[p2p-research] Fwd: The difficulties facing progressives in the Obama Era--and in invite.

Fri Apr 2 08:34:07 CEST 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rabbi Michael Lerner <rabbilerner at tikkun.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 6:45 AM
Subject: The difficulties facing progressives in the Obama Era--and in
invite.
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

    Tikkun<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=y0TKK%2BDoazXVC8yw7dPBv2cgJJFQE7Pi>
  to heal, repair and transform the world    *A note from Rabbi Michael
Lerner** * Join or Donate
Now!<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=QGILVU6JKNoywR5ww6w33Q%2FmEQE83qwl>

*After the Health Care Legislation: the Challenges Facing Progressives in
the Age of Obama*

The passage of the healthcare bill was not an embodiment of the vision of
universal health care that many of us aspire to, but it was a major
turn-around in American politics, a moment in which Barack Obama was able to
regain some of the moral authority that inspired his landslide election only
a year and a half ago and gave many of us reason to hope a space was opening
up for the creation of a more progressive, more social connected, more
loving and caring society.

But Obama will not succeed in fending off the Sarah Palin led Tea Party
revolt against this progressive vision without the decisive emergence of a
different kind of progressive voice into public space, a voice on the
spiritual left of Obama that strengthens his own resolve, shows him how a
new spiritual progressive vision can be both morally compelling and
realistic in political terms.

Yet this is very complicated, because Obama's programs actually erode the
support for progressive politics. Most people think Obama IS the Left, the
progressives, liberals, even "the far left." So when they hear about his or
Congressional Democrats'  policies, or get their lives touched by their
fallout, (e.g. his and their  support for trillions of dollars to the banks
and large corporations but only symbolic acts to stop the millions of home
foreclosures and to create jobs; his war in Afghanistan; his allowing the
oil and gas conglomerates to ruin the environment through drilling on the
coasts of many American states; his abandonment of his promises to end the
human rights abuses of the Bush Administration; and the list goes on), many
people become disillusioned, and blame the whole mess created by global
capitalism on "big government," thus giving an amazing opening both to the
Tea Party movement and to the large business and financial interests.

>From the standpoint of the large corporate interests, nothing could be
better than to de-fund government or dramatically downsize it, because then
it can't constrain their economic power. But if the Democrats aren't
constraining that power anyway, and people think of them as championing big
government that seems in bed with those corporate powers, they find the
anti-government sentiments of Tea Party people to be appealing, and are even
willing to turn their heads away and not pay attention when some of those
Tea Partyers reveal an extreme racism or even a quasi-fascist attraction to
militarism and denial of human rights.

So here is the problem: we have to both protect the liberals from the anger
their policies have generated, because we don't want the quasi-fascists to
take their place, and yet the only way we can effectively protect the
liberals is to openly criticize what is misguided in their policies, and to
put forward an alternative that really embodies the best in liberal and
progressive thought.

*The Invitation*

This is one of the major themes of the Tikkun/Network of Spiritual
Progressives (NSP) conference June 11-14.So I am writing you to invite you
to come to that conference and to the demonstration we plan at the White
House on June 13th.

We need you to be there to participate with us in bringing this kind of
thinking into the public arena. We will also focus on a. An Environmental
and Social Responsibility Amendment (ESRA) to the  Constitution to restrain
corporate power over elections and to re-empower democracy. b. The Global
Marshall Plan  c. Developing strategies for how to pursue progressive
politics in the Obama era  d. How to help progressives reclaim the moral
high ground by incorporating some of the leading ideas of the Network of
Spiritual Progressives, particularly our "New Bottom Line."  .

*The cut off date for the lower cost pre-registration sliding scale for the
conference is April 10.*  Please register for it now at the lower cost
prices by going to
www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php/2010conferences<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=f6N1xPQSGfD7BStduo9m4g%2FmEQE83qwl>
.

Among the presenters: * Congressmen Keith Ellison and Dennis Kucinich, Bill
McKibben (author, The End of Nature), Sister Joan Chittister
(author,Welcome ot the Wisdom of the World& The
Gift of Years, co-chair the Network of Spiritual Progressives)  Rev. Brian
McLaren (author, A New Kind of Christianity &** Everything Must Change:
Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope),** Medea Benjamin (Code
Pink),** Rev. Noemi Parrilla-Mena (Pastor of Hispanic Ministries to the
National City Christian Church Disciples of Christ) ,  **Robert McChesney
(author, The Political Economy of Media), Marianne Williamson (author, Healing
the Soul of America, A Return to Love, The Gift of Change), Rev. James A.
Forbes (Pastor emeritus of The Riverside Church, director of **Healing of
the Nations Foundation*)*, Margaret Flowers MD (Physicians for a National
Health Program) Robert Thurman (author, Inner Revoluiton & The Jewel Tree of
Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism) Riane Eisler (author, The
Chalice and the Blade &** The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring
Economics)** John Dear S.J. (activist Jesuit priest, author, A Persistent
Peace & Put Down Your Sword), **Rev. Jim Winkler (General Secretary of the
General Board of Church & Society of the United Methodists of
America), **Jonathan
Granoff (**President of the **Global Security
Institute*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=LiXKPGSR7E7blKa7E2hYsg%2FmEQE83qwl>
*, and a Senior Advisor of the **American Bar
Association*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NlPK2cA60hLdyG8t2YwoOw%2FmEQE83qwl>
*'s Committee on Arms Control and National Security*), * Sharon Welch*
*(provost
of Meadville Lombard Theological School**, author, A Feminist Ethic of
Risk&Real Peace, Real Security: The Challenges of Global Citizenship
), **Rev. Graylan Hagler (** Senior Minister of Plymouth
Congregational **United
Church of Chris*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=XFL48uTUas7Bc2owlcoFQw%2FmEQE83qwl>
*t*)*, Jeremy Ben Ami (president, J Street), Bill Moyer (chair, The Backbone
Campaign),Svi Shapiro (author,Educaiton and Hope in Troubled Times: Visions
of Change for our Children's World & Losing Heart: The Moral and Spiritual
Miseducation of America's Children), **David Loy (author, **Money, Sex, War,
Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution** & **The Great Awakening: A Buddhist
Social Theory), **Rabbi Arthur Waskow (chair, The Shalom Center, author,
Godwrestling &** Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of
Life) **, Peter Gabel (Associate Editor, Tikkun Magazine, a founder of
Critical Legal Studies, and author The Bank Teller and Other Essays on the
Politics of Meaning) , Rabbi Michael Lerner (Editor, Tikkun Magazine and
author, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious
Right, The Politics of Meaning, & Healing Israel/Palestine), Paul
Wapner (*Director,
Global Environmental Politics Program, American University and author, *Living
Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism*, *David
Korten (author, **Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real
Wealth<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NsW9wBHA6BH5Ghcp%2BY%2Bm4A%2FmEQE83qwl>
** & The Great Turning) , Sherry Shapiro (* *professor of dance and director
of Women's Studies at Meredith College, Raleigh North Carolina,
author, **Pedagogy
and the Politics of the Body: A Critical
PRAXIS*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9PqS7AqzYBipAtQsXIvTAw%2FmEQE83qwl>
*),   John Nichols (edits The Beat blog column for The Nation), Shaul
Magid (Professor
of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies, Indiana University & author, Hasidism
on the Margin), Rev. Ama Zenya (a co-chair of this conference and of the NSP
Bay Area chapter), John Cavanagh (director, The Institute for Policy
Studies), Josh Weiner (poetry editor of Tikkun magazine**, **and author of**
**The World's Room *(2001) and *From the Book of Giants *(2006), & more.

So, to restate the problem we will be addressing with your help:

On the one hand, a racist and quasi fascist movement seeks to overthrow the
Democrats and Obama and substitute more militarist and pro-corporate
policies. On the other hand a Democratic Party and president who push
policies that serve the interests of big pharm, insurance, and Wall Street,
provide no coherent alternative worldview, support huge military budgets and
a health care plan that further entrenches the private health care
profiteer,  while giving only token help to middle income and poor
people-thereby increasing the suffering of many Americans and making them
more receptive to the message of the racists and fascists. We in the
progressive world need a strategy to build a movement  for the Obama years
that recognizes the need to defend the liberals and Obama even as they
undermine themselves, and yet doesn't get identified with those flawed
policies. And we need a way to go beyond the technocratic language of
inside-the-beltway "realistic" politics and to affirm a vision of a world
based on generosity, love, non-violence, caring for others, ecological and
ethical sensitivity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe. We
call this "Spiritual Progressive" politics, and we are bringing together
people who want to think in these larger terms to a conference co-sponsored
by The Nation and many others!

*I so deeply hope that you will be able to come to help us re-invigorate the
Network of Spiritual Progressives and play a significant role in giving to
liberals and progressives the kind of help that we all so badly need to make
American politics a little more healthy, sane, and humane. And frankly, your
presence there, just BEING THERE, will make it easier for the media and even
others in our movement to take seriously the ideas that we will be putting
forward!!! Click here to register or go to: **
www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php?story=2010conferences*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=aYe6e7%2BE1ch%2FtgxYiNRyKA%2FmEQE83qwl>

*  But if you can't come, how about making a tax-deductible contribution to
help defray the costs of doing this or even to help others defray their
travel and accommodations costs? You can do that by going to
www.spiritualprogressives.org and clicking on** Donate
www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php?story=donaterenew         or by
sending a check to Tikkun Conference,
2342*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=5V9avNKWc6NYtTlj9%2FQKIQ%2FmEQE83qwl>
* Shattuck Ave, #1200, Berkeley, Ca. 94704.*

If you live in the Greater Washington D.C. area and wish to help with the
outreach and organizing for this conference in D.C., Maryland and Virginia,
please contact the conference organizer James Lee:  jlee6367 at yahoo.com. And
wherever you live, if you know people who probably would love to be there
were they to know about it, don't assume they've heard about it--it's all
word of mouth. So please paste this note on your website, your Facebook,
tweet it, and send it out to everyone on your email lists, please!!!

Love and blessings,

Michael

Rabbi Michael Lerner   Editor, Tikkun   Chair, along with Princeton
Professor Cornel West and Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister of The Network
of Spiritual Progressives

P.S. Meanwhile, many blessings for the Good Friday and Easter celebrations,
Passover celebrations, or any other Spring oriented or
renewal/resurrection/liberation/freedom celebrations you may engage in
during the coming period!

RabbiLerner at tikkun.org
 ------------------------------
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------------------------------
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