Training the Left to Win

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The elaborate struggle between left and right is ultimately about power-who is willing to grab it and who gets to decide the future direction of the country. In an age of war, terrorism, environmental devastation, and religious strife, the future of a divided America may well be in the hands of whoever does a better job of recruiting and maintaining young talent.

The conservative coalition has no qualms about mixing it up and has been disciplined in its ability to set aside internal differences in the quest for power. That's not to say that deep divisions don't exist. Last year religious conservatives threw a fit over Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, and high-profile supporters of the war in Iraq have been distancing themselves from the administration.

Such public spats are rare, however. For conservatives, loyalty and strategic unity trump ideological purity. And thanks in no small part to groups like the Leadership Institute, the cohesion of the right-wing message machine and the Republican Party apparatus is impressive.

Not so on the left. Progressives, all but shut out of the power structure of the Democratic Party since the Vietnam War, have a hard time with the idea of actually taking power, preferring to question authority rather than wield it. Even the elite Green Corps organizers squirm when Jeff Blodgett tells them, 'I hope you'll all run for office someday.'

'My goal is to deconstruct power,' says Stephanie Powell, a member of this year's Green Corps class. 'I want to work with other people. I want to empower, but I don't want to hold power.'

More effective grassroots organizing, on both the right and the left, is no doubt a critical piece of the puzzle. Organizing takes decision making out of the realm of experts. It shows average citizens how to make their voices heard and feel like they have a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

You can't win in politics through outside pressure alone, however. As Paul Wellstone said often, 'Electoral politics without grassroots community organizing is a politics without a base, community organizing without electoral politics is a marginal politics, and electoral politics and community organizing without good, sound public policy is a politics without a head.'

The 2004 presidential race, especially Howard Dean's Internet-based primary campaign, created an opening for the left. It showed that the grass roots are restless and ready to take another chance on the Democratic Party. Yet since that election the Democratic National Committee, even with Dean as chair, has done little-beyond hitting them up for cash-to mine those minions for new leadership.

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