progress lies in the hands of representative legislatures

I've been only somewhat following the California governor's race, but I kept asking myself the same question: where's the progressive alternative here? It seems, superficially, that leading-contender Attorney General Jerry Brown would be rather conservative in a lot of his policy-making; for example, rather than strongly supporting restoration of majority-rule in budget and revenue decisions, he's implied that he'd much rather continue the current Schwarzenegger policy of cutting state programs and services until we have no infrastructure left. The other major Democratic Party contender, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, has come out strongly for budget and revenue reform, and is known (deservedly or not) as one of the greatest allies of the LGBTQ movement in the state, but as Calitics has reported, Newsom for whatever reason enjoys throwing due process out the window, at least when it comes to the right of immigrant children. Again, I haven't been following the race very closely, so I'm not sure whether there are more factors here, but it seems at a glance that neither candidate is a particularly appealing option for progressives. So what are progressives to do?

I think the answer is clear: the progressive alternative is a representative legislature. Just yesterday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors restored civil liberties by passing a veto-proof bill overturning Newsom's executive action. There is, of course, also the example of the ongoing health reform debate in Congress. The expected leadership from the White House has been absent (as it has been, unfortunately, on other issues of major concern). It has been Speaker Pelosi, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Tri-Caucus (CBC, CHC, and CAPAC), and generally the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives that have been pushing the frontier on the legislation and trying to make some meaningful health reform happen.

Progress in the country requires not only the will of the people to aspire to a better deal, but elected representatives who are actually accountable to that will. The design of the Senate, and the inherent nature of executives elected by millions upon millions of people, render these branches rather immune to the popular cause. It is representative legislatures, such as the House and state and local legislatures, that can and will be the driving force of progressive change. FDR, after all, would not have had the success he did without the strong majorities making up the New Deal Coalition in Congress.

What this means practically is that concerned citizens need to shift their resources and focus--as voters, donors, and volunteers--away from imperial executives and onto representative legislators. Individuals and groups inevitably will have more influence, given the smaller constituency size, but perhaps more importantly, the regularity of elections allows for continuous accountability.