Winning Progressive

As our readers may have noticed, we have made a few changes and updates to Winning Progressive.

First, we have added two new contributors to the blog:

* Eric Brehm.  Eric is a Wisconsin teacher who runs the blog Bang the Buckets and who authored a much-circulated open letter to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker back in early 2011 when Gov. Walker first started his attack on workers.

* Josh Marks.  Josh is a Washington, D.C.-based environmental journalist and clean energy blogger. He was most recently a senior writer and editor at Green American Magazine and writes about the sustainable economy at his Green Forward website.

Second, we have decided to begin accepting comments on our posts again. We had turned the commenting feature off because we would like our readers to focus on engaging in grassroots political advocacy such as writing letters to the editor and calling their elected officials. But we now realize that allowing for discussion of political issues in the comment section of this site will help our readers get more engaged in the issues, and will make it easier for us all to share information about campaigns, issues, etc.  We welcome civil discussions and debate that will make us all think, but we will delete comments and/or ban commenters who are uncivil or are clearly seeking to antagonize our readers.

Third, we have added a “Campaigns We Support” page, linked at the top of this blog, where we will be highlighting particular progressive candidates and campaigns that we are encouraging our readers to support.  If you’d like to propose a candidate or campaign for our support, please let us know in the comments section on this post.

Fourth, we have updated our Letters to the Editor page, linked at the top of this blog, where we have collected links for submitting letters to the editor of your local newspaper. We have now collected those links for 30 states, and plan to add links for the rest of the states in the near future.

Fifth, we have updated our blogroll on the right side of the page, removing a few now-defunct blogs, and adding some interesting blogs we have come across.  These include Mad Wombat, Please Cut the Crap, Smartypants, and The Progressive Professor (by WP reader Ronald Feinman).

Finally, we have added a list of many of the key topics we have written about here at Winning Progressive so that our readers can easily locate all of our posts on a topic such as health care reform or the 2012 Elections.

As we’ve explained before, a primary goal here at Winning Progressive is to encourage our readers to take the progressive message directly to the American public.   Unfortunately, the media far too often fails to cover the progressive movement or to give a progressive perspective on the important issues of the day.  In addition, conservatives have built a substantial media network that enables them to promote conservative viewpoints and to feed the conservative talking point of the day directly into the national dialogue.

The good news is that we have the power to change this dynamic if we all get involved in communicating the progressive message to our relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and elected officials.  One easy way to do so is by writing letters to your local newspaper editor sharing your views on an issue you are passionate about.   If we all do so, we can help make sure that the large number of Americans who read a newspaper every day consistently hear a progressive message from someone in their community, rather than only hearing conservative talking points from PR flaks on Fox, CNN, and other networks.

In order to encourage our readers to send in letters to the editor, we have added two features to Winning Progressive.  First, we have added to the right side of the page a tool that allows you to search all of the posts at Winning Progressive.  As a result, it is now easy to find information on a wide range of issues – such as Social Security, the environment, taxes, budget deficits, or Medicare – that you could write a letter to the editor on.

Second, we are launching a letters to the editor campaign that includes prizes for the best letters to the editor that our readers get published.  The rules are simple – if you get a progressive letter to the editor published in a newspaper, e-mail us with a link to the published letter.  The writer of the letter between now and May 15, 2011 that we judge to be the best will receive a free AFL-CIO I Stand With Wisconsin t-shirt and will be announced on the front page of this blog.   In addition, all progressive letters that get published in a newspaper and sent to us will be posted at our new Letters to the Editor Campaign page here at Winning Progressive.

The key to moving our democracy in a more progressive direction is for all of us to make our voices heard in support of progressive policies.  We hope you will all get involved!

(by Mark McCutchan)

If you were a general preparing to attack another country, what would be some general guidelines?

The Preparation -

1)      Soldiers – make sure you have plenty of soldiers, well-trained in defense and offense

2)      Resources – maximize your access to materiel and money

3)      Timing – attack when you have the maximum advantage

The Attack -

1)      Soldiers – remove as many enemy soldiers from the battlefield as quickly as possible

2)      Resources – drain the enemy of their resources

3)      Morale – demoralize and distract the enemy from defending themselves

4)      Damage – destroy their infrastructure vital to production

This metaphor exactly describes the actions of the Republican Party recently, particularly since they gained the political advantage on Election Day 2010.

The Preparation

1)      Soldiers – The Republican Party has been maximizing their appeal through the establishment of conservative think tanks, foundations, and installation of conservatives in every branch of government, funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers, and other pro-corporate, conservative and libertarian entities.   These groups provide the conservative “echo chamber” for the tactics and script provided by political consultant and pollster Frank Luntz.

2)      Resources – The Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case was very important to conservatives and their corporate donors, because winning it would open the floodgates of corporate money and manipulation to American elections.  During the hearings, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association supported Citizens United.

3)      Timing – Barack Obama was elected in 2008, among other reasons, because of disgust with eight years of egregious behavior by the Bush administration and fear of the economic meltdown caused by Wall Street.  Once it became clear that President Obama would not be able to quickly turn the economy around, it became advantageous for the GOP to blame him for the recession during the 2010 campaign.  The misguided support of the Tea Partiers and corporate money allowed by the Citizens United decision  ensured that Republicans did very well last November 2^nd.

The Attack

1)      Remove Enemy Soldiers – Now that Republicans are in the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, governors’ mansions, and state capitols, they can attack many of the traditional sources of Democratic “soldiers”, including unions, minorities, and college students.

• Unions – the attacks on public employee unions has been well publicized over the last month here at Winning Progressive and by other media sources.  The GOP’s view is that reducing the number of unionized public employees reduces their organizational and financial support of the Democratic Party.
• Minorities and Poorer Voters – Republicans have been pushing for stricter photo-ID voter requirements in at least 32 states, even though in-person voter fraud is exceedingly rare.  The reason for their fervor? A quarter of African Americans and 15 percent of low-income voters don’t carry ID, and they tend to vote Democratic.
• College Students – New Hampshire’s State House Speaker William O’Brien’s attitude and actions towards college students are prevalent among Republicans, “They’re “foolish,” he said, “voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do.” New Hampshire Republicans’ bills to restrict students’ right to vote where they attend college and to end Election Day registration are among dozens of bills prioritized by Republican office-holders across the nation.
• Other Citizens – The GOP is pushing disenfranchisement laws for felons who have already served their time.  These laws serve no civic purpose – no one ever said, “Gee, if I rob this bank and get caught, I might lose my right to vote – I better stop now!”  The most likely GOP target is again minorities; one quarter of those disenfranchised by Florida’s new laws, for example, are African-American.

2)      Resources – The Tea Partiers and their conservative sympathizers say their first priority upon taking office is to reduce the federal deficit, not job creation.  “Starving the beast” is their phrase for reducing the size of the federal government and its ability to protect citizens from abuse by the rich and powerful.  Democrats have built America’s social safety net, and attacking its budget will encourage progressives to redirect resources to protecting it, to the detriment of electoral efforts.  American families are also being drained of resources, as banksters and other corporations work in concert with the GOP cronies to maximize their profits and drain personal savings, leading to increasing bankruptcies and foreclosures.

3)      Morale – The GOP focus on deficit reduction plays into their strong suit, again.  It misdirects the busy U.S. citizen into blaming the federal government for all of our economic problems, instead of holding the corporations (and “investment” banks in particular) accountable for not building robust and sustainable businesses that would fuel job creation in America.  Republicans have also been very busy stoking the anti-Muslim fever to misdirect the public’s anger away from America’s real problems – from the Ground Zero mosque hoax whipped up by Fox News, to the alleged Koran-burning minister, to Representative King’s Muslim radicalization hearings.  The successful hit jobs conducted by Project Veritas on neighborhood organizer ACORN and National Public Radio were meant to demoralize and defund two publicly funded organizations important to progressives.

4)      Destroy their infrastructure – Part of starving the beast involves cutting budgets to such a degree that a modern infrastructure cannot be supported.  President Obama’s call for a $50 billion investment in America’s roads, railways and runways last Labor Day was met with resistance by Republicans.  According to The Wall Street Journal, “Obama has proposed the initiative as a way to create more jobs, but Republicans have opposed further infrastructure spending at a time of tight state and federal budgets.”

The other way to destroy the infrastructure is to take out the enemy’s manufacturing capability.  Why use bombs, when free trade agreements and a corporate strategy of off-shoring factories has been so effective at decimating America’s ability to make the very things we need and demand as consumers?  Winning Progressive has detailed the destruction here.

In summary, progressives has been increasingly under attack for the past few years; we progressives have to realize that, and design a campaign to overcome those who would tear down what we and our ancestors have taken decades to build.

There are many things we can do to fight back:

1)      Write a letters to the editor of your local newspaper on any of the above topics, to inform and encourage your neighbors to take a stand in the war on America.  Here are links for submitting letters to the editor for national papers, and to newspapers in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,  Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

2)      Contact your congressional representatives on any of the above topics, to let them know how their constituents stand.

3)      Share your thoughts on this column at the Winning Progressive Facebook page and your own Facebook page if you have one.

4)      Get involved in defense of public employees, either by attending rallies,  joining Working America, (a new group formed for non-union members to support the AFL-CIO), or otherwise working to defeat anti-public union legislation being pushed through GOP-led state legislatures.

5)      Move your money to a local bank to deprive “Too Big to Fail” banks of the lobbying cash they need to influence your politicians.

6)      Help efforts to recall the Republican 8, Wisconsin’s eight GOP senators who voted for Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union bill and qualify for recall.

7)      Watch the Story of Stuff’s “Citizen United vs. FEC” video, and get involved with the move to amend the U.S. Constitution, so that corporations no longer have the same rights as real people.

8)      Support public financing of elections, as discussed in this Winning Progressive column.

9)      Support National Public Radio and their member stations with a donation; they are in danger of being defunded, and are a valuable source of unbiased information.

The evidence shows that while things are looking up economically, we have a lot of work left to do to make sure that tens of millions of Americans are no longer suffering the ill-effects of the Bush Recession.  For example, unemployment is still at an unacceptably high 8.9%, with 13.2 million Americans out of work, and 15.9% of Americans are underemployed.  In addition, according to the National Employment Law Project, the new jobs that are being created tend to have lower wages and benefits than the jobs that were lost during the Bush Recession.  In other words, tens of millions of Americans are still afflicted by unemployment, underemployment, and stagnant wages and benefits.  Also, economists are concerned that the recent spike in oil prices, along with continued layoffs in state and local governments, threaten to send the economic recovery off track.

Given the continued precarious position of our economy, the sensible approach right now would be to ramp up policies that will create jobs, such as more stimulus spending, aid to state and local government to prevent layoffs, cramdown legislation to prevent home foreclosures, and infrastructure investments.  Instead, conservatives are pursuing an ideological crusade aimed at cutting government programs that benefit the middle class, working class, and poor.  Such budget cutting is being cheerleaded by the conservative media, and while Democrats are fighting the Republican proposals, some Democrats have unfortunately brought into the frame that our priority right now should be budget cutting instead of creating jobs.

The Republican budget cutting zealotry is threatening our economic recovery.  An analysis by the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics estimates that cuts passed by the U.S. House Republicans would eliminate 700,000 jobs, and Goldman Sachs and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake would slow economic growth and destroy jobs.   The Senate Democrats have helpfully provided a state-by-state guide to how many jobs would be destroyed by the House Republicans’ cuts.

The economic threat posed by the Republicans’ budget cuts shows not only how misguided the Republicans’ economic policies are.  It also is yet another example of how today’s Republican Party is willing to do virtually anything to get their ideology enacted, even if it means threatening the economic or national security of our country.  For example:

* Under President Bush, ideologues in the White House wanted to topple an Iraqi dictator, and they were willing to do whatever it took to achieve that goal, including lying to the American public about non-existent WMDs, torturing prisoners, and destroying international alliances.

* In the first two years of President Obama’s Administration, the Republicans were determined to make sure the economy continued to struggle so that they could win back seats in Congress in 2010. So, Republicans did everything they could to forestall an economic recovery, including stalling nominees to critical economic posts for months, holding unemployment benefits hostage to massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and killing Republican-backed programs that were providing employment to hundreds of thousands of Americans.

*Republicans were determined to deny President Obama a foreign policy victory before the 2010 elections, so they threatened our national security by holding up ratification of the New START Treaty which would keep in place a nuclear weapons reductions and inspection effort that was started by President Reagan.

Now, Republicans in Congress are imperiling our economic recovery and threatening our nation’s credit rating in order to enact cuts to discretionary government programs that would do nothing to address the core conservative policies that have caused our deficits – low economic growth, tax cuts for the wealthy, military spending, and corporate subsidies.

In order to continue the economic recovery and save critical government programs, we need to urge Congress to prioritize creating jobs and to reject the conservatives’ ideological budget cutting proposals.  Help do so by contacting your Senators and Congressperson,  and by writing a letter to your local newspaper editor.  Here are links for submitting letters to the editor for national papers, and to newspapers in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,  Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

And, as always, if you have any feedback on this post, let us know at Winning Progressive’s Facebook page.

(by Mark McCutchan)

I am a stay-at-home father.  I do laundry, feed the kids, the usual – yet I still make it a priority to get politically involved.  Here are some examples of political actions I have taken over the last two weeks. 

Wrote a letter to the editor – I write letters to the editor frequently, either based on the subjects from  my Winning Progressive columns or local issues like Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 (which strips collective bargaining rights from public employee unions, and unfortunately passed Wednesday night).  It’s not hard to write a letter; just think of an issue you are passionate about, and include a few points that will support your progressive viewpoint.  Don’t forget to ask readers to write to their representative or senator, to give your letter the “multiplier effect” that will maximize its effect on the community.  Links to your local newspapers can be found on the right side of this page.

People do actually read letters to the editor.  I get positive comments all the time from acquaintances in town, and I recently received this thank you letter from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown for an abridged letter published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (you don’t always have to stick to local newspapers).

Emailed my state senator – Ohio Senate Bill 5 (SB-5) is a bill to strip the right to collective bargain from public sector unions.  It also imposes jail time on our fire fighters, police officers and teachers who strike.  It is strongly opposed here in southeastern Ohio, so I wrote an email to my state senator Jimmy Stewart (20^th-R), asking him to commit to voting “No” when it came up for a vote.  I received an evasive response from one of his aides, saying the senator was studying the issue, and besides, it wasn’t his committee.  Links to your representatives can be found here.

Attended an Organizing for America meeting – OfA is a community organizing project of the Democratic National Committee.  The group seeks to mobilize supporters in favor of President Obama’s legislative agenda; when it goes into reelection mode, its name changes into “Obama for America”.

Teams are starting up all over the country, and I attended a meeting Tuesday night.  I met several people I already knew from volunteering at the Democratic phone bank last November, and also met some new people.  We introduced ourselves, and then the regional field director gave us a brief rundown of OfA’s organization and the four goals of OfA: organizational building, member of Congress outreach, citizen contact, and earned media. We then discussed the upcoming events like an anti-SB-5 phone bank, charity events to garner community attention and support, and a fun concert series to reach the young people going to Ohio University. The hyperlink above can get you started on finding an OfA meeting near you.

Started a Facebook page –When it looked like SB-5 would pass the Ohio Senate Tuesday (it has yet to pass the House), I knew my Republican state senator would vote for it, so I started a “Dump Jimmy Stewart in 2012” FB page.  I wanted to give Ohio’s 20^th District SB-5 opponents a home to share their anger and their ideas on defeating the bill in the House, and to start a campaign for Senator Stewart’s ouster next year.   In less than a week the page has grown to over 225 supporters!  I promoted it by announcing its creation at the OfA meeting, sharing it with my FB friends, and posting a link on several anti-SB-5 Facebook pages.  Once I gather all the information I need, I will be emailing introductions and Facebook links to the heads of the Democratic county parties in the 20^th district.  I encourage any progressive with a Republican representative to start a similar opposition Facebook page.  It’s quick, fun, and anyone can do it – just start here, and click “Cause or Community”.

These activities aren’t radical or time-consuming, but I am making a difference.  Look around your community, and see what you can do to advance the progressive cause, too!  And please share your ideas and experiences with us on the Winning Progressive Facebook page. 

Above is an inspiring video of the pro-labor rallies that have been occurring across the nation over the past two weeks to fight back against the anti-worker agenda that is being perpetrated by Koch-funded conservatives in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and numerous other states throughout the country.

The past few days has seen a new front open up in this battle – this time in Idaho, where high school students are leading the charge against anti-teacher union and anti-education legislation by walking out of their classes and showing up at the state capitol and city halls throughout Idaho.

The past few weeks have seen levels of sustained progressive organizing that have not been experienced in America for a number of years.  Now is the time for all of us should get involved to keep this critical fight for public employees, unions, the middle class, and the progressive movement in America going.   Below are ways for you to take action – if you know of other rallies or opportunities to add to the list, please let us know at our Facebook page.

IDAHO

Legislation: The State legislature is consider a bill that would eliminate 770 teaching positions, increase class sizes, and try to move students to on-line classes by giving them a laptop.   Other legislation would weaken collective bargaining rights of teachers and begin to implement “performance-based” pay policies.

Status: The bill proposing to eliminate 770 teachers and replace them with on-line classes was sent back to committee in the state Senate, but is moving forward in the state House.

Take Action:

* Contact members of the Idaho state legislature

* Write a letter to your local newspaper editor – links to Idaho newspapers available here

* Support the students who are protesting these proposals, and join the students who are walking out of their classes

OHIO

Legislation: Senate Bill 5 would eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in the state

Status: SB 5 passed the Senate, 17-16, after the GOP had to remove two of its own pro-labor Republican Senators from committees that voted on the legislation.  Now the battle goes to the Ohio House of Representatives.

Take Action:

* Contact members of Ohio House of Representatives

* Write a letter to your local newspaper editor – links to newspapers available here

* Attend a rally:

Ohio – Columbus

Tuesday, March 8 – State of the State Rally

Details to be announced

WISCONSIN

Legislation: Gov. Walker’s “Budget Repair Bill” would, among other things, eviscerate collective bargaining rights for public employees

Status: Legislation pending in State Senate but cannot be voted on because 14 Democratic Senators have fled to Illinois, thereby preventing the Senate from having a quorum.

Take Action:

* Contact your state legislator

* Write a letter to your local newspaper - links available here

* Support the effort to recall eight Republicans Senators who support Walker’s anti-labor legislation.  Democrats need to pick up only three seats to gain a majority in the state Senate.  Information on canvassing this weekend to collect signatures in support of the recall effort is available here.

* Attend a Rally:

Here is a list of rallies occurring in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Racine, La Crosse, and numerous other towns throughout Wisconsin on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

* Protest Gov. Walker

The Governor is taking a bus tour of Wisconsin on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Help remind him that the people of Wisconsin support public employees and their unions by attending a rally at his public appearances.

OTHER STATES

* Contact your state legislators and Governors

* Write a letter to your local newspaper editor -

Here are links for submitting letters to the editor for national papers, and to newspapers in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,  Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

* Attend a Rally:

Florida – Miami

Tuesday, March 8 – 6-9 p.m.

Mahi Temple – 1480 SW South River Drive

Pennsylvania – Greenville

Saturday, March 5 – 2-4 p.m.

Greenville Central Park

Andrew Harkulich, 724-854-0605 – drewhark@yahoo.com

Pennsylvania – Erie

Monday, March 7 – 5:30 p.m.

Parade begins at Erie Labor Temple – 1701 State St

Rally at 6:30 at Perry Square

Joshua Atkinson, 814-440-0229 – eriecrawfordclc@aol.com

Nashville, TN

Saturday, March 5 – noon

600 James Robertson Parkway

Orlando, FL

Tuesday, March 8 – 4:30 p.m.

March from IBEW 606, 820 Virginia to rally at Senator Beth Johnson Park, 59 South Ivanhoe Blvd. (adjacent to Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce)

Nashville, TN

Tuesday, March 15 – noon

State Capitol

Houston, TX

Tuesday, March 15 – 4:30 p.m.

Houston City Hall

Contact: texansdayofoutrage@yahoo.com