Red All Over

We Still Want Our Country Back

Figured I should probably blog something about the Take Back America Conference while it's still vaguely topical.

Bottom line is that it was incredible. I have rarely seen a more passionate and excited gathering -- thousands and thousands of progressives from all over the country. Little more than a year ago, I thought moving the Democratic Party to the left was an impossible pipe dream. What a difference a year makes.

Some recurring themes

• Progressives really hate George W. Bush.
• MoveOn.org is taking over the world. Or at least kicking George Bush out of office and turning the Democratic Party upside-down (literally). Wes Boyd says they're doing it by giving people a politics they can believe in, that re-connects them to a sense of American community and communitarian values. I think he's right.
• Progressives really hate George W. Bush.
• The Democratic Left has figured out that it's time to catch up with the conservative movement, and the institution-building they've accomplished over the last four decades. Even Hillary Clinton says so.
• Progressives aren't particularly fond of John Kerry, but they really hate George W. Bush.
• Howard Dean is a rock star. And his call to take back the Democratic Party seems to have been near universally accepted (to the point where I'm beginning to wonder who we're taking it back from). As the Washington Post noted, he got far better applause for that than for endorsing Kerry. My favorite variation came from Julian Bond: "When one party is shameless, the other can’t afford to be spineless."