By Seth Michaels

Read the original article at AFL-CIO NOW Blog.

At the America’s Future Now conference, nearly all of us are focused on one Big Picture question: How can we build on the progressive election victories of 2008 so we can make long-lasting change that improves people’s lives?

At one of the day’s sessions, “A New and Enduring Progressive Majority?” experts agreed that, while demographic trends are pointing in the right direction for progressives, it’s important to give constituencies the information and the tools they need—not only during the election cycle but also during battles over policy and governance.

One of the panelists, Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate for workers who don’t have a union on the job, spoke about ways to reach voters who have deep economic concerns but who don’t have the advantage of being a union member to help mobilize them as a voting constituency.

Union members have access to two things that their neighbors don’t—good, reliable information and a sense of power in the economy.

Nussbaum said the questions are: What can we do to give a broader range of people that kind of experience? And what happens if we do?

Among other results of Working America’s efforts, Nussbaum said:

• Working America members voted by 67-30 percent for Barack Obama over John McCain, despite more than 60 percent describing themselves as being moderates or conservatives.
• White, male, gun-owning veterans in general voted for McCain by a large margin, but more white, male, gun-owning veterans who were working America members voted for Obama than McCain.
• Working America mobilized 200,000 members in Minnesota, home to the closest Senate race in the country, where literally every vote mattered in an outcome that’s still pending.

The efforts continue today: Working America members have delivered 5,600 letters to Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and made tens of thousands of phone calls to Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. Working America, which includes 2.5 million members, also is partnering with the AFL-CIO on the new online Unemployment Lifeline to assist and mobilize workers hurt by the economic crisis.

What Nussbaum calls “the increasing precariousness of economic stability” is a major driver of progressive change, especially for those who are most vulnerable to economic downturns, including younger workers and working moms who are critical to the progressive majority.

Page Gardner of Women’s Voices. Women’s Vote says those voters historically shut out of power are an essential voice in progressive economic policy because it affects their lives the most.

They care about good jobs; they need health care; they want this country to take care of its children through education.

This is not just about voting; this is about voting for change….We need to make sure the change they voted for is realized.

Gardner said the key to ensuring there’s a strong and enduring progressive majority—one that votes for and elects leaders that fight for an economy that works for everyone—is developing leaders from a diverse array of communities and making sure there are tangible policy results that come from progressive election victories.