Citizen, Ink.

The New America Is Not About Identity Politics

Some interesting thoughts to chew on as we roll into 2013:

The prevailing narrative is that President Obama's re-election and hopes for long-term Democratic Party control are rooted in a demographic revolution, in which Hispanics, African-Americans and other nonwhite minorities are becoming the new American majority. This view is not wrong, but it is incomplete and misleading. 

The deeper narrative is economic, pointing to a socio-economic transformation in which majorities of all races depend increasingly on government protection and public investment. The two narratives, while they agree on the demographic statistics, have different policy implications, with the current interpretation of the demographic story belying the deeper change that both parties must make. 

via truth-out.org

Republican and Democratic "Remedies" Ensure More Crises, but Alternatives That Work Are Taboo

Great article...we're at a point in the evolution of humanity at which we can choose breakdown or breakthrough. In general, polarized battles such as Wolff describes move us toward breakdown. Finding a third way can move us toward breakthrough...

Both Republican and Democratic plans for the economy leave the system that produced this crisis and will produce more crises unchanged. There IS an alternative, argues economist Rick Wolff.

via truth-out.org

10 Steps to Repair American Democracy

This article has an excerpt from Steven Hill's book, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy. Here's the introduction to the conclusion of Hill's book. Check out the full article at the link below the excerpt:

In 2008, an economic crash of historic proportions shook the world. Without a politics that could rein in the economics, Wall Street honchos turned American banks and the financial system into their personal casinos that had to be bailed out by taxpayers. But that economic collapse was preceded by a long-standing political collapse. The U.S. political system had been captured by wealthy elites who gutted crucial regulations and oversight of the out-of-control financial system, and drained the wealth of the nation into fewer and fewer pockets. Today, American democracy finds itself plagued by out-of-control campaign spending, choiceless elections, paralyzed government, superficial debate, backward voter registration laws, a filibuster-gone-wild U.S. Senate, mindless media, untrustworthy voting equipment, even a partisan Supreme Court. In his new book, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy: 2102 Election Edition, political reformer Steven Hill outlines a blueprint for renewing the American republic by enacting fundamental political and media reforms. In this excerpt, Hill concludes his book by presenting two alternative futures: a dystopia of post-democracy, if the U.S. continues along the current futile path; or a brighter future if fundamental reform is enacted, rescuing Americans from our nation's downward trajectory.

Read Hill's Conclusion at Truthout.

Prosperity, Not Austerity - In These Times

After playing a key role in President Obama’s re-election, the labor movement must pivot immediately to a new task: moving the president away from a potentially disastrous policy of “austerity economics” and toward a second-term adoption of more worker-friendly “prosperity economics.” In the weeks after the election, Obama will negotiate with the hard-right House Republicans about the looming threat of automatic across-the-board cuts.

Read more at www.inthesetimes.com

This article has an interesting link to Prosperity Economics: Building and Economy for All (pdf 1MB) by Jacob Haecker and Nate Lowentheil, who debunk austerity as a flawed strategy and argue for government investment in research, infrastructure, education, improved economic and environmental security for working families, constraints on corporate political power, and more widespread unionization.

Why We Got Ayn Rand Instead of FDR: Thomas Frank on How Tea Party 'Populism' Derailed a New New Deal | | AlterNet

An appropriate metaphor for the conservative revival is the classic switcheroo, with one fear replacing another, theoretical emergencies substituting for authentic  ones, and a new villain shuffling onstage to absorb the brickbats meant for another. The conservative renaissance rewrites history according to the political demands of the moment, generates thick smokescreens of deliberate bewilderment, grabs for itself the nobility of the common toiler, and projects onto its rivals the arrogance of the aristocrat. Nor is this constant redirection of public ire a characteristic the movement developed as it went along; it was present at the creation. Indeed, redirection was the creation.

via www.alternet.org

Ralph Lopez: Why Is the Media Lying About New NDAA Power for Indefinite Military Detention of Americans? | Truthout

Great article by Ralph Lopez, who blogs at War Is a Crime.org (formerly After Downing Street):

At some point a sideshow to a story becomes so painfully obvious that it becomes the story, and this now should be: Why is the media taking such pains to knowingly and falsely claim that the new power of the military to detain and imprison people without charge or trial, for life, does not include US citizens?  We know what happened.  The Bill of Rights has been overturned.  And enough has been written on the deceptive language first warned of by Congressman Justin Amash, when he told The Grand Rapids Press that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was "carefully crafted to mislead the public," for newspaper editors to know better.

via www.truth-out.org

Sanders Files ‘Saving American Democracy Amendment’ | Common Dreams

Warning that “American democracy in endangered,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that allowed unrestricted and secret campaign spending by corporations on U.S. elections.

Read the whole article at www.commondreams.org

 

Saving American Democracy Amendment (pdf)

Just say "No!" to corporate personhood

Wow! Yesterday Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to pass a resolution opposing corporate personhood and to call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution using the language proposed by Move to Amend.

In a press conference after the vote, Council President Eric Garcetti stated:

"I want to thank Move to Amend and this entire coalition that has come together... Every struggle to amend the constitution began as just a group of regular Americans who wanted to end slavery, who thought women should vote, who believed that if you're old enough to be drafted, you should  be old enough to vote. These are how American amendments move forward  from the grassroots when Americans say enough is enough.  

We're very proud to come together and send a message but more than  that, this becomes the official position of the City of Los Angeles, we  will officially lobby for this. I also chair a group which oversees all the Democratic mayors and council members in the country and we're  going to share this with all our 3,000 members and we hope to see this  start here in the west and sweep the nation until one day we do have a  constitutional amendment which will return the power to the people."

 

Tennessee does not have  an initiative/referendum process but communities can adopt the Resolution! See Move to Amend's toolkit page for information, resources and model resolutions.

Deficit Predators: Everything You Need to Know About the Twisted, Dangerous Debt Ceiling Fight | | AlterNet

After a week of nauseating news on Congressional ceiling debates, I found an article by James Galbraith to be refreshing, and a good source for comments to my Congressional Reps on the mindless and juvenile behavior that appears to have seized Washington and many of my fellow citizens:

Never mind that to force default on the public obligations of the United States is plainly unconstitutional. Section 4 of the 14th amendment says in simple language that public debts, once duly authorized by law and including pensions, by the way, “shall not be questioned.” The purpose of this language was to foreclose, to put beyond politics, any possibility that the Union would renege on debts and pensions and bounties incurred to win the Civil War. But the application is very general and the courts have ruled that the principle extends to the present day.

via www.alternet.org

Bernie Sanders Outs the Koch Brothers