The progressive movement in this country

[sidwill]

will continue to wither unless we adopt policies that empower the working class economically and cause them to care about the political process vis a vis their own personal economic interests.

-Democrats need to embrace a living wage rate and then establish that they will institute it upon reaching power again.

-Support unionizing service industry jobs. Imagine if the millions of low wage workers at fast food joints, big box stores and other service realted industries could unionize and collectively bargain for better standards. These are jobs which CANNOT be shipped overseas.

-Make the appeal for both of the above not only an economic argument but a moral argument. Imagine how effective a media campaign that juxtaposes the excessive wealth of corpoarte mucky mucks, politicians, and other elites with the realities of what faces working class families today would be.

[H2O Man]

1. I agree.

I think that workers need to become far more involved in union politics in order to make unions more responsive to workers' needs, too. There was a time that union reps were guys in flannel shirts that represented the best interests of other people wearing f;lannel shirts against the guys wearing suits. Somewhere along the line, many unions became another business run by guys in suits, who took a big share of the workers' wages in "dues," but stopped being responsive to their needs.

[porphyrian]

2. You can't get there from here.

The problem with all unionizing efforts is the successful campaign to demonize unions in the South. Even the people most in need of a union there distrust unions, if not actively believe they are bad. While you may be right, there are quite a few steps we'll have to take to get from our current state to what you suggest.

[Realityhack]

13. Unfortunately I must agree, and not just on the unions.

The majority of people in the US would like a a way to 'coletively bargan' with management... same sample is anti-union.

As far as the OP's contrasting of the haves and the have-nots... sorry but they already saw that comming and did everything in their power to paint the democrats as 'eleitest' despite the Rep. being closer to big buissnes many people have been tricked into thinking of the democrats as the rich ones. Furthermore democratic national leadership is by deffinition a high power elete group so when you control the media its easy to paint them that way while convinently not covering the even worse stuff on the other side.

[Realityhack]

14. Forgot to add...

BTW what you are saying is often done... but many vote against it anyway on other grounds (premmis of 'whats the matter with kansas').

[sui generis]

3. actually, progressives won't win on robin hood strategems

or strategems that can be portrayed that way.

We need to beat the populist drum. This is a corporate welfare society. Credit card companies have the right to keep you in perma-debt, change your "risk" profile and charge you userous rates for life for being late on your telephone bill ONCE.

Your pension? Anyone remember the RTC / Savings & Loan bailout? Republicans looked the other way and deregulated how a pension plan capital investment could be booked so that a company could raid its own "lock box". Now they're broke, and you and I will pay for 100% of those pension plans to be paid out at pennies on the dollar.

Your health insurance and medicine costs - if you've had a hangnail once you get put into a higher risk category and charged higher premiums as if you had stage 4 cancer. The government flat out refuses to negotiate or regulate pharmaceutical pricing in this country.

Your energy costs - the government refuses to regulate how energy companies deal with windfall profits to disincentivize them from raping you at every opportunity, and refuses to follow through on pricing investigations in any meaningful way. Your parents could freeze to death this winter if they can't afford their bill, and it WILL happen to someone or many someones this year.

Individuals need to have their rights prioritized over the rights of corporations. We have to take a stand. We are not sheep to be harvested of our wool and then turned into mutton at the end of the day.

These are the messages a successful candidate will need to present to wake up the slumbering dunderheads. Remind them how hard their lives are and then show them who to blame for it, and offer a solution that can work this year. THAT's how you do it.

[quiet.american]

7. Hope you're running for office -- you'll get at least one vote -- mine. :)

Your framing and message are excellent!

[sui generis]

10. thanks!

I have a marvelously lurid past - I'd get tons of free press from the scandalized prudes on the other side (and some of our own), but I am probably a lot closer in my social skills to Truman than to Dean.

I would give those poor mean republicans the vapors while handing them their liver if they irritated me, but it would be entertaining watching them reel and gasp. Politics should be a no nonsense contact sport, and I have a no tolerance policy for nonsense from them.

It's not about power. It's about how well you can administer the functions of government and provide leadership and cohesion to BOTH parties and to the constituencies of both parties. It's about vision and hope and collaboration, not fear and pettiness and retribution.

We are all, each of us either building or destroying every day. If more of us work together to build this nation for all of us rather than exploit each other for some of us, THAT is a message we can all get behind.

[quiet.american]

15. Terrific -- still have my vote! :) n/t

[Selatius]

8. It seems Bernie Sanders and one or two others are doing so, but...

that's all I know about. I don't know of the Democratic Party, in general, doing this. It's all about moderation and centrism, not economic populism, and it has been with the leadership of the Democrats since 1992.

[Comadreja]

4. The Working Poor. . .

are invisible to the Republicans. They are are only slightly more on the radar of the DLC. I would fault the rot of corporate control and big money politics for both. The earlier Progressive movement's high point was after the Depression and WWII...very strong catalyst for progressive change. Even then, the Industrialists were so rabid in opposition that they tried to get FDR overthrown in a military coup (the Business Plot). Now we are struggling to save the New Deal from stealth Fascism. It may be that the system just has to collapse of its own bankruptcy,like the USSR. There is little to be done by disempowered citizens. It would appear the progressives are too fragmented and leaderless. All I ever get from progressive groups (there are hundreds, it seems) are requests for money. This is no rallying cry for me. This is the legacy of political complacency left over from the post-War generation.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. We also need aggressive NON-POLITICAL activism

The Right did this very effectively on most of the "lifestyle" issues. We need information-environment shock teams who can strongly and devastatingly refute the lies of the hard-ass Right.

For instance, the demonization of unions is hard to fight in the context of a political election season. But at a lower profile, day in and day out, the message will be well-absorbed. Same for things like reproductive rights, remediation of poverty, elimination of racism and bigotry (including anti-gay bigotry), and destroying the power of the "Socialism" scare story.

A similar effort by progressive Christians could de-fang the Religious Right.

It's not going to be a simple or easy job, but I believe we can do it. And since most of the conservative rank and file are getting sick and tired of their clownish "leaders", the job can probably be done quickly.

--p!

[MindPilot]

6. But the "working class" consistently votes against their own interests

We can offer them health care and they call it "socialism". We offer a living wage and safe workplace, they call it "anti-business". They seem to like tax cuts for the rich and unemployment for themselves.

Why else would they have voted for Bush, and what makes you think they will change?

I work with these people, and they would much rather be screwed by a neocon than helped by a liberal.

[Selatius]

9. If they refuse to change course, their future is ruin

The problem is these people have been so thoroughly propagandized by the media to believe that white is black and up is down. If they are not deprogrammed, the experiment in "American democracy" will end when the majority of America lives below the poverty line with a silent coup to replace what's left of the government with a dictatorship of the corporation, a one-party totalitarian oligarchy of corporate interests.

[TexasLefty]

11. You need to change the unions themselves first

The problem, in my view, is that the unions of today are as almost as anti-worker as the administration.

Today, the AFL-CIO of John Sweeney is much more concerned with its political power instead of helping workers. It seems all it wants to do is gain as much power as possible while doing the least for the workers.

The SEIU approach is much more effective, and will lead to a better grassroots worker movement if it is allowed to develop. Now, the unions are just telling people to "vote for the Democrats." Democratic politicians therefore take the union vote for granted, and vote for NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.

The SEIU approach of organizing and educating workers will be much better in the long run. Instead of a paternalistic union boss telling them what do to, they will have a good job, benefits, and a feeling that the union cares about them -- which will translate into votes for progressives.

[dcfirefighter]

12. Unions vs. Labor

I fully support unionization and the right to collective bargaining. I DO NOT view production as necessarily a conflict between Labor and management.

I also feel that, in some cases, Unions are strong enough to make demands that benefit their members at the expense of other workers.

Rather, I support changes that are pro-working man and pro-wages, but not necessarily pro Union. They are almost always the same changes, but when it boils down to it, I prefer the worker to the union.

I think most of the newsworthy political battles (exept election fraud) being fought today are merely scratching the surface of the problem with our current situation.

I think that damn near every Progressive goal could be answered with full employment. We can achieve full employment by removing direct and indirect taxes on jobs. We can maintain good public goods and a social safety net by shifting taxes to resource occupation and exploitation, as well as government 'license'. We could run a surplus by reducing our sickening military expenditures.

[helderheid]

16. PDA

www.pdamerica.org