Training the Left to Win

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By the time Gingrich and his followers rode to power on a set of simple, inspiring messages and a consistent political strategy, many progressives had given up on the Democratic Party as a vehicle for social change and were channeling their energy toward single-issue advocacy groups and absolutist causes. The feeling was that Democrats had become so beholden to corporate money that to participate in party politics was the equivalent of selling out.

The dynamic began to change in 2004 as young progressives, enraged by the Iraq war and stung by Al Gore's loss four years earlier, decided to give the Democrats another chance. Governor Howard Dean's out-of-nowhere presidential campaign rode a wave of antiwar passion expressed by creative, Net-savvy youth, and legions volunteered and donated money-many of them for the first time in their lives.

Halperin, who was a policy advisor and speechwriter for the Dean campaign, believes it is still possible to capitalize on that energy and give young people a place at the table in the progressive movement. Like other strategists on the left, Halperin has studied the right's methods and, recognizing the need to take a longer view, is looking to build power far beyond any given election cycle by recruiting fresh young talent and training them to lead for decades to come.

Since George W. Bush took office in 2001, a raft of progressive organizations have emerged, including Campus Progress-an affiliate of the Washington think tank Center for American Progress-which Halperin founded last year to provide media training and financial support to activists and journalists at more than 400 schools.

Halperin points out that strategists on the right have successfully cultivated a sense of common purpose among young conservatives by booking right-wing celebrities to speak on campuses, organizing conferences, funding student publications, and providing internships and paid fellowships to young leaders.

Campus Progress and groups such as People for the American Way, MoveOn.org, and Green Corps, as well as upstarts like Wellstone Action, Democracy for America, the Center for Progressive Leadership, and the League of Young Voters, are using a similar approach to create solidarity among young people on the congenitally fractious left-to show them, as Halperin says, 'that there is value in coming together.'

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'I want to go to Hollywood and organize actors around global warming.'

Odette Mucha (rhymes with hookah), a Cornell grad from New Jersey, has just been asked where she sees herself in five years: 'This country is driven by consumerism and pop culture. So we need to make global warming sexy.' Her classmates respond with whoops of encouragement. Next up is Leila Darwish: 'I want to talk to ranchers, farmers, fishermen,' the Calgary native says, her rapid-fire delivery more East Coast zeal than Canadian Rockies cool. Chuckling, she adds, 'I'd probably die if I talked to a celebrity; I just can't handle that kind of pressure.' Darwish hopes to do battle with oil, gas, and timber industries back home in the conservative-dominated province of Alberta: 'I'm in this for the long haul, for life.'

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