Introduction to Straight Talk 2007

Our time has come. Progressives are on the move. We are driving the political debate. This edition of Straight Talk [1]provides new information about public opinion, it updates statistics, and it provides new hot facts for the debate. But the basic themes need not change. The 2006 elections proved that Straight Talk—the vision, direction and arguments it makes—captures the tempo of our time.

The 2006 election exposed the collapse of conservatism. For six years, conservatives had largely their way—with catastrophic effects. Each of the Bush signature failures and follies—Iraq, Katrina, trickledown economics, privatization of Social Security, Enron and the corporate crime wave, stem cells, Terri Schiavo and poisoned food—can be traced back to conservative ideas and the ideologues and think tanks that championed them. In 2006, Americans had had enough. They voted for change—from the U.S. Senate down to the local city councils.

Conservatives now scramble to divorce themselves from the Bush debacle. The circular firing squad has formed. "We have to recognize that this was a defeat for Republicans, not for conservatives," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich summarized the 2006 Republican election rout. Republicans, George Will echoed, "were punished not for pursuing but for forgetting conservatism." Gingrich suggests the failure was due to the "four 'c's"—the absence of candor and competence, and the surplus of corruption and consultants.

Wrong. Bush's failures were not due to corruption or incompetence—although both abounded. They were due to the original conception. Conservatism has failed because it gets the world wrong. Its foreign policy misconceptions have left us less secure and more vilified across the world. Its domestic misconceptions have left us more divided and less secure. Its social and political strategies drive us apart rather than bring us together.

Large majorities of Americans now understand that we are on the wrong track. They are looking for a new direction. They want bold leadership, with real solutions that address real challenges. In poll after poll, conservatives grow more isolated, as self-described moderates and independents embrace more progressive postures.

Progressives now drive the debate. Americans increasingly want the debacle in Iraq brought to an end. The new Congress surprised itself by passing legislation demanding that the troops be withdrawn by a date certain. The president's veto stands in the way, but that argument will continue.

On clean energy, on health care, on trade, on affordable college, a growing majority of Americans are looking for action. Americans have always embraced opportunity. We've never cared much about economic inequality, as long as every person willing to work hard has a fair shot at the American dream. But increasingly, we see an economy that works—even at its best—only for the few, and not for the many. We see CEOs pocketing hundreds of millions while plundering the companies they lead, sending jobs offshore, selling off assets to generate false profits, cooking the books, using foreign tax shelters and backdating stock options—even as dedicated workers face layoffs, broken pension promises, soaring health care costs.

But while Americans are moving our way, conservative ideas still shackle our imaginations and the conservative message machine backed by powerful corporate lobbies still stifles our progress.

Progressives need to do more than simply stop the damage; we need to propose real changes. We need to raise the bar.

Bringing the debacle in Iraq to an end is vital, but we must challenge the assumption that America's military should police the world, and sustain an "empire of bases" in every corner of the globe.

Saving Social Security from privatization helped begin the unraveling of the conservative project, but it is not sufficient. We need a new economic strategy that makes this global economy work for the many, and not just the few. We need a new public social contract—for living wages, health care, pensions—to replace the private contract that the corporations are now shredding. We need to give workers power, and hold executives accountable to law. We need a global economic strategy in trade and investment that works for the nation, not simply for stateless multinationals.

Americans are demanding an end to the costly big oil energy policies of the Bush-Cheney years. But we need to rouse the country to a bigger mission—a concerted drive for energy independence, investing in clean energy and conservation, rebuilding our cities, unleashing our science and technology, and generating good jobs in a green new deal that will make us leaders, not laggards, who will meet the fateful challenges of catastrophic climate change.

Health care is once more on the agenda, but we cannot settle for "incremental change" that only adds to the costs, leaving more Americans with no, or too little, insurance. It is time to take on the insurance and drug industries, to insist that this country join every other industrial nation in providing affordable, high-quality health care to everyone.

For over a quarter century, conservatives have dominated our politics. They have created a society in which we grow apart, rather than together, an economy in which working and middle-class Americans work harder and longer simply to stay afloat. They have left our nation less secure abroad and our citizens with less shared prosperity at home.

It's time for change. We can build a more just and more prosperous nation. We can meet the global challenges we face—from stateless terrorists to catastrophic climate change. We can take on the entrenched interests and the calcified ideas that stand in the way.

That will take organizing, energy, will and bold vision. Straight Talk 2007 provides ammunition for that debate, offering ideas and arguments that will arm progressives for the months ahead. Conservatives have failed. The struggle for the next era has begun. Now is the time to make our voices heard.

Robert L. Borosage, Co-Director
Campaign for America's Future