Cornel West has a good idea

Cornel West's short video address to President Obama earlier this week was a great encapsulation of the problems with progressives pegging our hopes on a single person (especially a single person who has to answer to a diverse nation of 300 million people) to right the wrongs we see in the world.

The most pertinent section to me was this:

Like Abraham Lincoln who needed the abolitionist movement, like FDR needed the labor movement, you need a progressive movement to push you and that's what we, I plan to do but you have to be receptive.

The issue for progressives is that last sentence - what are we doing to legitimately make our voices heard in the White House or, for that matter, anywhere in politics? I see no rallies (even though I try not to fetishize protests), I see no organized national attempt to push a progressive agenda from organizations outside of Washington. Tons of groups are doing great progressive work, but they are not necessarily banding together to push the President.