I look around me every day and I see people doing all kinds of wonderful things for their country. I see social workers and counselors helping those battling the darkness of addiction. I see teachers working themselves to the bone for their students in return for execrable pay and in the face of constant belittlement in the media. I see people holding doors for strangers. I see volunteers cleaning up pollution, building homes, and distributing clothes and food to the needy. I see people standing tall in the face of bigotry and ignorance. I see countless people going out of their way to improve the lives of those around them.
All of these Americans and many more are working toward the good -- toward the betterment of the lives of citizens of our country, and toward the perpetuation of the ideals upon which it was founded.
And yet, many citizens -- even many of those working toward the good -- are awash in disillusionment with their government. Rightly so. The corporation-worshiping clown show that our government has become and those politicians on the right (as well as the spineless and craven officials on the left) who have made it so are worthy of ridicule and disgust.
But when our government actually does something good -- say, enabling millions of its citizens to gain access to affordable healthcare for the first time -- people of all stripes take notice. If the media did their job, people would also notice how those on the right tried to hinder that good.
I see some immensely important lessons here, for the 2014 elections and beyond. To begin with, progressives must relentlessly play up the good that progressive government has done (and can continue to do) for its citizens, and mercilessly shame and attack those on the right for hindering that good.
Concomitantly, progressives need a monumental messaging shift in how they refer to those on the right. It means little these days to refer to candidates or their policies as Republican. It means much more to call them "regressive," over and over again. The right wing in our country has become the party of appallingly regressive policies, and voters need to hear that endlessly. The right is not a logical, reasonable alternative to the left, as it perhaps once was. Today's American right stands for a backsliding of tragic proportions to regressive outlooks, policies, and laws of the past. Progressive candidates need to tie their opponents to this backsliding and contrast themselves with it at every opportunity.
JFK's immortal dictum -- "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" -- needs to be turned on its head at this particular juncture in history. There are millions of Americans doing good for their country. All of our citizens urgently need to learn --or, perhaps, remember -- just what good their country can do for them. This is why the Affordable Care Act is so significant to the progressive movement and so feared by regressives: it is a shining example of the good a government can do for its people. Citizens who begin to realize that a progressive government can work to their benefit can, with work on the part of progressive politicians and organizations, become regular progressive voters. It is the job of progressives to lead the way for them to a government that habitually does good for its citizens, and to be fearless and tireless in shining light on those regressives who would harm them.
