"we're starting to behave like a movement"

These were the words of David Sirota last night, at a reception in Santa Monica for his new book Hostile Takeover. I've admired Sirota in the past for his take on economic issues and Washington corruption, but seeing him discuss the issues facing our country all in one place was extremely enlightening and revelatory. I thought I'd offer a rundown of last night's speech.

Sirota started by making an extremely important point: the current talk of the "culture of corruption" has nothing to do with this individual Republican or that individual Democrat. Indeed corruption is what the federal government is now based on, in many ways. Anyone who wants to run for federal office must deal with a system of, essentially, legalized bribery, where Big Money exchanges cash for access to get their legislation passed. The system selects for "telemarketers and shakedown artists." Many Democrats are complicit in this exchange. Sirota brought up the case of Jim Moran, who was $700,000 in debt and received the lowest-cost loan from MBNA that they've given to an individual in 5 years... and then Moran supported the odious bankruptcy bill. I didn't know that there are explicit protections in that bankruptcy bill for people with over $2 million dollars in business debt. But the rest of it, all the giveaways to Big Oil and Big Pharma and the rest, was all too familiar.

Big Business figured out a while back that it wasn't enough to own one party. To truly get their way, to really re-make the country as one beholden to corporate interests, they had to take a chunk out of the other party. This has led to a conventional wisdom that is extremely aligned with corporate interests, both in the media and in the halls of power (Sirota brought up an example of the Washington Post saying "we're not going to start a debate where none exists" over NAFTA, despite poll after poll showing that Americans didn't support it). Anyone who brings up single-payer universal health care in Congress is a lunatic. The energy debate frequently ends up being about which tax breaks to give to which oil companies. Tort reform only talks about limiting frivolous lawsuits brought by individuals, when 4 times as many lawsuits are brought by corporations. There is an artificial narrowing, Sirota explains, of how issues are talked about in Congress, and this leads ordinary Americans to very rationally tune out politics, since it appears so disconnected from their concerns.

Clearly having a Democratic Party that is allied with the interests of the people, that acts as a counter-balance to the corporate GOP, is the only way to take the government back. But it's not going to happen overnight. Not in this election or the next. Sirota made two major points in outlining how we can get our government back.

1- Don't just focus on the White House and Congress. State and local legislatures are less beholden to these Big Money interests, and they have just as profound an aspect on our lives. There's a lower barrier to entry for progressive candidates and the grassroots to enter and win at the local and state level. And that will eventually trickle up and offer more change. He didn't mention it last night, but I'm a big believer in PLAN (the Progressive Legislative Action Network), an organization dedicated to getting progressive legislation passed at the state level. This is sorely needed infrastructure, to bubble up ideas in the "incubators of democracy" to push them into the public consciousness.

2- Full public financing of all elections, starting with the states. Last night's event was sponsored by the California Clean Money Campaign, which is actually making headway toward getting the nation's largest state to join Arizona and Maine as clean-money states. It's already passed the State Assembly. You can get on board with the campaign at the link.

In the Q&A, Sirota said one of the most important things I think we all need to hear. "We're starting to behave like a movement." I think sometimes we don't give ourselves enough credit for what we're all helping to build. We're in year 3 or 4 of what was a 40 year movement for Republicans to get themselves where they are today. And they don't have the benefit of competency on their side. Behaving like a movement isn't only about building progressive idea factories and media machines. It's about sending messages to incumbents that they can't damage the ideological brand and still remain unchallenged. Sirota made a nice parallel between the Lamont campaign and 2004's Pat Toomey-Arlen Specter primary. That primary wasn't only for Specter, but all the other "moderates" in the Republican Party, a message that they will face the same difficulties if they step out of line. We're not there yet with our internal primary battles, but we are starting to push a movement politics instead of a party politics. Sirota argues that we would do well to frame that politics on economic orthodoxies rather than social ones. So-called moderate Democrats that are ardent free-traders and corporate whores (looking at you, Mr. Biden) should not be able to get away with those stances.

Sirota had quite a bit more to say, but those were the main points. I urge you to not only get the book, but internalize these ideas, because only then will we be able to reclaim our government and further the progressive movement.