This is what they should do, but too many of the same sources of Manchin money fund the Dems. What needs to happen is for the whole party to stop talking about politicians and to start calling out the corporations, the rot at the center of it all. They need to stop pretending this is some political stance by the holdouts or the Republicans when it's a position bought and paid for, to be held by any person in that role. Direct the working class and disgruntled Democratic anger toward the real impediments to fairness and progress. However, doing so would pull back the veil on their own party as well, and it would force them to admit that they, too, are compromised. And sadly, I'm afraid there's 5 times more courage in the average roofer as is there is in the average Democratic politician.
So, yes, I absolutely agree that these are the policies we need, but unless we start having some uncomfortably honest discussions about why we don't already have them and what's really in the way, we will continue to spin our wheels before slamming it in reverse back toward fascism.
It seems to me that it is time for Progressives to break away from the Democratic Party. The corruption and corporate influence in the Democratic Party is too entrenched. It has disappointed us for years. We need a Party solidly built on Progressive principles.
I am looking for solutions to problems. Not interested in winning points or deriding the other side. Also, not interested in seeing democracy disappear. Not interested in separation of families. The reason we have so many challenges is because we don’t enact solutions we just fight over proper solutions to get re-elected. So Mr. Trump, where is our tremendous healthcare? Where is immigrstion law? Where is funding social security? Where is Medicare part D coverage or cost control? Where is infrastructure?
BTW check out the largest container shipping ports in the world, hint: not one in the US is even in the top 10. Wonder why we have supply chain issues?
As far as I can tell Joe Biden is attempting to address many of these issues but has a congress not used to solutions.
Well, the Democrats are noe doing a fine job of losing the suburban vote and unmotivating the Black and Hispanic votes. Yes, the media is imbecilic and allows GOP propaganda to flourish, but the listless approach of Democratic leadership to fight for voting rights, the inability of Democrats to create a viable strategy to fight culture wars, and the unwillingness of the White House to use the bully pulpit to raise awareness of their accomplishments to date is destroying the fragile Democratic coalition faster than the actions of the monstrous GOP. If Biden had a bit of courage, he'd fire Chris Wray, Ron Bloom (to allow a new Postmaster General to be appointed), and the hapless AG Garland (who is blissfully unaware of the dangers of applying judicial deliberation to a prosecutorial role). Maslow's hierarchy...people need to feel safe, and an imploding democracy needs to be addressed. Biden needs a dramatic reset to regain control of the narrative before the end of this year.
Robert you are brilliant. But to do any of this we’re going to have to get rid of the filibuster forthwith posthaste. NOW!! It WASN’T The Founding Fathers intent to require a supermajority to simply pass legislation through the Upper House. How’s that, right-wingers?
Another point. We must consider a John Robert Lewis Voting Rights AMENDMENT, and name it as such. And also refer to it specifically by name as opposed to ordinal number. As difficult as it’s been to pass a JRL Law, it’ll be MUCH more difficult to pass this as an amendment. And also, i believe, dilute in later court challenges. Like earlier voting rights law. i’ve been pondering this since about the time of the Great John Robert Lewis’ passing. Just some passing thoughts…
I think we also need to get some (new?) highly skilled professional PR people involved at a high level to figure out how we can make as strong a message about real things that the Republicans do about total falsehoods.
Would someone please hire Donny Deutsch or some comparable marketing professional that can translate what you said to the public??
I've said this before on this platform. The Democrats do not know how to get a message out.
Chris Rock once said, "If the public only knew how rich some rich people are, there would be riots in the streets!"
Most people can't even relate to the tax avoidance measures utilized by wealthy individuals and corporations.
“stepped-up basis or carried interest loopholes"
Not every tax avoidance scheme can be easily explained to the average person, but even if a few were advertised in clear messages to educate the public on how we are all being 'ripped-off' by the elite, more people wouldn't be buying into the misrepresentations and myths used by the Republicans to create fear and justify not raising taxes and making the wealthy pay their "fair share".
That's where it should start. Make it clear, all average Americans would agree that everyone, including the very wealthy should be paying their "fair share"!
I wish you hadn't repeated the trope that it's ALL Dems. Many Dem lawmakers WANT to work for us. Currently, TWO have prevented this. There are others who work only for the wealthy, but more and more are trying to work for US.
Robert Reich wrote: "The biggest lesson from Tuesday’s election results is that too many people in America’s vast working middle class don’t believe Democrats are on their side. The best way of persuading them otherwise is to enact the social and economic package and infrastructure bill — and pay for it by taxing ultra-wealthy Americans who have never been wealthier yet don’t pay their fair share."
The reason that people don't believe that the Democratic Party is on their side is because they AREN'T. Or did you fail to notice the same, tired old neoliberal garbage Terry McAuliffe used to try and get elected (and fail) in Virginia?
The Democratic Party is controlled by Wall Street Democrats who don't CARE about what happens to the rest of the country, so long as their wealthy campaign donors (and their own stock portfolios) do well. People like Joe Manchin. People who hold millions of dollars in fossil fuel, pharmaceutical and armament stocks. People who have profited both politically and financially from the status quo of the "Washington Consensus". The same people whose poor policy and candidate choices gave us twenty years of losing state legislatures and governorships to the Republicans, the suppression of the candidacy of Bernie Sanders (in TWO presidential elections), the promotion of the candidacy of Donald Trump, and the systematic destruction of the American manufacturing base for profit.
And that is why the infrastructure bills will fail; not because of Progressives. The infrastructure bills will fail because too many Democrats in leadership positions WANT them to fail, and so will refuse to take the actions necessary to end the filibuster, enforce party discipline on Manchin, Sinema and friends, or pass legislation that isn't stuffed with privatization pork for wealthy campaign donors.
If you want to convince the American People that the Democrats are on their side? Then the Democratic Party needs to change enormously from where it is now, and has been since Clinton. There must be an end to the endless search for corporate cash and the endless quest to woo Republican voters at the expense of the party's base. And that is something that will never, ever happen while the current leadership controls the party. They have spent their entire careers showing that all they care about is wealthy campaign donors. They aren't going to change now. They don't want to.
The quiescent non- voters are the 18 to 35 year olds who must have noticed that only “families” have IMPORTANT political appeals for financial benefit through government .
The unavailability of housing for singles in mega cities is a big drag on career development and flexibility to choose new career opportunities . The burden of finding multiple room mates to pretend to be a “family” is a drag on the economy . They observe that their issue is not a “political “ issue “ , so why bother with politics ?
Well, this ought to be a little help: https://democrats.org/news/new-reports-president-bidens-build-back-better-framework-will-boost-the-economy-cut-deficits/. Moody's says that the Build Back Better package“ will strengthen long-term economic growth, the benefits of which would mostly accrue to lower- and middle-income Americans.” and “Real GDP growth would average 3.2% per annum during Biden’s term and 2.2% over the next decade, compared with less than 2.8% and 2.1% per annum if the legislation fails to become law.” At least McConnell will now have to show his card as either a fascist or an authoritarian. (Fascists believe in combining government and business; authoritarians leave business out.)
The swing against Democrats in Virginia was fairly uniform across geography — rural precincts, suburban precincts, urban precincts, Black precincts, white precincts, diverse precincts — and it was also visible in New Jersey. So the main causes are probably macro in nature rather than specific to Virginia.
It’s not really surprising that you’d see a broad swing against Democrats given that Joe Biden is dramatically less popular today than he was one year ago or even three months ago.
The MSM are - unsurprisingly - barking up the wrong tree again. In their hermetically sealed world they still think the cause of all the Democrat’s ills are “Racist insurrectionsries” or poor old Joe being “pulled too far left”. They aren’t coming to those ill-judged conclusions by themselves either, they are being fed this crap by “Democrat insiders” and the like.
I can’t see the Dems course correcting any time soon because the same clash between their stated aims as opposed to their donors requirements remains an immovable blockage, totally in contradiction with one another. It’s why their actions never match their words.
Once again all actions which would reinvigorate the Democratic Party but the premise is that a change in policy by the Dems would lead to a change in outcomes at the polls. The DNC continues to oppose candidates who primary incumbents irregardless of whether the incumbents behave like Manchin or just quietly take the corporate money. There is no incentive to bite the corporate money hand that feeds you. And so long as these incumbents win elections why should they not continue with this good thing. You can just blame the electorate. Even though a huge number of young people and disillusioned older voters don’t vote. The Republicans having noticed that the Dems are playing the corporate money game and are alienating their base are finding that they can turn this to their advantage by appealing to this base with false promises. Bernie was popular with precisely because he was doing exactly what you recommend.
So we can wait for the Republicans to wipe out the incumbent Democrats, wait for a younger version of Bernie to come along etc. and hope there is no Trump inspired rigging of the electoral system so that no Bernie type reformer can ever get elected or we can actually do something to put the fear of being thrown out of office front and center for incumbents.
The only way to do that is what Martin Luther King did, what the mobilization against the Vietnam War did, what the environmental movement in the early 1970s did, what the feminist movement of the late 1960s did.
Leaders on the left have to form a coalition to demand what was in the original BBB bill and mobilize the people to peacefully demonstrate for that in Washington. Pressure Congress. Make the on the take Democrats sweat out their future in Congress. Even upper middle class Dems who see nothing wrong with the incumbents will support electoral reforms that get the crooks out of office.
So rather than begging the incumbents let’s force them to answer to their angry constituents.
My Republican U.S. senator posted a video on Facebook of a witness testifying in a hearing that, if corporate taxes were raised, wages of their ordinary workers would have to be reduced, and therefore it would really be a tax on workers. His rationalization was that prices couldn't be raised to compensate because consumers then would not buy the product, and shareholder dividends couldn't be reduced just because, so the only option would be to cut wages(!). This is what we are dealing with. If Democrats finally pass Build Back Better, they can't just rest on their laurels and hope their great policies will sell themselves. They need to vigorously campaign on how the legislation will benefit ordinary Americans and make the wealthy contribute their fair share. We don't need the 2022 version of death panels.
The idea that the Dems only need to change the message to attract more votes is simple, logical and wrong. The other side already has their message and it is going down well. All those people madly cheering the Florida Gov's speech on "how we ain't gonna bring that critical race stuff to our schools" knew what they were cheering for. A large segment of our population is fully behind the Trump agenda, they don't want no vaccines and they will decide for themselves whether to stop for red lights. Good luck trying to change those minds.
Unfortunately the Dems don’t have a majority of three or four in the Senate, so they could absorb no votes from the Manchin, Sinema, etc. corporate Dems. Therefore, the five corporate and billionaire taxes you propose are probably dead on arrival.
We absorbed the Trump tax cuts on billionaires and corporations with no lasting benefit to working and middle class Americans. At least if the BBB and infrastructure bills pass, even without immediate means of paying for them, it will benefit those who need it. Some economists are saying that our economy can absorb that scenario because in the yers to come those benefits to the working classes will benefit the whole economy.
This is what they should do, but too many of the same sources of Manchin money fund the Dems. What needs to happen is for the whole party to stop talking about politicians and to start calling out the corporations, the rot at the center of it all. They need to stop pretending this is some political stance by the holdouts or the Republicans when it's a position bought and paid for, to be held by any person in that role. Direct the working class and disgruntled Democratic anger toward the real impediments to fairness and progress. However, doing so would pull back the veil on their own party as well, and it would force them to admit that they, too, are compromised. And sadly, I'm afraid there's 5 times more courage in the average roofer as is there is in the average Democratic politician.
So, yes, I absolutely agree that these are the policies we need, but unless we start having some uncomfortably honest discussions about why we don't already have them and what's really in the way, we will continue to spin our wheels before slamming it in reverse back toward fascism.
It seems to me that it is time for Progressives to break away from the Democratic Party. The corruption and corporate influence in the Democratic Party is too entrenched. It has disappointed us for years. We need a Party solidly built on Progressive principles.
I am looking for solutions to problems. Not interested in winning points or deriding the other side. Also, not interested in seeing democracy disappear. Not interested in separation of families. The reason we have so many challenges is because we don’t enact solutions we just fight over proper solutions to get re-elected. So Mr. Trump, where is our tremendous healthcare? Where is immigrstion law? Where is funding social security? Where is Medicare part D coverage or cost control? Where is infrastructure?
BTW check out the largest container shipping ports in the world, hint: not one in the US is even in the top 10. Wonder why we have supply chain issues?
As far as I can tell Joe Biden is attempting to address many of these issues but has a congress not used to solutions.
Well, the Democrats are noe doing a fine job of losing the suburban vote and unmotivating the Black and Hispanic votes. Yes, the media is imbecilic and allows GOP propaganda to flourish, but the listless approach of Democratic leadership to fight for voting rights, the inability of Democrats to create a viable strategy to fight culture wars, and the unwillingness of the White House to use the bully pulpit to raise awareness of their accomplishments to date is destroying the fragile Democratic coalition faster than the actions of the monstrous GOP. If Biden had a bit of courage, he'd fire Chris Wray, Ron Bloom (to allow a new Postmaster General to be appointed), and the hapless AG Garland (who is blissfully unaware of the dangers of applying judicial deliberation to a prosecutorial role). Maslow's hierarchy...people need to feel safe, and an imploding democracy needs to be addressed. Biden needs a dramatic reset to regain control of the narrative before the end of this year.
Robert you are brilliant. But to do any of this we’re going to have to get rid of the filibuster forthwith posthaste. NOW!! It WASN’T The Founding Fathers intent to require a supermajority to simply pass legislation through the Upper House. How’s that, right-wingers?
Another point. We must consider a John Robert Lewis Voting Rights AMENDMENT, and name it as such. And also refer to it specifically by name as opposed to ordinal number. As difficult as it’s been to pass a JRL Law, it’ll be MUCH more difficult to pass this as an amendment. And also, i believe, dilute in later court challenges. Like earlier voting rights law. i’ve been pondering this since about the time of the Great John Robert Lewis’ passing. Just some passing thoughts…
I think we also need to get some (new?) highly skilled professional PR people involved at a high level to figure out how we can make as strong a message about real things that the Republicans do about total falsehoods.
Would someone please hire Donny Deutsch or some comparable marketing professional that can translate what you said to the public??
I've said this before on this platform. The Democrats do not know how to get a message out.
Chris Rock once said, "If the public only knew how rich some rich people are, there would be riots in the streets!"
Most people can't even relate to the tax avoidance measures utilized by wealthy individuals and corporations.
“stepped-up basis or carried interest loopholes"
Not every tax avoidance scheme can be easily explained to the average person, but even if a few were advertised in clear messages to educate the public on how we are all being 'ripped-off' by the elite, more people wouldn't be buying into the misrepresentations and myths used by the Republicans to create fear and justify not raising taxes and making the wealthy pay their "fair share".
That's where it should start. Make it clear, all average Americans would agree that everyone, including the very wealthy should be paying their "fair share"!
I wish you hadn't repeated the trope that it's ALL Dems. Many Dem lawmakers WANT to work for us. Currently, TWO have prevented this. There are others who work only for the wealthy, but more and more are trying to work for US.
Robert Reich wrote: "The biggest lesson from Tuesday’s election results is that too many people in America’s vast working middle class don’t believe Democrats are on their side. The best way of persuading them otherwise is to enact the social and economic package and infrastructure bill — and pay for it by taxing ultra-wealthy Americans who have never been wealthier yet don’t pay their fair share."
The reason that people don't believe that the Democratic Party is on their side is because they AREN'T. Or did you fail to notice the same, tired old neoliberal garbage Terry McAuliffe used to try and get elected (and fail) in Virginia?
The Democratic Party is controlled by Wall Street Democrats who don't CARE about what happens to the rest of the country, so long as their wealthy campaign donors (and their own stock portfolios) do well. People like Joe Manchin. People who hold millions of dollars in fossil fuel, pharmaceutical and armament stocks. People who have profited both politically and financially from the status quo of the "Washington Consensus". The same people whose poor policy and candidate choices gave us twenty years of losing state legislatures and governorships to the Republicans, the suppression of the candidacy of Bernie Sanders (in TWO presidential elections), the promotion of the candidacy of Donald Trump, and the systematic destruction of the American manufacturing base for profit.
And that is why the infrastructure bills will fail; not because of Progressives. The infrastructure bills will fail because too many Democrats in leadership positions WANT them to fail, and so will refuse to take the actions necessary to end the filibuster, enforce party discipline on Manchin, Sinema and friends, or pass legislation that isn't stuffed with privatization pork for wealthy campaign donors.
If you want to convince the American People that the Democrats are on their side? Then the Democratic Party needs to change enormously from where it is now, and has been since Clinton. There must be an end to the endless search for corporate cash and the endless quest to woo Republican voters at the expense of the party's base. And that is something that will never, ever happen while the current leadership controls the party. They have spent their entire careers showing that all they care about is wealthy campaign donors. They aren't going to change now. They don't want to.
The quiescent non- voters are the 18 to 35 year olds who must have noticed that only “families” have IMPORTANT political appeals for financial benefit through government .
The unavailability of housing for singles in mega cities is a big drag on career development and flexibility to choose new career opportunities . The burden of finding multiple room mates to pretend to be a “family” is a drag on the economy . They observe that their issue is not a “political “ issue “ , so why bother with politics ?
Well, this ought to be a little help: https://democrats.org/news/new-reports-president-bidens-build-back-better-framework-will-boost-the-economy-cut-deficits/. Moody's says that the Build Back Better package“ will strengthen long-term economic growth, the benefits of which would mostly accrue to lower- and middle-income Americans.” and “Real GDP growth would average 3.2% per annum during Biden’s term and 2.2% over the next decade, compared with less than 2.8% and 2.1% per annum if the legislation fails to become law.” At least McConnell will now have to show his card as either a fascist or an authoritarian. (Fascists believe in combining government and business; authoritarians leave business out.)
The swing against Democrats in Virginia was fairly uniform across geography — rural precincts, suburban precincts, urban precincts, Black precincts, white precincts, diverse precincts — and it was also visible in New Jersey. So the main causes are probably macro in nature rather than specific to Virginia.
It’s not really surprising that you’d see a broad swing against Democrats given that Joe Biden is dramatically less popular today than he was one year ago or even three months ago.
The MSM are - unsurprisingly - barking up the wrong tree again. In their hermetically sealed world they still think the cause of all the Democrat’s ills are “Racist insurrectionsries” or poor old Joe being “pulled too far left”. They aren’t coming to those ill-judged conclusions by themselves either, they are being fed this crap by “Democrat insiders” and the like.
I can’t see the Dems course correcting any time soon because the same clash between their stated aims as opposed to their donors requirements remains an immovable blockage, totally in contradiction with one another. It’s why their actions never match their words.
Once again all actions which would reinvigorate the Democratic Party but the premise is that a change in policy by the Dems would lead to a change in outcomes at the polls. The DNC continues to oppose candidates who primary incumbents irregardless of whether the incumbents behave like Manchin or just quietly take the corporate money. There is no incentive to bite the corporate money hand that feeds you. And so long as these incumbents win elections why should they not continue with this good thing. You can just blame the electorate. Even though a huge number of young people and disillusioned older voters don’t vote. The Republicans having noticed that the Dems are playing the corporate money game and are alienating their base are finding that they can turn this to their advantage by appealing to this base with false promises. Bernie was popular with precisely because he was doing exactly what you recommend.
So we can wait for the Republicans to wipe out the incumbent Democrats, wait for a younger version of Bernie to come along etc. and hope there is no Trump inspired rigging of the electoral system so that no Bernie type reformer can ever get elected or we can actually do something to put the fear of being thrown out of office front and center for incumbents.
The only way to do that is what Martin Luther King did, what the mobilization against the Vietnam War did, what the environmental movement in the early 1970s did, what the feminist movement of the late 1960s did.
Leaders on the left have to form a coalition to demand what was in the original BBB bill and mobilize the people to peacefully demonstrate for that in Washington. Pressure Congress. Make the on the take Democrats sweat out their future in Congress. Even upper middle class Dems who see nothing wrong with the incumbents will support electoral reforms that get the crooks out of office.
So rather than begging the incumbents let’s force them to answer to their angry constituents.
My Republican U.S. senator posted a video on Facebook of a witness testifying in a hearing that, if corporate taxes were raised, wages of their ordinary workers would have to be reduced, and therefore it would really be a tax on workers. His rationalization was that prices couldn't be raised to compensate because consumers then would not buy the product, and shareholder dividends couldn't be reduced just because, so the only option would be to cut wages(!). This is what we are dealing with. If Democrats finally pass Build Back Better, they can't just rest on their laurels and hope their great policies will sell themselves. They need to vigorously campaign on how the legislation will benefit ordinary Americans and make the wealthy contribute their fair share. We don't need the 2022 version of death panels.
The idea that the Dems only need to change the message to attract more votes is simple, logical and wrong. The other side already has their message and it is going down well. All those people madly cheering the Florida Gov's speech on "how we ain't gonna bring that critical race stuff to our schools" knew what they were cheering for. A large segment of our population is fully behind the Trump agenda, they don't want no vaccines and they will decide for themselves whether to stop for red lights. Good luck trying to change those minds.
Unfortunately the Dems don’t have a majority of three or four in the Senate, so they could absorb no votes from the Manchin, Sinema, etc. corporate Dems. Therefore, the five corporate and billionaire taxes you propose are probably dead on arrival.
We absorbed the Trump tax cuts on billionaires and corporations with no lasting benefit to working and middle class Americans. At least if the BBB and infrastructure bills pass, even without immediate means of paying for them, it will benefit those who need it. Some economists are saying that our economy can absorb that scenario because in the yers to come those benefits to the working classes will benefit the whole economy.