In 2000, an extraordinarily undemocratic thing happened in our elections: The Republicans stole the election in the courts. Remember the anger you felt?
Remember this?
Now it's 10 years later - and thanks to the incredibly corrupt, incompetent and blitz-krieg based politics of the Republicans, we had to endure an attack on the US that they could have prevented, a war we were lied into believing we had to start, another Presidential election they managed to win - cynically using homophobia, a parade of GOP-based abuse of power and - take a deep breath - the continuous oligarchic, corporatist, conservative policies that did nothing but deepen the divisions in the country and run the economy off the rails.
But regardless of that, we managed to do this:
This is the single most amazing electoral moment in American political history, simply because America elected a candidate that was fundamentally different then every other President that campaign before him.
It shook the foundation of our politics to its very core, and now the people that hate this the most (whether they are truly bigoted or just incredibly scared) are trying to undo it.
2008 may be in the rear view mirror, but I suggest to all of you that you cannot look at it that way. Because, frankly, if the Republicans win this fall, it makes 2008 look like a blip instead of the historic moment it was. We were beaten down politically for 8 years and we still won that one.
The results in 2008 are more important than any one single policy change President Obama and the Democratic congress have enacted (and there have been many). They are more important than the end to the escapade in Iraq (which - thankfully - is finally being advanced). In fact, they are important because they are the embodiment of what the American ideal, our constitution and our culture are all about.
And the Republicans want to take it away. They have been trying to deny the moment since it happened. That's what the strategy has been. They have contorted progressive democratic policy into socialism, or facism (or - sometimes - both). They have attempted to blame the bad economy they caused and we made better into a Democratic bad economy because it's not better enough. They have turned the basic right of healthcare for all Americans into a socialist threat that will lead to the murder of Americans.
And they have even tried to deny this President his "Americanness," and his unique story to enflame the dangerous passions of racism and religious bigotry.
Right now, they are succeeding.
As a group, the progressive community needs to decide if we are motivated to stop this from happening? Or are we apathetic because we don't think the President has gone far enough? Or will we enthusiastically vote to embed 2008 as a moment that was amazing in American history, but no longer unique - which is exactly as it should be in American political life?
I submit to you that progressivism isn't just about a specific legal issue or policy change. Sometimes it's about the culture of our politics - and this time we don't just need to hold the line on Republican gains, but we need to give them a good, solid spanking so they never, ever, ever practice their sort of odious politics again.
I think we can do this. Do you?