Winning Progressive

Over the past week, Winning Progressive has offered comments at the New York Times on why we cannot assume that the 2012 Elections represent the demise of the GOP, how US history shows that creating a democratic government is a long, hard process that requires eternal vigilance, and the historical precedents in favor of using the constitutional option to reform the Senate filibuster rules.

In her recent column A Lost Civilization, Maureen Dowd suggests that the 2012 election results foretell the end of today’s Republican Party.  Winning Progressive commented to urge caution as predictions of permanent partisan majorities or of the demise of political parties are almost proven erroneous.

Yes, the GOP is out of touch with the American people, and has been revealed to be an unserious party that is unwilling to address the serious issues our nation faces. However, we progressives need to be very careful before we declare the GOP to be done, because they are far from being so.

For one thing, history shows that no party gets a permanent majority. The New Deal coalition lasted for quite awhile, but even during its heyday, Republicans managed to win the White House and various policy victories. And in 2000, many “experts” were predicting a permanent Republican majority. Obviously that didn’t happen.

In addition to history, there are specific reasons to worry about a comeback for the GOP. Until Citizens United is reversed, billionaires can still spend endlessly to try to buy our democracy. The GOP runs the Governors’ mansions and statehouses in a majority of states, and is still working to suppress voting, undermine progressive organizations, etc. Our media still varies between false equivalency and mindless fluff that allows the GOP to get away with blatant lying. And if the House Republicans succeed in crashing our economy, who knows what happens in 2016.

So, let’s celebrate and build on our victories. But don’t get overconfident. Instead, continue working to advance the progressive cause, which has always been a long, difficult, and rewarding struggle.

In his column Inventing Democracy, Bill Keller uses the example of South Africa to discuss how difficult it is for nations coming out of oppressive rule, such as Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia, to create a stable democratic form of government.  Winning Progressive commented on how our own nation’s history similarly demonstrates how creating a democratic form of government is a long, difficult process that requires eternal vigilance:

Thank you for reminding us that the experience of South Africa teaches a number of useful lessons, perhaps most importantly that the development of a true democratic society from the ashes of war and violence requires a long time that is inevitably filled with struggle

A similar lesson can be learned from our own experience here in the US. Out of a revolutionary war, we first attempted to create a nation based on the Articles of Confederation, but after approximately a decade, it became clear that the government created by the Articles was too weak to be effective.  So, we replaced the Articles with the Constitution and, shortly thereafter, a Bill of Rights that were some of the most progressive and forward-looking governing documents of their time.  Yet the Constitution also enshrined slavery and it took well over a century before the principles of freedom, equality, and civil liberties found in those documents began to fully take hold.

Decades after the Constitution was signed, we fought a Civil War over slavery and whether we would remain one nation. More than 100 years after our founding, women still didn’t have the right to vote. And it took 200 years for basic legal rights to be fully extended to African Americans. And our democracy continues to develop and, at times, slip backwards, as time marches on.

The fact that democratic governance always requires vigilance and involves a long, hard battle, filled with setbacks and advances is a useful lesson as we think about how we can encourage democratic forms of government in other nations. Too often, we throw our hands up at the first sign of trouble. But we can and must persevere.

In Gridlock Reform, the columnist raises concerns that any use of the constitutional option by Senate Democrats to reform the filibuster would set a bad precedent that could be exploited by future Senate majorities.  Winning Progressive explains that there are already precedents of Senate majorities relying on the constitutional option to achieve changes in the Senate rules.

The argument that changing the Senate rules would set a bad precedent is simply false.

In reality, as has been documented by the Brennan Center, the ability to change the Senate rules by a simple majority has already been relied on to reform Senate rules at least twice since the advent of the modern filibuster in 1917. The first was in 1959, when the ability of a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster was established after then Vice President Nixon issued an advisory opinion making clear that the Senate rules could be changed by a simple majority. The second was in 1975, when then Vice President Nelson Rockefeller found that Senate rules could be changed by the majority, which led to reduction of the number of votes need for cloture from 67 to 60.

Even if the were no precedent for finding that Senate rules could be changed by a simple majority, I would urge Senate Democrats to do so now because we all know that today’s GOP will do so at the drop of a hat once it benefits them. But the fact is that such a change is not unprecedented.

If you want the Senate to no longer be a hopelessly broken institution, call your Senators now and urge them to use the Constitutional option to reform the filibuster.

(By Mark Bridger, cross-posted at ThatMansScope)

It’s been an exciting election. It probably would have been more relaxing if I had just believed everything Nate Silver has been saying all along. Then I would have “known” that Obama would win (at) least 303 electoral votes, and that the Democrats would increase their Senate majority to 53+ seats (and probably 55 with independents Angus King and Bernie Sanders). Ah well, nothing like extra excitement.

Anyway, here is the first of several thoughts inspired by this election.

Demographics and the Republicans

The change in the makeup of the American electorate has been noted by many different observers for some time now. By midcentury Whites will be a minority group, with Hispanics, Blacks and Asians adding up to more than 50% of the voting population. Given that these last groups tend to vote Democratic, and that Whites are fairly split by party, this, together with the emerging “gender gap”, suggests a real strengthening of progressive forces — all other things remaining equal. The Democrats have realized this for decades. In 1968 a commission chaired by (the recently deceased) senator George McGovern started work on a set of rules for assuring that women and minorities would be assured fair representation in the party. The commission’s rules were adopted just in time for McGovern’s disastrous loss to Nixon in 1972. However, these rules and subsequent additions have enabled the Democrats to take advantage of the demographic changes that have now become quite apparent.

I think it is fair to say that the Democratic Party’s concern about women and minorities had more to do with the party’s interest in fairness than its interest in winning elections. Whatever else liberals may be, they are certainly idealistic.

On the other hand, the PTR (Party of The Rich, formerly the GOP) has never claimed the mantle of idealism. After the “Dixiecrat” split during the 1948 election, the southern segregationist faction of the Democratic party was wooed by the Republicans. This became a more formal policy with Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”, and the pursuit of the White, southern voter has become a hallmark of the PTR. Even a cursory glance at the electoral map shows where most of the “red” states lie: outside the north central and northern coasts. Confederate flag country is PTR country. For an update on the “Southern Strategy, click HERE and also look at Tom Edsall’s Times Op-Ed on Romney’s version. (Note also the gradual increase in political influence of Hispanics in southwestern states such a Nevada, Arizona and even Texas.)

So, the post-election journalists are now crawling all over themselves speculating on how or when the Republicans will adapt to the changing electoral dynamics. It’s an odd question. The Republicans have created a party based on the White Male Viewpoint. Even a cursory look at Republican conventions shows hardly a non-White complexion or viewpoint. By creating this sort of party, and forcing out “deviants”, the Republicans have made it nearly impossible for own their party to change: there simply are almost no “changers” left. By purging the PTR of dissenting voices they have purged the sort of leaders that might move the party to a more realistic view of the world.

I, for one, think this is fine. There is very little that the Republican party has to offer of value that isn’t already represented in the various factions of the Democratic party. Furthermore, most of what the Republicans stand for is simply wrong: unfettered capitalism, undermining government, tax breaks for the wealthy and other elements of “trickle-down” economics, climate-change denial and other anti-science attitudes, fundamentalism and religiosity, and militarism and American “exceptionalism”.  My great hope is that they never realize the error of their ways but, rather, become over the years a shrinking and increasingly marginalized living fossil. Couldn’t happen to a nicer party…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 rejuvenated plans for the Fulton Street Transit Center in lower Manhattan. The project is set for completion in June 2014. Photo credit: Josh Marks

(By Josh Marks, cross-posted at Green Forward)

Republicans keep falsely claiming President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), was a massively wasteful failure. Right now the GOP is using all the money from their right-wing billionaire donors to inundate swing state voters with their anti-stimulus, pro-austerity message.

But in reality the stimulus is a smashing success. It is more than 50 percent bigger than Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and has begun to profoundly change the United States of America in ways many of us are just beginning to realize. The economic stimulus has kickstarted our transition to a 21st Century economy built to last. For example, $90 billion was pumped into the clean energy sector. To put that in perspective, a decade earlier President Clinton proposed a modest $6.3 billion clean energy initiative that was shot down. The Recovery Act is also one of the most transparent pieces of legislation in history. Contrary to the Republican lies, there is very little fraud or abuse associated with ARRA thanks to unprecedented levels of oversight. Click here to go to Recovery.gov and track how Recovery funds are being spent and report fraud, waste or abuse.

Time Magazine senior correspondent and award-winning environmental journalist Michael Grunwald’s new book “The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era” investigates the story behind The Recovery Act. The author argues that the economic stimulus represents everything Obama meant when he was talking about hope and change, but also exposed the ugly political reality of Washington partisanship fueled by Republican rage at anything associated with Obama.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009 helped start construction of the Second Avenue Subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, once dubbed “The Line That Time Forgot” for its many false starts over the decades. Photo credit: Josh Marks

Perhaps more than any other legislative achievement, The Recovery Act alone is reason enough to reelect President Obama. We should all celebrate the passage of historic health care and financial reforms, but the economic stimulus is doing more to move America forward than any other victory during Obama’s first term. Oh, and it also saved us from another Great Depression.

So why is this change so hidden? Why do so many Americans ask where this change is actually taking place? Grunwald argues that partly the Administration could do a better job selling the stimulus, but also there aren’t any Hoover Dam or Golden Gate Bridge-type public works projects that capture the public’s imagination. But that doesn’t mean nothing is going on. In fact, there are significant infrastructure, energy and other important projects taking place right now that are making a difference and improving our lives in ways we might not have paid attention to.

Here are just some of the over 100,000 projects, both large and small, being financed by The Recovery Act. Read “The New New Deal” for a fuller picture of the change taking place, but hopefully this list will give you an idea of some of the amazing progress being made in the United States of America thanks to The Recovery Act. For decades we neglected our infrastructure, transportation system, renewable energy, power grid, education and medical systems. The stimulus is finally starting to rebuild this great country.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)

This new agency housed within the Department of Energy brings the best and brightest scientists, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs to think outside of the box to solve some of our biggest energy challenges. They have already created a new scientific discipline by taking Biofuels to the next level. The program is called Electrofuels.

Brooklyn Bridge Restoration

During the month of July I lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and many times took the East River Ferry to lower Manhattan. As we would pass underneath the Brooklyn Bridge I would wonder what all that tarp, scaffolding and construction was all about. It turns out The Recovery Act is partially funding a badly needed upgrade to the iconic but deteriorating span linking New York’s two famous boroughs. The rehabilitation will be finished in 2014. Click here from more info from the NYC Department of Transportation on rebuilding the Brooklyn Bridge.

Photo credit: Josh Marks

California High-Speed Rail Project

The Recovery Act is investing $8 billion in a new high-speed rail (HSR) network as well as upgrading and improving existing passenger train service across the country. The most high-profile project is in California where the nation’s first bullet train is being built that will eventually connect Anaheim and Los Angeles to San Francisco via the Central Valley. The 520-mile rail line will be finished in 2020 and reach speeds of 220 mph, zipping passengers from L.A. to S.F. in under 2 hours and 40 minutes. Phase II will extend HSR service south to San Diego and north to Sacramento by 2026. The Recovery Act is also funding upgrades to existing Amtrak passenger rail corridors such as the Pacific Surfliner Corridor to improve on-time performance, reduce pollution and create a more comfortable experience for passengers.

But California isn’t the only state making passenger rail progress thanks to The Recovery Act. Last Friday in Illinois a Chicago-St. Louis Amtrak train reached 111 mph in a test run — a 30 mph increase over its previous speed. And the money right-wing governors in Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio foolishly rejected for rail improvements is being redirected to 15 other states that are happily taking the money to provide their citizens with world-class passenger rail service.

Shepherds Flat Wind Farm

U.S. renewable power from solar and wind has doubled since The Recovery Act passed. The stimulus financed the world’s largest wind farm in Oregon. The 845 megawatt Shepherds Flat Wind Farm opened for business in September and features an array of 338 American-made General Electric turbines. The wind farm is generating enough green energy to replace two coal plants and is estimated to have an economic impact of $16 million annually for Oregon.

The Recovery Act is investing in many more renewable power and energy efficiency projects across the country — from biofuels to geothermal to advanced batteries to LED lighting and more.

Moynihan Station

The Recovery Act is helping transform New York City’s main post office into Moynihan Station — a 21st Century replacement for aging Penn Station. If you have ever had to take an Amtrak train into or out of Penn Station, then you know the cramped, rundown corridors and waiting area that is not befitting of the greatest city in the world. Visitors coming from places in Europe and Asia with world-class train stations must be surprised to see the confusing layout and decrepit conditions of the busiest train station in America. Before catching a train to Washington, D.C., Boston, Albany or other destinations, hundreds of passengers stand in front of the big board announcing what gate to go to when the train arrives. When the gate number shows up on the board, usually about five to ten minutes before departure, everyone rushes towards a tiny escalator on either side and aggressively crams onto the escalator. The insane process repeats itself hundreds of times every day and is comical in its inefficiency. So converting the James Farley Post Office Building across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station into Daniel Patrick Moynihan station, what will be a world-class high-speed rail hub, could not come soon enough for weary New York train travelers.

Photo credit: Josh Marks

Second Avenue Subway

This past summer I lived in Brooklyn and worked on Manhattan’s Upper East Side so I would take the F or 6 train up Lexington Avenue and then walk east across Second Avenue. Thanks to The Recovery Act, the Second Avenue Subway is finally under construction. This is a project that has been on the drawing board since 1929 but has never been able to get going. That is until Obama’s stimulus jumpstarted the project that used to be known as “The Line that Time Forgot.” The Second Avenue Subway will relieve crowding along the Lexington Avenue lines by offering straphangers another option on the Upper East Side.

Here is a list of more projects moving forward with stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

• Staten Island Ferry Rehabilitation – New York, NY
• Fulton Street Transit Center — New York, NY
• New eco-friendly U.S. Coast Guard headquarters building — Washington, D.C.
• San Francisco‐Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Retrofit project — Bay Area, California
• New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway widening — New Jersey
• Renovation of Wilmington, Delaware Amtrak train station — Wilmington, Delaware
• New Algae Biofuel Refinery — Peoria, Illinois
• Combined heat and power (CHP) plant at the Texas Medical Center — Houston, Texas
• Bean Federal Center rooftop solar panel installation project — Indianapolis, Indiana
• Country’s first net-zero energy historic building — Grand Junction, Colorado

And nationwide The Recovery Act is funding the transition to electronic health records by providing incentives and penalties to push physicians to move from paper charts to digital medical records. Race to the Top is reforming the education system to close the achievement gap by boosting the lowest-performing schools. Lastly, The Recovery Act is bringing high-speed satellite broadband service to rural, unserved and underserved areas across the country. For the first time, residents and businesses in these rural areas will be able to access low-cost, high-speed Internet service.

Out of the many reasons to re-elect President Barack Obama, strong consideration should be given to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as the number one reason.

(By NCrissie B)

This three-part series invites you to develop your activism plan for the November election. Today we consider the importance of honest self-assessment in setting your goals. Next we’ll look at reverse planning, working from your objectives back to your starting point. Then we’ll conclude by discussing burnout and mutual support.

The Two Worst Plans: None and Not-You

An election campaign involves many people coordinating their efforts toward a common purpose. The Obama campaign have plans at both the national and state levels. As do your Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate and House, and your state legislature. As do your state Democratic Party and your local Democratic organizations, and progressive activist groups such as Democracy for America. In each of those plans, most of the work will be done by grassroots activists like you. That means you need a personal activism plan.

It’s been said the worst plan is no plan at all. While improvisation can be fun and exciting, it works well only in small groups and for brief projects. For more than a handful of people, or any project that extends over more than a few hours, ‘winging it’ leads to confusion, conflict, duplicated effort, and missed details that seemed trivial but rarely are.

Yet I think there’s an even worse plan: a plan for Not-You. That Not-You plan may be brilliantly detailed, systematic, and comprehensive. Indeed they often are, and their only problem is their reliance on someone who is Not You. That other person that is Not You always prepares a shopping list and has the list at the store, has and uses an appointment calendar, knows how to do every task in the plan, follows through on every task once begun, and never gets tired or distracted. Alas, that is Not You.

A plan for Not-You can be worse than no plan at all, because others may be relying on Not-You to do the things You committed to do. The task that Not-You confidently took on becomes the task You don’t know how to do, or don’t like to do. That can leave others waiting for You to be Not-You … a wait that need not have happened had You not committed to be Not-You.

“Know Thyself”

Thus your personal activism plan should begin with an honest self-assessment. This is your personal plan, after all. It should fit You, rather than Not-You. So who are You?

• Strengths – What do you do well? Do you connect well with others on the telephone? Do you connect better face-to-face? Do you write well? Are you skilled at data-entry? Everyone has strengths. Make your list.
• Weaknesses – Everyone has strengths, but not everyone has every strength. That doesn’t mean you’re ‘bad’ or ‘inadequate.’ It means you should focus your efforts on the things you do well, and not commit to things you don’t do well. Do you get impatient on the phone? Do your thoughts always make more sense than the words that end up on the page? Again, make your list.
• Opportunities – Good luck has been described as the intersection of preparation and opportunity. You can’t predict every opportunity, but you can predict many of them. When and where will you get chances to apply your strengths? Are you in public often, such that wearing a campaign button would spark Fred Whispering conversations? Do you feel more energized in a group, such that a phone banking or canvassing party will bring out your best? Which opportunities can you create, maximize, or best prepare to seize? Once again, make your list.
• Threats – These are the events that derail your plans and, again, you can predict many of them. Will your work schedule or your children’s school and activity schedules get busier over the coming weeks? Do you have health issues? Which threats can you avoid, minimize, or best prepare to overcome? As before, make your list

“What were you thinking?!?”

Once you’ve listed your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, look at your list again. Imagine presenting it to your parents, spouse or partner, children, or friends who know you well. Would any of them ask: “What were you thinking?!? This is Not-You!!!”

If your personal activism plan will affect them, you should do more than imagine presenting it to them. You should include them in your planning process. They may see Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, or Threats you’ve overlooked. They’ll probably also feel better about supporting your efforts if they had at least some input. And if one of them says “What were you thinking?!? This is Not-You!!!” … listen with an open mind.

An honest self-assessment will help you commit to tasks that you will complete, done well and on time. Those successes will boost your confidence and others’ confidence in you. You’ll feel more engaged, and more willing to engage, because you will be working a plan developed … for You.

(Crossposted from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute (BPICampus.com))

By Josh Marks

Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day. We are now only 40 days to the most important election of our lifetime. This is not just about reelecting President Obama, but electing moderates and progressives at every level of government who will work with President Obama in a constructive way instead of obstructing everything and tearing down Obama.

Democrats need to retake control of the House of Representatives and keep control in the Senate. There are also important elections at the state, city and local level. President Obama not only needs a Congress that will work with him, but state governors as well (see Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Rick Scott and Scott Walker as examples of the types of failed leaders we need to kick to the curb across the country).  Not to mention the many important ballot measures such as California’s Clean Energy Jobs Act, Prop 39, which today received an endorsement from the Los Angeles Times; and Los Angeles County’s Measure J to start seven transit and eight highway improvement projects in five years by extending the half-cent transportation sales tax voters approved in 2008. Measure J is predicted to accelerate 250,000 jobs over the next decade. Winning Progressive has provided a comprehensive two part rundown of some of the most important state ballot initiatives. Click here for part 1 and click here for part 2.

According to the National Voter Registration Day website, 3,144 volunteers have registered 175,430 voters with 238 of 1,206 organizations reporting so far. That is great. That is democracy in action. That is how we defeat Republican voter suppression efforts and attempts by right-wing billionaires like Sheldon Adelson to buy this election for Mitt Romney.

Are you registered to vote? If you aren’t, there is still time. Click here to register.

If you think your vote doesn’t matter then you are wrong. People are dying around the world for the precious right to vote. It is not something to take for granted. You say there isn’t a difference between the Democrats and Republicans? Wrong again. There is a mountain of difference between Obama and Romney. How did supporting Ralph Nader (including me) over Al Gore work out? Do you think Gore would have been exactly like Bush and done nothing about climate change, put two wars on a credit card and blow Bill Clinton’s budget surplus to pass tax cuts for the rich and create record deficits? How different would America and the world look like right now if Gore had won that election over Bush?

Let’s not have regrets. Let’s reelect Barack Obama and moderates and progressives who will work with him to solve our many challenges.

If you still need convincing, there is an organization called Our Time that is mobilizing to register young Americans to vote through online social media channels and by harnessing the power of the entertainment industry community. Their goal is to register at least one million young Americans to vote in this election through their free online voter registration tool. Here is Steve Carell with a serious threat for you if you don’t register to vote:

(By The Pragmatic Pundit)

Bill Clinton’s convention speech discussion of arithmetic inspired me to rename and repost this information about economic and fiscal performance under Democratic Presidents versus Republican ones.

THE DEBT, DEFICIT AND DEBT CEILING

Debt Reduction

Most government spending occurs automatically, without any action by the Congress or the President.  Since fiscal year 1957, the amount of debt held by the federal government has increased each year.

But Democratic presidents are better at debt reduction.

Balancing the Budget

President Clinton balanced the budget, giving the government a surplus.  Not one single Republican in either house voted for the balanced budget.

Only 5 (five) current Presidents have governed with a surplus.  They were all Democrats!

 

When it comes to job creation, the Democrats again do a better job than Republicans.
From the U.S. Department of Labor;  data is listed from the best to the worst:

Clinton 1994-2001 average unemployment rate of 4.9%.
Kennedy 1962-1965 average unemployment rate of 5.2%.
Nixon 1970-1977 average unemployment rate of 6.3%.
Bush 1990-1993 average unemployment rate of 6.7%.
Carter 1978-1981  average unemployment rate of 6.7%.
Reagan 1982-1989  average unemployment rate of  7.3%.