Labor progressives, Civil Libertarian progressives all need to rally around "good government" progressive efforts. And that starts at the local level. Anyone who pays attention to politics and digs a little, soon finds that even in "liberal" districts with "good" leaders there is a lot of room for process improvement and ethical cleanup. If the Military-Security Industrial complex and Financial monsters dominate at the National level, at the local level their lawyers, investors and developers dominate at local levels. Where-ever there is money to be made developers and corrupt businessmen descend like flies and their maggots test their corrupt chops. The one thing the recent poisoning of West Virginia water supplies, and "Bridgegate" have in common, is local corruption. Bridgegate may be about a high powered lawyer in New Jersey's effort to redevelop his property there. And the company that leaked chemicals poisoning West Virginia Water was formed just before the disaster, filed for bankruptcy, and the "bank" that aided that filing is owned by the same people who owned the now bankrupt company. When Mafia do it it's criminals, when the criminals are corrupt lawyers and insiders it is "getting things done" and perfectly legal. Our country is in trouble.
If we want to clean up politics in this country, we have to start with the local politicians. We either have to put them under a spotlight to keep them honest and push them to always do the right thing, replace them, or find the guts to run against them. Progressives seem oblivious to the corrupt developers, contractors, privateers and thefts going on all around us. What is going on in New Jersey is going on around the country. And what is going on in West Virginia is where the rest of our states are headed if we don't reign in our nascent aristocracy.
It's no accident that some parts of America are poor. There are rich people who use their local power to oppress and steal around the country. They can only be reigned in by local activism and by progressives who care about their local government as much as the Federal Government.
Further reading:
Steve Kornacki's thorough exposition on how the corruption in New Jersey related to Hobocken and "Bridgegate": http://www.mediaite.com/tv/hoboken-mayor-alleges-that-chris-christies-lt-governor-extorted-her-over-sandy-funds/
Kennedy was in the process of "evolving" on Russia and Cuba: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/john-f-kennedys-vision-of-peace-20131120
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