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The Prime Targets of 2006:It's becoming something of a mantra for those American progressives who have not given up and stuck their heads in the sand: Think 2008. By this they mean, of course, that having lost the 2004 presidential election, progressives ought to now focus all their efforts on the 2008 presidential election.
This idea is half right. The 2008 presidential election will be very important, of course. However, if progressives put all their efforts into a single political event almost four years from now, the Republican nationalists who currently control the entire federal government will have a very long time in which they'll be able to do what they want.
Yes, we ought to think about 2008. But, first and foremost, progressives need to think about 2006.
In 2006, the every single member of the House of Representatives, as well as one third of all United States Senators, will be required to run for re-election. The Republicans' control of the U.S. Congress is what enables George W. Bush to enact his crazy policies. If the Congress does not agree to back the President of the United States, the President actually has very little power to do anything.
Unfortunately, most Americans just don't pay attention to congressional politics. The big news networks rarely report on congressional races in any depth, and most people don't take the trouble to read their local papers about local issues, preferring to stick with the exciting national stories they see talked about on television.
If progressives are to stand a chance of taking back the Congress from Republican nationalism in 2006, this trend of apathy about local issues will have to change. Of course, none of us can drag the entire American nation into awareness of anything that they don't care to know about - especially if it's not something they happen to see on TV. However, we can take responsibility for our own knowledge.
To that end, we suggest a few online resources for learning about what's going on with congressional races in your state - and elsewhere around the country, if you're curious. To find out who represents you in Congress right now, a quick check on Congress.org will do the trick. Next, visit the state-by-state section of Politics1.com, a web site that tracks what candidates are running against the incumbents in Congress - and indeed, which incumbents are choosing not to run for re-election. Then, for an occasional check on the developments in congressional races, the DC Political Report provides daily updates and links to news stories that are often quite entertaining as well as informative.
Finally, to begin the work of transforming your knowledge of your area's congressional politics into action, go to Irregular States, where we have created directories of progressive activist organizations and sources of news and information for each of the 50 states. In these directories, you will find many groups close to you that are working to promote progressive values - and promoting progressive values will help progressive candidates.
For the impatient, we're providing a quick action for ten congressional races that will be particularly important in 2006. These races all involve Republican incumbents. However, these ten Republican members of Congress have been identified by the Republican Party as those most at risk of being defeated by a challenger. Why? Well, for one thing, the people in the districts that these Republicans represent are beginning to wise up to all the Republican nationalist Homeland hype. For another thing, these members of Congress are among the weakest, least competent, and least appealing that the Republican Party has to offer.
So, is the Republican Party finding better candidates? Of course not! Since when has the Republican Party allowed a question of competence to interfere with the decision about whether to run a candidate for national office? No, the Republican Party these days only seems to respect power, and although these ten candidates are not very appealing to people at large, they do have a great deal of political power within their home districts. So, the national Republican Party is doing the only thing it knows how to do - throw lots of money at these decrepit political elites. That money will pay for political advertising and smear campaigns against their worthy challengers - and money can buy a lot in politics these days.
Luckily for America, good grassroots activism can achieve much greater things than even the most well-funded campaign. A simple and fast way to start getting involved in a grassroots campaign to replace these Republicans with more principled alternatives is to get a campaign button or bumper sticker that announces your opposition to their re-election. For that reason, we're providing a quick link to bumper stickers for each of ten congressional representatives on the Republican Party's own list of weakest candidates.
| Bob Beauprez Colorado's 7th District |
 Boot Bob Beauprez Bumper Sticker |
| Mike Fitzpatrick Pennsylvania's 8th District |
 Mike Fitzpatrick Bumper Sticker |
| Jim Gerlach Pennsylvania's 6th District |
 Jim Gerlach Bumper Sticker |
| Marilyn Musgrave Colorado's 4th District |
 Marilyn Musgrave Bumper Sticker |
| Anne Northrup Kentucky's 3rd District |
 Anne Northrup Bumper Sticker |
| Jon Porter Nevada |
 Jon Porter Bumper Sticker |
| Dave Reichert Washington's 8th District |
 Dave Reichert Bumper Sticker |
| Rick Renzi Arizona's 1st District |
 Rick Renzi Bumper Sticker |
| Rob Simmons Connecticut's 2nd District |
 Rob Simmons Bumper Sticker |
| Rick Sodrel Indiana's 9th District |
 Rick Sodrel Bumper Sticker |
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Irregular Times require open minds and open mouths. Give us your quick comebacks on the Irregular Forum |
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