By Steve Hynd
Over at his own blog, my Polizeros radio co-host Keith Boyea observes that we do too much kvetching.
We�ve noticed that our discussions have sometimes degenerated into �bitch sessions,� so instead of complaining about things, we wanted to do an episode where we talked about potential solutions.
He and I have both blogged this week about the kind of wide randing solutions that we believe this country needs to implement to dig itself out of its self-made hole. There's more than a couple of shows in the list, for sure, but we'll make a start on discussing it tonight.
Political reforms
- Campaign finance reform so access becomes fair and equal for all, This is crucial
- Genuine access for third parties. Level the playing field
- More members in the House (and maybe the Senate too.)
- Ending officials abusing journalistic stenography
Domestic reforms
- Cut unemployment drastically, probably by a real job plan they employs millions.
- View Energy, Transportation, and Housing as an integrated issue by simultaneously:
1) Investing in nationwide freight rail and high-speed rail in regions where it is best suited.
2)Investing in nuclear energy now, even though it has a long development time because breakthroughs in alternative and clean energy are probably decades away.
3) Encouraging the development of higher density housing and zoning policies which make communities walkable and ride-able. This allows the development of work/eat/sleep communities that require shorter commutes, less energy consumption, and better utilization of mass transit.
- Budget changes so that the big spenders like Defense don�t eat all the pie and the national debt doesn�t just grow forever, tax reforms so that everyone pays their fair share instead of the share an army of tax-dodging experts can get them, ending the too obvious culture of privilege � where laws get ignored for specific sets of people (banking fraudsters, government torturers and government gun-runner to name but a few), infrastructure spending to repair American competitiveness, long-term thinking about climate change, energy, education and innovation.
- Smart grid, conservation, decentralizing power distribution (and political power.)
Foreign Policy reforms
- A resurgent Peace Corps so that practical things can again be done by people who don�t carry guns, ending wars and occupations that don�t address core interests, realistic �future threat� and �core interest� assessments, not always reaching for the bigger hammer as soon as possible.
- Divest ourselves of �ownership� of the Middle East in part by developing the energy policies listed above. It is no secret that much of our interest in the region derives from its abundance of oil. Especially divest ourselves of our relationship with the Saudi monarchy�the same one that makes all our claims of caring about human rights hypocritical.
- Make a sustained and serious effort at encouraging reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. If, after 2 or 3 years of sustained effort, progress cannot be made, divest ourself of support of BOTH sides.
- Don�t view China�s rise as zero-sum. It is not something we can �manage.�
Listen to the show live, at Polizeros Radio on BlogTalkRadio. You can also listening by dialing in at 626-414-3492. The show is tonight at 8:00 PM PT (9:00 PM MT, 10:00 PM CT, 11:00 PM ET.) You can download it or listen to the archive on BlogTalkRadio after it�s done.
Now that's a progressive agenda, and a populist one - but it's not a Democrat one. Folk like Matt Yglesias and Ta-Nehisi Coates are entirely missing the big point as they wonder why many of the elite Dem political class are attacking Obama's weak-tea, but still better than nothing, jobs bill from the right. It's like the old joke about the tourist who gets lost and asks a local for directions, where the local replies "well, first - I wouldn't start from here!"
You can't get more than a fraction of a populist and progressive agenda out of a party run by Whigs; by which I mean members of the rich elite who on occasion let their consciences bother them. When really pushed, they'll always vote the interests of the rich elite. And the "need more and better progressives in the Democrat Party" line has not and will not ever work because that party is entirely owned by Whigs and Whig financial backing.
Progressives, up to and including the President if he's as liberal as Obama boosters would have he is, should desert the Dems en masse and create a new Populist Party that could activate and energise the 25% of Americans - always the poorer ones - who don't vote at present because neither party of the rich elite has any concrete positive change to offer them. That'd be a good start to a solution, because between the progressive wing of the Dems and mobillizing even half of the disenchanted, a Populist party would already be the electoral frontrunner.
Still, building a new party does not happen overnight. It'd take a decade, maybe more, during which Republicans would have the electoral upper hand. But they've had that upper hand before and America is still here. The nation won't die with a bang, but it might with a whimper if progressives continue to listen to the "most important election EVAH" spin that keeps them supporting the Whigs.
Re: Political reform, point 3.
ReplyDeleteThe number of representatives should be based as follows:
Take the population of the lowest Census total state, and divide it into the population of all other states. Use standard rounding (.5 and greater round up, less round down). Using the 2000 Census this adds 69 new reps.
If you give DC it's own rep and Senators, you are now at 102 Senate seats, and 570 representatives.
OK, so the Capital gets crowded, but how often is it full, anyway?
I don't disagree with any of your points, but can any of you outline a practical, politically feasible strategy for getting any of these reforms implemented? We certainly will not be able to enact any of the political reforms by petitioning the elected officials of the two major parties who benefit from the current system.
ReplyDeleteWe will not be able to enact any of the domestic reforms while we have a Congress rife with lobbyists and corporate cash and a White House full to the brim with ex-lobbyists and Wall Street insiders. Ditto the foreign policy reforms.
How about discussing what we can do now? A decade from now, we may no longer exist, the world may no longer be habitable, and there may be no right to dissent.
You nailed it Charles D.
ReplyDeleteCharles and Ron,
ReplyDeleteWe touched on this question in the show last night, and we'll be revisiting it in later shows. At the end of the day, it's the one question that really matters. For myself, I don't see an alternative to trying to convince people to organize nationally but build locally (from dogcatcher on up), and assuming for the sake of samity that the world isn't going to end in the next decade. Suppose we didn't plan for the long term, thinking "A decade from now, we may no longer exist, the world may no longer be habitable, and there may be no right to dissent" and then the long term happened anyway. We'd be in the same or worse fix. Halting the American penchant for short-termist thinking, magical solutions and messiah political figures has got to be part of the solution.
Regards, Steve
You have good points there Steve. What worries me is that left seems to be wedded to techniques they have been using, or trying to use, for the last 60 years or more in spite of the fact that those techniques evidently aren't working. We want to do grassroots organizing as though people still gathered in local civic organizations and had courteous intelligent discussions of the issues of the day. We want to have protest marches and carry signs and dress up in clever costumes as though such events were still carried on the major media and would provide an opportunity to get our message to a wider public. We still want to write letters to the editor and to the corporate representatives in Congress presenting them with facts supporting our viewpoint even though most of the population doesn't even believe in facts or doesn't know enough of them to place ours in context.
ReplyDeleteWe need new strategies, new methods, and new techniques that will resonate with modern Americans and that transcend the phony left/right mantras of our political system. The key question we have to ask about any idea for a movement or a political action, is "Will it work?" Is there some rational chance this will make a difference? If not, then let's try something else.