Tewkacrates

    Progressivism has made great reformation through the decades past since the industrial era, yet many of what policies include modern progressive platforms are blockaded from written law today by the neo-conservative Republican party, prominent in all fifty United States. Another era of progressivism could emerge now in the early 21st century with the assistance of a third-party political coalition bound with a progressive agenda to the Democratic Party. Such a movement began in the Connecticut General Assembly in the year 2007, the very same I was an intern for the Labor Co-Chair, Senator Edith Prague.
 
    Every day at lunch I sat at the same table of union lobbyists, and listened to the dialog between Brian Anderson and Dennis O'Neil, which was sometimes commiserating on what language Edith should support. Dennis O'Neil, the Director of Legislative Affairs for AFSCME, was someone I had known half my life through my father's affiliation with the union. He was an expert on union issues and I acquired tremendous insight on how the real legislative process works, directly from him. Something very important was stirring that year in the majority legislature and Dennis was forever coy in keeping its secrecy supreme.  On February 22nd Senate Bill 1311 was referred to joint committee on Government Admin and Elections, this piece of legislation had a secret weapon. Within the bill was written "sneak-attack" statutory language that would enable a minor party to after petitioning onto the electoral ballot, the ability to cross-endorse a major party candidate. Out of sixty pages of legislative language, one sentence held a clandestine motivation for the democrats to push SB1311through the process, as they did. The short language for the bill was written by Jon Green, the founder of the Connecticut Working Families party, he was the mastermind in implementing this act for the party. It was common knowledge that if any of the republican legislators found out about this language they would surely kill the bill in committee or filibuster it till the end, for this bill would empower the newly organized Working Families party, which social-economically contrasts widely from the GOP.

    A section drafted this short in length is easy to overlook, but oh how infinitely unforgiving. From GAE it went, then to Appropriations, and ultimately the Governor's desk, where Governor Rell completely oblivious, signs the death sentence to the Connecticut Republican party into law. Now, this is important, it's crucial to understand that the Republicans did not like this idea of fusion politics in the balloting process, because it injects socio-economic liberalism into the political spectrum, and definably weakens the opportunity for a Republican majority in future Connecticut elections. This law empowers the Working Families party, whom has petitioned onto most of election ballots in Connecticut to cross-endorse a major party candidate, giving that candidate enough votes to even sweep out long incumbents. By cross-endorsing a candidate that candidate's name appears twice on the ballot on Election Day giving them enormous political clout over the other candidates. The Working Families party is a coalition founded under an agenda underlying three core beliefs; affordable healthcare for all, living wage jobs, and a fair tax code. When thousands of working families go to the polls and cast votes on the WF party line it sends forth a direct and sound message to that official, he/she must delegate to the agenda of the working families party or face counter-endorsement. Which means to put it bluntly, it's about accountability, it's a game changer, it is a secret weapon.

    This "game-changing" ability to overturn a race and become the primary factor in the margin of victory for the endorsed candidate does not go untested; it is no theory, but tried and proven.In the 2006 mid-term election Chris Murphy defeated twenty three year incumbent Nancy Johnson with the aid of the working families coalition. The working families' party line put over 5700 extra votes in Chris Murphy's column, helping him seal the deal in unseating his predecessor.For this 2008 election and future elections, the WF has already petitioned onto the ballot in every state senate race, most state house seats, and all five congressional districts. The Democrat Jim Himes who's running for the 4th district seat has the WF endorsement and he's going to need it to unseat the last republican congressman left in New England, Chris Shays.  In fact the amount of votes that the WF cast for Murphy was more than Shay's plurality in 2006. Other important state republicans are also in trouble, like minority leader Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk. The Working Families party line has canvassed across the state's electoral geography and in short time will be referred to as Connecticut's third party instead of the minor party.

    Republican's do not have to sit by and watch themselves get out-endorsed every year either, because they have the power to co-sponsor bills that raise the wages of workers in Connecticut and cohere to the principals of the WF. Some republican legislators helped pass a living wage ordinance bill for the state and as a coincidence of that, the Working Families party endorsed those GOP legislators back in 2002. In some cases, the WF is running there own candidates on the ballot with hopes of perhaps having there own Working Families party legislator in the 15th district. Cicero Booker is jointly running under the WF and IP party line with only a democrat to challenge in the race his chances may be favorable if he opts for public financing. This surge in Working Families candidates will likely continue with the birth of the WF party in the states of Oregon and Delaware.

    When you zoom out of the minor facts and details to evaluate what this means for Connecticut and the United States possibly in the next twenty years, one theme seems prolific. We are looking at the edge of an era in American politics, where divergence meets prosperity, and unity breeds progress. The future of the American political landscape could entail a greater liberal cause with centralism as the new medium for survival and as a platform for the conservative right. The majority power we shall see shift to the left and the fight for legislative process will be between the left-left and the left-right of the political spectrum. We as Americans will see an abrupt end to neo-conservatism in our politics as a whole brought on mainly by the catastrophic policy's inhibited by President George W. Bush. His style of reaganism with its coy trickle-down economics has Americans hugging the toilet. More importantly, it has folks from all over the country going to the polls and participating in the system like never before. It's lead to a super-majority in our house and state senate and to the highest voter registration turnouts in history, which means all of this or at least most, benefits the progressive movement seeing how a lot of these registration surges are brought on by young, liberal, college students. This practice of fusion politics is the direct answer to a new progressive era in socio-economic development in Connecticut an soon the rest of the nation.