Time for Some Optimism: Some Victories for Progressives in 2015.

I am an optimist. Which is unusual for a Progressive. Usually progressives, despite their forward looking politics, are most times pretty depressing and unhappy people. Look at Jason330 for an example of this. He has been pretty down of late. I think it is because we progressives never get what we want, in policy or candidates. And that is true, if you look at everything from a short term perspective. If you zoom back though from a distance, you will see that we are, as a people, as a country, always progressing. And while sometimes there is a conservative reaction to two steps forward that produces a one step backward, in the end, we are always going forward.

So to do my part in instilling a sense of optimism in you, here are some victories progressives saw in 2015. From Addicting Info:

1. Same-Sex Marriage Legal. In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, same-sex marriage is now legal. The fight over same-sex rights has been the biggest civil rights cause of the last thirty years, and the most significant hurdle has now been cleared, just three years after President Obama became the first major party candidate to support it.

2. Obamacare Wins Another Supreme Court Case. The right’s latest attempt to derail the Affordable Care Act, the King v. Burwell case in the Supreme Court, was laughable on its face. It argued that a missing word in the law was grounds on which to dismantle it. But you never know when a case is in the hands of the conservative members of the court. Luckily, Chief Justice Roberts again sided with the left of the court, and the law survived another attack. More proof that the Supreme Court is amazingly important with regards to the upcoming election.

3. EPA Pushes Clean Power Plan. You know a plan is good for the environment if major poluters and Republicans hate it. In 2015 the Obama administration’s EPA released their Clean Power Plan which will regulate carbon emissions while pushing for more solar, wind, and other clean tech. Oh, and President Obama got China and the world to agree to new cleaner standards.

4. FCC Pushes Net Neutrality. President Obama said network neutrality – which forces Internet providers to treat traffic equally instead of giving megacorps a leg up – was his top FCC priority. And in 2015 the FCC voted to regulate broadband internet like a utility, along party lines with a Democratic majority.
Workers Get Overtime. The Labor Department released a rule that would see workers who earn below $50,440 per year become eligible for more overtime.

5. U.S.- Cuba Relations Restored. President Obama re-opened relations between the United States and Cuba and while it will take congressional action to lift the ineffective embargo that is in place, the U.S. embassy in Havana has been re-opened after decades of hostility.

6. Military Combat Jobs Opened To Women. President Obama ordered Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to open up combat jobs in the military to women. If women are strong and capable enough to defend their country, an arbitrary gender decision will no longer get in the way.

7. Keystone XL Pipeline Killed. President Obama put the nail in the coffin of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. The conduit with gallons of pollutant will not pass over American soil.

From Think Progress:

A growing number of workers are earning more: Though there is still much to be done to help workers everywhere, there was serious movement on two issues: minimum wage and overtime. At the state level, 9 states increased their minimum wages due to ballot measure victories and legislative action. And, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, and other cities also raised minimum wages this year. Additionally, this past summer, President Obama announced a new overtime rule that would help nearly 5 million workers. Currently, the only salaried workers who earn less than $23,660 a year are guaranteed the right to overtime pay. The new rule more than doubles the salary threshold to $50,440. This new rule helps the economy, families, and workers, especially low-income workers and people of color. […]

Creating a more healthy democracy in 2015: In 2015, pro-democracy ballot measures saw major wins on Election Day. In Seattle and Maine, voters approved measures to blunt the influence of big money in the political system through public campaign financing. In Ohio, citizens overwhelmingly voted in support of an initiative to end partisan state legislative gerrymandering via a nonpartisan redistricting commission. Taken together, these successes represent a movement towards and the public hunger for creating a healthier democracy, one more accountable to the will of the voters and less susceptible to influence in the political system.

The world unites to fight climate change: Just this month, 195 countries struck a historic international climate deal. It sets the world on a course to cut greenhouse gas emissions, seeks to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius while aiming for an even more aggressive target, and establishes framework to ratchet up ambition in the future. And this year, President Obama finalized his Clean Power Plan, which is the most ambitious action yet taken in the United States to slow global warming. The Clean Power Plan will lead to climate and health benefits of up to $93 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, by designating 6 new national monuments, permanently protecting more than 1 million acres of public lands, and saving the Land and Water Conservation Fund, President Obama is helping mitigate the impacts of climate change on our forests, wildlife, and waterways.[….]

Historic Iran nuclear deal: After more than two and a half years of intense negotiations, the United States, along with its partners and allies comprising the world’s greatest nations, reached an agreement that will put Iran’s nuclear program under unprecedented international scrutiny. Not only is this deal historic, it is also effective. The Iran deal meets all five criteria the Center for American Progress laid out that must be met to protect U.S. interests and security. And, it cuts off all of Iran’s potential pathways to a bomb.

Now, I am sure there will be some people who will comment and say “yeah, but X was not enough.” And to that I will say “Exactly, that is why the fight is never over, because what we do achieve, while progress, is never all that we want or all that we need.” Progressives, you need to experience optimism once and all. You need to revel in the victories we do have. For two reasons. First, it will prevent you from burning out. Second, it will make you a more pleasant person. I leave you with some sage words of the late great Molly Ivins, for I am a Molly Ivins Progressive:

Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what’s more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting.