Adam Green: Progressive Agenda is Mainstream Agenda

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and a graduate of the School of Media and Public Affairs, spoke to the College Democrats Thursday night to give them words of encouragement going into the 2010 elections.

Green, who previously worked for MoveOn.org and several campaigns such as that of Tim Johnson of South Dakota, said that PCCC was founded to provide Democrat activists with an alternative to institutions such as the Democratic National Committee.

“A lot of candidates who went on to vote against Obama’s health care agenda, Obama’s environmental bill, received the most money from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,” said Green. “We want to give people the opportunity to vote with their dollars and volunteer hours, and force the DCCC to compete and become more progressive.”

Green said that the conventional wisdom about candidates needing to pander to the center on issues is “wrong.”

“What genius came up with the idea that because something is in the ideological center of our country, that’s in the center of the bell curve?” He asked, referring to the widely-accepted bell curve showing that the majority of Americans are in the political center, with fewer voters leaning to the left or right of the political spectrum. “We have a lot of ignorance in the media about the center of our ideology being in the center of the bell curve, and a lot of it comes from pundits we’re taught to respect.”

“A progressive agenda is a mainstream agenda,” he added. “The center of our country is progressive.”

Green cited polls showing that, before the health care reform vote, over 70 percent of Americans wanted a public option, and yet many Congressional Democrats said they would only support health care reform legislation if it did not include a public option.

“The problem with Democrats is that they aren’t representing their districts,” Green said.

One of these Democrats, Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is now facing a primary challenge from Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, who is catching up with Lincoln in recent polls. The PCCC and other organizations helped Halter bring in $1.5 million in grassroots donations.

Green assured the College Democrats that giving conservative Democrats such as Lincoln primary challenges by more progressive candidates would not threaten their majorities in both houses of Congress.

“There is room in the Democrat party for new ideas. It’s okay to question authority, to question conventional wisdom, to question the norms,” he said. “The book is constantly being re-written.”

Student Loans Dependent on Health Care Reform?

No topic is being discussed more than American news media today than health care reform. The legislation for reform is currently being worked through the Senate, having made it through Congress already. Now Democrats have proposed a student loans bill to reduce government subsidies of private, for-profit student loans companies that will be tied in to the health care bill. Direct-lending would be broadened under the legislation.

However, according to the New York Times, Democrats predict that student loan legislature will be removed from consideration with the health care bill, as including it with the struggling health care bill would mean the death of student loans reform.

We asked the College Republicans and College Democrats to tell us what they thought of the legislation. The College Republicans did not respond by press time, but check back here as we will publish their opinion on the issue as it is made available to us. Here's what Mike Garber, communications director of the College Democrats had to say:

"Health care reform and student loan reform are two of the top issues on the President's agenda, and both will help tens of millions of Americans and both need to be fixed urgently. However, I have personal concerns that including it in the health care bill could jeopardize the passage of the bill. On this point, I trust that the President and our leadership in Congress will not follow through with this if it will jeopardize the bill."

If legislation remains tied up between the parties, both bills could be jeopardized.

Post your opinions below in our comments section.

Massachusetts Senate Race Tightens: the College Democrats and College Republicans React

The late Ted Kennedy was a symbol of liberalism in the state of Massachusetts.  When Attorney General Martha Coakley handily won the Democratic primary last month, polls showed her leading the Republican nominee, Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown, by over 30 percentage points, and all analysts predicted she would cruise to a victory on January 19.

Flash forward to the second week of January, and recent polls show the race has dramatically tightened.  It all began with a January 4th Rasmussen Reports poll which showed Brown trailing by only 9 points, which many pundits initially saw a merely an outlier.  However in the past week, one Democratic pollster actually had Brown leading Coakley by 1 point, and Rasmussen Reports now has Coakley leading by only 2 points, 49% to 47%.

In response to recent polls which show a dramatic shift in the race, College Democrats Communications Director Michael Garber stated, "polls and reality are often quite different.  We are confident that Coakley will pull off a strong win on election day and will be the next in line of great senators from Massachusetts."

President Obama Urges Youth to Support Health Care Reform

By Alex Laska

President Barack Obama delivered a speech today to students at The University Maryland College Park to address health care reform and to urge America’s youth to support his plans.

The speech came just days after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) released the draft of his healthcare bill, which has been received tepidly by Republicans and Democrats alike.

“I promised to be a President who didn’t just clear up yesterday’s crises; I didn’t want to be a President who was just content with standing still,” the President told students crammed into the basketball arena at the University of Maryland.

“I promised to be a President who would build a better future; who would move this nation forward; who would ensure that this generation – your generation – had the same chances and the same opportunities that our parents gave us.”

Obama outlined his plans for health care reform, but added that, “Health care is about more than the details of a policy. It’s about what kind of country you want to be.”

Alluding to the healthcare plans of other industralized nations Obama said, “We are the only nation on Earth that leaves millions of people without health insurance,” Obama said.

“We spend more than any country on Earth, and we’re not any healthier for it. So this is about what kind of country you want your children to grow up in.”

Today’s speech was only one of a series of speeches he’s been giving across the country to rally support for health care reform. He has also addressed large audiences in Minneapolis and Pittsburgh but it was the first one during which he was heckled: while telling the audience stories about people who had gone through health care-related nightmares, one man stood up and shouted that Obama’s healthcare “Kills children!” through abortion. The people around him booed, and eventually the person causing the disturbance was escorted out by security to cheers from the audience.

Obama has been looking for support from key demographics that rallied for him during the campaign, including labor union members, middle class workers, and now young Americans.