In moral and electoral terms, the status quo is indefensible. Grim economic realities include high unemployment, routine home foreclosures, and widening gaps between the wealthy and the rest of us -- in tandem with endless war and runaway military spending.
Escalation of warfare in Afghanistan is running parallel to escalation of class war -- waged from the top down -- in Washington. Deficit commission co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are pushing scenarios that would undermine Social Security, while all sorts of contorted rationales are in the air for continuing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Let's get a grip on matters of principle.
The best way to fight the Republican Party is to stop giving ground to it.
The best way to defeat right-wing xenophobic "populism" is to build genuine progressive populism. In the process, we can draw on the spirit of the New Deal.
Back in the 1930s, FDR -- and millions of progressive activists of the day -- fought for economic equity. Today, our scope of understanding has grown to include more dimensions of social justice and ecological imperatives.
These days, progressives have plenty of reasons to feel discouraged. But we have a lot more good reasons to rededicate ourselves to the vital tasks ahead.
A much better world is possible.
Si se puede!
-- Norman
