Many progressives have lost focus. They worry about celebrities, like Sarah Palin, which progressive might be a primary challenger to Obama, whether to accept or resist TSA stupidity, etc. Those are peripheral issues. They miss important details, like Reps. Steve King and Michele Bachmann demanding a blood oath from GOP leadership to attach HCR repeal to every appropriations bill next year, even if a government shutdown results. Forget about these tea party Congresspeople as celebrities, just mark their words. Will Obama have the courage to veto a defense appropriation bill that includes HCR repeal?
Things are bad, but they aren't hopeless if we are realistic and expect a long fight from the foothills. Why foothills? Think Churchill.
The HCR process was demoralizing, thanks partly to the Emanuel brothers, partly to brain dead Democrats like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu, who got more attention than nasty Republicans. Many independents turned strongly against Congress and all incumbents. We got some improvements. As of January, insurance companies must spend at least 80% of their income on benefits, those selling large group coverage 85%. Children can be carried on their parents’ policies until age 26, very important in these hard times. Policies that cover children already can’t deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Starting in 2014, insurers can't deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions or charge higher premiums because of any person’s sex or health status.
Tax policy and healthcare reform are crucial; the Geithner-Summers-Reed-Obama team does not inspire confidence. They may have a few tricks left, mostly they stood on a lofty perch and were bypassed without even realizing it. Read Elizabeth Drew’s article, In the bitter new Washington, Things went seriously astray
Drew is sophisticated. Voters were mad; young people, especially minority young people, too often didn’t bother to vote. Quoting Drew, The Senate Democrats, in their apparently poll-driven "Day After" statement, said they heard the voters saying that the two parties should 'work together' (however unlikely that was) to improve the state of the middle class; at the same time they wanted the Democrats to ‘fight’.
Democratic Presidents contributed to our major failures to regulate industry and finance. Carter pushed deregulation, Reagan even more so, and the Clinton economic team worked for deregulation and encouraged repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. Worst of all, they crushed Brooksley Born, a serious regulator who wanted to regulate derivatives. Now Obama seems to imply that there’s not enough money for regulation, it must be cut back. We have lost the first stages of the class war: the media war and the education war. Most Americans are distracted by media spectacles, celebrities and sports extravaganzas. They assume that there’s nothing they can do to help their country and that any increase in social spending would go to the "unworthy". Calls for strikes and street protest generate small numbers and ridicule.
Why do I claim that progressives have lost and must make a new stand in the foothills? How many newspapers or TV pundits have rejected the B-S catfood commission? The vast majority say that they are a start. If you think they are a start, please read look at the whole packageHow often do you hear "trickle-down", that the Republicans have revived Hooverism, that John Kyl is a snarling, gloating Hoover? Drew is right; McConnell is not the boss.
Turn now to the words of Sir Winston:
We shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills (where progressives are today)
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle.
Churchill was mostly a right-winger, he was opposed to independence for the colonies, but he had a way with words and was a great wartime leader. He did not flit from one topic to another.
Points for discussion:
- Republicans will probably pick up more Congressional seats in 2012. They can and will gerrymander house voting districts. They will have enormous corporate funding.
If this is true, an Obama who dares to issue troublesome vetoes will be a plus. We don’t know whether or not our Obama will issue such vetoes, but we should know by September 2011.
- A serious primary challenge to Obama (a well known D enters at least three state primaries) will knock Obama out, unless the Rs are dumb enough to nominate a blatant tea bagger. No way that a Democratic challenger can win the general election.
- Healthcare will be a central issue. Obama has already capitulated on the 1099 problem. If the Rs can’t get a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (remember the brain dead Democrats) they may settle for knocking out the 1099 provision without correcting the financial loss that results. They can knock out the rest of HCR in the next Congress on deficit grounds. Existing HCR benefits the lower 99% but hardly anyone understands what the law does. Obama and his Chicago mafia (Jarrett, Gibbs, Axelrod and the Emanuel brothers) did a terrible job in that respect. A bill that nobody understands can't be a historic accomplishment, it's just a start that must be strengthened or it will disappear.
Why don’t our so-called leaders (like Obama, Reed, Durbin or Pelosi) say that American companies are already required to file a 1099 form for any "service" rendered/purchased over $600 in value? HCR eliminates the exemption for corporations receiving such payments for services rendered under a 1099. It closes a tax loop hole and uses the revenue for healthcare.
If you trust Bernie Sanders or any other good guy to stress this, let me remind you that he, Feingold and other good guys allowed the notorious nationwide foreclosure by notarization bill, HR 3808, to pass by unanimous consent. Was that the action of populists or of puppets? Obama pocket vetoed that bill; it was not risky. Congress requires steady pressure to offset lobbyists and big donations. I’ll ask to meet with my local Congressman’s office and demand to know why he's silent about the 1099 issue. Others should do similar things. Letters, phone calls, emails- woefully inadequate
- Education will be a critical front; mostly at the state and county level. Tea baggers will insist that education funding be cut and made more efficient. They will replace teachers and counselors with commercial Internet teaching packages. Those teaching packages will be most useful to highly motivated home schoolers. Help for home schooling will take a larger piece of the shrinking education budget. Progressives must run good people for every school board election. Conservatives learned that years ago; they are now in position to hamstring the children of average people.
Numbers of children with unmarried parents continue to increase. Avoidance of marriage is related to education- educated and financially secure people are more likely to marry. Now, some unmarried parents do a good job, but quite a few fathers skip out. Their children need extra help or they will become part of a permanent proletariat. Don’t expect to solve this problem by lawsuits. The Federalist society is ready.
What does regroup in the foothills mean?
Look for states that can attempt single payer plans, such as Vermont. Support groups that are doing this.
Vermont has less than 700,000 people.
We who live in other states should a. work to get progressives onto school boards and resist the "tilt toward home schooling" that is coming.
b. Constantly object to newspaper articles lauding the Bowles-Simpson and Rivlin-Domenici deficit plans, by letters to the editor, on line comments, etc. Remind those who complain about funding for social needs about the terrible waste of lives and money in optional wars and that Wall Street is rolling in money. Our objections must appeal to independent voters and especially women. Don’t call the Rs fascist, don’t emulate Glenn Greenwald.
c. Explore possibilities for single payer or more progressive health plans in your state, if realistic. Sheila Kuehl is a lovely woman but the California single payer plan could never be taken seriously because such plans require money upfront. The California budget has been unbalanced for years. Don’t try to pass unfunded healthcare and education mandates, something that many democrats have done in the past. Independents rightly object to this.
d. Start local media- radio stations, web sites, newspapers, etc. Make common cause with labor unions without supporting arteriosclerotic union demands. I mean for example, that seniority determines which teachers remain if there is a crunch.
Anytime that people talk about "across the board cuts" that take money equally from all services, we must holler. President Obama’s pay freeze is such an across the board cut. We must demand that politicians evaluate which workers and services are most deserving and be willing to take the heat for such evaluations. Right now, such evaluations are radioactive unless they can be palmed off as "computer evaluations". They are always somewhat subjective.
e. Agitate to eliminate gerrymandering in your state.
f. Hunker down for a long cold spell and help your neighbors first. There will be no easy victories, but our cause is just and far from hopeless, if we are realistic.