Norman Solomon

Top "Tossup" House Race for Progressives

By Norman Solomon

On Sunday, when the New York Times put a "tossup" label on three dozen House races with Democrats running for re-election, there were very few genuine progressives involved. In fact, just three of the lawmakers on the list are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. And only one of them is a progressive standout: Raul Grijalva.

With a record of grassroots activism that goes back four decades, Grijalva is the real deal. Since 2003, his presence in Congress -- representing a heavily Latino district in Southern Arizona -- has been a force of nature for progressive advocacy on issues ranging from healthcare and education to war. And immigration.

Now, the forces of xenophobia and bogus "populism" think they smell blood.

Nowhere in the United States is political courage for progressive principles more on the line this Election Day than in the battle to re-elect Grijalva.

Two years ago, he won with a 30 percent margin. This time, the race is very tight for reasons that have little to do with his Republican opponent, a 28-year-old rocket scientist named Ruth McClung.

"Democrats are facing tough races in what they once thought were safe areas around the country," the Los Angeles Times noted over the weekend, "but Grijalva faces an additional burden. He called for a boycott of his state after Gov. Jan Brewer signed a tough immigration law, known as SB 1070, in April."

Much more than "tough," that law -- now largely tied up in court -- is the essence of systematic racial profiling. In effect, it requires police to target Latinos. In response, Grijalva spoke up for human rights.

That's why many right-wing politicians and power brokers have poured several hundred thousand dollars into anti-Grijalva efforts.

Progressives fight the right, including at the ballot box...

     Primaries offer opportunities. General elections bring imperatives -- to defeat right-wing forces -- and that's certainly true this time around.

     The last two years of undue efforts to accommodate Republican leaders have ended up boosting -- not countering -- their momentum. My recent article Progressive Canaries in a Political Mine makes a case that giving ground to the right wing is a formula for disaster.

     Now, many progressives are working feverishly to limit the looming disaster. That means pulling together.

     With his recent essay The "Teach-the-Dems-a-Lesson" Myth, journalist Robert Parry assesses the consequences of failure to unite against Republicans when the November chips are down.

     Progressives, unite!

Our Warfare State

     War continues to escalate far away -- in our names and with our tax dollars.

     Early this month, on the ninth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Marin Independent Journal published my article War's Grim Echoes at Home.

     About the inspiring new documentary on Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The Most Dangerous Man in America: People who missed the recent broadcast of the film on PBS can watch it online anytime through October 27. 

     Let's find more ways to emulate Dan Ellsberg's activation of conscience.

Green New Deal for the North Bay

     At last -- after more than 18 months of public forums, hearings, research and countless discussions in many parts of Marin and Sonoma counties -- the Commission on a Green New Deal for the North Bay has issued a report. I've learned a lot as co-chair of the commission.

     Release of the Green New Deal report has led to coverage in several newspapers, including an in-depth piece in the Pacific Sun -- A Whole New Deal, written by Peter Seidman. 

     A lot of details are now online, including the full text of the commission's report, "Vital Change: Reconsidering Water, Food, Conservation, Healthcare and Commerce."

Some key races in Sonoma County

     * In Petaluma, progressives have a big stake in the city council campaigns of Teresa Barrett, Jason Davies and Gabe Kearney, and the mayoral candidacy of David Glass. The future direction of Petaluma's city government hangs in the balance.

     * In Santa Rosa, I recently spoke at a fundraiser for Larry Haenel, and in a few days I'm scheduled to participate in a get-out-the-vote event with and for Veronica Jacobi. I'm also supporting Susan Gorin. If you live in Santa Rosa, voting for those three candidates will help to protect and expand a progressive majority on the city council.

     * Right now, in southern Sonoma County, some foes of Pam Torliatt's race for county supervisor are ladling out a warlock's brew of xenophobia, anti-environmental clichés and corporate hackery. Supporting the Torliatt campaign is a matter of principle.

     To find out how you can help with any of these campaigns, please click on the highlighted names above.

     The Sonoma County Democratic Party endorses and actively supports all of the candidates I've mentioned here. To get involved with volunteering for the SCDP, click here.

Progressive Canaries in a Political Mine

By Norman Solomon

Take it from David Axelrod. "Almost the entire Republican margin is based on the enthusiasm gap," the president's senior adviser said last week. "And if Democrats come out in the same turnout as Republicans, it's going to be a much different election."

But we don't get to have a different election. After more than 20 months of White House insistence that the only useful role for progressive canaries is to keep singing the president's tune, the electoral coal mine is filled with the political equivalent of carbon monoxide and methane.

Like canaries in mines -- providing early warnings -- an increasing number of progressives reacted to politically toxic gases. The base was crumbling.

But the purportedly savvy guys at the top of the administration publicly expressed scorn for that base. Instead of viewing its continual erosion as a harbinger of disaster for the midterm election, the dismissive responses included gratuitous verbal swipes from the White House. But public insults have been the least of the problem. The essence has been the policies of governance.

Blaming the messengers -- the canaries in the mines -- has occurred in sync with intensifying policy commitments that many progressives find repugnant: whether escalation of war in Afghanistan, promulgation of extensive corporate agendas in the guise of "reform," promoting dangerous oxymorons like "clean coal" and "safe nuclear power," or continuing encroachment on precious civil liberties such as habeas corpus.

Now, the midterm Election Day is threatening to bring down a congressional majority that would be replaced by the extreme right-wing entity known as the Republican Party. "The Democrats" may deserve to lose, but the country does not deserve the Republican rule that would take their place on Capitol Hill.

Any progressive who thinks it doesn't matter much whether the House speaker is Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner is seriously mistaken.

War's Grim Echoes at Home

This article appeared in the Marin Independent Journal on October 7, 2010:

By Norman Solomon

     Today, the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan is beginning its tenth year, with 100,000 American troops in that country nearly a decade after the invasion started on Oct. 7, 2001. 

     When I returned home from a brief visit to Afghanistan a year ago, my life resumed in the pleasant, familiar surroundings of Marin County. Yet my head was still in Kabul, with people whose voices are routinely drowned out by the foghorns of war.

     In the media echo chambers, many of the buzz phrases that were popular during the Vietnam War -- “cut and run,” “stay the course” and the like -- are still blaring. And many of the political dynamics are eerily similar.

     History may not repeat itself, as the saying goes, but it tends to rhyme an awful lot.

     It’s not easy to challenge an escalating war, especially when the president is in the same political party. But, as John F. Kennedy once said -- and as his brother Robert later embodied when he spoke out against the Vietnam War -- “sometimes party loyalty asks too much.”

     When I listened to children from Helmand province at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul, it was clear that they didn’t know or care whether the man in the Oval Office had a “D” or an “R” after his name. They, and their surviving parents, were trying to stay alive.