1. "Think Global, Demand Local" - He suggests working with state/province and local powers for progressive change. (I think the local level has a lot of potential for progressive action, with all the fantastic grassroots community organizations. I find it odd how few people pay attention to municipal elections.)
2. "End the Oxymoron of Autocratic Progressivism" - By which he means undemocratic, top-down organizations, like many leftist think-tanks. We need to practice the values we preach! This means, I think, really coming to terms with compromise. We won't all have the same vision of the progressive future, but we need to let go a little and try not to impose our own little utopian fantasy on others.
3. "It's the Economic Issues, Too" - Social issues are important, but they tend be more divisive. We must support gay marriage and choice and other social issues, but we shouldn't let them crowd out other important basic issues like jobs and poverty and health care. Why the heck has the Right captured the populist imagination, when their policies do the most to harm the little guy/gal?
4. "Elections Are Means, Not Ends" and wasting too much energy on them is counterproductive. As he puts it: "we believe that the messianic politicians will just hand down change from Mount Olympus, that all we have to do is make sure the right messiah is on top of the mountain"
5. "Remember That Thing Called Direct Action" instead of spending so much energy on elections, shift our focus outside the electoral arena. He says:
The Establishment wants us to focus all of our energy on elections because elections are the controlled space whereby popular ferment can be contained by rules, regulations, etc. And without direct action, republican democracy is truly disempowering: our only means of influence are to beg the Very Serious And Important Intermediary —the congressman, the governor, the president, etc. —to do something on our behalf. But there are many different methods of direct action —i.e. taking matters into our own hands—that can wield a tremendous amount of power.
