MORNING MESSAGE: Closing the Enthusiasm Gap

OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole: "A straw poll taken at the Take Back the American Dream conference shows that the 'enthusiasm gap' between progressives and President Obama is very real ... if the activists and intellectuals at the core of the progressive movement have such mixed feelings, will he take bold steps to assure the progressive rank-and-file that he will be a more effective fighter for progressive values in his second term than he was in the first? Yes, progressive leaders will have his back in the coming months, the straw poll indicated. But will he have ours?"

More »»

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., explains in this interview with Richard Eskow that progressives can and must win the fight against the right-wing austerity policies wrapped in the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan.

Schakowsky was a member of the deficit commission created by President Obama and led by Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson. Bowles and Simpson drafted the plan, but the commission never ratified it.

"We are not impotent here," Schakowsky says, even though Democratic leaders, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, have to at least some degree embraced Bowles-Simpsonas the framework for a grand bargain on reducing government spending and changing the tax code.

"If we are able to mobilize our opposition, we can get the Democratic Party leadership to back off their embrace of some sort of grand bargain that would include cutting those essential programs," she said.

The mobilization to stop the austerity push was one of the strategy topics at the Take Back the American Dream conference.

More »»

A straw poll taken at the Take Back the American Dream conference shows that the "enthusiasm gap" between progressives and President Obama is very real.

Progressive leaders are nonetheless committed to Obama's reelection, the poll shows. The question that Obama must answer, however, is that if the activists and intellectuals at the core of the progressive movement have such mixed feelings, will he take bold steps to assure the progressive rank-and-file that he will be a more effective fighter for progressive values in his second term than he was in the first? Yes, progressive leaders will have his back in the coming months, the straw poll indicated. But will he have ours?

This straw poll, done with Democracy Corps, reveals the feelings of a cross-section of the people who attended the conference, which attracts the most politically engaged progressives, from labor activists to community organizers. It should be taken with the grain of salt with which all straw polls should be taken, but it is an important data point nonetheless in determining what will drive political momentum in the months ahead.

More »»

I love it when a politician just lets it all hang out and says what he really believes:

During the Q&A portion of the event, [Senate candidate]Hovde expressed his support for lowering the corporate tax rate, tackling the country's spending problems and lowering the national debt.

Then, pointing to a reporter in the audience, Hovde said he would love to see the press stop covering sad stories about low-income individuals who can't get benefits and start covering issues like the deficit more frequently.

"I see a reporter here," he said. "I just pray that you start writing about these issues. I just pray. Stop always writing about, 'Oh, the person couldn't get, you know, their food stamps or this or that.' You know, I saw something the other day -- it's like, another sob story, and I'm like, 'But what about what's happening to the country and the country as a whole?' That's going to devastate everybody."

Yeah, what a bunch of whiners worrying about food when they should be worried about bondholders and their potential profits. It's Un-American, I tells you. Why it's downright class war!

More »»

At the Take Back the American Dream conference Wednesday, strategies and tactics were weaved with moving personal stories at a session on racial profiling with Gaby Pacheco, Rashad Robinson, Jasiri X, and moderator Cathy Montoya.

The panelists described racial profiling as a form of both physical and psychological violence that affects communities of color and, indirectly, communities as a whole. For example, if a hate crime is committed against an undocumented person or if an undocumented woman is raped, then there is almost zero chance that they will report the crime for fear of being deported. This makes communities less safe overall, according to panelists Pacheco and Montoya.

The conversation extended beyond the impact of Trayvon Martin, the Florida youth whose death by gunshot has ignited a national debate on race and “stand your ground” gun laws. Pacheco pointed out that such violence against black and Latino communities happens on a daily basis. The only difference was that their names did not trend on Twitter or hit the front pages of prominent national newspapers. As activists, it is our job to either create our own media or push the mainstream media to tell the stories of people who become victims of racial profiling. It is how we can politicize otherwise unconvinced people to rally to our side.

More »»

MORNING MESSAGE: Why You Should Join Wednesday's March Against Money In Politics

OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "We'll be marching on the headquarters of Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS organization in Washington DC to protest the corrupting, debasing, and anti-democratic influence of money in politics ... while the Dems have their big-money donors, frankly they're pretty small potatoes when compared to the deep-pocketed, un-American, anti-Democratic funders of the GOP like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson ... The Republicans and their corporate backers have gone absolutely crazy, not just in buying elections but in pushing a multi-pronged strategy to undermine democracy..."

Final Day of #takeback12

The following are key panels from today's Take Back the American Dream schedule, convening at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. Registration available on-site. Watch livestream of key panels, and access full conference agenda, at OurFuture.org.

8 AM Progressive Breakfast with Greg Kaufmann, Kate Sheppard, Terrance Heath and Amanda Terkel

8:45 AM Reversing the Right's Offensive on Rights with Sandra Fluke, Barbara Arnwine, Clarissa Martinez de Castro, Rashad Robinson and Wade Henderson

More »»

There's a march and demonstration taking place tomorrow (Wednesday, June 20) to protest money's corrupting influence in our political process. We'll be marching on the headquarters of Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS organization in Washington DC to protest the corrupting, debasing, and anti-democratic influence of money in politics.

I'll be there, and you should be too. Why?

I'm glad you asked.

Hey, I marched when I was in junior high school. Like many other people, I thought those days were over. Maybe you did did too. News flash: They're not. Maybe you're like me and rediscovered the power of protest by joining the Occupy movement. Or maybe you're still sitting on the fence.

If you've got doubts about whether or not to join us, here are twenty questions (and answers) that should help you make up your mind.

1. March? Really? On foot? That's so retro, so sixties! Weren't demonstrations just something that was fashionable when guys wore Nehru jackets and women wore granny skirts?

More »»

Following is the talk I gave to the Take Back the American Dream conference panel, Making It In America: Reviving and Strengthening U.S. Manufacturing.

You have undoubtedly heard the numbers, almost all of them bad.

We have a trade deficit of more than $550 billion dollars a year. This is actually an improvement from before the financial collapse, but only because people’s buying power remains down.

On this chart that first line down is $100 billion. Each line down is another $100 billion. Each year. This is real money that bleeds out of our economy.

If we were engaged in actual “trade” the money would be coming back as fast as it is leaving – that is what the word “trade” means. And that would be a win-win for all trade partners. But it has not worked out that way. Imports stay ahead of exports.

Our manufacturing sector has been bleeding out of our country along with the money.

More »»

There are people who become the face of a movement. They attend press conferences, head panels at conferences, and claim to speak for those who do not traditionally have a voice.

Then there are the “behind-the-scenes” activists. They are the people in back rooms who make repetitive phone calls, and do the tireless, thankless work which allows the faces of a movement to emerge. They allow others to take the credit and do not demand any for themselves. That was Maria Leavey’s role in her lifetime as a progressive organizer.

After her passing in 2006, the progressive community wanted to honor other activists and organizers who embodied Maria’s spirit. Today the Maria Leavey Award went to Samantha Corbin for her work as an actions coordinator for The Other 98 Percent.

Corbin’s work as an actions trainer at Occupy Wall Street has spread innovative protest tactics all over the country.

Borosage noted that the decision to honor Corbin was based on online nominations and voting on the CAF website.

More »»

What is now more clear than ever is that building a progressive political force is a 24/7/365 effort. It's not just work to be done during election cycles, and not just done in presidential and congressional elections.

Tuesday morning at the Take Back the American Dream conference included major sessions on how to build a lasting progressive power base, from the ground up.

"I think we increase our chances of winning when we have an infrastructure that has been laid down" based on progressive issue stands over a long period of time, in which deep relationships have been developed, said Bob Master, legislative and political director for the Communications Workers of America in New York, at a "99 Elect: Dream Candidates in 2012" strategy session.

One way to do it is to have more progressive people actually running for state and local offices. That's why Progressive Majority distributed cards that said, "Progressive Majority wants you to run for office!" (You can take up the challenge at RunForAmerica.org.)

"Most national candidates started at the state or local level," said Gloria Totten, Progressive Majority's director. "It is literally the system though which people come to Washington."

More »»

At the Take Back the American Dream conference this morning, Paul Krugman reprised what he said on the Colbert Report recently, concerning Ireland's austerity agenda and it's frightening resemblance to Mitt Romney's economic agenda.

If Mitt Romney is elected president, the U.S. will experience an economic disaster the likes of which have been recently seen in Ireland, according to Paul Krugman.

"Ireland is Romney economics in practice," the Nobel-Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist said on the Colbert Report on Monday. "I think Ireland is America's future if Romney is president." (h/t Politico.)

"They've laid off a large fraction of their public workforce, they've slashed spending, they've had extreme austerity programs, they haven't really raised taxes on corporations or the rich at all, they have 14 percent unemployment, 30 percent youth unemployment, zero economic growth," Krugman said.

Romney, the likely Republican nominee for president, recently suggested that the government should lay off more firemen, policemen, and teachers, according to CNN. Romney's campaign website says that if elected president, Romney would aim to slash federal spending at least 18 percent by the end of his first term.

As the saying goes, "Great minds think alike. 

More »»

Conservatives have long sought to condemn the Recovery Act by claiming it failed to prevent unemployment from going higher than 8% as the White House projected. This is silly because the White House projection was made in January 2009, and unemployment lept to 8.3% in February 2009 before the Recovery Act had a chance to be implemented.

As you can see, the economy was in even worse shape upon the President's inauguration than the White House economists realized. The baseline projection is what was off, not the embrace of Keynesian 101 economics.

And as Paul Krugman explained at the Take Back the American Dream conference today, we could have driven unemployment down below 8% if only we extended one aspect of the initial Recovery Act: send money to the states to prevent public worker layoffs.

"Just by filling the potholes," hiring idle construction workers and saving teaching jobs, said Krugman, we would be at 7% unemployment. We would not incur much more debt to do it, because interest rates are so low. It would not take much time to implement, as opposed to also needed heavy infrastructure projects, because all that's involved is putting the money into the state accounts.

More »»

Originally posted at Capital Gains and Gains.

At least since I’ve been an adult, I’ve never believed in heaven or hell.

Despite all of the fire-and-brimstone warnings and thunderous sermons about the need to avoid eternal damnation by behaving a certain way, I can’t get it out of my head that no one has ever proved that hell exists. To me, the discussion about where you end up for all eternity has always been belief or spin and not fact. It may work for those preaching it and those who need an easy-to-understand guide for their lives, but it definitely doesn’t work for me.

The same is true when it comes to the federal budget. The equivalent of hell — the absolute guarantee that we’ll be economically doomed if we don’t immediately repent on the deficit and live a virtuous balanced budget life — has never worked for me because it’s never been proved to be true. In addition, those who have insisted that reducing the federal deficit no matter what the economic situation have seemed to be proselytizing to validate their personal beliefs or accomplish their unrelated political goals rather than actually analyzing anything.

More »»

When I walked into the "What's Next for the LGBT Community" at the Take Back the American Dream conference, I thought I already knew what I would write about it afterwards. In the past month, I've written two posts — one after President Obama announced his support for marriage equality for same-sex couples, and one after a survey showed increased support for marriage equality among African-Americans — about the LGBT movement's success in building support for marriage equality (despite defeats at the state level). I expected to emerge from this panel to write third post in the same vein. I even had a title picked out "What progressives can learn from the LGBT movement."

Instead, I came away with my point of view expanded to encompass the successes and challenged of the LGBT movement on a wide range of issues, and a better understanding of how the successes and challenges of the LGBT movement mirror those of the progressive movement.

More »»

The Romney v. Obama economic smack down in Ohio last Thursday failed to deliver half the punch of remarks the men made earlier in the week.

President Obama said the nation must focus on the public sector, which continues to lay off thousands of teachers, cops and firefighters, even while the private sector has recovered sufficiently to consistently add jobs. Romney said he would fire more teachers, cops and firemen.

This gets to the dispute between Democrats and Republicans. The GOP has contended for 30 years that the primary function of government is to serve corporations and the 1 percent, and that when they thrive, the 99 percent may receive hand-me-down benefits. Democrats believe the principal function of government is to serve the majority of people and that when they benefit, the economy thrives for everyone.

For all the fancy talk in Ohio on Thursday, it comes down to this: Do Americans want a government of the people by the people for the people, one conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal? Or do Americans want a government of the corporations by the corporations for the corporations, one dedicated to the proposition that the rich are better than everyone else?

More »»