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In the late 1970’s there appeared a noticeable movement by the corporate, cultural, and religious Right to gain control of local political organizations. Their purpose was manifold, first to organize a political party (within a party, the GOP), second to use this party to spearhead their agendas. They were smarter than the progressives who thought that cultural and political changes could be forced from the top down, and it is to our everlasting shame that we progressives thought that all we had to do was win a SCOTUS case to end racism, poverty, hunger, and intolerance. We progressives got soft and thought we had won the battle of the hearts and minds of the American people by judicial fiat.
The Right knew better, set to work and organized. They knew that all politics was local, that US senators come from US congressmen that congressmen came from state government legislatures and these came from local political organizations. So they took to building their base at the lowest levels of collective actions. Whether it was the local school board, the county health board, the local zoning board, county district attorneys, county commissioners, and mayors, etc., all of these became the battleground for the religious and secular Right.
They have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. What stands before us now is a cadre of well trained, well funded Rightwing conservatives who are placed throughout the breadth and width of the political landscape and exert influence at each choke point for progressive causes.
Progressives, on the other hand, still march and preach, but few in office listen, because we have not seen fit to do the real hard and dirty work of perennial political action: action that is not a once a month protest vigil, or email/fax/letters to editors or politicians. It is a year-in, year-out, door-to-door commitment, the dirty, inglorious, thankless, and tiring tasks at the local level to engage in the problems of schools, zoning issues, health issues and other communitarian concerns that carry the preponderance of local support of people. Progressives are long on ideas and ideals, but have fought on the wrong battlefield for so long, and yet many of us wonder why we get our butts kicked at election time.
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