As Take Back America wraps up today, on the fifth anniversary of the day we began military operations in Iraq, and I have mixed feelings about what the conference tried to accomplish. The whole idea behind the conference was to network, build relationships, and begin cooperation among all the leftist groups: environmentalists, social justice advocates, policy wonks, campaign managers, bloggers, youth groups, economists, and civil rights leaders. I think they took a step in the right direction, but the thing is that the audience and a lot of the panelists were mostly aging white baby boomers.

Sure, they brought in Majora Carter, Donna Edwards, Jesse Jackson, Van Jones, Pam Spaulding, and Roger Wilkins. But they still stuffed a youth coalition building workshop in a tiny room were there was standing room only. A panel targeting economic inequality starring Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Gates, Sr. talked mainly of the estate tax and didn’t make much of the increasing debt loads of youth.

Broad coalition building is a good thing. Take Back America will be considered a success, and it should be. It was a well run conference with a lot of really great speakers. Even with everyone willing to work together – and not everyone is – there’s no way we’ll become a comprehensive movement in just two and a half days. It will take a lot more work to accomplish that.