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Twenty-First Century Democrats is in the middle of our Annual Youth Leadership Speakers Series. We put on this program in order to provide a chance for the interns who flood Washington DC during the summer to hear real progressive leaders. These young people come to DC with high idealism and a desire to change the world, yet too often they only find cynicism and complacency.
At a time when bad news about the war dominates public dialogue, it has been energizing to hear from progressive leaders with integrity and courage. We encourage our speakers to talk about big ideas and their bold vision in America. One of our endorsed candidates from 2006, freshman Representative Chris Murphy (D-CT), really cut to the heart of why we don?t hear big ideas any more, why as a public we aren?t inspired. It really made me think.
I saw an article in the Washington Post recently that really caught my attention. The author writes:
We used to have goals. Remember goals? Sending a man to the moon? Or how about ending poverty or balancing the budget?
Now we have "benchmarks." Like "surge" or "insurgents," it's become part of our everyday language when we're talking about Iraq.
Benchmarks are an important component of any plan - they help you measure progress, and they clue you into what is and is not working. But benchmarks absent any underlying plan or final goals are meaningless - nothing more than empty talking points meant to create the illusion of a plan that doesn't really exist.
I saw an article in the Washington Post recently that really caught my attention. The author writes:
We used to have goals. Remember goals? Sending a man to the moon? Or how about ending poverty or balancing the budget?
Now we have "benchmarks." Like "surge" or "insurgents," it's become part of our everyday language when we're talking about Iraq.
Benchmarks are an important component of any plan - they help you measure progress, and they clue you into what is and is not working. But benchmarks absent any underlying plan or final goals are meaningless - nothing more than empty talking points meant to create the illusion of a plan that doesn't really exist.
It's been more than 7 months since voters took control of Congress away from corrupt Republicans, and more than 5 months since Democrats took over - and still we are waiting for real ethics reform to improve accountability in Congress. We at 21st Century Democrats ask, "are there enough reform-minded Democrats with strong leadership to convince the foot-draggers that the party will be over if they don't enact real ethics reform?" Sadly, the answer may not be what we want to hear.
The House leadership started off on the right foot in January by enacting rules restricting meals, travel and gifts from lobbyists, but some of the strongest measures, like requiring lobbyists to publicly disclose when they bundle campaign contributions for federal candidates, were passed over due to the resistance of some Members who don't get it.
