
From William Barber II — a tireless, sublime advocate of human decency whom I much admire — and Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, here's what I really don't get about progressive doctrine, as related by the two activists in a recent NYT op-ed:
"To address the political obstruction that has made so many other policy changes impossible, the Biden administration must push to expand voting rights to include universal early voting, online and same-day registration, re-enfranchisement of citizens affected by mass incarceration, statehood for Washington, D.C., and full restoration of the protections of the Voting Rights Act."
I could not agree more with each of the specified voting reforms. They are rational, necessary, and only fair. They would greatly enhance the legislative possibilities of doing what then could be done just as rationally, and as comprehensively outlined by the op-ed's authors: overnight relief directed at low-income and minority populations which have undergone the worst blows of the covid-19 pandemic; accessible, affordable healthcare for everyone; a $15 minimum wage; enhanced union rights; low-cost housing; a federal jobs program; the forgiving of financially suffocating and therefore economically stifling student loan repayments; improved public education; and intelligent immigration reform.
About any of that, Mr. Barber and Ms. Theoharis, you'll hear not a wisp of disagreement from me. I'm on board, full steam ahead, let us clear a battleship slot for progress.
There is, however, a problem. And it's not a minor, cranky, or nitpicky one. It lies in the op-eders' exhortation "to address the political obstruction that has made so many other policy changes impossible."
That — stubborn, systematic, and indeed popular political obstruction — is the immense armada "that has made so many … policy changes impossible." The activists concede this — this impossibility. Yet it's also dismissed in a mere 14 words in a full-length commentary on what otherwise "must" be done.
The latter is not in question by reasonable thinkers; rather, the seemingly indestructible blockades to civilized progress — enforced by cynical reactionaries voted into office by the ranks of right-winging populists — is the most fundamental challenge before us.
The Biden administration can "push" for expanded voting rights to counter the repressive onslaught all it wants, but its pushing and fight-fight-fighting will have the biting effect of a baby flea on an elephant. The "impossibility" of salubrious policy changes springs from the very people who are entrenched in Congress and statehouses and establish the bulwarks for voter repression and political obstruction: They won't vote, they'll never vote, to dismantle the defensive cordons that keep them in power, notwithstanding whatever the force of President Biden's determination.
Hence, excepting the occasional primer on the bitter absence of government's human decency and legislative heedfulness, the full-throated advocacy of much-desirable policy changes is, essentially, a waste of activists' energy — an empty beckoning for the now-roundly impossible; a hollow, progressive bellowing for a Lennonlike "Imagine," but nothing more.
Instead, virtually all progressive and center-left mobilizations must be grounded in aiming for universal voter turnout in 2022 and beyond for thoughtful lawmakers, to the now-legal extent possible. We can propose and insist on smart, human-centered policies from here to eternity, but until throngs of GOP revanchists are unseated from Congress and state linchpins, ain't nuthin' gonna happen.