Thanks to Amelia up in scenic New Haven (where, my college roommate insists, hot dogs, clam cakes and the parenthetical remark were all invented), the wonders of Traction are spreading:
i think traction has the right idea about how to do progressive politics in cynical or otherwise difficult times. [...] [Traction] seems more geared towards creating real social networks of the type you might find in, oh, say, a church.
Jonathan Rauch wrote last year in The Atlantic that “in red America, Saturday is for NASCAR and Sunday is for church. In blue America, Saturday is for the farmers’ market (provided there are no actual farmers) and Sunday is for The New York Times.” This lack of a common progressive social space is the void that Traction is here to fill. It’s not an interest group, or an agenda-driven lobby; it’s a step toward creating a venue where progressive-minded folks can get together and practice their progressivism in a tangible, real fashion that integrates directly with their everyday lived lives, not as an appendage or obligation.
That said, I wondered if Amelia was conceding churches; I don’t see why they must be considered the exclusive domain of conservatives. Her blogroll hints at her position: a section of it is devoted to “christian left(ish)” blogs.
The progressive movement belongs in churches and synagogues and it belongs at farmers’ markets and coffeeshops. What a group like Traction can do is to provide an infrastructure where the social network can take firm root.
Ameila continues:
this is non-trivial. [....] it’s the creation of mutual concern and obligation that actually gets the political job done. furthermore it’s the creation of mutual concern and obligation of the sort that fulfills rather than depletes that gets the political job done. activists who are somehow putting themselves through paces are ineffective.
Progressive activism is doomed if it’s a chore or an afterthought. Get together. Get active. Get Traction.
