cmaukonen's picture

    Now What ?

    By cmaukonen on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 7:14pm |

    Sam Smith over at Progressive Review has some thoughts on what to do now. Give the whole thing a read. He has some good ideas.

    - Nothing could more quickly and more dramatically change the nature of American politics than a visible and effective black-latino coalition. Representing approximately a quarter of the country, such a coalition - one that emphasizes its consensus on issues rather than fighting over areas of disagreement - could make a huge difference.

    - Economic issues must be placed at the top of the list and solutions should be direct and easy to understand.

    - Pick no more than a half dozen easily understood issues and fly them at the top of the pole. The right has been doing this for years - .e.g gay marriage and abortion - but the Democrats haven't seemed to notice. Key standard: pick programs that do the most for the most.

    - Revive the labor movement. As demonstrated by the war on public schools and their teachers, Democrats - including liberals - have turned their backs on unions (except when they need them at election time). How often do you hear Democratic politicians pointing out facts about union workers such as

         - Union workers earn 30% more than non union workers

         - 80% of union workers have employer-provided health insurance while only 49% of non union workers do.

         - 68% of union workers have defined benefit pensions while only 14% of non-union do

    - Grow non-union affiliates of the labor movement such as Working America. WA currently has only about three million members but it could be much more if the labor movement took it seriously. The idea would be to have the equivalent of the AARP for non-unionized workers, both as a labor lobby and as a source of mutual benefits - insurance, discounts etc. And then when you get ready to unionize something, you already have the names and addresses of the troops.

    - Stop trying to change people by scolding them. For example, Erik Assadourian recently wrote, "According to a study by Princeton ecologist Stephen Pacala, the world's richest 500 million people (roughly 7 percent of the world's population) are currently responsible for 50 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, while the poorest 3 billion are responsible for just 6 percent." In other words, if the bottom 90 percent of the world's population were to cut their emissions by fifty percent, it would only reduce the overall effect by 3%. Yet the ecology movement acts as though our problems are heavily the fault of ordinary people and this has helped to build resistance to solutions. The effort needs to be retargeted better at the wealthiest and most powerful.

    - Build an anti-war movement that emphasizes how the military funds could be better used and ending the abuse of troops through repetitive assignments to failing battlefields.

    - Design programs to run at the lowest practical level. There is no evidence that Washington runs everything best, and plenty of evidence that Democrats have been harmed politically for believing this. Every federal program should make governors and mayors look and feel good. A recent poll found that 43% of U.S. voters rate the performance of their local government as tops compared to its counterparts on the state and federal level. Nineteen percent said state government is better than the other two, leaving just 14% who think the federal government does a better job.

    - Stop complaining about guns. It doesn't save any lives but it sure does cost a lot of votes.

    - Stand up for individual rights in all respects. The liberal silence in the face of government and corporate abuse of these rights has left people without an effective political voice.

    - Pursue issues over candidates. The iconification of politics doesn't work because the whole party becomes hostage to the behavior of its leaders. Further, worthy goals don't misbehave like individual politicians.

    - Help small business. Nobody else does.

    - Restore our rail system to where it was, say, in 1880. Put more emphasis on the miles of service rather than on the speed of trains.

    - Using a consensus approach, work with an array of other groups - within a community or general political viewpoint - to come up with programs that have broad support. Two basic rules: Only discuss issues on which there might be some common agreement and reach that agreement by consensus. Here's an example of how this can work. Other models include the New England town meeting, the Quaker business meeting.

    I know there are those who disagree with Sam of a few things and might take exception to his conclusions but that does not mean he (or anyone else for that matter) is entirely off base. Progressives can be just as bad as right wingers about throwing the baby out with the bath water.  There by closing themselves off from other ideas.  Fixation one on ideological approach, as has been done too often in the past,  generally will get you nowhere.

    Comments

    There is a lot of good food for thought here. One issue that has really been in my mind is the labor movement. I am not convinced the consolodation into mega-conglomerates has ultimately served the best interest of the workers. And they certianly seem to have abandoned the idea that solidarity with *all* workers - even those who are not able to join unions - is important. At times it seems as if the leadership has aligned it's interests with the corporations and are more acting like a talent agent than union organizer.

    There are two thoughts I have that are related. The increasingly mobile nature of the workforce makes the traditional structure of unions very difficult. And the current economic situation is just making it worse. This has been an issue in IT for years where there is little if any union presence even as it becomes one of the most important sources of employment (and corporate wealth) in the nation.

    I can't help but wonder if the next evolution of the union movement shouldn't look to the structure of the unions for musicians; ASCAP and BMI for ideas. By definition this also is a very mobile workforce. It's more of a loose glue than a traditional orginizations and as implemented really does benefit certain segments of the membership than others. But it does allow members to group together and try to use the scale to get things like affordable insurance.

    I haven't really thought the whole thing through completely, but it just seems like we need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to how we are going to organize in the face of some brutal new realities.


    by kgb999 on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 8:00pm

    I agree about the miles of service business. High speed is just an effort to compete with jets.


    by Donal on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 8:23pm

    Great article, c! It's a lot to digest, but I will be getting back to it and will probably be referencing a lot of the ideas (especially as it regards the Labor Movement) in my writings. Much food for thought!


    by SleepinJeezus on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 10:26pm

    Thanks. These are some ideas I have been thinking about as well. We too often get stuck is a particular frame of mind and need to be shaken up a bit to get our thoughts moving again.


    by cmaukonen on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 11:13pm

    A lot of good ideas. ...The election may be over, but the work isn't.

    No time to rest.

    Things may look ugly for the other side if we do this right....Let them reap what they sowed.


    by Resistance1 (not verified) on Mon, 11/08/2010 - 6:29am

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