Solidarity

[grantcart]

Tonight we are, almost certainly going to witness one of the saddest and most horrific nights in the history of the Republic.

We are going to witness either the loss of, or the retention by narrow margin of, the seat that was occupied with vision and courage by Senator Ted Kennedy.

In either case Reactionary forces will, in a few short hours, be dancing on the grave of Senator Kennedy.

Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Hannity, et al ad naseum, will launch a profane competition of viciousness creating a cacophony of vile Reactionary bile announcing the end of the President's leadership and the beginning of undoing the Kennedy Legacy.

Tomorrow many of us will rediscover the keystone word of the Progressive Movement.

Solidarity.

Reactionaries don't use this word. Their rabble uses group discipline, submission, orders, and scripts.

We have Solidarity.

A great word that was borne out of organizing unions and masses around great historic movements. It evokes the tremendous sacrifice that masses have used for abolition, suffrage, civil rights, collective bargaining, child welfare, social security, medicare, ending Vietnam.

It does not mean that we lose our individual identity or message but that we allow it to meld so that we find the greatest possible field of agreement and do not overly concentrate on the small points that divide us.

It means that we embrace those that we share so much with as allies, even when we disagree on important points.

It means that we are generous in word and spirit to all that join together in the basic premise and that we save our vitriol to those who deserve it, those that will be dancing tonight.

Solidarity

In our memories it weds Eleanor with the coal miners, JFK and LBJ, Women's Liberation and Grape Pickers, Ted and Environmentalists, Climate Scientists and ACLU Lawyers, NAACP Leaders with Hispanic Voices and Native American tribes, Undocumented Workers and Gay and Lesbian Activists,

United we win and divided we lose. Every major change and issue in our history has been the result of progressives joining in Solidarity. These changes become the new normal and the entire country eventually adopts them without reservation. Nothing is more symbolic of that than the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Day yesterday.

Divided by our individual passions we are united by our common cause.

Political power, real political power in the US is ultimately a binary operation, either we win or they win.

Tomorrow progressives will respond by joining together. We will be more solicitous and less strident in our discussions, more tolerant of nuanced disagreement and less accepting of divisive tirades.

Tomorrow real progressives will rediscover the solidarity that has guided our movement for decades. It ebbs and flows but we only win when we have it.

Tomorrow faux progressives will redouble their strident tone and find ways to further divide us. They will continue to support and give encouragement to fratricide in our community that only gives comfort to the reactionary neanderthals that will be dancing tonight on the grave of Senator Kennedy.

[Cary]

1. If real progressives respond by joining together, . . .

it will be worth it. I'm not sure why we had to do this to regain our solidarity. Our common cause should have been enough.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. I like your post mostly, but why are progressives the "moving party"

Maybe others could recognize solidarity with progressives instead.

Progressives have had no malign role in today's events. Seriously. Progressives are going to vote for Coaklely with VASTLY more solidarity than any other group. Progressives will go Coakley 95%+ and will turn-out disproportinately.

Meanwhile main-line Democrats will defect to a tea-bagger in droves. Even if Coakley wins a squeaker Brown will have gotten at least 300,000 votes from people who voted for Obama.

So how did progressives become the problem?

Easy to kick the marginalized but the problem is all among "pragmatic" and "centrist" Dems.

Hmmm...

[grantcart]

3. In the context of this OP progressives are meant to encompass

the broadest possible definition of the word including main line Democrats.

I don't believe that there will be defections to 'tea-baggers'. They are united in being against. Once they have to be actually for something the so called movement will splinter into a thousand agendas.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. I was calling Brown a bagger

The comment was about today, specifically.

To paraphrase a wise man... in the context of this reply tea-baggers are meant to encompass the broadest possible definition of the word including main line Republicans.

:hi:

[grantcart]

5. lol

[hansont]

6. Just another shut up and stop pushing for real change post....

I understand what you are saying. But can you imagine if those who were energized in those movements backed off for "unity" when there was resistance to progress????

We unify and strengthen our argument, it is a winning argument and the one that will move the people. We don't let go of principles in order to achieve a drab little to nothing?

In this case we are in unity in voting for Democrats, but we don't unite by letting go and compromising, that is what got us into this. We fight harder, yes even within the party. Despite the propagandists here we are solid democrats and vote in unity, we just need to be listened to.

[Hekate]

8. Bull

[hansont]

9. "Real Progressives" vs "Faux proogressives", yes that is "uniting"

As I said I understand but I unity does not mean "you follow us" or else.. nope, it means working together where both sides have input and they don't call each other "fake"

[Hekate]

7. 5th Rec. Off to the Greatest with you. Solidarity Forever, for the Union makes us strong...

True 150 years ago, and true today. Our problem is we've forgotten what the brave men and women who formed the Unions knew. There were corporation and greedy plutocrats then, there were corrupt politicians then. Unionists laid down their very lives to build a better life for their families and others. It was solidarity that finally won them their rights as workers and as human beings.

Hekate


http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/whenunio.htm

melody
http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/mineeyes.mid

Solidarity Forever
~Ralph H. Chaplin

When the Union's inspiration
Through the worker's blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
Anywhere beneath the sun,
Yet what force on earth is weaker
Than the feeble strength of one?
But the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:
|: Solidarity forever! :|
Solidarity forever!
For the Union makes us strong.

2. Is there aught we hold in common
With the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom
And would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left for us
But to organize and fight?
For the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:

3. It is we who plowed the prairies;
Built the cities where they trade,
Dug the mines and built the workshops;
Endless miles of railroad laid.
Now we stand, outcast and starving,
'Mid the wonders we have made;
But the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:

4. All the world that's owned by idle drones,
Is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations;
Built it skywards, stone by stone.
It is ours, and not to slave in,
But to master and to own,
While the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:

5. They have taken untold millions
That they never toiled to earn.
But without our brain and muscle
Not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power;
Gain our freedom, when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:

6. In our hands is placed a pot
Greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies,
Magnified a thousand fold.
We can bring to birth the new world
From the ashes of the old,
For the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:


Melody - "Battle Hymn of the Republic", William Steffe?, 1862

[Hekate]

10. ~*~

:kick:

[last1standing]

11. The assassination of JFK, RFK, MLK and Lincoln.

The '67 race riots, the Dred Scott decision, WWI and WWII, The Challenger explosion.

I can think of so very many nights in the history of this republic that were far worse than losing a single senate seat and this insipid OP attempts to minimalize them all by pushing a simplistic STFU agenda over those of us who rightly warned people like you of last night for the last year.

You don't have to listen to us, and I know you won't, but don't expect us to stop advocating for real reform versus the Lanny Davis agenda so many centrists are pushing today.

[hfojvt]

12. unfortunately

it seemed to me that too many progressives were also dancing on Ted Kennedy's grave and making it to the greatest page while doing so. It was not engendering a lot of solidarity in me, but I only had five deleted posts (and two of those were just for fun as somebody threw snark at me and I threw it right back. That was supposed to be in good fun.)

[Bobbie Jo]

13. Kick

:kick: