Ooh so this is what is in the agenda for the extreme left..things to grow the middle class, provide education, a clean environment, and a smaller military! Scandalous! If youre a progressive or Democrat, or both, its tempting to look at the Republican civil war -- the increasingly bitter struggle between the Tea Partiers and the GOP establishment -- with some satisfaction. The war is hurting their chances in 2014 and probably even 2016. But at least the Tea Party right is giving establishment Republicans in board rooms and on Wall Street a reason to worry, and offering rank-and-file Republicans a real choice. Establishment Democrats, on the other hand, couldnt care less about the progressive left, which has been so submissive and quiet for so long its concerns are summarily dismissed. What about single-payer or even public option? Resurrect Glass-Steagall and limit size of big banks? Exempt first $15K from Social Security tax and remove cap on income subject to it? A living wage? A carbon tax? Trade agreements with strict labor and environmental standards? Make it easy to form labor unions? Universal child care? Better schools? Free higher education? Paid family and medical leave? A new WPA for the long-term unemployed? Pay for all this by cutting military spending, eliminating corporate welfare, and raising taxes on rich to rate they were before 1981. Reverse Citizens United and get big money out of politics. Reverse the savage inequality of income and wealth in America. Hello? The Democratic establishment, chock full of corporate and Wall Street executives, wont hear of any of this. Im not advocating a civil war in the Democratic Party, but isnt it time progressives gave establishment Democrats a reason to worry, and offered rank-and-file Democrats a real choice? ~Robert Reich
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 17:57:26 +0000
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