All our children

SRM

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Wednesday December 31, 2014 · 8:38 PM PST

2014/12/31 · 20:38

My New Year pledge: to remind my politicians that their first goal should be to serve ALL our children, because they are all OUR children. It's easy for us to claim a child as "ours" if she's our team's star athlete or our state's musical prodigy, if he's our town's spelling bee champ or our hospital's cancer success story or our country's Olympic hopeful. We don't care if those kids look nothing like us or their families worship differently or earn less than ours -- they are still "our" heroes. But are we able to extend that acceptance to the other kids, the struggling ones, the ones who might have made mistakes or never managed to overcome the many strikes against them from the start? Trayvon Martin? My kid. Michael Brown? My kid. Neftali Cuello, picking tobacco in North Carolina at age 12? Mine. Children poisoned, left homeless, or left without a viable future by our relentless assault on the environment and the climate? Mine, mine, mine.

SRM

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Wednesday April 02, 2014 · 6:37 PM PDT

2014/04/02 · 18:37

A "rapid response" protest today here in Syracuse against the horrible McCutcheon decision should have been a moment for broad movement-building but ended up alienating me, for one. A coalition of groups had organized the events across the country, but ours appeared to have been solely a Green Party event. After a speaker argued that this would galvanize opposition across all kinds of interest groups, the crowd started chanting, "Mr. President 1%, Who do you represent?" I'm not a knee-jerk apologist for Obama, but I'm a pretty loyal, progressive Democrat, and I just couldn't see how he was the number one enemy in this instance. I mean, he opposed the decision, and his Court appointees did, too.

I would love to hear other people's positive stories about how to mobilize for real campaign finance reform without driving wedges between potential allies.

tax political contributions

SRM

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Saturday December 08, 2012 · 5:10 AM PST

2012/12/08 · 05:10

After Citizens United, the government has a much harder time regulating campaign donations, but it can still tax them, right? How about a progressive tax on donations to candidates, political parties, and 527 groups? The first $1000 could be tax-free, and then the tax would gradually rise to 100% once you donate up to, say, $5000 to any given group. Such a tax would have brought in billions in this last tax cycle or, even better, reduced the amount of money spent by the campaigns.

The tax revenue could be dedicated to bolstering democracy: public finance of campaigns, ensuring adequate voting technology in every district, non-partisan voter information campaigns like the old League of Women Voters pamphlets.

I know, the Republican House would never go for it. But public opinion is very strong against money in elections, so it might at least be worth a try.

The wackos are still at it

SRM

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Monday November 26, 2012 · 6:46 AM PST

2012/11/26 · 06:46

This morning the Syracuse Post-Standard printed the letter below. I hope it made many other readers laugh, too. But I also wonder how reputable news sources can maintain their reputation when they print such abject propaganda (complete with address and web link so YOU can rot your mind along with Ray, for a mere $3).

SRM

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Wednesday November 07, 2012 · 6:14 AM PST

2012/11/07 · 06:14

Don't let the pundits establish this as a "no mandate" or "status quo" election. Democrats won decisively yesterday, the Tea Party got a strong rebuke, and this is the moment to push hard for what we want. Let's not lose all the energy that pushed Obama and so many other good people over the top. Post, tweet, call, write letters to the editor, organize, don't relent! Together we can push for action on climate change, education, immigration, campaign finance laws, Senate procedures, voter disenfranchisement, and so much more. Read Robert Reich on combating cynicism (key quote after the jump).

SRM

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Wednesday October 31, 2012 · 9:50 AM PDT

2012/10/31 · 09:50

Here in NY-24 we have a very close congressional race that may be thrown to the Tea Party by a Green Party candidate. Is this happening elsewhere? Is the Green Party trying, once again, to play spoiler in tight races?

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All our children

Anti-McCutcheon protest gone wrong

tax political contributions

The wackos are still at it

Seizing the moment

Spoiler in NY-24