By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Faith in Values: The Conservative Fairy Tale About Government (CAP)
Sally Steenland draws on Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal's argument against "the voluntarism fantasy" to argue for the strength of the progressive narrative, in which government and private entities work together to help society.
- Roosevelt Take: Mike debunked the idea that private charity could take the place of government in fighting poverty in Democracy Journal.
The Supreme Court’s Ideology: More Money, Less Voting (The Nation)
Connecting the dots between yesterday's decision in McCutcheon v. FEC and other recent decisions on voting and campaign finance, Ari Berman says that the same groups are favoring secret money and voting restriction.
- Roosevelt Take: Jeff Raines, Chair of the Student Board of Advisors for Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network, argued in October that McCutcheon was really about how much influence we allow the wealthiest Americans to have over our elected officials.
Will Disclosure Save Us From the Corrupting Influence of Big Money? (TAP)
Paul Waldman raises the question of whether campaign finance disclosure is enough to limit political corruption, because he thinks the courts could one day use disclosure as justification to eliminate all contribution limits.
Are The Views Of America's Wealthiest Undermining Democracy? (Forbes)
A new study on the opinions of the top 0.1 percent of Americans shows that they hold substantially different political views, and their high rate of campaign contributions may mean those views get more attention from policymakers.
A Union Aims at Pittsburgh’s Biggest Employer (NYT)
Steven Greenhouse reports on the Service Employees International Union's efforts to unionize the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where workers say great benefits don't matter when they can't afford the health insurance.
New on Next New Deal
Labor Law that That Would Support Organizing in Today’s Economy
In the fifth piece in his series on his new report on labor reform, Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Richard Kirsch begins to lay out some of the possible ways to strengthen labor laws.
Taking on Big Business Wage Theft
Harmony Goldberg, the Program Manager for the Roosevelt Institute's Future of Work Initiative, argues that government needs to strengthen enforcement and change laws so that workers aren't forced to sue in order to get their fair wages.