Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Dream On, America

If you haven’t yet seen Van Jones’ “Rebuild the Dream” speech, I urge you to at least take a look at the highlights; I think you’ll find it worth your while. Jones, aided and abetted by MoveOn.org and other influential progressive groups, is starting a movement designed to bring about a more balanced and more just society that meets the economic needs of all its members.

Campaign for America’s Future has the full video accompanied by an article, by Robert Borosage, documenting American Dream Movement’s launch. Another high-profile progressive organization, Common Dreams.org, hosts a WaPo article written by Rachel Weiner that provides additional insight. 

To accomplish its goals the American Dream Movement needs (and wants) your input. If you’ve got any ideas at all on how to undo the damages done to working- and middle-class American society by our corporate-run government and Wall Street financiers, now is your chance to pitch them to people who might actually listen to you. Join the movement. Get involved!

While the American Dream Movement is an example of grassroots activism at its finest, and while the movement seems to have gained a lot of traction in a relatively short time, its success is not guaranteed. To succeed, this movement needs popular support on a national scale, and that means getting the message in front of as many people as possible, by every means possible, as frequently as possible. Blog about it, write about it in letters-to-the-editor, tweet it, text it, talk about it, chat it up to everyone you know. Help it go viral. Help make it part of the public discourse.

Republicans tell us, disingenuously, that America is broke. Van Jones tells us it’s not broke, only broken, and that it can be fixed. The American Dream Movement promises to show us how.