Progressive Pushback

For a little while, it looked like the most influential liberal groups might bite their tongues on criticism of President Obama and settle for the centrist policies on which he campaigned.

Now comes news that liberal activists have regrouped and are back putting pressure on the administration and Congressional Democrats to pass the progressive legislation multiple polls show a majority of Americans want.

Steve Benen:

The part of this I've found confusing is that that MoveOn and Americans United for Change aren't exactly taking radical positions here.

I'm trying to look at this from Reid's and Van Hollen's perspective. If, say, MoveOn and Americans United for Change were running ads going after Democrats because the congressional majority refused to raise the top income tax rate to 75% and buy everyone a puppy, I could imagine Democratic leaders on the Hill urging the groups to back off.

But, really, what is that MoveOn and Americans United for Change want? For Democrats to support a popular agenda. They're urging "centrist" Dems to vote for measures like a progressive budget and health care reform. This helps leaders like Reid and Van Hollen instill some party discipline.

The DCCC chair said their "singular focus" should be on "expanding the Democratic majority." Actually, for groups like MoveOn and Americans United for Change, the "singular focus" is making sure the expanded Democratic majority does what it was elected to do, advancing an agenda that voters already support.

Again, concerns from party leaders would make a lot more sense if the groups were making unreasonable demands of Democrats, urging them to take reckless political risks on unpopular issues that would undermine the party's chances in the future.
But MoveOn and Americans United for Change are doing nothing of the sort.

Steve, bless his heart, is assuming that "Democratic" leaders in Congress actually want progressive legislation. Call me cynical, but I think everything they've done and failed to do for the past eight years pretty much proves most Congressional "Democrats" will go to extreme lengths to avoid doing anything to inconvenience corporate interests.

That's why it's critical that liberals, progressives and other real Democrats support the efforts of the Congressional real Democrats who support us.

House liberals are threatening to vote against any health plan that doesn't include a "public plan option."

The Congressional Progressive Caucus made its point today in a publicly released letter to Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.

The caucus is seeking to leverage its 77 votes, which is enough to block legislation on the House floor if Republicans are united against it. But for liberals to do so, they would have to vote against a Democratic president's top priority in his first year in office.

"We have polled CPC members very carefully in recent weeks and a strong majority will only support comprehensive healthcare reform legislation that includes a public plan option on a level playing field with private health insurance plans," wrote CPC co-chairmen Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

The letter says that most members of the caucus prefer a "single-payer" healthcare program, which has largely been taken off the table by Democratic leaders. They say the public plan should be included "at minimum."

To close, here's the Rude Pundit on public attitudes toward law-breaking CEOs.

There's a couple of things that Republicans (and, really, most Democrats, including the President) need to realize about the public right now. First off, we want some fuckin' blood. It's time to purge some motherfuckers, time to fuck up the lives of some rich bastards. Back when Enron crumbled, the only thing that stopped riots in the streets of Houston was the fact that Ken Lay was being chased like a plague rat. Firing the CEO of GM was a start. Now, as a condition of bailouts, there needs to be more public pantsing of other top execs (not low-level lackeys) in all the collapsing industries that are dragging us down into the big suck they've created. If we can frog walk a couple of 'em, all the better. Everyone from Joes that are real plumbers to Mary Janes that stock the shelves at Wal-Mart know that if you fuck up, you get fired. So it should be for Wall Street, so it should be for GM and Chrysler. You wanna restore some faith in the American economy? Consequences for actions are easy steps to take.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....