The staff at Young People For have been generous enough to give the staff at Living Liberally a temporary home in their New York office. As well as a 2008 Fellow, I am a summer intern with Living Liberally (the group that hosted the comedy show at the Summit). As I am working in YP4 space right now I thought I would share this blog with my fellow fellows. This blog was originally posted to Living Liberally. 

Toms River, a large suburb in central New Jersey that happens to be my home, is not a left-leaning town. It is not a moderate town. It is not even right-leaning – it is, if election results are to be believed, a deeply conservative town. It is the kind of town where explicitly starting your desire to ban all abortion gets you elected and re-elected to Congress. The kind of town whose elected officials viciously fight a resolution that would give a dying cop's pension to her partner, because that partner happens to be of the same sex.

This won't be a very popular political philosophy, but I'm going to give it a try anyway:  politics is about friendship.

You'll hear that politics is about backstabbing, about being in it for yourself, about trusting nobody.  That all may be true...in right-wing politics.  But in progressive politics, we need an approach that mirrors our values:  that we're better off when we're in it together than when we're on our own, that shared victories are our victories, the belief that bonds of trust and respect will lead to deeper connections that can rebuild society and change the world.

At least that's my belief.  And based on their actions last week, it looks like House and Senate Democrats aren't ready to practice my kind of politics.

No, I'm not talking about their failures to restore habeas corpus, ensure troop readiness or set a timeline for withdrawal.  Nor am I talking about some of the victories -- increased higher ed funds, hate crime legislation or the expansion of SCHIP -- all of which deserve praise.

But when half of the Dems in the Senate decided last week to censure the progressive advocates MoveOn (and the House followed by a larger margin this week), they revealed a lot about how they treat their "friends."

Hi YP4 community -- my name is Justin Krebs, and I'm a big fan of Young People For.  My organization, Living Liberally, has worked with YP4 on book tours and comedy shows...and I was delighted to join as a guest blogger this month.

While I will be writing original content as well, today I wanted to post something I'd written yesterday...I didn't want September 11th either to live only in the hands of those who have abused its memory for the wrong political ends, or to pass unnoticed.  So, I needed to find something to read...

(cross-posted from OpenLeft)

"Our country is strong," we are told again and again.  I for one don't find this entirely consoling.  Who doubts that America is strong?  But it's not all America has to be.

- Susan Sontag, "9-11-01"

I remember being at a loss of how to respond to September 11th.  Living in New York, I was horrified more than frightened, I was outraged and surprised and had no idea what to do or say to make sense of the situation.  Like many Americans, I tuned to the news, hoping that trusted anchors or political leaders would find the wisdom and direction I needed.

I wish, in retrospect, I had found the essays of Susan Sontag.