This Is What Taking A Strong Stand On Issues Means

As I wrote in an earlier piece for In These Times, "Washington, D.C., is really just an elaborate pressure system designed to turn corporate money and conservative conventional wisdom into congressional votes." And at the core of that pressure system is the U.S. Senate, which means when sizing up a candidate for Senate, progressives must look at their past behavior and ask one question: has the candidate shown the guts to take tough stands, even if it puts him/her in opposition to Big Money, the pundit class, or their own party?

Today, in the Ohio Senate race, we get another example of exactly what taking tough stands means - it doesn't mean changing your position every time the political winds blow a different way. It means being a consistent advocate for ordinary, regular people, like Sherrod Brown once again showed on the floor of Congress. Instead of capitulating to Big Money interests or the pressures of his party, he took yet another strong stand against corporate-written "free" trade deals that are selling America out. Here is the excerpt from United Press International's story about yesterday's vote on the Bahrain free trade accord:

"While the majority of Democrats supported the pact, Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who voiced strong opposition for CAFTA, voted against the agreement saying it was 'more business as usual' citing its environmental and labor standards. 'You'd think USTR and the administration would be taking a tough stand against these abuses, but they've said little and done less over the past five years,' said Brown. 'The template is always the same, the Bush administration hasn't changed a thing. Every free trade agreement we've voted on since Jordan has been a step back.'"

Brown's willingness to stand up to the powers that be are a rare quality in politics - especially for someone running for the U.S. Senate. It was a quality displayed by heroes like Paul Wellstone (D-NM), and today by people like Russ Feingold (D-WI). It is a quality that allows the rare leader to stand up and fight for ordinary people even though they are in the most exclusive club in the world. Sherrod Brown has shown this quality consistently - and progressives can look forward to him doing exactly the kind of thing in the U.S. Senate that he did yesterday on the House floor.

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