Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health
and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week Great
spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter
cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary
prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and
fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.
Albert
Einstein (1879 - 1955)
Communication
with Our Members
My priorities include:
·
Changing our Borrow, Consume and Speculate Economy
to an Earn, Conserve and Speculate
economy.
·
Increasing state
revenue and lowering most people’s taxes by substituting an income tax for some
of our sales, excise and property taxes.
·
Grassnet
organizing, including identifying Liberal voters, facilitating communication
and association among them, and educating them about our political values,
history, situation, priorities, proposals and strategies. This includes strengthening our Democratic
Legislative District Organizations.
Each
week, I intend to feature an advocacy organization as I have done with our Economic Opportunity
Institute for the last 4 weeks. This
week, I feature the affiliated Economic
Policy Institute.
Calendar of Events
Saturday, March 14 at 6 PM at Twist (
Saturday, March 14 at 6 PM at Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion – Futurewise Carnaval
Dinner and Fundraiser, including live and silent auctions. $85.
RSVP by March 6th.
Saturday, March 21 at 10 AM – 5 PM at
Friday, April 24 (3-9 PM); Saturday, April 25 (9 AM-6 PM); and Sunday,
April 26 (9 AM – 3:30 PM) at
Opportunities
and Petitions
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Obtain Progressive
States Networks resources for improving many state government services.
Petitions
Tell congress
to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate Bush
Administration.
Thank your
Washington Senators for co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act.
Thank Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar for canceling oil and gas leases in Utah wilderness.
Tell
our senators to vote for mortgage relief, unencumbered by banking lobbyist
restrictions.
Tell
our congress members to support child friendly components of President Obama’s
budget.
Tell
your congress members to stop subsidies and tax loopholes for oil and gas
companies.
Tell the EPA to grant
California the authority to restrict auto emissions.
Thank
President Obama for repealing President Bush’s executive order on stem cell
research.
Tell
our Health and Social Services Dept. to restore women’s rights to complete sexual
information.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Henry Stanford: Thanks
for
Published by
Congratulations to the P-I for your editorial
"Flawed tax system," (Tuesday), in which you advocate a progressive
income tax for our state. It has always been a mystery to me why a left-leaning
editorial board, of a left-leaning newspaper, published in a very liberal city
in one of the most liberal states in the nation would take so long to
editorialize in favor of a progressive state income tax. I can understand why
Democratic Party legislators might have qualms, fearing that open advocacy
could cost them their seats a the next election, and I would never ask a
legislator, Democratic or Republican, to commit suicide. But editorial writers
enjoy no such luxury, as it is their job to hold politicians' feet to the fire.
Unless, of course, they would rather be mere shills for the Democrats. Henry
King Stanford
Published by
We applaud the long history, investigative
journalism, and incisive and wise editorial work of the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer. Even in the face of its impending closure, the P-I
continues to be a central voice for improving our society and pointing out the
pathway we need to take.
Next month we presume we will not be
receiving the P-I at our doorsteps, but we must proceed with the public policy
for which the P-I has been a courageous voice. That policy centers on the
intertwined strategies of remaking our upside-down tax system and fully funding
education, from pre-kindergarten to K-12 to the community college and four-year
higher educational system. If we succeed in these efforts, we will lay the
foundation for the advancement of our state, our economy and our citizens in
the 21st century. If we fail, we will be left behind.
We have the most regressive tax regime in
the country. Middle-class and low-income families pay much more in taxes
proportionally than the wealthy. Absent an income tax, our over-reliance on the
sales tax and property tax also results in insufficient public revenues to fund
the public services, especially education, that 21st century
That's why funding per pupil has now
dropped below 88 percent of the national average for our K-12 students. It's why we are 46th of the 50 states in our
student-teacher ratios in public school. It's why out of every 100 ninth
graders, only 69 receive their high school diploma on time. It's why we fail to
provide high-quality pre-kindergarten for the vast majority of
Even in the midst of this recession, there
is a solution to this public failure. A group of citizens is coming together to
promote a "high incomes" income tax. It would be offset with an
across-the-board cut of the state property tax. The new net revenue would be
dedicated to public education.
The vast majority of middle-class families
would get a tax cut, the highest income families would pay an added tax (which
they would get to deduct from their federal income taxes), and the children and
students of our state would get a boost in the billions of dollars for their
education and future well being, prosperity, and productivity. We anticipate a
multi-year educational campaign to achieve this vision for our future.
Can we realize this in our state? The
better question is why not. After all, we in
Authors of this column are Bill Gates
Sr., Aubrey Davis,
Some prominent
civic leaders have come forward to champion substituting a progressive income
tax for some of our regressive property tax.
Now we need our educational associations; labor unions; PTA;
children’s, social service and poverty advocacy organizations to join them,
since they have the most to lose if we stick with our present unfair tax system
which brings in too little revenue to maintain necessary educational and social
services. Only with leadership from a
broad coalition of civic groups can our legislators take the political risk
of supporting tax reform which includes an income tax. Without such a broad coalition, our various
advocacy groups will continue competing with each other for inadequate
revenues. For example, leaders of education groups are calling for increased funding, without
suggesting how the funding will be obtained.
Noticeably absent from this struggle are the Liberal bloggers. Nor are grassroots Democrats speaking out.
To see all of my last year’s weekly commentaries (in one
document) on the history of our tax system, previous attempts to reform it, our
present system, what’s wrong, what’s needed and how to get it.
Donald Smith:
Democrats Should Discuss Tax Increases
Democrats in
Thank you, P-I, for being willing to challenge
conservative talking points about "tax relief," "protecting
citizens from high taxes" and "government waste." Alas, on so many issues the Democrats are
afraid to stand up for what's right and instead allow the right-wingers to
control the terms of debate. Donald
Smith
The proposed Fair
School Funding Act would place a referendum before the voters to lift the
current exemption of intangible property (stocks and bonds) from the State
property tax. Closing this tax loophole for the rich offers the following
advantages:
The Best Time for Education Funding
Reform is Right Now!
If there is a lesson
to be learned from the failure of Education Reform bills in the 2009
Legislative session, it is that funding has to come before educational reforms will be passed. Both of the competing Education Reform bills
failed because neither provided any source of
funding to pay for the reforms in the bills. Instead, both
proposed more committees to continue to study the problem of where the money
will come from. Both bills were essentially a series of empty promises and unfunded mandates. We can and must do
better than this. We do not need more studies. We need action.
There are only a few
options for raising billions of dollars. These include raising sales taxes,
raising business taxes, raising property taxes and/or raising income taxes.
The problem with
these options is that they would all raise taxes on our middle class.
But our middle class is already being taxed to death. According to Lisa Brown: “Any new tax package must not place that burden on
people who are already paying too much in our unfair tax system." A better
solution is to approve tax reform targeted
specifically at millionaires and specifically at creating a fairer and more
uniform State tax structure. The Fair School Funding Act would tax
intangible property at essentially the same rate as tangible property and
thereby close a loophole currently used by millionaires to avoid paying their
fair share of State taxes. We simply can no longer afford to
give millionaires a free ride while our children get the shaft.
Barack Obama recently said “Times of crisis are also opportunities for change.” We are now
facing an 8 billion dollar budget shortfall over the next two and a half years
(about 3 billion per year). So we certainly have a crisis. The question is
whether we will use this financial crisis as an opportunity for change.
“Rather than
focus on dividing a smaller pie, lawmakers should be asking themselves how to
fund the whole pie so citizens don't loose service. You have to look at the tax
breaks for the wealthy and say, "It's time to eliminate those tax
breaks.'" Steve
Those who want to protect State tax breaks for
millionaires claim that all we really need to do is cut down on State spending.
But we have one of the top 20 economies
in
We have a choice:
Either we require millionaires to start paying their fair share of State taxes
NOW ….Or by next year our public schools will be facing a billion dollars in
cuts.
If you want education reform, ask your legislators to end tax breaks for
millionaires and support the
Now is the time to adopt a fairer tax system
which would provide fair school funding.
For a copy of the complete
text of the proposed
Ray McBain: Public, Not Private, Health
Insurance
I support Obama in this effort, but I would be happier if he would pursue a plan that provides health
care for all Americans regardless of income. That for sure will involve either
the single-payer health plan (HR 676) or a plan funded by public insurance
(whatever that is).
Too much compromise may not lead to a
plan at all. However, I feel sure Obama is dedicated to some sort of plan like
the above. We must not allow the insurance companies to deter us from a
successful plan. Ray McBain
Rich Austin: Blue
Dog Democrats Should Support President
I want to echo the words in the two statements by Ray McBain. (Newsletter #164).
I would only add this cause for concern:
We voted for a Democrat for President. “Blue Dog Democrats” were nowhere
to be found on the ballot. It is
outrageous that some Blue Dogs are now joining forces with Congressional
Republicans and making lots of noise over what are essentially penny-ante
issues. Blue Dogs didn’t have the guts
to flex their muscles while Bush was ruining our economy, but now they are
spouting-off? No way! They need to be told to come back home!
Ever since some Democratic lawmakers began supporting Bush’s anti-Main
Street policies I stopped giving money to the Democratic Party. I am
afraid as much as one cent of my donation might wind up in the coffers of
so-called Democrats who are now aiding and abetting the enemy of President
Obama’s policies. Now I just give to individual Democratic] candidates.
Please convey my message to your Democratic colleagues.
Liberals
and Democrats
Obama Watch – Week 7
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
Two Approaches to Health Care Reform:
One or Two Steps
Unlike
the 1993 attempt to reform health care, President Obama initiated his attempt
with a White House Conference on Health Care Reform which included a wide
variety of stake-holders (insurers, employers, providers, consumers and legislators
and others, although few advocates of a single-payer (Medicare type) system). For more. More. More. More. Our media is also ignoring
single payer alternatives. For more.
Instead
of presenting any specific proposals, Obama indicated that reform could include
all private or all public coverage or some combination, but must meet three
criteria:
1.
everyone has
access
2.
to high quality
health care
3.
with cost
controls
All of the participants apparently agreed that reform
now is necessary (although they could change their minds if the reforms that
are considered don’t meet their approval).
One approach would be to attempt to adopt a single payer health
system now, even though stiff opposition from private insurers would
result. Many advocates of health care
reform and a majority of our American people believe that only a single payer
system (used by all other countries with national health care coverage) can be
affordable. For more. We believe that allowing private insurance
invariably increases costs due to assessing who qualifies for what. And reduces coverage due to motivations to
disqualify people. The result is that
not everyone is covered, quality of health care suffers, and it is expensive. This is proven by our present system and the
failure of the
President
Obama is pursuing a second approach
which reduces resistance through allowing participation of private
insurers. Once the new system is adopted
to enable coverage for everyone, the costs of including private insurance will
become apparent, especially is there is a public coverage option. It will then be possible to proceed to a
single payer system. For more. But private
insurers are objecting to having to compete with a public insurance option. For more. For
more.
For
more. For more. For
more. For
more.
Flexible Foreign Policy
Hillary Clinton is
continuing her travels to visit foreign leaders, see better relations and
explore new joint initiatives. Our
Obama administration is opening
up more foreign policy options.
Science and Stem Cell Research
Declaring
that science, not ideology will guide his administration, President
Obama allows scientists who use newer stem cell lines to apply for federal
funding. For more. For more. President
Obama repudiates president Bush’s signing statements.
Increased Support for Quality Education
Through
his stimulus package and 2010 budge, President Obama is doubling the money for
education compared to President Bush’s budget.
To make our students more competitive with students in other countries,
money is increased for early childhood education, for encouraging students to graduate
from high school and to ease their entrance into college. Particular attention is given to high poverty
hard-to-staff schools.
The
money is contingent upon schools rewarding excellent teachers and assisting or
replacing poor ones. Merit will be
measured in various ways including certification and student achievement, to be
decided through consultation with parents and teachers. Obama also supports charter schools as
laboratories for innovation. Educational
associations worry about merit pay and charter schools, but appreciate that
they will participate in defining merit.
For
more. For
more.
Promoting Unionization
House
Democrats introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, a vitally important
package of protections that would help restore working people's much-denuded
right to join a union if they so desire. There's nothing more terrifying
to corporate
Limiting Compensation of Executives of
Bailed-Out Companies
President
Obama has proposed limiting their compensation to $500,000, which is 25% more
than he receives. Median
If
all these ‘best and brightest’ financial company executives (who played key
roles in destroying our economy) quit instead of serving for $500,000, we might
be better off.
2009 Budget Bill Passed
President
Obama will sign 2009 budget legislation (for 9 remaining appropriation bills),
which includes significant increases for food aid and housing vouchers for our
poor, energy research and other programs.
It has earmarks, but only half as many as previous bills, 60% from
Democrats and 40% from Republicans. For
more.
Special Interests Ready to Fight
Businesses
in many industries are mobilizing to resist regulations, tax increases, cuts in
their subsidies. For
more.
In
2000, I wanted George Bush to fail to become president. I wanted him to fail to:
·
Pass income tax
cuts which contributed to our economic mess.
·
Allow ideology to
supplant science as a basis for public policy
·
Use his
administration’s failure to stop the 9/11 attacks to unconstitutionally
increase his power.
·
To divide our
country, without calling for shared sacrifices for our public good
·
Pass a ‘No Child Left
Behind’ law which punishes schools and students which need help.
·
Invade and occupy
·
Pass a medicine supplement to
Medicare which rewards private insurers and pharmaceutical companies at
enormous expense to our government and seniors
·
Be re-elected
president in 2004.
·
Wreck FEMA such
that an inadequate response was made to Katrina
·
Provide
unsupervised no-bid contracts to cronies
And much more.
I
want President Obama to succeed, because I agree with his values, objectives
and careful strategies. I worry about a
few of his apparent choices, but believe his approach may be
self-correcting. Just as I wanted
President Bush’s actions listed above to fail, I can understand why
Conservatives want President Obama to fail.
I am concerned with our public welfare.
Conservatives are concerned with the welfare of their cronies.
Earmark Reform
As
always, Arizona Senator John McCain is protesting earmarks in the 2008 budget
legislation, which includes half as many earmarks as earlier legislation, which
are transparent as to content and authorship, and which are divided about 60/40
between Democrats and Republicans. Authors
defend them as often the best way to quickly fund worthwhile projects. But abuses occur when earmarks reward
campaign contributors, sometimes making federal agencies buy from them products
and services that the agencies don’t want.
How
about establishing an annual monetary limit for each Senator and
Representative, which gives each of them the right to make transparent
earmarks, totaling no more than the limit?
In addition, none of these earmarks should be allowed to benefit any
private campaign contributor.
Public Campaign Financing Will Assist Health Care and other Reforms.
The
reason that we don’t have more social safety net programs like
Cutting the Wasteful Military Budget Will Provide
Funds for other Needs
While
the United States economy falters, a variety of ideas to secure workers and
businesses have been put forward. Yet, the issue of the
Budget Priorities and Energy Security
No Blood for Oil: a common refrain in the lead-up
to the invasion of
Swords or Ploughshares: Empowering Smart
Decisions in Difficult Times
After World War Two there was a dramatic shift in our
national economy. That war was, and continues to be, trumpeted as the way
out of the Great Depression. Since then our country has maintained an
ever increasing level of military spending as a means of 'stimulating our
economy.' After a generation of considering illogical and unnecessary
military spending essential to our economic growth, it is no wonder in 2009 the
Pentagon budget dwarfs the budgets of many small industrialized countries.
President Obama made it
clear during his campaign for the Presidency that the Pentagon was not immune
to the economic crisis; alluding that major cuts to the military budget were in
the works. At the same time he committed to increasing the personnel size
of the Army and Marines; continuing the
Here’s the Beef
Al
From retires from Democratic Leadership Council, proud of what DLC has
accomplished.
Various
Obama initiatives support income equality.
President
Obama supports rail and transit improvements.
President Obama should
direct congress to approve international women’s rights initiatives.
More than
cradle-to-grave security, Obama supports cradle-to-grave opportunity.
The
good news is that politicians accept the bad news and the need to act.
Conservative
ideology makes South Carolina’s economy among worst in our nation.
Republicans can’t
object to Rush Limbaugh. Many of their
constituents are dittoheads. More. More.
Young evangelicals are
more tolerant and compassionate than older evangelicals have been.
State
and Local
See Diane
and Ted Sanford’s proposal for an income come tax initiative.
Geoff Cole: How to a Promote State Income Tax
Published by
Thanks
for your courageous editorial in support of a state income tax.
You
mentioned but didn't emphasize the three criteria that must be present to
"sell" a state income tax to
1. It must replace or reduce an existing regressive tax,
not be an "add-on" to the existing tax structure. The obvious place
to start is the exceedingly regressive state sales tax.
2. It must be graduated, the percentage of burden rising
with income level, so that middle- and lower-income taxpayers ultimately pay
less in total taxes than they are paying now.
3. It must be accompanied by a vigorous educational
initiative, explaining in clear and simple language how it will reduce the
overall tax burden on middle and lower incomes. It should include "case
study" examples, in terms of dollars saved, of how individuals and
families at various income levels will benefit from lower overall state taxes
in the long run. Geoff Cole
Featured Advocacy
Group ---- Economic Policy Institute -------------------------
I obtained several reports by
the Economic Policy Institute, when visiting our Economic Opportunity
Institute: Grading Places. What Do the Business Climate Rankings Really
Tell Us? and A Plan to Revive the
American Economy. The first report examines
5 so-called indexes of competitiveness, showing that they are incompatible with
each other, fail to predict economic growth, because they are oriented to
promotion of Conservative legislation: low taxes, spending cuts and less
regulation.
Businesses considering
whether to stay or come to a state consider a much larger set of factors,
including labor costs, energy costs, transportation, educational attainment,
school quality and health care, cultural and recreational amenities, and
climate. Note that many of these factors
require active state government support.
The second report notes that
following World War II, our U.S. economy grew at a solid pace with the
resulting prosperity broadly shared, providing security and comfort to most
workers (with the exception of ethnic minorities. Beginning in the 1970s, Conservative policies
increasingly broke the link between economic growth and improved standards of
living.
To restore the American dream
of broadly shared prosperity and opportunities for upward mobility, the report
recommends:
·
Increasing
financial security through creating universal access to quality health care,
protecting social security benefits and creating new guaranteed retirement
accounts.
·
Increasing
worker’s wages through job training, full employment, adequate minimum wages
and earned income tax credits, facilitating unionization, and protecting
workers from abusive work conditions.
·
Increasing our
economic efficiency through investing in conservation and our physical and
social infrastructure.
·
Providing health,
education, employment, pay, entrepreneurship and home ownership opportunities
to all ethnic groups and immigrants and providing flexible work arrangements
consistent with fulfilling family responsibilities.
·
Reshaping
globalization to promote quality
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Progressive State Network: State Action for the Unemployed
On
Thursday, the official national unemployment rate climbed
to 8.1% nationwide as employers shed an additional 651,00 workers last
month. Add in sharp rises in the number of involuntary part-time and
long-time discouraged workers, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.8%.
While long-term job growth is the goal of the recovery package, states need to,
and some are already stepping up to, address the immediate needs of the
unemployed. There are a range of additional resources outlined in Progressive
State Network's Implementing
the Recovery Plan: A Resource Guide for State Legislators and Advocates.
My Democratic Legislative District Organization Planning Workshop
I
recently conducted a planning workshop for a Democratic Legislative District
Organization. 12 leaders met for 3
hours, to eat and visit and spend 2 hours and 15 minutes planning. Leaders shared their fall 2010 political
vision for the Legislative District and the obstacles to this vision. They then shared their fall 2010 vision for
their LD organization and the obstacles to this vision.
They
then created strategies to deal with these obstacles and developed a calendar
of projects. The calendar was a 2009 timeline
with a row for each of five action teams: (1) Grassroots Organizing; (2) Membership,
Recruitment and training; (3) Communication
and Training: Website, Newsletter, Online portals; (4) Fundraising; and (5) Outreach
and Candidates. Included in the
Calendar were 30 projects to be done, with each inserted according to who would
do it (row) and when (column). The
action teams will recruit more members, refine their projects and implement
them.
I
will be glad to lead similar workshops for other Democratic Legislative
District Organizations.
Here’s the Beef
Senate
Majority Leader Lisa Brown argues for more flexible encouragement of renewable
energy.
Washington
should increase percentage holding college degrees from 39 to 60%. For more.
When schools fail, their
students may end up in prison.
Seattle
PI may offer an online only version of its newspaper.
Washington
credit unions are doing fine. They loaned
9.6% more money in 2008 than in 2007.
Why isn’t Republican Attorney
General Rob McKenna prosecuting any loan fraud? For more.
Nation
and World
Comparing Our Present Recession with the 1930s
Depression
Beginning
in 1933,
Unlike
the 1930s, we have social security and other stabilizers which have not allowed
our unemployment to climb so high.
Unlike 1946, we have much less public debt as a portion of our
production, but we have much more private debt.
If our government would pay off all of our private debt, we would be in
a situation similar to 1946. But this
won’t happen, since it would reward the most profligate among us. So we need to depend upon public instead of
private investment.
As
our households reduce their private debt, we will begin to spend more, although
less than during our recent bubbles. In
the meantime, we need public investment to increase employment, much of it
private employment. And we
need to return to workers earning fair wages. And we need regulations and tax policies to
restrict speculation and to promote conservation instead of consumption.
President Bush Lowered their Taxes, then their Wealth
President
Bush lowered the taxes of our rich.
Through this, deregulation, lack of enforcement, he wrecked our economy,
costing them more of their wealth than they gained through paying less
tax.
Last
year, the number of billionaires fell from 1,125 to 793. Their total net worth fell by 45% from $4.4
trillion to $2.4 trillion. While the
Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 38.5%, Bill Gates Jr.’s net worth fell by
31% and Warren Buffett’s fell by 40%. For more.
We Must Stop Abusive Business Behavior.
David
Sirota noted, “Wall Street speculators steal from pensioners as our
government bails out the thieves; employers pilfer from workers with the help
of labor laws that undermine unions; oil companies profiteer off products that
are warming the Earth; and heath insurers jack up premiums and ration coverage.” All of these abuses and others can be curbed
by appropriate regulation and taxes. We
must support and push our Bush administration to do so.
Here’s the Beef
We became a
nation of speculators. We lost.
Much
uncertainty exists concerning future strength of stock market.
Dean
Baker says IMF’s response to 1997 Asian economic collapse contributed to our
present one.
Federal
Reserve may be secretly subsidizing major financial companies.
Financial
companies spent $5 billion for 12 legislative changes which largely caused our
bubble.
Who’s
harming the rich? It’s the rich
financial company executives.
Is
government aid to financial companies capital or a loan?
Recovery
must not depend on creating another bubble.
We need jobs with good earnings.
Using
a variety of tactics, two thirds of Americans are reducing their spending.
As people reduce their
debt, they may resume spending, but more cautiously than during bubble.
Wasteful military spending
should be used instead to create green and infrastructure jobs. For more.
Maintaining
1000 military bases overseas is expensive and empire building. For more.
The almost $700 billion
military budget is a lousy stimulus package.
Better spent on infrastructure.
Unemployment
is increasing, may be 10% by end of the year, depending upon government
stimulus.
$1000 tuition and 8
weeks study qualifies construction workers for some clean jobs.
Instead
of wasting billions more, take over the banks. For more.
Big
banks. Too big to fail. Yuk.
Record
31.8 million are enrolled for food stamp benefits.
1.5
million American children are homeless.
That’s one in 50.
High
among our priorities should be providing security and opportunity to all
children.
Adopting children should be
made much easier, to benefit both children and those who adopt them.
Kids need outdoors
more than tons of toys.
Our Food and Drug
Administration needs to reduce corporate influence of its approval system.
Bye
bye toilet paper. Save trees. Use water like many of our world’s people do.
Greenhouse
gas emissions cap and trade system will produce revenue for green programs.
Arctic summer ice
could be gone in five years.
A new organization called 350
presents a globally unified approach to controlling climate change.
UN says bye bye water. Bye bye California
water.
1.1 million Darfur people
threatened by starvation as Sudan expels aid organizations. Where’s Obama?
When President Obama
visits Turkey, will he call killing of Armenians genocide?
Was the Israeli massacre
of Palestinians a crime against humanity?
Our
Liberal Spirit
Courage Is Tough. So Is Denial.
More
frequently than we admit, we deny painful realities. We deny our faults. Our unconstructive habits. Our addictions. Without dealing with these realities, we
continue through life as walking wounded.
Before
we will admit them, painful realities must often become too painful to ignore. We must first reach our bottom, with our
difficulties increasing faster than our ability to rationalize them away. Some of us are more honest than others. More willing than other to admit and confront
painful realities. I suspect those of us
who are more honest are ones who have the most positive things to lose. Maintaining a rich vision and variety of
activities may be the basis for confronting obstacles.
Right
now, Washington Democrats face a painful reality. Without unpopular tax increases, our budget
will gut most of what we have achieved over many years and stop any further
achievements. Is our vision for our
state and our passion for our state programs enough to enable us to admit the
necessity of tax increases? Will we
devise a tax reform strategy to mobilize popular support? Or will we continue in a state of
denial?
Nationally
also, we face a painful reality. We must
restrict our consumption and do more conserving. Instead of borrowing, we must save and
invest. Instead of speculation, we must
depend upon our earnings and savings. Some
of us are getting this message, but many, including many of our leaders, are
still in denial. What we all need is
courage to face our newly obvious and uncomfortable realities.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Alan
Colmes, 2003, Red, White &
Liberal. How Left is Right & Right
is Wrong
I do not recommend this
book. Alan Colmes appears on Fox
Television’s Hannity & Colmes shouting match, with Colmes supposedly the
Liberal one. In this book, Colmes claims
he is Liberal on some issues and Conservative on others. His understanding of Liberal is the
understanding which Conservatives have promoted for many decades. His understanding of Conservative is that
they want to return to past policies.
Both understandings are wrong.
Colmes’ mission is to
persuade Conservatives to become Liberals, or at least more tolerant of
Liberals. He tries to do this by being
softer and gentler or with mild sarcasm.
As is evident from the book, he seldom succeeds. By appearing on Fox Television, Colmes is
playing against the house.
I believe a better strategy
is to focus upon educating Liberals to be more effective, while leaving
Conservatives to their rapidly diminishing bubble. When we must confront them in election
contests, we should go on the offensive, expressing our values and chastising
them for obstructing their realization. For
more. We should play on our field,
not theirs.
I am comfortable saying, “If
you like hate-filled, profane, sexually
obsessed, racist, sexist, homophobic, military-service-dodging, ideology-before-science,
deceptive, big government, budget unbalancing, incompetent, corrupt
self-identified victims who disrespect and violate our basic American values
and constitution, you’ll love Conservatives. You’ll love repugnant, repulsive Republicans.”
I don’t object to Republican
people. I object to their attitudes and
behaviors. I hope they can change their
evil ways. I hope that those who don’t
change will be totally eliminated from public influence. My tool for doing this is education.
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