One Thousand Progressive Activists Gather
at the Campaign for America's Future's Take Back the American Dream
Conference |
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June 18-20, 2012--Less than five
months until the November election, one
thousand progressive activists gathered at the Washington Hilton for
the Campaign for America's Future's annual conference. "We have
to build an independent progressive majority, one that is prepared to
take on big money politics," stated Robert Borosage, co-founder of the
Camapign for America's Future. Borosage described Mitt Romney as
a candidate "of, by and for the 1-percent." "We're not going to
let the brazen billionaires elect this guy president," he
declared.
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Melissa Harris-Perry, a
professor and host of MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry," said, "We [as a
country] are in our adolescence and we're making a bit of a mess of
it." Harris-Perry said, "There is no reason to lose hope."
"It's our
fear of each other that makes us exceptionally easy to divide," she
said.
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Van Jones of Rebuild the Dream
urged attendees to "put your thinking caps on." Jones said that
progressives need not just control of the government but a movement in
the streets and a coordinated media strategy to achieve their
objectives. "We were
check-mated," Jones said. "The key to real change is to have the
right president and the right movement at the same time," Jones
said. In his speech Jones emphasized, "first we have to win in
November...we have to also win in December." In December, Jones
pointed out, the Bush tax cuts expire, Pell grants run out, and
Congress will address "every can that was kicked down the road the past
two years." Jones said progressives should make just on demand on
this president, a vow to veto "these Bush tax cuts for the rich."
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The absence of an Obama campaign
presence at this conference was
interesting. There was no Obama campaign table in the exhibit
space and no representative of the campaign spoke here. By
contrast at
the recent Faith and Freedom Coalition conference the Romney campaign
had a table where staff handed out literature and signs, and Romney
spoke to attendees live via satellite. Organizers said that they
invited President Obama and
Vice President Biden to speak, but they did not want to settle for a
lower level person. (Candidate Obama did speak at this conference
on June 19, 2007).
Asked what advice he would have for the Obama campaign, Robert Borosage
said, "Run on an economic populist message." "You have to go
right at the Republicans," he said. Borosage's colleague Roger
Hickey said that Republicans are trying to convey the message that
President Obama doesn't get how the private sector works. "He's
got to explode that Republican characterization of him," Hickey said.
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