Dear Tea Party:
Thank you so much for causing the GOP to self-destruct. We really couldn’t have done it without you.
Sincerely,
The Rest of Us
Posted in Uncategorized on October 16, 2013| 3 Comments »
Dear Tea Party:
Thank you so much for causing the GOP to self-destruct. We really couldn’t have done it without you.
Sincerely,
The Rest of Us
Posted in Uncategorized on October 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Unfortunately, what we call traditional politics no longer has much capacity to alter most of the negative trends. To be clear: I think projects, organizing, demonstrations and related efforts are important. But deep down, most people sense—rightly, in my view—that unless we develop a more powerful long-term strategy, those efforts aren’t going to make much of a dent.
“In 2007, people got excited about federal legislation raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. This was obviously good, but the long-term negative trend continued nonetheless. The minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, was more than $2 higher in 1968. Clearly, when great victories don’t even get us back to where we were more than forty years ago, we need to pay close attention. I support such efforts, but it appears unlikely that strategies aimed at reviving the politics that produced the New Deal and Great Society programs are going to alter the big trends, even if those strategies are intensified by movement building—especially given the decline of labor unions, the power base of traditional progressive politics.
There is, however, a little-noticed twist to this otherwise bleak narrative. Deepening economic and social pain are producing the kinds of conditions from which various new forms of democratization—of ownership, wealth and institutions—are beginning to emerge. The challenge is to develop a broad strategy that not only ends the downward spiral but also gives rise to something different: steadily changing who actually owns the system, beginning at the bottom and working up.”
Read more here:
http://www.thenation.com/article/176555/how-democratize-us-economy