An NSP Activist Sums it Up Neatly   

NSP activist Bruce Fisher's letter to a group of Minnesota activists sums up neatly our present situation with NSP. Your feeeback is also welcome. We add two points: 1. The reason why a concern with passing flawed legislation to show that SOMETHING was accomplished is a huge mistake is that unless you change the essential framework from those of the capitalist marketplace and the military industrial complex, there is little reason to believe that your changes will survive when a new Congress and new President get elected. The most important accomplishment a President can make is to convince people of a new way of thinking about their situation, and from that, legislation flows. That was what made Roosevelt, for the Left, and Reagan, for the Right, the most significant presidents of the 20th century. Obama did not have to win a single legislative victory--what he did need to do was to talk honestly to the American people and help them see the world from a progressive perspective.  2. Failing to do that (our point 1), and instead putting forward legislation that was flawed from the start rather than legislation that embodied concretely the theme of a Caring Society, Obama created huge disillusionment and despair among those who had momentarily allowed themselves to hope that something fundamental could be changed in America. From that despair arises either passivity and humiliation (on the Left) or anger and willingness to move to the Right (from the Centrists who feel misused and manipulated by Obama and hence willing to listen to the fascistic-based anger coming from Tea Party rightists).

Our only hope now is to build an independent movement that does not look to Obama but instead demonstrates and organizes for its own POSITIVE VISION. Unfortunately, most on the Left who have not given up remain focused on critique of what's wrong rather than articulating a positive vision. And that is why supporting the Global Marshall Plan and the ESRA-Environmental and Social Responsiblity Amendment to the US Constitution becomes so important.