Winning Progressive

10 years ago this month our nation lost some inspiring fighters for progressive values when Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), his wife Sheila, his daughter Marcia, three campaign staffers, and their two pilots died in a plane crash on a cold, dreary day in Minnesota.  Ardent supporters of working people, labor unions, social justice, and the belief that government can and must be used to improve the lives of everyday people, the loss of Paul and Sheila was truly heart wrenching.  But we also know that Paul and Sheila would have believed that the best way to honor their legacy would be to carry on the fight for the progressive values that they, and we, hold dear.

In honor of Paul, Sheila, and their legacy, below is the post that we wrote on the eight anniversary of Paul’s death, and which still holds true today.  We also urge our readers to share a tribute to the Wellstones at the memorial page that has been set up by Wellstone Action.  And please check out this tribute to Paul and Sheila written by WP contributor Joanne Boyer, who included a profile of Paul in her book Wisdom of Progressive Voices.

In Memory of Paul Wellstone

We here at Winning Progressive are not the type to have political heroes.  While there are many political candidates that we proudly support because they share the views we believe in or because they are significantly better than the alternative, we realize that all politicians are humans and, therefore, flawed.  In addition, politicians work in a system that is flooded with well-funded interests and that requires compromise to get things done.  As such, we realize that we can often only get progress out if we politically force our elected officials to aggressively support our interests.  In short, even our favorite political leaders are bound to let us down on occasion, just as we are sometimes let down by our friends or relatives.  Therefore, even as we strongly support various candidates, we recognize that raising a politician to hero status places unrealistic expectations on that person.

Having said that, there are some political leaders who we hold in especially high esteem.  On such leader is Paul Wellstone, the former Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota, who tragically died eight years ago today.  Senator Wellstone was first elected in 1990, and quickly became a leading progressive in the Senate for his willingness to strongly and eloquently stand up for progressive causes even when they were not politically popular.  Senator Wellstone was re-elected in 1996, and died eleven days before election day in 2002 when he was running for a third term.

Senator Wellstone holds a place close to our hearts because of his willingness to proudly stand up for the under-represented and to stay true to his progressive values even at the risk of losing votes, and for the time and dedication he put into building a true grassroots campaign model that continues to this day with trainings run by Wellstone Action, which works to develop future progressive leaders.  At a time when the Senate and House are increasingly dominated by massive amounts of corporate cash and politicians who rely mainly on television advertising for their campaigns, the values and tactics of Senator Wellstone are sorely missed to this day.

We’d like to close with the below video of Senator Wellstone announcing his opposition to the Iraq War in October 2002.  Only a couple weeks before his death, Senator Wellstone gave this speech in the midst of a tough re-election campaign and at a time when the proposal to invade Iraq had strong public support.  Senator Wellstone could have easily gone with the political winds (as many Democrats who should have known better did) and voted for the Iraq War.  Instead, he stood up for his beliefs and cast his vote against the war.

As we work to push our representatives to support our progressive values, we could do a lot worse than urging them to follow the example set by Senator Wellstone.

(By Joanne Boyer, cross-posted at Wisdom Voices)

With the words and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked, I joined more than 100 Minnesotans recently to march from the Sabathani Community Center to the Martin Luther King Jr. Park on the city’s south side. The march brought together community organizations, civic leaders and citizens angered by the voter suppression amendment due to be on our November ballot as a constitutional amendment.  Yes, we here in Minnesota are being asked (thanks to our Republican controlled legislature) to amend our constitution with something that one Minnesota Supreme Court judge has already hinted may be unconstitutional.

Through the streets of Minneapolis we marched after being energized by speakers who reminded us that it was our turn to follow Dr. King’s example of always speaking truth to power.  And the truth of the Minnesota ballot initiative this November, if passed, will be that it will forever change how Minnesotans cast their vote and it could keep up to 500,000 eligible Minnesotans away from the polls.  We here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes led the nation again in 2008 in voter turnout thanks in part to our civic pride and a wonderful thing called same day voter registration, which allowed more than 540,000 individuals to cast ballots on election day in 2008.

Our amendment (also an unfunded mandate with the cost of implementation due to fall to property tax payers) is falsely labeled as “voter photo ID.” In reality, it would eliminate same day registration and completely jeopardizes absentee voting.  In its place would come provisional balloting — something Minnesota has never had.

As one speaker reminded the crowd before we took to the streets, “Jim Crow has come to Minnesota.  By putting this on the ballot in November, they have shown us where their vulnerability is.  If we vote, they lose. They know that if they keep us away from the polls – even by just a small percentage, that they control the power.”

A Native American speaker from Wellstone Action (an organization that promotes the legacy of former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone) proudly showed her tribal nation ID, which she said allows her to board a plane, but which would not allow her to cast a vote if the amendment passes.

Minnesota’s voter suppression law takes on a slightly different flavor from others that hit after the 2010 elections.  Although Republicans gained control of our state legislature by the smallest of margins, Democrat Mark Dayton was elected governor.  His veto of any proposed law, forced the Republicans to bypass Dayton and put the initiative on the November ballot as a constitutional amendment.  The Republican controlled legislature also pushed through a constitutional amendment on gay marriage for this November, even though the state already has a law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.  There was no stopping our legislature when it came time to implementing ALEC “cut and paste” legislation here in Minnesota.

And so we marched.  Many in the crowd asking, “haven’t we already done this?” in reference to the 1960s civil rights marches that finally granted full voting rights to African Americans.  One female marcher even donned a costume from turn-of-the-20^th-century America in honor of the suffragette movement, carrying a sign that asked, “Is this 1912?”

Our Supreme Court is due to make a final ruling on this amendment soon.  The amendment is before the Court because of the “bait and switch” nature of the language as it currently stands.

If the Supreme Court lets stand the ballot initiative as currently written, Minnesotans will not know the deep, hidden nature of what the changes will entail.  The initiative currently states:

“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require all voters to present valid photo identification to vote and to require the state to provide free identification to eligible voters, effective July 1, 2013.”

Nowhere does it state what type of government ID must be presented.  Nowhere does it state that provisional ballots  — an entire new concept to Minnesota – will be issued to voters who can’t produce valid ID.  Nowhere does it state that absentee ballots –used by more than 240,000 Minnesotans in 2008, are completely in jeopardy.

And so we marched…and so we talked to others…and so we will continue to talk to our neighbors and fellow citizens.  Our democracy is under attack here in Minnesota, just as it is in other state throughout the land facing voter suppression laws.

From the words of Dr. King to a park named in his honor, we marched to remind people in Minnesota and everywhere:  The real power belongs to ‘We The People.’ It’s up to us to once again do the work to reclaim it from those who seek to take it from us.

Today, July 21, 2011 would have been the 67th birthday of Senator Paul Wellstone, who was the strongest and most passionate progressive voice that we have had in D.C. in a long time. Tragically, Senator Wellstone died in a plane crash in 2002, only a few weeks after he had given a powerful speech on the Senate floor denouncing President Bush’s bloodthirsty push to invade Iraq. While Wellstone’s death is extremely sad, it is safe to say that Paul would not want us to mourn. Instead, he’s want us to organize and fight for our progressive values.

The good news it that Wellstone’s legacy continues to inspire the movement for economic, social, and political change. The Wellstone Action organization that was created in the Senator’s honor trains hundreds of progressive leaders in how to run true grassroots campaigns. And he has motivated the activism of numerous organizers and political candidates, such as Ilya Sheyman, the exciting progressive Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 10th District, who Winning Progressive interviewed here.

The video below is a powerful tribute to Senator Wellstone. Watch it to get inspired, and then honor Senator Wellstone’s progressive legacy by getting involved!

We here at Winning Progressive are not the type to have political heroes.  While there are many political candidates that we proudly support because they share the views we believe in or because they are significantly better than the alternative, we realize that all politicians are humans and, therefore, flawed.  In addition, politicians work in a system that is flooded with well-funded interests, that requires compromise to get things done, and that we can often only get progress out if we politically force our elected officials to aggressively support our interests.  In short, even our favorite political leaders are bound to let us down on occasion, just as we are sometimes let down by our friends or relatives.  As such, even as we strongly support various candidates, we recognize that raising a politician to hero status places unrealistic expectations on that person.

Having said that, there are some political leaders who we hold in especially high esteem.  On such leader is Paul Wellstone, the former Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota, who tragically died eight years ago today.  Senator Wellstone was first elected in 1990, and quickly became a leading progressive in the Senate for his willingness to strongly and eloquently stand up for progressive causes even when they were not politically popular.  Senator Wellstone was re-elected in 1996, and died eleven days before election day in 2002 when he was running for a third term.

Senator Wellstone holds a place close to our hearts because of his willingness to proudly stand up for the under-represented and to stay true to his progressive values even at the risk of losing votes, and for the time and dedication he put into building a true grassroots campaign model that continues to this day with trainings run by Wellstone Action, which works to develop future progressive leaders.  At a time when the Senate and House are increasingly dominated by massive amounts of corporate cash and politicians who rely mainly on television advertising for their campaigns, the values and tactics of Senator Wellstone are sorely missed to this day.

We’d like to close with the below video of Senator Wellstone announcing his opposition to the Iraq War in October 2002.  Only a couple weeks before his death, Senator Wellstone gave this speech in the midst of a tough re-election campaign and at a time when the proposal to invade Iraq had strong public support.  Senator Wellstone could have easily gone with the political winds (as many Democrats who should have known better did) and voted for the Iraq War.  Instead, he stood up for his beliefs and cast his vote against the war.

As we work after election day to push our representatives to support our progressive values, we could do a lot worse than urging them to follow the example set by Senator Wellstone.