Steve Hochstadt: In 2011, the Republican strategy has been crowned with total success. They have managed to make the US government into a laughing stock, a global symbol of incompetence. Public confidence in government is at an all-time low.
Democrats Must Push Back
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Norman Solomon: Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in the vital lessons of the New Deal. Many millions of good jobs must be created — and that will require well-funded federal jobs programs on a large scale.
The Perils for Obama of Not Talking About Poverty in America
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Joseph Palermo: By not speaking about the poor and poverty in America President Obama allows the Reagan era “welfare queen” construct to go unchallenged and, even worse, creates a vacuum that’s already being filled by right-wing pseudo-scholars.
In the Debt Ceiling Machinations Democracy Is Also Up for Grabs
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Carl Bloice: If the people who set the Tea Party in motion and sustain it want a mandatory “balanced budget” there is a democratic way of going about getting one; introduce specific legislation. They wouldn’t take that route.
The Debt-Ceiling Deal Disaster
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Brent Budowsky: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) could not deliver enough Republican votes. He was some 40 votes short. At the very moment when Democrats had leverage, they still caved and asked for and received nothing in return.
To Rebuild the American Dream, Put Pressure On Democrats
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Randy Shaw: A progressive coalition that claims to be “Bigger than the Tea Party” must hold Democrats accountable as effectively as conservatives do for Republicans .
Cain Turns History Upside Down
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Berry Craig: Herman Cain says liberal Democrats have foisted “economic slavery” on African Americans and the rest of the body politic just as conservative, white supremacist Democrats of old fastened shackles on his forbears.
Won’t You Come Home, Jim Crow?
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Tom Degan: The Republican party is at this very moment mounting a campaign that, if successful, will disenfranchise the voting rights of African Americans – and everyone else who tends to vote left-of-center – all across America. Isn’t that sweet?
Democracy Is Messy
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Ted Vaill: Every Member of Congress who voted against increasing the debt ceiling should be targeted for defeat in the 2012 election. If that is not successful in changing the makeup of Congress after 2012, I may follow the lead of my ancestor Pelatiah Everett, and begin a new revolution.
Democrats Score More Victories in Wisconsin Recalls
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Paul Hogarth: Republicans are so concerned about what will happen on August 9th – when six GOP state senators are subject to recall – that they have gone full speed ahead to pass a hyper-partisan gerrymandered map, while they still control the legislature.
As Harry Reid Battles, Democrats Must Not Surrender
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Brent Budowsky: When the full truth is told about the secret deals that will define the fiscal future of America and the fate of programs at the heart of the Democratic Party heritage, it will be clear that Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is the most important leader in Washington carrying the torch, against great odds, for what true Democrats stand for.
Liberals Need to Stop Making Excuses
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Bernard A. Weisberger: The current situation is evidence of the crashing failure of liberal America to stand up for its forgotten principles of some sixty years ago, and its decision to chain itself to a Democratic Party now under the leadership of “centrists” or “moderates” who in fact occupy the terrain once held by the vanished race of liberal Republicans.
Cut the Crap and Create Jobs
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Brent Budowsky: While the Republican Party at the national and state level is doing everything it can to destroy jobs, the Democratic Party is failing to fight for jobs with the intensity that Democrats have historically done.
July 4 Infamy: Republicans Try to Destroy America’s Economy
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Brent Budowsky: On this July 4 the Republican Party is divided between the hope America fails Republicans, who appear to actively want joblessness to rise to seek political gain, and the radical Republicans who adore Ayn Rand.
Help Fight the Right ‘s Attack on LAANE
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Madeline Janis: The attack against LAANE is consistent with the broader effort by the right to cripple progressive causes and leaders. And as the recent assault on Planned Parenthood reminds us, they are willing to do almost anything to achieve their aim.
A Call to Arms for Wealthy Progressives
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Brent Budowsky: It is time to say we will not let America go, and fall under the one-party state domination of a right-wing extremism that uses words like “liberty” in the service dark visions that would make our Founding Fathers cringe with horror.
The Swamp of Washington and the Morass of the Economy
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Robert Reich: If the Democrats remain silent, the vacuum will be filled by the Republican snake oil of federal spending cuts and cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.
Republicans Keep Flunking on Union Issues, but Trumka Puts Democrats on Notice, Too
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Berry Craig: Many union members were deeply disappointed when Congress failed to do more to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Unions wanted more health care reform than Congress delivered, too.
Jim Crow, Yankee Republican Style
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Berry Craig: With Wisconsin Governor Walker’s blessing, Republican lawmakers are ramming home a bill that requires voters to show photo ID at the polls. Of course, the idea is to decrease the Democratic vote.
Not American Enough? This Political Slur Has a Long History
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Rosemarie Ostler: Obama’s critics have found a variety of ways to portray him as exotic and un-American. But this is nothing new. For two centuries politicians have been labeling their opponents as not quite American enough.
Everybody Blinked
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Anthony Samad: We certainly saw Congress’ version of “stupid” last week when they threatened (and are still threatening) to shut down the federal government. The danger of politics is that it is open to disingenuous interjection where it ends up becoming more foolish banter than courageous engagement.
What Is a Republican? — Part 2
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Ted Vaill: The ultimate Republican strategy for the 2012 election is this: they know that they will lose if the economy continues to improve and unemployment figures drop substantially.
Women Will Decide 2012
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Brent Budowsky: Republicans face the real possibility that 2012 will bring them not a gender gap, but a gender deluge.
Rewriting the Social Contract; Making Everybody Hurt
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Carl Bloice: I’m just intrigued these days by how much the people who have a lot have become the most insistent that those below them on the social ladder bear the brunt of paying for capitalism’s current crisis.
Marcy Winograd and the Open Primary
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Nyabingi Kuti: The growing LA progressive movement began lobbying Marcy Winograd to jump in. Winograd, a teacher at Crenshaw High, has twice caused Harman concern with her strong challenges to the seat.
Dems Need a Liberal Reagan
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Brent Bukowsky: Democrats desperately need a progressive version of Ronald Reagan, who stood for his own high principles and battled from the wilderness of 1976 to the presidency in 1980.
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It’ll Be an All-Cuts Budget “Deal” (Just Like California)
Joseph Palermo: The debt ceiling gambit that Republicans in the House of Representatives have used to tie the U.S. government in knots in recent months is simply the California GOP’s tactic writ large.