Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.
Thousands of progressive activists are in Minneapolis for the annual Netroots Nation conference. And boy talk about headlines that should alarm the DNC and POTUS.
Russ Feingold at Netroots Nation was the keynote speaker and his words are making headlines. He goes after corporate Democrats and how all this money is corrupting the Democratic Party:
Former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold said he hoped that Obama will be re-elected, but he urged the president to stand up to corporate interests, demanding that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling become a focal point of the 2012 campaign.
“Sometimes we have to be very direct with the Democratic Party. Just as you have long pushed our Democrats to stand up for their ideals, I’m here this evening to ask you to redouble your efforts because I fear that the Democratic Party is in danger of losing its identity,” Feingold said in his keynote address to a crowd of around 2,400 progressive activists and bloggers here at the Minneapolis Convention Center, the most ever for the event.
Specifically, Feingold ripped Priorities USA, a super political action committee started last spring by former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton.
“I think it’s a mistake for us to take the argument that they like to make that, ‘Well, what we’re going to do now is, we’re going to take the corporate money like the Republicans do and then after we win, we’ll change it.’ When’s the last time anyone did that? Most people don’t change the rules after they win by them. It doesn’t usually happen. It never happens,” Feingold said. “You know what? I think we’ll lose anyway if we do this. We’ll lose our soul when it comes to the issue of corporate domination. People will see us as weak. People will see us as corporate-lite. We’ll gut our message. I think it’s not just wrong, I think it’s a dumb strategy. It’s dumb because people will not believe us if we do this, so I strongly disagree with those who are trying to create these PACs. I know people want to win. I understand that. I like to win, too. And I know that today’s Republican party has found more ways to play dirty, so I empathize with the desire to fight fire with fire, but Democrats should just never be in the business of taking unlimited corporate contributions. It’s dancing with the devil and it’s a game that we will never win.”
“It’s not just campaigns and contributions,” Feingold noted. “We have to say to the president, ‘Mr. President, Jeff Immelt is not the right guy – the CEO of GE is not the right guy to be running your Jobs & Competitiveness Council, not when your company doubled its profits, increased his compensation, and asked its workers to take huge pay and benefits cuts.”
Feingold urged activists to call out the Democratic Party leaders when they make errors and hold them accountable. He also advised Obama to push campaign reform:
He urged the president to make reforming a corrupt system central to his reelection campaign messaging.
Fighting the abuses made possible by the Citizens United ruling, and taking the steps necessary to overturn it, should be a pivotal plank of the president’s 2012 campaign, Feingold said.
“It should be in every speech, every statement,” Feingold said of the reform message.
“We can overturn Citizens United,” Feingold said, recalling that a single appointment to the Supreme Court could tip the balance against the corporate interests. “But to get there, the influence of corporate interests in these campaigns has to be front and center.”
And the netroots crowd can put in there, the former senator said.
“Together, we can call out the Democratic Party when it strays from its ideals,” Feingold declared. “And, together, we can take our country back.”
There was a panel called “What to do When Your President isn’t All That into You.” Gay rights activist Dan Choi got into a emotional row with a OFA intern. Choi is demanding Obama back same sex marriage as a matter of justice and equality. The fireworks happened as the OFA guy was handing out pro-Obama GLBT flyers. Choi and the intern then got into it:
NICK TSCHIDA (Obama volunteer): I can’t say I’m for marriage equality, but as a bisexual man, I would take a bullet for both of you.
CHOI: You say you’re not for marriage equality?
TSCHIDA: I can’t, no as a….
[RIPPING SOUND]
CHOI: Did you not understand? Here! I believe that I’m an equal citizen.
TSCHIDA: I understand that, but Obama hasn’t gone officially on record for it…
CHOI: Then, don’t tell me that I’m a bad person, go tell him that he should believe in my full equality and then report back.
TSCHIDA: Civil unions?…
CHOI: “I think if Obama doesn’t endorse my full marriage equality and my personhood in this country, then I have no business supporting him and I don’t think a lot of the people who are first time votes will either,” Choi said…
And yes there is video:
John Avarosis and Jane Hamsher were on this panel. Avarosis backed Obama strongly in 2008 but since has seen Obama for what he is and has become a fierce critic. Hamsher of FDL fame also made strong comments:
John Aravosis, the other gay activist on stage Thursday, said that Obama has been “sucking up toward the gays recently” to raise money for the campaign.
“I honest to God thought I was voting for these guys, and that it was going to be the first time in my lifetime that I’m finally in a position of power where I could be working with the White House on a regular basis,” said Aravosis, the founder of AMERICAblog and a Democratic political consultant. “That happened through a very small window on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell for a few months, but otherwise that’s not going to happen. They don’t want to strategize with us.”
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer is speaking at the confab Friday morning, and he’s expected to face tough scrutiny from a Netroots crowd that, for the most part, wants the president to be reelected but remains frustrated and somewhat disillusioned that he has not lived up to the promise of 2008.
“Elections are opportunities, and they’re opportunities to make elected officials who want your vote earn it,” said Jane Hamsher, the founder of firedoglake.com, during the Thursday panel. “So don’t give yourself away cheaply.”
Howard Dean was there and said he would not have gone into Libya without getting consent from Congress:
Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential candidate who helped spark the Netroots Nation conference being held here, told TPM that he would not continue the war in Libya without congressional authorization the way President Obama has.
But he declined to criticize Obama over his choice to continue the fighting without asking Congress to weigh in.
“I would,” Dean said when asked if he’d request the congressional war authorization the White House decided not to this week.
Dean attacked Obama on many issues like the public option being scuttled, but he said he would work to re-elect him. Quite the message isn’t it?
One other dire harbinger ahead for Obama from the convention was on immigration. Obama faces key groups mobilizing against him in 2012 for failing to reform the system or twisting arms to pass the DREAM Act:
DREAM Act supporters are …targeting President Barack Obama in his 2012 run, arguing he is partially to blame for the failure of the bill. Immigrant advocates called on Obama in May to stop referencing his support for the DREAM Act in campaign literature, arguing it is disingenuous as he still allows undocumented young people to be deported.
At Netroots Nation… DREAM Act supporters said they plan to mobilize against Obama to show him he cannot take Latino and immigrant votes for granted in 2012 while continuing record-level deportations.
“Everybody is fighting for some method of accountability right now,” Juan Rodriquez of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said from the audience of a panel discussion at Netroots. “I’m not going to allow myself, my family and my community to be used.”
The convention runs the the 19th. You can watch all the panels and speeches live at their website. Also C-Span will be having the keynote speeches on their website and on their network this weekend.
