the dems are restless

America, sooner rather than later, will gear up for a new political movement, one that is dedicated to fairness and justice as in the People's Budget rather than to corporate wealth as in today's budget agreement. Sooner rather than later, perhaps even by next year, a presidential candidate and dozens of congressional candidates will succeed in doing what President Obama could and should have done in 2008: to win on the basis of small donations and social networks without the need to sell out to Wall Street, the oil industry, and the other lobbies.

Many in the Huffington Post community of readers and writers think that things are already too late for America. They believe that our democracy has been irretrievably lost to the special interests. I share their frustration but believe there is real reason for hope. We are at the stage of history when the curtain is being pulled back to reveal the Wizards of Oz. The political spin-masters in the White House and Congress, the media manipulators led by Rupert Murdoch, and the oil money led by the Koch Brothers will all come to learn that despite their vast wealth and cynicism, they will not stop Americans from reclaiming their democracy.

“Stop pretending that government will play a role, because it won’t.”

This is the message delivered by the director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Jeffrey Sachs, a former Harvard professor and now a professor at Columbia who is a special adviser to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, regarding the chances of any significant U.S. climate change legislation. “We need a massive intellectual effort led by the expert community worldwide.”

“No president since George H.W. Bush has honestly taken on this issue — not Clinton, not Bush Junior, not Obama, because they’re scared of the interests,” Sachs said in what has been described as a scathing review of U.S. actions to counteract human induced climate change.

“It’s worse than we think,” Sachs said, noting also that in conversations he has had with scientists he has found the problem to be worse than is widely known and to be accelerating faster than expected. “Climate change has started. It’s serious. It is impacting the world’s food supply, and it’s going to accelerate.” Sachs is calling on the academic and expert community worldwide to shape the change necessary

Spending well means inspiring fear. So here's my proposal: First, green groups abandon the pretense that they are nonpartisan education groups. It's a legacy model that makes no sense in current circumstances. The Republican Party has officially and irredeemably aligned itself against public health and a clean energy economy.

Then, green groups all contribute to a common electoral fund. Build up, say, $300 million or so. Be public and explicit about what the money is for: not ads, not canvassing, not clever websites, nothing except primarying the next Dem who f***s with them on a big priority issue like EPA climate regs. It's just a big, loaded primary gun.

And then ... use it. Take somebody out. The crucial thing is, the challenges can't be a half-ass. They have to work -- they have to cost someone a seat. They have to be well-planned and well-executed. It's time to deploy Nixon's "Madman Theory" -- time for greens to demonstrate that they will shoot themselves in the foot if it means hitting the bastard on the other side.