Arianna appeared on Tavis Smiley's highly anticipated forum "America's Next Chapter" to discuss our country's future with fellow thought leaders Cornel West, David Brody, and others.
When asked by Smiley to juxtapose premise of her book, Third World America, with our nation's potential for greatness, she discussed her own experiences coming to this country in contrast to the situation many Americans face today.
"As an immigrant to this country...I'm acutely aware of how we're losing the American Dream, because I lived it. And now the idea of upward mobility has become really impossible for millions of Americans," she said. "The middle class is at the heart of any First World country. If we lose our middle class, as we're in danger of doing right now, we do become Third World America."
She continued with some jarring statistics about the state of the nation, including the fact that 100 million Americans are worse off today than parents were and that we rank tenth in upward mobility after many European countries.
"To be behind France in upward mobility would be as if France were behind us in croissants and afternoon sex," she said.
But Arianna believes there's hope for us yet. "Ultimately, I believe in this incredible American character, this incredible American compassion that we see expressed all around the country in our small communities," she said. "We just need to scale it, accelerate it, and make it part of our everyday lives."
Check out forum highlights below.
WATCH:
I would really encourage my left friends to use talking/action points such as - restore rule of law, restore civil liberties (including and especially 4th amendment protections), and establish public campaign finance only. We know what needs to be done... be specific about solutions. Cornell does it best... common sense need not be equivocated.
The tea party is nothing more than the rightward fringe of the Republican party. Too many on the panel defended it as if it were some independent movement, outside the GOP.
It's not. It's the Republican party's most conservative edge. Progressives should never forget that, nor should they ever play along with the media's embrace of the con.
Why did the media play along? Because it makes it far easier to side openly with the GOP and conservative politics without sounding unduly "partisan" or biased. It allows Fox to hold actual rallies for the GOP while still maintaining, at least with the naive and the misinformed, the pretense that it is not completely in the tank for one of the two parties.
I was also disappointed in hearing your contention that this or that policy idea wasn't left or right. Actually, political ideologies do exist, and there is real difference between the thinking on the left and the right. When we try to ignore those differences we actually make it easier for the right to control the narrative. We should be willing to support our advocacy of policy without hesitation or demurral. We should be willing to point to differences proudly, and stop apologizing for having better ideas.
Her basic humane no nonsense pragmatic comments were all precisely spot on.
Particularly about what we should be obligated to provide for all children and not just symbolic existential hand wringing.
The American Dream!!!!!!
Be sure and teach that to the little ones, because nothing short of gold digging or a great crime will get you into the American Dream today.
I am re-reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History' and I am realizing that politics has never been civil in this country and that the founding fathers were that era's oligarchs, so it seems to me that our entire system governing system and philosophy needs to be corrected.
The left, basically, to one degree or another, believes in more egalitarian outcomes and society. The right believes in "you're on your own." They don't care about equality.
So when they complain about the TARP program, it's not because of inequality in America. It's because they just don't think government should intervene in business.
When the left is critical of the TARP program, it's because we don't want the money going to fat cats, wanting, instead, to alleviate inequality and help the poor and the working class.
The right is overwhelmingly pro-business.
The left is overwhelmingly pro-worker.
The right doesn't want business to have to foot the bill to clean the environment.
The left does.
The right is all about "buyer beware."
The left want consumer protection with real teeth.
The left wants Single Payer health care for all.
The right thought even modest health care reforms amounted to "tyranny."
The differences are actually legion, and I don't think they should be ignored. From taxes to wars to education and the environment, from health care to economic equality to civil rights and human rights, we have vastly different viewpoints and visions. That's just the way it is.
Why run from that?