Welcome to the Commonweal Institute’s new blog. We hope it will stimulate discussion about how to market progressive ideas, what progressive values are, and how progressives can work together more effectively. We also want to discuss building a political infrastructure that can keep working to advance progressive perspectives all the time, not just during election seasons, and not just limited to specific issues.
To give you a little background, my late husband Leonard Salle and I started the Commonweal Institute in 2001, in the wake of the 2000 election and its messy aftermath. We were motivated by our recognition that progressive voices and perspectives were being drowned out in the public arena, thanks to the well-organized conservative movement that had evolved over decades. The public, the media, and politicians (regardless of party) were accepting as credible many ultra-conservative ideas and actions that previously would have been unthinkable. There was little visible resistance to what we saw as a reversal of much of the progress that America had made in the 20th century. We decided it was time for progressives to get their collective act together.
Based on our analysis of what had made the Right successful, plus our awareness of the differences between progressives and conservatives, all of us at Commonweal agree that the Institute should not be just a traditional think tank. Instead, it should be a multi-issue organization that develops and promotes ideas, strategic thinking, and techniques for action. We’ve been doing this through research, advocacy, training, and strategic consultation to other organizations. In March of 2006, the Commonweal Institute sponsored the first Progressive Roundtable, as a step toward building coordinated political infrastructure.
Things have changed since the Commonweal Institute was founded. Republicans are currently in a precarious position politically and there is increasing skepticism about conservative policies. There is great excitement and optimism among Democrats who sense the chance for winning a number of races in the upcoming election. We should not be lulled into thinking, though, that the conservative movement will just fold its tents and slink quietly away. We can expect them to do everything in their power to continue to undercut their political opposition and to continue to advance their perspectives.
So the challenge for progressives and moderates now is to figure out how we can take advantage of this opportunity, this move back toward a more balanced situation. How can we sustain and increase the positive momentum? How, if necessary, will we defend the gains that are being made? It’s time not just to talk about policy ideas or election tactics, but about how progressives can gain political traction. It’s time to talk about creating a political environment in which the citizens of our country will be able to ask serious questions and address together the challenges we are facing as a nation, so that we can move forward in a more positive direction.
So at this exciting time the Commonweal Institute is starting a blog, as a place to discuss ideas and actions. Given the demonstrated capacity of blogs to function as real-time, open-source think tanks, we’re looking forward to getting more minds involved so we can all make progress faster.
As a final note, I especially want to thank Dave Johnson, well known for his blogging at Seeing the Forest and Huffington Post, for his help and encouragement in making Commonweal Institute’s new blog a reality. Thanks, Dave!