by Rob Kall OpEdNews.COM

And we know the results. They became extinct.

And now we have Democrats and progressives faced with far right wingers with new weapons, and we have to ask ourselves, "Will we become extinct? "

Or can we lift ourselves up the evolutionary scale and face the far right with weapons of equal or greater power.

The right wing weapons are the Neocon think tanks. And don't fool yourself to think that these think tanks are just places where people explore policy and do research. That's a Democratic or progressive think tank-- a conventional think tank. That's a regular bomb, not a nuclear bomb. They may look the same on the outside, but they function very differently and the outcome is very different.

Progressives have known about the neocon think tanks for years, but when the awareness of the amount of money that was being spent on the neocon TTs first emerged in the late nineties, the democrats had a democratic president. Clinton was in the White House. The right wing TTs had a bunch of former government employees who worked for Reagan and Bush Sr. and there was no perceived great threat-- even though it was understood that they were spending hundreds of millions of dollars on these think tanks. When we look back, we know that really, they were quite effective. They came up with their research on Paula Jones. They harassed president Clinton like gnats, distracting him, sapping his energy, sabotaging him and keeping him and his political allies from doing all that they could political agenda-wise.

Now, the PNAC and other right wing TTs have placed literally dozens of their comrades in high positions in government, in the military, in the diplomatic corps, and now, we know that these think tanks are more than places where people do simple research. Now, we can go back and look at the reports that came out in the late nineties and recognize the power of  the strategies that they used to build support, to build opinion, to consolidate and solidify many different groups, to get their ideas, to get their policies backed up and supported by the religious right, by judges. This was no simple little grass roots campaign effort. This effort, for some of the TTs, has extended over 20 years.

We must,, must produce our own counterpart TT-- an array of progressive think tanks, not one, not just John Podesta's American Majority Institute (which some say is too centrist, too controlled by the DLC), but a dozen. And they need to be funded by the progressive foundations, progressive TTs, progressive issue oriented organizations-- they all need to come together and invest in a group of TTs because we don't know where to put the money. We need to allow a free market to test the resources, the creativity, the vision the ability and effectiveness of a number of these organizations so that we can determine which ones prove the most effective. Which ones take us the furthest which ones make the most difference. And gradually, as we discover those strengths and weaknesses, we'll whittle out some of them ,and hopefully, we'll end up, like the right, with half a dozen strong, robust, growing, powerful, resourceful organizations-- mega- policy promotion engines that have think tanks but do so much more.

Being who we are, we can do it  better than the far right. Because in addition to having money-- which we will get, have no doubt about that, we will get it-- we have heart, we have honesty, we have passion, we have compassion and kindness. We have truth. Just look at the errors and blunders the neocons of the PNAC and how they've torpedoed the Bush Juggernaut.

One of the problems facing this project is a lot of hopelessness. As I've spoken to leaders and founder so progressive think tanks, some of which have been in existence for ten or fifteen years-- as I've spoken to fundraisers who have been in fundraising on the beltway for 25 years and more-- there's a solid, consistent attitude that it can't be done. "We went there.  We asked for the money. They wouldn't give it to us."

Well I say that was before... that was before the US had its government stolen away from it. That was before the presidency was stolen. That was before America became something that we could no longer be proud of. That was before the principles we've worked so hard for were threatened with destruction and anhilation and death. That was before the media was turned into zombies and propaganda organizations-- the new Pravda for the Bush organization.

And now, we have a new world, a world in which we have 17 months to act, in which, if we don't do everything we can to change the world, to fight, to battle, to wage war with the right wingers and the Bush regime-- with the cowards, the thieves, the lying traitors who have assaulted America, who have spit upon its most priceless most treasured assets of freedom and democracy and individual rights.

If we don't do everything we can to fight them-- if we don't look at our lives to see how we need to change them so that, in the next 16 months, we can make the change, so that the rest of our lives, or the next decade or two decades is not flushed away by corporatists and thieves and liars. Then we better do something. And we better take another look to see whether we can raise that money or not, because if we don't, then we need to look at a future in which George W. Bush gets a second election and then Jeb Bush gets elected and then there are those daughters. They'll follow in his path-- drink, party and then run for election. And the we have a dynasty. And maybe the Ford and MacArthur foundations want or are willing to accept a dynasty, But I don't and won't.

There are millions of progressives who won't stand for Bush treachery.

We are in a war. We will raise the money. It will take leadership and courage and determination. It will take people who can inspire people who never gave money before to reach into their pockets, to reach into their bank accounts, to reach into what's left of their savings after 80 % was lost in the stock market and 30 percent of what was left was lost in the drop in the value of the dollar. And those people are going to have to look and see that they are going to lose it all and they will not have social security or medical benefits or drugs unless they do something about it, unless they spend some money.

And if we have those 52 million poeple who voted for Al Gore, each contributing a serious amount of money--- say $100, then we'll have Five billion dollars, And if we get some principled corporations and wealthy people to contribute money we'll have more and we can reach ten billion dollars. We can raise more than the right wing. We, can, we must. We have no choice.

John Podesta, Hilary Clinton, Harold Ickes and some other centrist democrats have started what promises to be the first of the left wing Policy Promotion Think Tanks. They've been committed about $10 million in funding from a few wealthy supporters. This is a good thing, even though there are many who say that this organization, the American Majority Institute, will be heavily influenced by the Democratic Leadership Committee (DLC) which some characterize as centrists who are so far right they are really Republicans in Democrats' clothing. There's still a need for more left leaning Power Think Tanks. The right has many that have a budget exceeding $10 million and several with budgets exceeding $25 million, including the Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch.

It starts with you. Can you contribute $10 or $1000, $10,000 or $10 million. If you can, then you should. We need to get going. There are a few promising organizations, particularly www.ourfuture.org (which I have no connection with outside of reporting on their work.) But even considering them,  brand new ones, with the big picture vision need to be started. it will take your help.

Rob Kall rob@opednews.com  is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders, such as the Winter Brain Meeting and the StoryCon Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story This article is copyright by Rob Kall, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached

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