Putting It Out There

29Feb08

When did being smart and political stop being fun? In this election year, we should be putting ourselves out there as a source of substance in the progressive movement. We can be witty without being shallow, irreverent without being insulting. We’ve got some game. But too much of the time, we’re hitting the snooze button.

Here’s what I suggest: let’s make some claims.

Let’s pick some battles.

And let’s not apologize for having ideas we believe in.

There’s more going on in these postings than you might think. I’ll give you an example – This past fall, Rob Nelb wrote a series of blogs and op-eds about how to reach a compromise in the mire that was the battle over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). He had a cool idea, and I helped him promote it. But I also some issues with it, specifically with the way that he had glossed over the fact that both sides of the aisle had kicked non-documented children to the curb and denied them access to the program.

Why did I have a problem with that? Because disease doesn’t care if you’re a citizen or not. So although I was definitely interested in how we can find a compromise that makes both sides happy (a minor political miracle in itself), I wasn’t satisfied with Rob’s response to the situation. I simply thought that he wasn’t going far enough.

Maybe I was – and am – wrong. Maybe there’s something to be said for focusing on finding that vital center and leaving other battles for other days. But I should have said something about the problem I saw, rather than just letting it go.

After all, isn’t that the point of blogging – to not have to be as polished and politic as you have to be in other arenas? And let’s be honest – my words probably weren’t going to be read by a lot of currently influential people. (And by a lot, I mean even 1.) So I should at least put it out there, make my claim, and see if any of you disagree with me.

It’s time to pick some fights and show our passion. It’s time to fuse our values and our insights. It’s time to care enough about these issues that we aren’t afraid of saying the wrong thing.

Game on.

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