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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week
of July 27, 2008
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Updated
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Bulletin Board:

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The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic
Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at
5:00 pm at
Democratic Headquarters,
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640 Barret Avenue .
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Yarmuth Praises Senate Subcommittee Approval of VA Hospital Funding
The Senate Subcommittee
on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs approved $75 Million for a new
VA hospital in Louisville.
“This is
great news,” Congressman Yarmuth said. “I was happy to have secured
funding in the House for a new VA hospital in Louisville, and with the Senate
now on board, we can confidently say that Louisville’s veterans will have a
new, state-of-the-art hospital very soon. I thank the Senate for working
with me to make sure that the veterans in our community get the care and
treatment they deserve.”
John McCain certainly doesn't seem to know much. I can't count how many
times I've heard him say 'I don't know', 'I'll get back to you', 'I wish I
knew' or 'I don't know that much about ______' - all of that in addition to
how many times he just says things that don't make sense. Actually, lets
give it a shot.
John McCain doesn't know whether or not Barack Obama is a socialist. Which
means, coincidentally, that John McCain doesn't know what a socialist is. (
link)

John McCain doesn't know much about insurance companies refusing to cover
birth control in the same way they cover Viagra (link)
John McCain doesn't know much about the economy (link)
John McCain doesn't know that he said he doesn't know much about the
economy, or that 'being there for the Reagan Revolution' isn't an economic
credential for being President (link)
John McCain doesn't know that Czechoslovakia hasn't done much of anything
since 1992, especially enter into a treaty with the United States (link)
John McCain doesn't know how he feels about federal emissions standards (link)
Unfortunately for John McCain, but fortunately enough for Democrats, John
McCain doesn't seem to know much of anything. But apparently, if you give
them enough time, his staff can answer any questions that you might have
about McCain's supposedly ground-breaking, maverick policies. So, just in
case you were still wondering, John McCain has a YouTube problem.

Political appointees at the
Department of Labor are rushing to "push through"
a rule before President Bush leaves office that would make it "tougher to
regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins."
Workplace-safety advocates, unions and Democrats say that the Bush
administration is "working secretly to give industry
a
parting gift that will help it delay or block safety regulations."

WHAS84'S
STAR IN THE 9-12 PM TIME SLOT
On July 16, the No. 3 syndicated radio talk show host in the country,
Michael Savage, made the following statement on autism:
"Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism? ... A fraud, a
racket."
Savage went on to say:
Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I'll tell
you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been
told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.
What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a
father around to tell them, "Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in
life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit
there crying and screaming, idiot."
Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father
called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst
thing he said -- "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't
sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was
raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the
sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're
turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we
have the politicians we have.

During the same broadcast, Savage also attacked those in "the minority
community" who suffer from asthma. He stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma
epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children
got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school.
It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the
nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." '
See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."
Michael Savage's mean-spirited comments are disgusting and are an affront
to basic decency.
Find your local Savage Station, log into our calling tool and tell your
Savage station manager what you think of Savage's tirade.
84WHAS Business
Office,
Phone: (502) 479-2222
The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week,
according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk
radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean
Hannity Show.
UPDATE:
Responding to ring wing radio host Michael Savage’s
recent comments that autism is “a
fraud” where “99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat
who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” insurance giant Aflac
announced that it will no longer advertise on his
nationally syndicated show:
“Aflac
has a strong commitment to helping children through the Aflac Cancer Center
and Aflac Foundation,” said a rep. “We understand that radio hosts
pick on any number of targets however we found his recent comments about
autistic children to be both inappropriate and insensitive.“
This isn’t the first time an advertiser had ditched
Savage’s show. Nearly 20 companies pulled their ads after the Council on
American-Islamic Relations
launched a campaign last year urging radio
listeners to express their concerns about Savage’s hate-fueled remarks. His
program reaches nearly 8 million listeners each week.
MORE:
Last week, Media Matters caught right-wing radio talker
Michael Savage claiming that
autism is a “fraud” and “a racket” where “99
percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.”
Parents of autistic children are outraged, saying Savage’s comments were “way,
way, way over the line and cruel.” But Savage
refuses to apologize. On Larry King Live last
night, he told guest host
Glenn Beck that he had simply been “taken out of
context” by “men who
specialize in hating families and children, namely
Media Matters.”
Though Beck said he was sympathetic to someone being taken out of context, he
told Savage that “as a dad with a child with special needs,” his baseless
attack on autistic children “cuts right.”
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Unions Equal Economic
Strength, by Mike
Hall
The
nation’s labor movement is “more relevant today than ever,” but unions need
to help the general public “connect the dots” between a strong and growing
union movement and improving their lives, says Phil Dine, veteran St.
Louis Post-Dispatch labor reporter.
Dine,
author of
State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle
Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence,
spoke to a lunch-time crowd at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C., today.
AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka
introduced Dine, who has spent more than 20 years covering unions and
workers, and is one of the few remaining labor reporters in the mainstream
media. Trumka gave Dine high praise, describing him as
not
some Beltway pundit but a grassroots labor reporter.
Dine
told the crowd that far too many people do not see the connection between
union strength and their economic security. He says people tell him unions
may have been needed once—a long time ago, when employers held the upper
hand and workers were fighting to win fair pay, health care and safe
workplaces. But with employer-provided health care vanishing, wages
declining and many workplaces getting less safe, Dine asks:
Tell
me, which of those don’t pertain to today?
In the
1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when unions represented more than a third of the
nation’s workers, unions used their strength and clout to improve the lives
of all workers, union and nonunion.
But
today, as millions of union jobs are being shipped out of the country and
employers are waging increasingly aggressive battles against workers trying
to form unions—aided by a National Labor Relations Board that is far more
pro-employer than worker—union influence is not as strong as it once was.
It’s
not a coincidence that the economic security and political strength of all
workers has declined as labor has declined. People aren’t leaving unions,
union jobs are leaving the country….63 percent of workers say the would
join unions today if they could. Workers are playing by the rules, trying
to form a union, but what happens? They get fired or the company drags the
appeals on and on, and sometimes their votes aren’t even counted….I talked
to moderate legal scholars, and they told me there is no country in the
Western world where it is as hard to form union.
Dine
also says that if unions are to grow and reclaim influence and strength,
they must do a better of job of communicating their message to the public
and stress important economic issues as values.
You have to help Americans connect the dots that a strong labor movement is
good for the nation’s economic and national security….The union movement is
more relevant than ever, conventional wisdom notwithstanding.
Comments:
Dear Ray,
Tom
FitzGerald, environmentalist, lobbyist and lawyer, addressed our meeting
of America 2000 on Tuesday, as you knew would happen.
He was enthralling, as always, with his recounting of his
work over the years in behalf of our environment and those who are
disadvantaged by those who pollute or injure it.
You also know of his "distressed shoes," I am sure*. When
Tom recounted in detail what had transpired in this most recent legislative
session and his assessment that there was such success in this most recent
session of the Kentucky Legislature that he polished his famous shoes for
only the third time in all the years that he has had them, I snapped this
photo.
I hope you might want to post it.
Hope you are well. Best, Olivia Anne
DAILY GRILL
"The responsibility for making the decision for California [tailpipe
emissions standards] rests with me and solely with me. ... I made the
decision. It was my decision." -- Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Stephen Johnson,
1/24/08
VERSUS
"[F]ormer EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett...testified
before the committee that Johnson had concluded that California's request
was legally justified -- until White House officials ordered him to reverse
the decision." -- Washington Post,
7/23/08
*****************
"Sir, perhaps the best that can be said is that the vice president
belongs neither to the executive nor to the legislative branch, but is
attached by the constitution to the latter." -- Vice President
Cheney's chief of staff David Addington,
6/26/08
VERSUS
"It's my own belief that the Vice President is a member of the executive
branch." -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey,
7/23/08
Quotes
of the Day
Conservatives still like to mock renewable power. "I'm
not entirely convinced," said Rep. John E. Peterson (R-PA) said
of Pickens's push for wind power. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said
disparagingly, "You
can't run the most heavily industrialized nation in the world on
windmills." Last week, Rush Limbaugh claimed it was "very,
very sad" that Americans "have bought into this whole notion that
alternatives are somehow pristine, clean and pure." These conservatives
ignore the fact that, as Gore pointed out, "enough wind power blows through
the Midwest corridor every day to...meet
100 percent of US electricity demand."
TOP
Recent Senate Votes
Veto Override; Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act -
Vote Passed (70-26, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate overrode the President's veto of a bill that cancels a scheduled
10.6 percent cut in Medicare physician payments.

Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
Reauthorization Act - Vote Passed (80-16, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate passed this bill to triple spending for President Bush's program
to treat and prevent AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in foreign countries.

Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
Recent House Votes
Veto Override; Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act -
Vote Passed (383-41, 11 Not Voting)

The House overrode the President's veto of a bill that cancels a scheduled
10.6 percent cut in Medicare physician payments.

Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO
Rep. John Yarmuth
voted YES
Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act - Vote Failed (244-173,
18 Not Voting)

The House failed to attain the necessary two-thirds margin needed to pass
this bill that would have required energy companies to drill for oil and gas
in areas where licenses have already been acquired.

Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO
Rep. John Yarmuth
voted YES
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TOP
HUMOR
"Barack Obama was in Israel today. Did you see Barack wearing the
traditional Jewish yarmulke? He looked very Jewish. Yeah. In fact, Jesse
Jackson said, I'd like to circumcise him." --Jay Leno
"NBC News defended their coverage of Barack Obama. They've been accused of
giving him more favorable treatment than John McCain. And today NBC News
denied it. They said, 'That's ridiculous, we've never even heard of John
McCain.'" --Jay Leno
"Now, you know, I don't want to say McCain is running a lackluster campaign,
but his Secret Service code name is 'Bob Dole.' That's not good." --Jay Leno
"Did you realize that Osama bin Laden had a driver? They caught the guy and
they arrested him, and he's now on trial and his name is Salim Hamdan. And
here's the thing about this guy. He was a devoted employee. I mean, he loved
working for Osama bin Laden. And maybe you saw him at airports. He would
always show up at airports waiting for Osama bin Laden. He was the guy
holding the sign that read, 'Fanatical Whackjob.'" --David Letterman
"Like so many other relationships, everything was great for a long time, and
then it went sour, and finally Osama bin Laden fired the guy. And the
problem was, he always had trouble finding him after award shows." --David
Letterman
"Barack Obama is behaving very presidentially now. He's in the Middle East,
and he met today with the leaders of Israel and Jordan. And not to be
outdone, earlier today, John McCain was in the park playing checkers with Ed
Koch." --David Letterman
"But people in the Middle East, you know, they love this Barack Obama, and I
think the reason that they love the guy is because finally, [there's] a guy
who can pronounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." --David Letterman
"Barack Obama is in the Middle East. He's in Israel today. While poor John
McCain was stuck in a supermarket in Pennsylvania. I think he's in the
cold cuts section. Excuse me, senator, can I get the Kraft singles for a
second?" --Jimmy Kimmel
"Things are not going particularly well for John McCain. He's way behind in
the polls and there's news that Barack Obama's merchandise is outselling
John McCain by four to one. McCain has a strong lead when it comes to sales
of the McClapper and the McDiaper, which I wore ... during the Super Bowl.
They're excellent." --Jimmy Kimmel
TOP
ADMINISTRATION -- ROVE DEFIES SUBPEONA, FLEES TO YALTA:
Earlier this month, Karl Rove refused to appear before the House Judiciary
Committee to testify about the politicization of the Justice Department,
despite a Congressional subpeona. While Rove justified his absence
citing executive privlege, the House Judiciary Committee voted 7-1 that
such claims were "invalid."
During the hearing, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) revealed that Rove had skipped
the country "on trip scheduled long before the subpoena was sent." Rep.
Linda Sanchez (D-CA) said Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, "never
mentioned" the trip to the Committee. Yesterday, Newsweek reported that
Rove had fled to Yalta, "the historic Black Sea resort in Ukraine."
"There Rove, who generally charges a reported $40,000 per talk, appeared on
a premier panel...on the upcoming U.S. election." Luskin didn't see a
problem with Rove's international adventure, asking Newsweek, "[W]hat was he
supposed to do,
sit at home with his lights off?" Congress, however, may hold Rove
in contempt of Congress.
Tuesday, Texas oil tycoon
T. Boone Pickens will testify on "Energy Security" before the Senate
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. A lifelong oilman,
Pickens is in the process of building the world's largest wind farm in
Texas, "a $10
billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself." The power
from the 4,000 megawatt farm is set to
go online by 2011, just three years from now. (By contrast, oil produced
through new offshore drilling -- conservatives' panacea to the energy crisis
-- would take
close to 10 years to reach the market.) "I have the same feelings about
wind, as I had about the best oil field I ever found," Pickens told the New
York Times. Earlier this month, Pickens released the "Pickens
Plan," which advocates expanding wind power and the use of natural gas.
"It's our crisis," Pickens says at the end of his first TV spot promoting
his plan, "and
we can solve it." John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for
American Progress Action Fund, praised Pickens' plan: "It is time to believe
in America's ability to solve problems again. With clean energy,
we can finally break our dependence on oil."
CONGRESS -- REID MOVING 'COBURN OMNIBUS'
TO SENATE FLOOR: Roll Call
reported yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "will
begin the process of moving the 'Coburn Omnibus,' a set of bills that have
broad bipartisan support but have been held up" because of Sen. Tom Coburn's
(R-OK)
objections. Coburn has earned the reputation of "a
fly in the soup," abusing the Senate's
hold privilege -- a technique which allows senators to "object to
bringing a bill or nomination to the floor for consideration" -- to prevent
the leadership from bringing matters to a vote. Some of these
measures include funding for stroke prevention legislation, lateral
sclerosis legislation, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act, the Emmitt Till
Unsolved Crimes Act, and the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment Act. Currently,
Coburn has a hold on nearly 100 non-controversial and bipartisan bills
simply because they are "bills that he just doesn't like." Roll Call notes,
"Debate on the bill could begin Friday, and Coburn has raised the
possibility of using the chamber's arcane rules to grind the Senate to a
halt."
ENVIRONMENT -- BUSH CRONIES TRIED TO REDEFINE 'CARBON DIOXCIDE' TO
SAVE POWER PLANTS FROM EMISSIONS REGULATIONS: Earlier this month, former
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official
Jason Burnett wrote to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) with explosive
revelations on how the White House has censored and distorted climate change
science to protect corporate interests. In a Senate hearing yesterday,
Burnett
provided further details, revealing that Office of Management and Budget
officials sought ways to define carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants as
different from CO2 from automobiles, in order to shield industrial power
plants from required by the landmark Supreme Court decision
Massacuhussets v. EPA. "I must say that it was sometimes
somewhat embarrassing," Burnett admitted, "for me to return to EPA and
ask for my colleagues to explain yet again that CO2 is a molecule and there
is no scientific way of differentiating between CO2 from car and a power
plant." Burnett's revelations are particularly surprising as he is
remembered by fellow EPA officials as "an administration loyalist who
repeatedly sided with the White House while at the agency and gave no hint
he was dissatisfied with Bush's approach to global warming." One anonymous
EPA official explained to the Washington Post, "Jason,
all of a sudden, has found his voice. ... When he was at EPA he did not
have the conscience he's expressing now, this green conscience."
Think Fast
A new study, by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University
School of Law finds that "poorly
designed ballots continue to plague U.S. elections, even after
Congress set aside $3 billion to overhaul voting systems." Since 2000,
various problems have "led
thousands of voters to skip over key races or make mistakes that
invalidated their votes."
"The principal source of funding for highway projects will soon
hit a big financial pothole" due to rising fuel prices. With
motorists cutting back on driving and buying more fuel-efficient cars, "the
government is taking in less money from the federal gasoline tax,"” which
means that "the
federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more
next year."
Jenna Bush's ex moves into the White House. Despite being a
college dropout,
Blake Gottesman, 28, returns to the White House today as deputy chief of
staff. Gottesman had worked as Bush's personal aide for four years, and had
dated Jenna Bush in high school.
Though Big Oil companies "insist they're trying to find new oil" to help
bring down gas prices, more than half of the money from their record
profits is being spent on stock buybacks and dividends rather than
exploration. While spending on stock buybacks and dividends has increased 25
percent since 2000, the percentage spent to find new deposits of fossil
fuels "has
remained flat for years, in the mid-single digits."
According to IRS data, "the richest 1% of Americans in 2006
garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income
for two decades" and "possibly the highest since 1929.” Meanwhile, "the
average tax rate of the wealthiest 1%
fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years."
President George H.W. Bush's former national security advisor
Brent Scowcroft warned the current president to stop threatening Iran.
He said yesterday "that by mentioning that threat, 'we
legitimize the use of force...and may tempt the Israelis' to carry out
such a mission. He said he thinks that negotiations must continue."
Pentagon auditors "were pressured by supervisors to skew their
reports on major defense contractors to make them look more
favorable instead of exposing wrongdoing and charges of overbilling," a new
Government Accountability Office report found. Supervisors at the auditing
agency "attempted to intimidate auditors, prevented them from speaking with
GAO investigators and
created a ‘generally abusive work environment,' the report said."
TOP
INTERESTING
One of the less pleasant aspects of writing a political column when one
party is having a particularly grim year is that the story gets so
repetitive. Some years, the Democrats are in the political toilet. This
year, the Republicans are in that unenviable position.
In the presidential race, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is
behind but still very competitive. For the GOP, that is the bright spot on
the horizon. In the House and Senate contests, the debate is about how many
seats the Republicans will lose; they no longer have a realistic chance of
holding their own.
So, even though a nonpartisan analyst naturally desires to be balanced,
in a year like this I can place very little good news on the Republican side
of the scale.
In the Senate races, the outlook for the GOP is bad and getting worse.
Few Republicans think that they have any real hope of holding retiring Sen.
John Warner's seat in Virginia. Former Gov. Mark Warner, who is a Democrat,
appears to have a lock on that contest, which The Cook Political Report
rates as "Likely Democratic." In New Mexico, where Republican Sen. Pete
Domenici is retiring, GOP Rep. Steve Pearce is the underdog, trailing
Democratic Rep. Tom Udall in a contest that we moved this week from the
"Toss-Up" column to "Leans Democratic."
In Oregon, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith faces an increasingly difficult
challenge from Democratic state House Speaker Jeff Merkley. The Cook
Political Report this week shifted that race from "Leans Republican" to
"Toss-Up." The GOP's problem isn't so much that Merkley is an especially
formidable challenger; it's just that the political climate has effectively
erased the natural advantages that Smith brings to the race.
Smith's contest joins five others involving Republican-held seats that we
had already rated as "Toss-Ups"--those of incumbents Norm Coleman of
Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and
appointed Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, as well as the open seat in
Colorado where Wayne Allard is retiring. Sununu's situation is looking
increasingly ominous; Coleman's stock has risen, although not quite enough
to warrant a move to the "Leans Republican" category.
In North Carolina, Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole's challenge from
Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan is getting increasingly competitive,
warranting a shift from the "Likely Republican" column, effectively a watch
list, to "Leans Republican," signaling that the outcome is now in doubt.
This is not yet a "Toss-Up" and may not get there, but it is now a real
race. Dole joins GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, whose contest has been in
the "Leans Republican" column since April 2007.
Democrats have targeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky in a race that we have now moved from the "Solid Republican"
category to "Likely Republican." Even though McConnell has raised an
impressive $15.2 million for the cycle and is expected to run a flawless
campaign, wealthy Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford has made a $2.5
million down payment on his race, shifting the contest to the watch list.
Democrats also contend that they are making progress against GOP Sens.
John Cornyn of Texas, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Pat Roberts of Kansas,
but those boasts are not particularly convincing at this stage.
On the other side of the Senate equation, just one Democratic seat
remains in jeopardy, that of incumbent Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Poll
results in her race against state Treasurer John Kennedy, a
Democrat-turned-Republican, are contradictory. What is clear is that the
state is trending Republican and that Kennedy is a far more formidable rival
than Landrieu faced in her two previous elections. Landrieu has a much
stronger record of accomplishments this time, however, and she is running a
better campaign than in the past. She should have another tight race.
Jennifer Duffy, The Cook Political Report's Senate editor, says
the bottom line is that Democrats are poised to pick up five to seven seats.
Holding that pickup to four would be a moral victory for Republicans. The
possibility that Democrats will net eight or nine seats remains unlikely,
but it isn't as laughable a scenario as it was six months ago.
Netroots Nation: A
Social Democratic Moment? by
Seth Michaels
In
2009, a new president and many new members of Congress will come into
office—and they’ll face both big problems and powerful resistance to solve
them. How can we pass good policy and improve the lives of working
families?
At
“The Coming Social Democratic Moment,” a session at the
Netroots Nation
conference in Austin, panelists agreed that no matter who wins this fall’s
election, there’s an opportunity to really turn around the country and a
need for progressives to organize and fight hard to ensure that we fix
what’s wrong.
Elizabeth Jacobs is a sociologist who studies attitudes toward the economy
and social programs. She notes that the last few years have seen rapid
deterioration of objective circumstances around the issues that are at the
heart of the progressive movement—a broken health care system, an economy
that’s failing most people, a collapsing housing market and unsustainable
energy prices.
Jacobs
says people are unhappy with their day-to-day lives and unhappy to see
that political leaders aren’t providing the relief they could and have in
the past. Public opinion, to a certain extent, is ahead of where political
leaders and the media are.
Jacobs
compares the current moment to the era immediately before the New Deal of
Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s. New Deal programs weren’t an easy sell;
to the contrary, Roosevelt exercised real political leadership, reaching
out to different constituencies and forging coalitions, while groups
outside the government mobilized to support these programs.
Ben
Brandzel, an online activist who has worked with Move On and John Edwards’
presidential campaign, says that over the past decade, progressives have
created and strengthened institutions in opposition to Bush politics.
However, if a pro-working family president and Congress are in place in
2009, he says, these institutions will need to adapt to a new
climate—working to pass progressive policy, not just block bad Bush-style
policies.
Brandzel notes that the political climate that produced grassroots
movement-building converged with a technological revolution in the way
activism is carried out. Blogs and e-mail allow mobilization to happen
quickly and on a large scale.
Elections make sense as an organizing goal, Brandzel says, but they’re
short-term: Movements need to keep going beyond elections. It’s been easy
to organize people around opposing bad policy, he says, but organizing
people around actually solving real-world problems is harder and more
slow-going.
Chris
Hayes, Washington editor for
The
Nation, says rebuilding the
energy economy and reforming the health care system are the two
fundamental changes that need to be made under a new administration.
Standing in the way are Big Oil and the insurance industry, which have
held enormous sway in the political process. Hayes says that a vigorous
progressive movement, outside of political parties and elected officials,
will need to counterbalance entrenched big-money interests.
Under
the Bush administration, Hayes says, the basic social contract has been
undermined, and public policy is being run for the benefit of a tiny
segment of the population, with most people left behind.
It almost boggles the mind how few people are benefiting. The
concentration of how intensely upwardly redistributive conservative
government has been shows what the project is.
In
particular, Hayes hopes that progressives remember how dangerously close
Bush came to destroying Social Security through privatization. Bush,
often accompanied by John McCain, traveled around the country, going
directly into congressional districts, and put political muscle behind
undermining Social Security. It was only through the large-scale
cooperation of progressives inside and outside of government that the
project was thwarted and Social Security was protected.
Progressives, long out of power, need to be this aggressive in fighting
for legislation to improve the lives of working people as they were in
fighting Social Security privatization. Hayes says there needs to be an
independent movement, outside of politicians and parties, which can be an
actor in political fights. Governments, he says, aren’t going to magically
hold themselves accountable.
Blogger
Ezra Klein says that to
make the best use of the political moment, progressives need to quickly
pass policies that build political strength for working people. In
particular, he points to the
Employee Free
Choice Act as what he describes as a
“reinforcing legislation.” If passed, the Employee Free Choice Act would
create more engaged progressive voters, increase the constituency for
pro-working family policies and strengthen the ability of working people
to mobilize politically.
This panel is an appropriate way to sum up Netroots
Nation. With a clear sense of what’s wrong in America and what needs to
happen to fix it, bloggers and activists will, along with unions, civil
rights groups and community organizations, take the lead in defining a new
agenda and holding leaders accountable for passing it.
Buy American Mention of
the Week
None this week.
GOOD
NEWS
On Friday, the Senate plans to begin debating the "Coburn Omnibus," a set
of bills "that have broad bipartisan support but have been held up" by
Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) objections, including stroke prevention
legislation, lateral sclerosis legislation, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Act, and the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment Act.
VIDEOS
O’Reilly Claims ‘MoveOn Is The New Klan’ And Its Supporters
Are ‘Koolaid Drinking, Zombie Followers’
McCain
Revealed: The Briefing Book

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