Bright Lights in the Big City: Campaign for America's Future Conference in DC

http://www.ourfuture.org/



'We've Only Just Begun' is the theme for the three day Conference on the Campaign for America's Future which explores how we can aid Obama in implementing the Progressive Agenda. A veritable Who's Who of progressive thought comes together for three days of brainstorming to make possibilities real. No time for foolishness, time to get serious, panelists argued, noting that the transformational reform must be accomplished within the year because of this unprecedented window of opportunity.

This presents a strategic shift from the oppositional progressive politics wherein loudly shouting 'No More!' "Make Them Stop Please!" has to be supplanted with Let's Go Forward and Get it Done NOW. The Hallmarks of the new agenda, which include the various 100 day initiatives involve transformational efforts to create sustained economic growth, radical education reform and accessibility, a Health Care reform legislation that involves universal access to a public health care option and affordable accessibility for all, immigration reform, Employee Free Choice Act for a healthy labor movement deemed an underpining of a recovering middle class and a recovery program that does not merely involve billions in hand out bail-outs but holds accountable the bad manager players (and even frausters) who are responsible for the unprecedented meltdowns.

The suffering is palpable and under the radar largely of the Washington punditry. One in Eleven (1 in 11) American homes will be in foreclosure this year and the statistic is rising. Tent cities are cropping up in unlikely places filled with people who previously rode their mowers over freshly cut lawns bordered by picket fences in neighnorhoods of modest homes. The taxation of the mental health of the country as a result cannot be under-estimated.

Like all real change, it cannot be implemented with merely Presidential proclamations but will require that the grass roots gets behind the President to support his agenda and express their support and demands to their Congressional representatives. With the Al Franken Filibuster-busting vote, real change is really achievable-for the first time in a very long time. Generational change is possible. The creation of an economy that diverges from the traditional "Shampoo Economy" model of "Bubble-Bust-Repeat" with the appropriate regulatory framework requires an appreciation that rejects the "trickle down" fallacies and allows wealth creation at all strata. One panelist indicated that cleaning house at the top of financial institutions is necessary to avoid "pumping massive infusions of blood into a rotting corpse and expecting it to rise and dance."

Educational opportunity is a key peg in this formula for economic growth. And it's only Fair.

Fairness is a hallmark of the progressive agenda and at the core of American Justice. Fairness of treatment and opportunity and fairness of access.