Dear Progressive,
Clearly the political disaster, which will surely be followed by multiple public policy disasters, that several of us predicted would occur if Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates did not abandon their mud-sling contests with their opponents and focus on the issues that mattered to voters has come to be. At this point, we need to ignore the analysis of the many pundits who are unable to free themselves from the past, and instead learn the real lessons of this past election, and not allow them to be repeated. A few necessary steps are clear at this point.
1. We need to avoid adopting the media storyline that Republicans won because of racism and sexism. Calling millions of Trump supporters, whether they voted or not, racists and sexists will to nothing to attract them to progressive ideas, but will keep us from taking the necessary policy positions. To be sure, there were more than enough racist and sexist remarks during the campaign, particularly by Trump, but the real problem was, and is, that millions of citizens have been taught by Republicans and conservatives to believe that their economic problems are caused by women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans, who get special treatment by the government. To get these people to vote for progressive candidates who will work for laws that will actually reverse the economic condition of these people, progressives need to provide them with the truth, namely that they are being ripped off by the CEO’s of large businesses, banks and other financial institutions who control the entire Republican party. The Trump voters and millions of other citizens are right to be angry; they just need to understand the truth about who to be angry at.
2. Historically, a successful movement has one over-arching idea that appeals to the felt needs of most citizens and under which idea most problems of the society can be fit, at least to some extent. The biggest problem facing our nation is economic inequality, since if that is not addressed to the satisfaction of most people, the society will fall apart. There are signs of that happening already. Further, many other important issues, such as climate change, are just manifestations of the mechanics of economic inequality. Equally, may of the problems of women, African Americans and other groups would be addressed, in significant part, by putting more money in their pockets.
3. Progressives need to read Saving Capitalism by Robert Reich. Some of Professor Reich’s policy suggestions have issues, but his description of, and analysis of the causes of, the economic inequality in our country is spot on. Put simply, the economic inequality is caused by laws and court decisions which have been foisted on the country for decades by Republicans at the demand of their largest political contributors who benefit from those laws at the expense of everyone else. These laws are designed to allow the CEO’s of the biggest companies, the banks, and Wall Street financial institutions to rip-off the American people in lots of ways every day. This means that the economic inequality isn’t an every once a while thing; it is a daily dipping of the hands of the rich into the pockets of the 99%.
American’s overpay, in contrast with other industrialized nations, for: medical care (and get worse medical outcomes); drugs; internet service (and get worse service); food (packaged food gets smaller and costs more all the time); energy (when you include the costs of environmental damage); and a host of other things. Likewise, service gets worse: airplane seats get smaller and smaller, the padding keeps disappearing and fees for every little thing increase; banks invent new fees; software companies come out with programs which they force down our throats, but which don’t work (Americans spend untold hours each year and pay uncalculated amounts of money to fix software and computers because the manufacturers of that stuff won’t build them right or fix them); customer service is a joke for most consumer businesses; and the list goes on. Everyone has their favorite ways in which they are overpaying businesses. This has happened because the 1% has bought the entire Republican party, which works relentlessly to make sure that the rich people who fund their campaigns get what they pay for. This includes Republicans judges who interpret the laws to aid the 1% and limit the rights of the 99% to fair treatment.
4. For decades the Conservative/Republican story has been that the rich are richer because they work harder and are smarter than other people. The rich are also the “job creators” so passing laws to make them richer results in them creating jobs for the rest of the population. As a result the economy grows and “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Those people who feel left behind in the economy have been told that they are the victims of the liberals who use the government to give their jobs to women, African-American, Hispanics and Asian Americans. Problems in the economy which disadvantage the middle class are said to be the results of “big government” and “regulations” getting in the way of the “free market”. All of this is a lie.
5. If there is to be a Progressive movement, it has to challenge all of that story and do so continuously, so that people understand that there is a truthful alternative to the conservative/Republican story. Doing this won’t be easy because many Progressives accept various parts of the CR story and even more of them are, for some reason, unwilling to challenge it publicly. The failure of Progressives to challenge the conservative/Republican lies about what is happening in the country has allowed Republicans and the 1% to prosper and the 99% to become poorer and has permitted a person like Donald Trump to piggy-back off those lies to become President. Too many citizens have only heard about the damage being done to their lives by women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and liberal elites in big cities. For them, building walls, starting a trade war with China, throwing out immigrants and lowering taxes on the rich make sense, even though these claims are clearly nonsense.
6. Progressives who want to cause real change must devote themselves to speaking out about the true causes and solutions of the economic inequality and the lies behind uncontrolled political contributions which lie behind that inequality. Equally, they must get over their unwillingness to acknowledge that the key instrument of all the policies, laws and regulations which are destroying the national political fabric is the Republican party which has sold itself entirely to the 1%. Progressives need to admit that “working” with Republican politicians is impossible and that voting them out of office at all levels of government is step one of bringing about effect change. There is no public policy concern of any progressive group, be it climate change, racial justice, women’s rights, the right of labor to organize, etc. that will not be moved significantly forward by voting Republicans out of office and replacing them with people who refuse to take money from the 1%.
7. Progressives need to agree on a set of ideas that we will support and all our candidates will advance in elections. Rep. Keith Ellison has suggested that we rally around the Democratic platform, which is a reasonable idea, but clearly not the only possible one. Then we need to start recruiting candidates at all levels of government who will commit themselves to advancing those ideas.
Currently, too many well-meaning Progressives are focused on “organizing” about something, when they need to be agreeing on the ideas that economic inequality is caused by thousands of laws and regulations which aid the 1% and that the cause of those laws and regulations is the Republican party.
Yours,
A Friend