Thursday, February 19, 2009

We Need More Left and Progressives

The current stimulus plan by the Obama administration is a step in the right direction.
I read in the Paper that some journalists feels that stimulus will pad the pockets of the Unemployed.
That is exactly what we should want. After all, why should millionaires and billionaires who take a bath in our money everyday have a handout? It amazes me about the perks and free giveaways the wealthy have gotten through out the years.
It is time to Bail Out the People.
The Bill falls short, not because it puts our financial future in jeopardy. That has already been done by the wealthy. I reality, the Bill falls short because the programs and reforms
needed aren't there.
We are into the twenty First Century. The Industrial era is gone and the service sector jobs are a dead end. We need new policies as the Universal Income, A Livable Basic Income Grant, a Living Wage, Sustainable and Meaningful Jobs and many more.

Bernie Sanders said in a public forum in San Francisco:
The first part of his address focused on the necessity of the progressive movement to come together and "raise up a New America." The Senator noted that progressivemovement is too often focused on single issues and not sufficiently engagedin the hard work that is electoral politics. To succeed in seeing our ideastriumph, Senator Sanders urged progressives to focus on our commonalitiesand not our areas of difference. He touched on his own experience inBurlington in building a progressive coalition on the city council. He notedthat "politics is what happens 365 days a year" and that we as progressivesneeded to engage our neighbors in changing the political culture.

The Reagan/Bush legacy in my estimation important to remember that the damage wrought to the country was "incalculable." It should be cited statistics that in the "boom" Bush years, that is before the financial meltdown, that the average median income in the country fell by $2,000, that 7 million Americans lost their health carecoverage, that 6 million Americans fell out of the middle class and intopoverty and that 3 million lost their pension benefits. progressives stand for a different path. That ours are the majority values and that those start with fairness and equality of opportunity.

That means abolishing poverty. That means ending Apartheid. That means embracing new values. Less racism, less judging thy neighbor for what they do not have. No measuring people by their jobs or joblessness.
That means a New American Dream with a less materialistic culture.
Of course the battle for Democracy in America rages on. The Democrats failed in the past. The 1960 programs left the silent majority out in the cold with horrible government band aide programs which hurt everyone.
If we could do anything we must stand up for the National Health Insurance, Universal Income, and more enlightened education.

We must now Employee Free Choice Act. The Bill requires 60 votes to pass the Senate but that it was likely there would one Republican who would support it and thus it was doubly important that Al Franken be seated in the US Senate. The Senator also voiced strong support for the President's Labor Secretary choice, California Congresswoman Hilda Solis. We need a Government that understands labor and the rest of us.