We end this time with one last quick look at the election to note not only that
according to one analysis, the Democrats may have done about as good as they might and the predictions
of large gains were more a matter of over-optimism than facts on the ground but
more importantly that, as Jim Hightower points out, for all the hand-wringing
about down-ballot losses 2020 was hardly a debacle and for progressives in
particular,
it was not all that bad a year.For one thing, there are about a dozen more progressives in Congress than there were before, making it harder for the establishment Democratic Party to continue its long practice of sidelining progressive proposals - not that they won't continue to try.
Progressives also won hundreds of local offices including, significantly, a
number of races for sheriffs, district attorneys, and other criminal justice
positions, including across the south.
It's an illustration of the
growing - slowly growing but growing -
progressive prosecutor movement, taking criminal justice reform, a
publicly-popular
and, 2020 showed,
election-winning
program, directly to the nuts and bolts of the system.
Not only in
not so unexpected areas as California, but,
the New York Times reports, in cities and counties in Geogia, Florida, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, and
Ohio, overcoming the predictable resistance from police unions.
So
we should, plagerizing Joe Hill,
not mourn but organize. Think of 2020 as one of the 101 blows in the old parable of the stonemason.
And carry it on.
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