Julio Huato wrote: > For those who won't get to read John Nichols piece, here's a couple of > key excerpts: > > "The way to influence Obama and his Administration is to speak not so > much to him as to America. Get out ahead of the new President, and of > his spin-drive communications team. Highlight the right appointees and > the right responses to deal with the challenges that matter most. > Don't just critique, but rather propose. Advance big ideas and > organize on their behalf; identify allies in federal agencies, > especially in Congress, and work with them to dial up the pressure for > progress. Don't expect Obama or his aides to do the left thing. > Indeed, take a lesson from rightwing pressure groups in their dealings > with Republican administrations and recognize that it is always better > to build the bandwagon than to jump on board one that is crafted with > the tools of compromise." > > "Whether the previous, more progressive Obama still exists within the > man who will take the oath of office on January 20 remains to be seen. > But the only way to determine if Obama really is the progressive he > claimed as recently as last summer to be is to push not just Obama but > the public."
this isn't new to me: I'd agree that it's more important to push for victories on specific issues rather than focusing on the leader. For the Probama people, I'd add that it's also a mistake to react to criticisms of BHO in a defensive way. > Behold The Truth: This is The Correct Approach! Is this your comment? (If not, or if you're being facetious, you can stop reading.) It seems to me that it expresses exactly the wrong approach: we can't claim to have the "Truth" (with a capital "T") or the "Correct" (capital "C") approach. We should not presume that We Know Better than people outside the various US lefts do; that's the sectarian, top-down, approach. Rather, we can provide insights and information that can help people figure out a complex situation; if our ideas and info fall on fertile ground, that's great. That doesn't mean that we should avoid vigorous argument. Rather, it means that we have to admit that sometimes we're wrong. We can learn from others. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
