The 2010 Worth Remembering (Dissent Magazine)

[OneGrassRoot]

Mark Engler - December 31, 2010 11:00 am

It is a tragic fact: progressives are notoriously bad at celebrating their victories. Tragic, because when it comes to motivating people to take action, keeping evidence that collective organizing efforts can produce real changes—some small, some groundbreaking—is far more important than producing lists of new outrages and fresh causes for alarm.

Even in times of setbacks and difficulties, there are signs of progress worth remembering. And this year was no exception. The Obama administration would like us to enshrine 2010 as the year it passed a landmark law overhauling health care in the United States. However, there were enough compromises in the health care deal and enough issues left unresolved that, as one friend of mine nicely put it, it’s probably better to consider that as not so much a victory as a work in progress.

Yet the year offered some more outright progressive wins. Two came quickly to mind for me. The first was an obvious choice since it was in the news in late December: the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.“ This affirmation of basic civil rights for gays and lesbians in the military was, of course, long overdue. But that in no way diminishes the victory.

The DADT repeal was one within a package of bills passed in quick succession during the lame duck session of Congress. Other fine components included a new START treaty controlling nuclear weapons and a 9/11 first responders bill, itself long overdue.

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=340&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DailyGoodNews+%28Ode+Magazine+-+And+now+for+the+good+news%29

[Pholus]

1. There have been some really nice wins and mega props for them! But rubber meets road now...

If it is a 3-D chess game, here are my hopes that last year's compromise was merely to underline the new gridlock and show the Rethugs for who they are.

We'll all know soon enough...