During the first week of October, I participated in the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington, DC. Most of the progressive groups in the country were represented: MoveOn.org, Campaign for America’s Future, Democracy for America, Change to Win, Progressive Democrats of America, Progressive Majority, Faithful America, Green for All, Working Families Win, Sierra Club, Code Pink, Planned Parenthood, AFL-CIO, United Steel Workers, AFSCME, SEIU, Hip Hop Caucus, and many, many more. (Click here to see the list.)
The progressive majority is on the move, and united in a way I can’t remember witnessing in all my years of political activism—dating back to the Civil Rights and Vietnam War protests of the 1960s. The theft of our national wealth by a tiny corporate elite has galvanized the working people of America, and a sea change in politics has begun.
The Tea Party caught some of that populist spirit a couple of years ago, but were sadly misled in their goals by their leaders. Yes, there is a powerful threat to our liberty today, and it must be opposed. But the big money behind the Tea Party was able to convince the grassroots activists that the threat was consolidation of political power, and that President Barack Obama was the enemy. But there has been no consolidation of political power, and in many ways Obama has been rendered powerless by his right wing opponents.
The real threat to our liberty is consolidation of economic power.
And that economic power has subverted the Tea Party and is dragging down our nation. The crooks and gamblers on Wall Street rolled the dice on our economy and won, while the rest of us took the hit. The wealth gap in our nation continues to increase, while millions are out of work, millions have fallen into poverty, hundreds of thousands are hungry, and jobs flow overseas.
The 1 percent who control most of the wealth in this nation are determined to impoverish the other 99 percent.
Congress is hell-bent on making things worse today, pushing forward new “free trade” agreements with Korea, Columbia and Panama that will further hammer American workers, while all the right wing wants to talk about is more tax cuts for the rich.
Jobs, not cuts!
We need federal spending now, on infrastructure, on education, on health care. Don’t believe the liars who want to lead you into economic slavery. America has always borrowed money to fund wars and to climb out of recessions. Debt is not the problem. Jobs, now!
And we need an industrial policy. We are the only nation among the top 20 industrial countries which does not have a dedicated plan to build and expand manufacturing. Manufacturing and the jobs it provides are the basis for all real wealth. We will not regain American leadership among modern, industrial nations until we rebuild our manufacturing base.
End the wars!
Why are we engaged in nation building abroad while America falls apart? The Bush wars of choice have become the Obama wars of choice. Let the Iraqi people and the Afghan people rebuild their own countries. Stop pumping money into the pockets of war profiteers like Halliburton, start building America again!
Health Care for All!
Medicare is the public option missing from the health reforms passed in the last Congress. We should extend the highly successful Medicare program to include every citizen of America. We can do it!
Tax the Rich!
It is inexcusable that people making millions per year pay a lower percentage of taxes than the middle class. It is appalling that I pay more taxes on one month of cell phone service than Verizon pays in a year. We need tax equity. We need higher capital gains taxes. And we need to impose a Financial Transaction Tax, a tiny tax on every stock and bond trade. It will raise $200 billion per year, and slow the growth of Wall Street gambling bubbles—the kind that took down our global economy in 2008.
Education for the future!
Our country is falling behind the rest of the industrial world in education outcomes. We can and must do better to give our children the opportunity to succeed in tomorrow’s world. We need our pre-school, K-12, work-force training and college education to be the best in the world. We owe it to ourselves, to those who made our success possible, and to our kids to do no less!
