Mole's Progressive Democrat: Progressive Democrat Issue 151

Well as the Bush economy spirals into its second recession (did anyone really notice a "recovery?") and prices continue to spiral upwards (does that make this "stagflation" time again?), we can now consider our nation mired in no fewer than three quagmires: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Bush economy.

Afghanistan was a justified war that was abandoned by Bush before it could be brought to an effective conclusion. Instead we are learning why the Soviets gave up as the Islamic fundamentalists we were supposed to be fighting recover not only in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan as well. We seem to be LOSING ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Iraq was a mess from the start. And, as I discuss in this issue, Bush systematically lied to get us into the war. That's nothing new...but now we have a detailed analysis telling us just how many times Bush, Chene, Colin Powell, etc. deliberately lied to get us into this quagmire.

And the economy...after so many years of the Clinton economy which was so good economists marvelled at it, we have the Bush economy that just keeps sinking. Even the "recovery" saw higher and higher prices but a net loss of jobs. And now we have the SECOND recession of Bush's administration. Add his father's recession and the Bush family has presided over three recessions.

On the bright side, the voter backlash against these Republican quagmires continues. And Republicans all over the nation see the writing on the wall. Across the country, Republicans are deciding to retire rather than face the voters in 2008. This means that 2008 looks like it is likely to be as successful for the Democrats as 2006 was.

But here I want to break tradition a bit. From the start (even before it was a blog) I have avoided endorsing candidates in primaries, considering this a newsletter for all Democrats. But this newsletter is also for progressives. And now that the Democrats are on the rise, we have to also focus on making sure the Democrats we elect really do reflect the interests of the voters on issues like impeachment, the Iraq quagmire, etc. Living in Brooklyn I am particularly aware of how bad Democrats can be (you can read about some of our problems here).

I have decided that sometimes I will focus on primaries, particularly since I now have many friends running for office. I am open to also including (with an editorial note, of course) guest articles on candidates I don't endorse, but if we don't hold our own candidates to the same, or really much higher, standards than we hold Republicans, then we are not being honest. So...I do want to draw people's attention to such excellent candidates as:

Mark Pera, running for Congress in IL-3 against a pro-war, anti-choice, anti-stem cell Democrat. Here is a video from Mark's campaign:

My friend Steve Harrison, running for Congress in NY-13 first against a machine Democrat who is willing to support permanent bases in Iraq, then against a Bush Republican. Here is a video from Steve's 2006 run for Congress that proved to the DCCC that this district can be competitive: