Progressives In An Obama World. A Look Into President Obama's Base. Progressives Want BIG GOVERNMENT Which Generally Means LESS FREEDOM Or None At All.

I would like to emphasize that progressives are primarily in the democratic party. However, there are progressives in the republican party as well. Elected officials who grow the size of our government by leaps and bounds are progressives. Former President George W. Bush was a progressive. While he held office, he created tons of new government agencies. The main one established during his tenure was the new gargantuan US Dept. of Homeland Security. Now since President Obama took office 2 1/2 years ago, he has added tons more of federal agencies by way of the new gargantuan US Dept. of Health and Human Services and the new US Dept. of Consumer Protection. We have tons of over-regulating layers upon layers of government beauracracy that amount to never doing what they were initially created to do.

I have taken the following from the youtube description:

Founded in 1968, the Center for Community Change (CCC) is a non-profit organization that recruits and trains activists to spearhead far-leftist "political issue campaigns" and promotes increased funding for social welfare programs by bringing attention to major national issues related to poverty.

CCC bases its training programs on the techniques taught by the famed radical organizer Saul Alinsky. Following Alinsky's blueprint for establishing "grassroots" organizations to agitate for social change, CCC states that it has "nurtured thousands of local groups and leaders" across the United States.

[source: KeyWiki] Deepak Bhargava is executive director of the Center for Community Change. He was born in Mysore, India, grew up in New York City. Bhargava has developed national grassroots coalitions on issue of public housing and transportation, resulting in significant federal policy changes.

Prior to joining the Center for Community Change, Deepak Bhargava was the Legislative Director at ACORN, where he gained "broad experience in community reinvestment and housing finance issues."

On September 20-22 2002 Frances Fox Piven, Deepak Bhargava and Holly Sklar were billedas keynote speakers at “Confronting the Low-Wage Economy” at the First Congregational Church-Washington, DC, organized by Democratic Socialists of America.

On November 29, 2006 Deepak Bhargava participated in a roundtable discussion at George Soros' Open Society Institute New York entitled "How Do Progressives Connect Ideas to Action?"

Individuals and organizations with similarly progressive goals often dilute their power by working alone or even working at cross-purposes. As Americans who are politically left of center move forward, questions of infrastructure, communication, and collaboration are particularly important.

Progressives in an Obama world

On February 26 2009, Mike Lux, Miles Rapoport of Demos, Deepak Bhargava of Center for Community Change, and Gloria Totten of Progressive Majority spoke at the Center for Community Change in New York at a forum entitled "Progressives in an Obama World: The Role of the Progressive Movement in a Democratically Controlled Washington".

The forum blurb identified Obama as a "progressive" and went on to say;

Since the 2004 election, the progressive movement has built a powerful infrastructure of think tanks, media outlets and advocacy organizations. Frustrated by the conservative ascendancy and the dominance of conservative ideas, individuals and institutions have put forward new paradigms for government and promoted a bold vision for the future.

But now a progressive holds the highest office in the land. As the movement struggles to define its role in the Obama era, important questions remain unanswered: What is the role of such organizations in Washington and how can they best create political space for Obama to act? On what issues should the movement compromise and on which take strong stands? How can progressives build consensus to make their efforts more effective?

The panel will feature progressive leaders Deepak Bhargava, Miles Rapoport and Mike Lux; the speakers will draw on two new books, ‘Thinking Big: Progressive Ideas for a New Era,’ and The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, as they discuss what progressives can do to create momentum for greater boldness at a time when opportunities and challenges abound.