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Tag: progressive agenda
How To Make A Political Platform Progressive

How To Make A Political Platform Progressive

An old cowboy aphorism offers this advice: “Speak the truth. But ride a fast horse.”

I relived this truism last weekend in Orlando, Florida, where I spent two hot, muggy days wrangling over policy issues as one of the members of the Democratic Party’s national platform committee. Depending on the moment and the issue, the experience was both invigorating and infuriating, with refreshing outbreaks of broad and bold democratic vision, interspersed with too many rigid, Tammany Hall tactics used to dictate corporate-friendly policies. Bernie Sanders’ 40-percent minority of platform members (of which I was one) managed to “Bern” the platform with more than two dozen big and very important amendments. As a result, instead of the same old business-as-usual blah-blah of party platforms, Democrats and their nominee, Hillary Clinton, are now on public record in support of the most progressive policy agenda in decades.

More about those specific policies in a moment, but first, let’s get on that horse.

The worst development at the Orlando meeting was the Clinton campaign’s acquiescence to the wet dream of global corporate powers: The Trans-Pacific Partnership. The platform’s draft language on this horrendous TPP trade scam actually seemed to endorse it! So Sanders’ forces went all out to replace such a pusillanimous surrender with an amendment to flat-out kill TPP.

I sponsored the Sanders alternative, dubbing it “a form of political Viagra to stiffen the spine of our party.” Our amendment prompted panicky parliamentary manipulations by Clintonites to doctor their language so it would be a bit less wimpy — and also to block my amendment from even being considered. But Sanders’ savvy policy staff outflanked them, so we forced them to debate and vote on our proposal — in view of C-SPAN’s national TV audience.

Of course, with their controlling percentage of committee members (plus strict orders from their campaign’s command center that all Clinton members must vote “no”), we lost the vote 104-71.

Nonetheless, against all odds, we advanced the progressive cause by forcing the corporate interests into public view, getting four out of every 10 members to vote for killing TPP, and energizing our base to carry this hot issue directly to grassroots voters this fall and beyond. Sometimes, progress comes from a stubborn determination to stand on principle.

Sam Rayburn, a longtime speaker of the U.S. House who hailed from my home district in Texas, once declared: “Every now and then a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.”

As a member of the Democratic Party’s platform committee, I saw many examples of that adage at work in the committee’s recent meeting to hammer out an agenda to take to the people in this year’s elections. While there were plenty of disagreements and a lot of free-floating passion ripping through the hall where center-clinging Clintonites and populist Bernie-istas tried to find common ground — there was a remarkable lack of the sort of sour, personal animosity that usually gets in the way of group progress. A myriad of policies were adopted (or rejected) that I don’t like, but — hello — consider just a few of the major progressive breakthroughs that came out of the Orlando confab:

  • The creation of a nationwide jobs initiative that will hire millions of our people to rebuild and expand America’s crumbling infrastructure.
  • Increasing the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.
  • Breaking up too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks.
  • Making public colleges tuition-free for working class families.
  • Expanding Social Security.
  • Making it harder for CEOs to block workers from joining unions.
  • Reestablishing postal banks in our public post offices to give low-income families affordable banking and an alternative to predatory lenders.
  • Encouraging new power plants to use renewable energies rather than shale gas from BigOil’s destructive fracking wells.
  • Expanding community health centers to reach 25 million more uninsured families, requiring Medicare to negotiate with BigPharma to lower our drug prices, and encouraging states to provide universal health care.
  • Decriminalizing marijuana, eliminating for-profit prisons and detention centers, and abolishing the death penalty.
  • Eliminating SuperPacs, moving to public financing of elections, providing automatic voter registration, and making election day a national holiday.

Of course, party platforms are not actual laws and programs, but statements of principles and intent. They are important as blueprints for organizing grassroots support and as specific makers for holding elected officials accountable. Making it all happen is up to us, for progressive change always has to be pushed from the bottom up — so let’s get moving.

 

Photo: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders holds up his notes while speaking about his attempts to influence the Democratic party’s platform during a speech in Albany, New York, U.S., June 24, 2016.  REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator, Formally Announces Presidential Run

Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator, Formally Announces Presidential Run

Bernie Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont, has made no secret of his intention to enter the presidential race.

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, before a boisterous crowd on the shore of Lake Champlain, he made it official, outlining his unabashedly progressive agenda and his plan to enact bold solutions.

“Today, we begin a political revolution to transform our country economically, politically, socially, and environmentally,” Sanders said, reading from prepared remarks. “Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly that ‘enough is enough.’ This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires, their SuperPACs, and their lobbyists.”

Sanders made clear that income inequality, unemployment, and restoring the middle class would be the core themes of his campaign, calling the wealth gap “the great political issue of our time.”

“The agenda begins with jobs, jobs, and more jobs,” he said.

He also discussed the “planetary crisis” of climate change, and said that resolute action was needed to reduce use of fossil fuels in order to prevent extreme weather, droughts, and ocean acidification.

The U.S., he said, must lead the world in reversing climate change by widely adopting clean energy.

Sanders reiterated that he intended to run a clean campaign, devoid of negative advertisements, needless drama, and ad hominem attacks. “My campaign will not be driven by political gossip or reckless personal attacks,” he said.

Sanders reserved his most passionate tone for his criticism of the “billionaire class,” their outsized influence in Washington, and their neglect of their duties to their country. Speaking directly to the billionaire class, Sanders said: “Your greed has got to end!”

He lamented the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, characterizing it as the highest court taking the position that it was not “good enough” for corporations to own the economy — they had to own the government as well.

He blasted billionaires for taking advantage of “huge tax breaks while children in this country go hungry,” for sending jobs overseas, and hiding their wealth in offshore tax shelters while there were unmet needs at home.

“Brothers and sisters,” he said. “now is not the time for thinking small.”

As he concluded his speech, Pete Seeger’s version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” began to play.

Screenshot via MSNBC. Video feed via BernieSanders.com

This post has been updated.

The Magnetic Left: How Non-Candidates Are Changing The Conversation

The Magnetic Left: How Non-Candidates Are Changing The Conversation

As one Republican after another announces a run for the party’s nomination, the GOP primary is swiftly becoming the circus of wacko one-upmanship we’ve come to expect, with each candidate scrambling to appear more right wing than the last.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, progressives who aren’t even running for president have gradually drawn together around a shared set of principles, making highly visible efforts to influence the Democratic agenda. Call it the “magnetic left” — by capturing the spotlight and forcing the conversation, they’re gently nudging the party’s needle towards broad reforms.

So it was on Tuesday afternoon, when Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio (both of whom have denied any interest in a presidential candidacy, this year at least), spoke back to back for a progressive doubleheader at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

“Over and over, American workers have taken the brunt of bad trade deals,” Warren said, attacking the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, an issue on which she has loudly opposed President Obama.

She decried the fallacy of “trickle-down” economics, espoused most often by Republicans, but she also took aim at the complicit Democrats who have allowed these policies to take hold: “A lot of Democrats seem to have floated along with the idea that the economic growth is in direct opposition to strengthening the well-being of America’s families, and that we have to choose economic growth or our families. That claim is flatly wrong.”

De Blasio campaigned for mayor on a “tale of two cities” platform, evoking New York’s stark economic divisions. Now, by expanding that message to the national stage, he has become a leading figure in the campaign against income inequality (to the consternation of some of his constituents, who say they feel neglected).

Following Warren’s speech, the mayor unveiled what he has called The Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality, a liberal answer to the Contract with America

“There needs to be not only new debate in this country,” de Blasio said, “but there needs to be a movement that will carry these ideas forward.”

That movement has plainly begun.

Video of Bill de Blasio announcing the progressive agenda, courtesy of AP:

Photo: Kevin Case via Flickr