A long way from the Second International

The "progressives" are not getting anywhere, and there is much hand-wringing among the netrootsarati. Cries abound for a new paradigm to save and rejuvenate liberalism and leftism. And amazingly answers are found. And in places and terms that would leave an outdated leftist or humanist scratching her head -- for the solution, my dear comrades, lies in that word that we learned in the 80s: "entrepreneurship". We at the left itch are poor satirists, but fortunately the original material (MyDD :: How liberal entrepreneurship can help solve the progressive money problem) leaves no need for such explication:

Support entrepreneurs. The New Progressive Coalition, which I profiled several months ago (see this summary of the NPC), is the clearest example of supporting liberal entrepreneurs I have yet seen. NPC helps connects builders of progressive organizations with potential funders, and also provides organizations with practical tips and advice. This is a very useful organization, but its membership fees are rather high and tend to lock out a lot of people who can provide a little bit of help. (On the other hand, the fees are fairly low for anyone who's serious about organization building, considering the myriad other costs involved in such a venture.)

Unfortunately, there are not many other resources available to liberal entrepreneurs. Sure, there are plenty of resources for people who run non-profits, and there are a handful of resources available to people who run grassroots political organizations. But those resources are insufficient, because they just don't cover the kind of organizations liberal entrepreneurs might want to run. Where are the resources to support a for-profit company which provides consulting to candidates to help them reach religious liberals? As you may have guessed by now, this sort of problem is exactly what I'm looking to solve.

At a time when union membership continues to decline and the few remaining members vote against their own class interests, what better strategy than to take on the method, or at least the language, of the masters? This, I believe, is what our young friends in the "netroots" call a "framing" issue. This may be a brilliant attempt at frame inversion?