12 Steps to Regime Change

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Progressives are potentially stronger now in American politics than at any time in the past 30 years. New Web-linked groups like the fast-growing True Majority (www.truemajority.com) and Move On (www.moveon.org), with its more than 2 million members, have proven significant capacity to motivate new people. And we must remember we are not alone. Millions of marchers filled streets all over the planet this year. Most of the world is with us -- and it's about more than the war in Iraq. It's an unprecedented movement for sanity, human values, and the future. Doris "Granny D" Haddock, who a few years ago at age 90 walked across the country to promote campaign finance reform, recently reminded us of something profound. During last winter's peace marches, despite the angry speeches and the impending bloodshed, she said, "The people in the marches were joyful. Did you notice that? Did you feel it yourself? The best smiles I've seen in years." She went on to say, "Is it not indeed joyful to embark on a life of great meaning?"

#2: Acknowledge What We Are Powerless to Change

We can't change the fact that September 11 happened and fundamentally transformed the nature of American politics. We need to face the reality that we never stood a chance of stopping the war in Iraq. The rules of politics have changed. Peace activists were playing by the old rules, advocating for inspections and global cooperation. But the Bush administration showed in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as its homeland security and economic policies, that politics is now about raw power, and we need to exercise our own power to defeat them in 2004.

If we want to succeed, we must recognize that facts and issues alone will not win elections. Forty percent of the U.S. population now accepts virtually anything that Bush and Co. say. They are the religious fundamentalists. They are the wealthy conservatives who will pump $500 million into the Bush reelection campaign and more into right-wing organizations and think tanks to aid the cause. They are the millions of fearful people who get most of their information from television and see the modern world as a perilous place that can be made safe only by brute force. It's not easy to write off 100 million people. In our own idealistic way, we progressives think everyone can change.

Still, the things we can't change don't matter nearly as much as what we can change, by educating, mobilizing, motivating, sacrificing, sharing, and setting good examples. We can use plain old people power to rise up and restore balance to our country. We have the votes, we have the strategies, and we have the vision for a better world. We need the confidence, the discipline, and the smarts to pull it off.

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