Many progressive positions supported by a solid, in some cases overwhelming, majority of the public. But we don't make much progress on them when the right wing attacks, Democrats stand cautiously aside, and the press lazily repeats right wing messaging.
One thing the public is overwhelmingly behind us on is the danger of corporate money in politics. Yet rarely do we hear leaders make as clear a case for this as I heard Mac D'Alessandro, candidate for Congress in MA-09, do at several events this summer. Watch this video I got of him answering questions on Citizens United and corporate money, at a house party in Boston, and you'll understand why our state's top Republican blog called him "the most dangerous man running for Congress this year."
(Video, and partial transcript, below...)
What Citizens United did was say that corporations and labor unions could spend unlimited sums of money to influence the outcome of elections. And before everyone thinks that that's just presidential elections, I want you to think about this in these terms:
Say your local school board is under pressure from a private company like Sodexho, to privatize cafeteria services. School board says no, we don't wanna do that, we think we're more cost-effective here with the publicly provided services.
Well, Sodexho can go out and spend an unlimited sum of money - millions of dollars - to take out your entire elected school board, and replace them with folks that they want, that are gonna give them the contract, for possibly millions of dollars more.
[ Watch the rest of the video, and Mac's stump speech from the same house party. ]
P.S. Tomorrow, September 14th, is primary day here in Massachusetts, and Mac D'Alessandro is in a contest with the most frustrating member of our delegation, Stephen Lynch. Lynch voted for the Iraq war, for the Patriot Act, for intervention in the Terry Schiavo case, and against health care reform ... and he's anti-choice.
Every time I've gone door to door for Mac, I've met people who are unhappy with Lynch, but didn't realize there was a great challenger this year. Lynch's re-elect numbers are in the 30s, but with a primary so close after Labor Day, when most people don't pay attention to politics over the summer, we need volunteers tomorrow!
Do you know anyone in eastern Massachusetts?