Category: Progressive Politics

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What we progressives want

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, US

Some time ago I started a series on the future of progressive politics in Pennsylvania. In the first post in the series I pointed out that we increasingly face a Republican majority in the General Assembly that is controlled by the radical right wing. In parts two and three of this series, I lambasted Governor Rendell and progressives like myself for, among other things, trying to govern from a non-existent center instead of defending a liberal / progressive vision of a good political community. What I haven’t done yet is try to suggest how we liberals and progressives should define and defend that vision of a good political community. I have been working on it. And today and in the next few days, I am going to lay out three themes that, I think, can define the provide a thematic sythesis of the goals progressives in Pennsylvania and in Philadelphia.… Continue reading

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Gar Alperovitz and the next left

  By Economic Development, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, Urbanism, US

In April I had the pleasure of introducing the noted political economist Gar Alperovitz at an event sponsored by the Weavers Way Cooperative in Mt. Airy. The following essay is an expanded version of my introduction. They to point to the lessons we can learn from Alperovitz and how those lessons are already being put to work in my own community, Mt. Airy. During the Carter presidency people began to notice that liberals were running of out ideas for making our country more just and democratic. Carter may have been wrong to attribute the difficulties of his presidency to a nationwide “malaise” but as a description of liberal political thought, the term seemed appropriate. At the time, my teacher Michael Walzer wrote an article in the New Republic that explained this phenomenon. He pointed out that liberals, in fact, rarely had ideas of their own. Their ideas were borrowed from… Continue reading

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Don't balance the budget on the poor

  By Economic Development, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, Social Justice

 The latest budget deal between Mayor Street and City Council leaders calls on Council to enact an ordinance delaying implementation of the Working Families Wage Tax Rebate for two years. This rebate was the last major proposal introduced by the late Councilman David Cohen. Continue reading

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A Republican utopia: the future of progressive politics, part 4

  By Health Care, Politics, Progressive Politics

I have, in parts two and three of this series, lambasted Governor Rendell and progressives like myself for, among other things, not defending a liberal / progressive vision of a good political community So it seems incumbent on me to present a vision for our politics. I am going to try to do that—in the next post in this series. I will do it in a very tentative way, as I really don’t have anything all that new to present or an especially good way of presenting it. Before I present a positive vision, I want to do something a little different. Sometimes, the best way to identify—and fight for—your own agenda is to look at what your opponents want to create and figure out why you oppose it. So, let’s begin by imagining the kind of country right-wing Republicans are in the process of creating right now. A day… Continue reading

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We won in the house – $7.15. The Senate is next.

  By Pennsylvania, Progressive Politics, Social Justice

The State House passed HB 257 today by a vote of 146-50!! Congratulations to everyone who have worked so hard on this issue. A delegation from the Raise the Minimum Wage Coalition was in Harrisburg yesterday lobbying swing Republicans on the bill. The amendment to raise the increase to $7.15 passed 130-66. The bill will increase the minimum wage to $6.25 on July 1, 2006 and to $7.15 on July 1, 2007. Unfortunately, a $5.15 training wage, for 60 days for workers under age 20 was also included. The Senate is next. Continue reading

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What we progressives can learn from our own failures: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 3

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Political Organizing, Progressive Politics

In the last post in this series I wrote about the limitations of Governor Rendell’s centrist strategy in dealing with a Republican legislature that is tilting very far to the right. Today I want to point to some of the failures of activists in dealing with the same barrier to progressive politics. Let me make clear that this is mostly an exercise in self-criticism. (Yo, David Horowitz, note that suspiciously Maoist turn of phrase.) I am going to write about some of the campaigns on which I have worked and point to three ways in which I think we might have made them, or might now make them, more effective. Continue reading

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What progressives can learn from Governor Rendell’s failures: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 2

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

Governor Rendell went to Harrisburg hoping to follow his path to success in Philadelphia. As Mayor of this left of center city with its strong labor unions, Rendell governed from the center. He took on the municipal unions, forcing them to make significant concessions. He cut taxes. He used city funds and tax breaks to create the public facilities and to encourage the private initiative that spurred development, mostly in center city. He was neither a rightist who minimized the role of government nor a leftist who attempted to use government to pursue social justice. Continue reading

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Success and failure in Harrisburg: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 1

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

The Future of Progressive Politics in Pennsylvania, Part 1 This has been a good week for progressives in the state. Governor Rendell has announced that he will veto HB 1318, a bill that would have been most aptly named the Voter Suppression Act of 2006. I was very proud to work with wonderful Protect Our Vote Coalition in opposing the bill and was pleased that Neighborhood Networks officially joined the coalition as well. Jeanine Miller in Philadelphia and Celeste Taylor in Pittsburgh did a great job leading the coalition and Larry Frankel of the ACLU in Harrisburg was immensely important to our efforts as he tracked every twist and turn of the legislative process and gave us strategic advice about what to do at each moment. Any victory by the left is a good one and stopping this awful bill is an important accomplishment. However, before we get too pleased… Continue reading

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The reforms we need now

  By Philadelphia, Politics, Progressive Politics

The Reforms We Need Now I wrote this essay in June 2005, as a way of delineating my vision of the goals of Neighborhood Networks, the grass roots political organization I helped found. I have revised it from time to time. But the basic thrust of the essay remains the same and is described in the first paragraph. I should add that the ideas in this essay have never been officially adopted by NN. But I do think they described why NN is devoted to a broad idea of reform. In light of the corruption scandals in Philadelphia, reform is in the air. But people mean very different thing by reform. As I see it, there are two kinds of reform we need in Philadelphia politics today. For want of better terms, I will call them progressive or good government reforms, on the one hand, and liberal or social justice… Continue reading

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Take that, Mr. Steffens: We are content no more

  By Pennsylvania, Progressive Politics, Published Op-Eds

Published in the Daily New, Mon, Nov. 14, 2005 THE BIGGEST loser in Tuesday’s election wasn’t on the ballot. It was Lincoln Steffens, the muckraker who coined the phrase “corrupt but content” to describe Philadelphia politics. We can now retire the phrase. We may be corrupt, but the election returns show that we are not content anymore. When almost 87 percent of the voters support a proposal that takes a step toward cleaning up politics, you know we’re not content with politics as usual. (Ballot proposals generally win with about 70 percent of the vote. And the ethics question won a higher percentage of the vote than popular DA Lynne Abraham who ran against an seriously underfunded opponent.) When an election without a single race whose outcome was in doubt draws not the expected 9 percent but 14 percent of the voters, you know people want things to change. And when… Continue reading