I will let you in on a little secret. I don’t really care who gets to be speaker of the new Democratic House. The horse race is way too easy to get caught up in. Those of us on the left want to take the energy that won so many seats to cut Trump off at the knees. This year we turned a lot of college educated suburban voters. Next time, we can take out the working rural poor if we do a good job of seizing the moment.
And, frankly, I’m not so sure that the House needs to do anything but protect Mueller. That net is just now starting to capture some bigger fish. I swear to God, Mueller is the only thread we really have left. A professional investigation is paramount. And if Trump weakens Mueller then impeachment is the only option. And when the Senate sends back a not guilty, impeach him again.
It’s that simple. In the meantime, we are drowning out here.
“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.
I wear the black for those who never read”
— John Cash
A few years ago, I spent a brief amount of time working for a national non profit focused on food security for families and children. The project I was attached to was to create as many storytelling tools as we could from a series of filmed or audio recorded interviews of the hungry working poor across the country.
The stories were heart breaking. The image of a family in Baltimore whose refrigerator had to be locked in order to enforce rationing of scarce resources. And the mother of this family worked at least one job. The numbers are staggering. Unemployment is through the floor yet food insecurity and subsistence level jobs are far too common.
The Dow Jones Average doesn’t mean anything to most of us in the workforce. We don’t have 401Ks and our pensions, should we be lucky enough to qualify, are under attack.
Profits may be high and unemployment may be low but things on the ground are dire. I, for one, am tired of all the winning.
from NYTimes magazine.
** warning, this is a gut wrenching piece **
These days, we’re told that the American economy is strong. Unemployment is down, the Dow Jones industrial average is north of 25,000 and millions of jobs are going unfilled. But for people like Vanessa, the question is not, Can I land a job? (The answer is almost certainly, Yes, you can.) Instead the question is, What kinds of jobs are available to people without much education? By and large, the answer is: jobs that do not pay enough to live on.
But it’s about more than just the people without education. How many of you have a friend who has WAY too many degrees? I know my luck in this job market has been non existent. It’s the McJob lottery because of a career in hospitality that it seems no one in corporate America gives a damn about. I am, needless to say, frustrated.
American workers are being shut out of the profits they are helping to generate. The decline of unions is a big reason. During the 20th century, inequality in America decreased when unionization increased, but economic transformations and political attacks have crippled organized labor, emboldening corporate interests and disempowering the rank and file. This imbalanced economy explains why America’s poverty rate has remained consistent over the past several decades, even as per capita welfare spending has increased.
It really is that simple. What made Reagan a hero? Breaking the Air Traffic Controllers Strike.
This is elemental, beginning of the Reagan Revolution, everybody still thinks the jelly bean thing is cute GOP scripture here.
Then there is the rise of the Democratic Socialists and of course the Socialists themselves.
I absolutely view DSA and Bernie Sanders Democrats as important bricks in the Blue Wall.
And finally, there is the end result of the GOP okey-doke. Take all of the money and funnel it to the donors. Make sure that the politicians get their taste on along the way.
With a rake if necessary. I’m not saying that money is the oil that keeps the GOP machine rolling but there’s a reason Ronnie was Bryl Cream boy and Dubya was an oil man. Money makes the GOP go ‘round!
This is where we find ourselves in 2018. The field is far from level and the job is far from done. The first thing that the Dem House needs to do is to come out swinging for the working poor and Universal Health Care. I watched Socialist fear mongering fail time after time here in red Iowa. I think the fear tactics won in only 2 of 6 instances I can recall.
The point being that in Iowa in 2018 it was possible to cut through the noise machine. Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne are going to Congress while two fear mongering white guys are taking a vacation next week. The bulk of us are out here scraping by. We need just a little help. Not more tax cuts for the wealthy.
There are way too many of us falling through the cracks and have been dealt setbacks not of our own making. Why should bad luck be the thing that causes bankruptcy. It’s god damn expensive to be poor in this country. Try it. Guarantee you will want a stiff drink or a puff of that good stuff. But you can’t because of the War on Drugs and the War on the Poor.
Here is what i propose
Vision: There is more that unites us than divides us, focus on strengthening the Social Compact
Action: Launch an all out campaign to protect citizens over corporations
- Universal Health Care — will affect rural as well as urban citizens equally
- Living Wage — making sure that none of us get left behind
Start there.