It is time that we reflect as a nation and as individuals on this extraordinary time in our history and search for a direction to a better future for our country. The choice is clear, and it is ours. We cannot continue down this dead end road to economic ruin that is bringing pain and suffering to millions of hard-working Americans, while providing little to no hope of a better future for our children and their children.
We now understand fully -- thanks in part to the tireless work of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren -- that the game is rigged and our government and public servants have been bought off by just a few hundred greedy, craven, self-serving millionaires and billionaires.
Legislation that favors only them is pushed daily by their army of lobbyists, who write bills that their lackeys in the GOP-controlled Congress pass, often with the help of tepid, complicit "Democrats."
Our democracy is teetering on the verge of collapse, and we are quickly becoming the oligarchy Bernie Sanders continues to warn us about. We have now had six months of the Conservative Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, and what we have seen is an abject failure of this party to either lead or function for the common good.
They refuse to pass any law that will help improve the lives of those hard-working Americans, like raising our disgraceful federal minimum wage of $7.25 to a living wage of at least $15.00 an hour, while boosting our economy and helping more people get back to work. The voice of the People on this issue alone has resonated nationally and pushed a few corporations to step up and raise their employees' wages, along with cities like Seattle and San Francisco, with New York on the verge.
The Fast Food movement -- with help from unions like SEIU -- has done an incredible job in bringing this issue front and center, not only for the fast food industry but for low-wage earners in other industries as well. This is just one solution that would have an immediate and powerful impact on the economy and the lives of so many and their families. Yet Congress continues to stand in the way of progress on this issue.
Hillary has said she supports a wage increase, and now says she supports a raise to $12 an hour, which is inadequate. She has begun veering a bit to the left on several issues, thanks in no small part to Bernie and Elizabeth, but she isn't breaking any new ground with creative ideas of her own that would make more of us say her time has indeed come to become the next President of the United States. Instead, she has only offered sound bites here and there, with few details on how she plans to address any of the challenges facing our nation.
She is still too controlled and handled, and remains fearful of offending her big money donors and her former boss, President Obama, and his administration. She has yet to show the necessary fire in her belly to become the champion she has said our country needs. She also lacks the golden tongue of her hubby Bill, who could charm a rattlesnake.
Hillary is, after all, a part of the Democratic establishment and a member of the 1 percent, and is counting on the support and fundraising apparatus of the party -- along with her big contributors on Wall Street -- to carry her to the White House. Of course, she will also need the Democratic base to support her, including African-Americans, Latinos, women and labor, but she must come up with a platform that speaks to them. Instead, there is much that she isn't talking about, like climate change, and the fossil fuels contributing to it.
How can she, with her close ties to "energy"-loving Wall Street and those Super PAC's fueling her campaign? Indeed, from her perch in the State Department, she promoted fracking in countries like Bulgaria and Poland, while providing them with "experts" from the oil and gas industry to sell this polluting method of oil and gas drilling to the governments of these and other countries.
Hillary has just been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers, which is a wrong-headed decision by this union. Will Hillary support rebuilding and funding public schools and finally come out and condemn those increasing giveaways of public funds to charter schools and their supporters on Wall Street? I am doubtful. On the recent decision by the Supreme Court confirming that Obamacare is the law of the land, Hillary noted that "(i)nsurance companies can no longer discriminate against people with preexisting conditions..." but they can certainly be denied healthcare if they can't afford it.
The question is, are all of the other warts of the ACA acceptable to Hillary? She must find the courage to say that while it has brought healthcare to 17 million, it remains too expensive for most of those who use it, while still cutting out over 31 million Americans. The ACA is little more than a stopgap that ultimately must be replaced by Expanded and Improved Medicare For All through the passage of H.R.676. 620 union organizations have now endorsed this bill, written and introduced by Representative John Conyers (D-MI). Bernie Sanders also announced during the recent 50th Anniversary celebration of Medicare and Medicaid on Capitol Hill that he would soon introduce legislation for Improved and Expanded Medicare For All.
Members of Congress need to be pushed by their constituents to step up and work towards this imperative. Several states have completed economic studies on the viability of going to a single payer program, all thanks to activist and academic Gerald Friedman, Chair of the Economics Department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, who has crafted detailed analyses on this issue. Over $400 billion dollars could be saved in the first year alone by implementing H.R.676 on a national level, ending deductibles, co-insurance, co-pays and other wasteful expenses imposed by private insurers, all of which are soaring by the year. Serious debate on this issue in Congress and in the next administration is desperately needed, with televised hearings and debates in front of the American people, as no other issue so affects each and every one of us. Of course, the GOP's recommendation would be to completely privatize healthcare, and they will not stop trying to end Obamacare, regardless of the Supreme Court's decisions. Would single payer ever happen if Hillary - or one of the GOP candidates - becomes our President? We know the answer to that one.
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate among the over twenty running for the White House who is a strong advocate for a healthcare program delivered by a single payer. It is right there in his 12-point Agenda for America. Hey, we already have the blueprint for such a program with Medicare, which covers 46 million seniors and 9 million disabled Americans. Ten thousand Americans per day are enrolling in Medicare. Also coming up is the 80th anniversary of Social Security.
These two programs are our crowning achievements as a humane, caring nation that functions for the benefit of its citizens, yet the GOP continues to plot to destroy these treasured and beloved programs that have kept millions of Americans in good health and out of poverty for generations. Fortunately, there has also grown a movement to expand Social Security benefits, which would help to pump up the U.S. economy while aiding its 48 million seniors. The average Social Security payout is now around $1,300 per month, which is way too little in terms of what seniors need and spend on healthcare and prescription drugs, not to mention basic cost of living expenses.
There have been a few achievements that our President can take credit for as of late, like rekindling diplomatic relations with Cuba and re-opening embassies in both countries. Lifting the embargo on Cuba must soon follow. Another positive step is the deal that will curtail Iran's ability to make nuclear weapons and lift the crippling sanctions against that country. Of course, the war hawks are already screeching about this agreement, and Congress will have sixty days to review all of the details before any signing of this agreement takes place.
Diplomacy must always be the road more traveled, and the hawks in Congress -- on both sides of the aisle -- must be kept in check and not allowed to lead us into more endless wars abroad. More good news came in the form of another Supreme Court recent decision that makes marriage equality the law of the land, a great development and example of where we as a nation have progressed. Many in the GOP are stewing in their juices over that one, with some twisting themselves into legal knots trying to figure out how to defy the Supremes' ruling.
Unfortunately, the administration won its "Fast Track" battle on the TPP trade deal. So much hard work has been put into efforts to stop this terrible deal, which will cede yet more power and control to corporations, hitting consumers on every level imaginable. Even though this battle went the wrong way, the war is not over yet, as the administration hopes to pass the overall deal by the end of the year, so Americans will continue to take it to the powerful and fight on to stop final passage of this bill. Let us not forget that this odious deal would not have passed with out the help of 28 "Democrats" in the House and 13 in the Senate. Every one of these Republicrats that are up for re-election in 2016 should be targeted for unemployment.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is one of the bums who voted for Fast Track, and she also recently called Bernie Sanders an "extremist" and "unrealistic" Shame on her for attacking a fellow Democrat! These are difficult times that call for bold, imaginative actions if we are to save our country.
Bernie is a no-nonsense visionary who is carrying truth and solutions across the country, which is one reason for his increasing popularity. He is the real deal. This guy is fearless and has no problem displaying his outrage and disgust with a government on the take and shafting the country at every turn. His is a strictly people-powered movement of small donors seeking to take back our country, and he is certainly giving Hillary and her campaign conniptions. His message of inclusiveness is appealing to a broad spectrum of people that reaches beyond Progressives, raising over $15 million from over 400,000 supporters -- a larger grassroots response than any other campaign. Honestly, how grassroots powered can these other campaigns be with their corporate and Super PAC donors? Hillary has hauled in $47 million so far, and you can bet most of those donations aren't coming from the 99 percent.
Meanwhile, the GOP continues its decline as the party ruled by rich old white guys, gun nuts and religious fanatics. Of course, we could use a few more political parties and a campaigning season that only last six weeks, like the elections this past May in the U.K. We could learn something from that model, but, of course, our politics is big business and makes too much money for the media, pundits, consultants and thousands of other members of the "politirati" making money off of the misery of our country to be regulated in such a manner.
Another victory for decency was the State House in South Carolina taking down the Confederate battle flag to honor the nine murdered at the Mother Emanuel AME Church by a terrorist hoping to start a race war. This vulgar symbol of racism and oppression is now gathering dust in a museum where it belongs. The plague of gun violence afflicting our nation must be stopped. Just the other day, at a recruitment center in Chattanooga, five military personal were murdered by another terrorist with too-easy access to guns. We are unsafe anywhere, whether in a movie house in Colorado or Louisiana, or in a bible study class in South Carolina, or in a grade school in Connecticut...on and on it goes. And let us not forget the scourge of police targeting African-Americans for harassment and, yes, murder, which must also be addressed. The DOJ has to up its game plan on a national level on these issues.
As the presidential campaigns begin to move into higher gear with a little less than a year and a half to go, one must ask how the campaigns will be able to engage the People and build and maintain interest -- without resorting to hysteria-induced hyperbole? Certainly some serious, thoughtful content would help. So far, the scads of GOP contenders out there are doing little more than parrot the usual party messages. Apparently they are going to have to rely on the voter-intimidation laws that their state-level counterparts have passed in several states to discourage voter participation.
Last week in Congress we heard that Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), a Presidential hopeful and doctor, threatened to filibuster a bill for highway funding if it does not include a provision to completely defund Planned Parenthood, continuing the right wing's ongoing war against women and their right to make decisions about their own health. And in a recent email from the DCCC I heard that the extreme right wing will shut down the government unless Planned Parenthood funding is eliminated. Catering to a base of religious extremists and anti-abortionists who have threatened for years to destroy Planned Parenthood, a major women's advocacy organization and provider of health services for low-income women.
And just last week the Republican "leadership" pulled a bill from the floor of Congress that would have provided research money for breast cancer because of pressure from anti-abortion activists, although a revised bill was eventually passed.
But the Clown in Chief among all presidential candidates has to be Donald The Trump, who is rattling the Republican field and giving the GOP establishment fits. In only a few weeks he has managed to outrage the entire Hispanic community with his stupid comments about Mexican immigrants being criminals, drug dealers and rapists. Apparently that was not enough for him, since he then went on to flagrantly insult John McCain's service to our country in Vietnam.
Senator McCain's service record is one of extraordinary bravery and commitment -- while Trump was dodging the draft with rich-boy tricks. McCain flew on 23 combat missions before he was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese, spending the next five years in the "Hanoi Hilton" undergoing five years of cruel and inhuman torture he has rarely spoken about publicly. He can't lift his arms over his head and needs help putting on his jacket. A committed public servant his entire life, even if we don't always agree with his politics as a member of the GOP. Regardless, he is a better man -- and a better human being -- than Trump could ever even aspire to be.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders has recently been to Maine, Texas, Wisconsin and Kansas City, where he rocked La Raza at its gathering of members of 400 Latino communities across the country. The Democratic candidates showed up but not one Republican candidate for President thought this important enough to make an appearance.
Earlier this month Bernie and Elizabeth Warren appeared at Netroots Nation in Phoenix, bringing the house down while touting their respective legislative proposals to rein in the out-of-control financial industry, including Senator Warren's 21st Century Glass-Steagall bill and Bernie's bill to break up the mega-banks, because "if they are to big to fail, they are too big to exist."
Warren may have delivered the speech of her political career in Phoenix, declaring that "America is progressive" and "our day is coming" to resounding cheers from the crowd. She also challenged the Presidential candidates to reduce Wall Street influence in government, noting that "(W)e are a country of laborers and progressive values." She repeated this message in recent emails to her supporters, saying we need "to fight back and that we need leadership that is willing to fight for the country, leadership that is willing to make working people a first priority, leadership that recognizes the importance of major, structural change on everything from Wall Street regulation, to tax policy, to education to trade...(w)e need leaders to show they understand the urgency of the moment, leaders to show some backbone and ambition...(w)e get what we fight for - so let's get out and fight."
Another favorite Warren target is the revolving door on Capitol Hill, and she wants the People to press the candidates to say that "they agree we don't run the country for Wall Street, we run it for people." It should be noted that the Obama administration has done little to close that revolving door. What a team she and Bernie Sanders would make as President and V.P. A retired school teacher and new friend in Kansas named James Michael Pryor had the same idea, and went into debt to build a website pushing that view. Mike is considering going back to teaching so he can take it easy, as he now also has a blog radio call-in program on Sundays devoted to Bernie - working harder than ever but loving every minute of it. Now that is commitment.
On July 16, an AP article appeared in the New York Daily News that should give the Clinton campaign a cause for deep concern. The article noted that her "...standing is falling among Democrats..." and "...voters view her as less decisive and inspiring than when she launched her presidential campaign just three months ago, according to a new AP-GFK poll." The article goes on to say that "(J)ust 39 % of all Americans have a favorable view of Clinton, compared with nearly half who have a negative opinion of her...an eight point increase in her unfavorable rating from an AP-GFK poll conducted the end of April" and "(S)even in 10 Democrats gave Clinton positive marks, an 11 point drop from the April survey...(N)early a quarter of Democrats now say they see Clinton in an unfavorable light." Wow. Of course, these polls are to be taken with a grain of salt and will take a roller coaster ride between now and Election Day, but these statements are serious.
Could it be that Bernie is sending that "Bern" across the country, and people are coming on board his "political revolution?" In his latest and second lengthy letter to supporters, now numbering 500,000 Bernie presses his consistent messages, but added one important new item: "Down the road we have to go to public funding of campaigns." I couldn't agree more, since public funding would help to put in check the wild spending spree by the 1 percent that has come about since the Supreme Court's Citizens United and Mc Cutcheon decisions. Of course, we need the real leaders in Congress who'll have the backbone and ethics to implement such a far-reaching act.
Perhaps we need a farm system comparable to the ones run by Major League Baseball, grooming and identifying the next generation of Progressive legislators. Elizabeth said it at Netroots Nation: "We are a nation of Progressives." Recent emails from the DCCC are actually taking pride and touting Elizabeth Warren and her views as Democratic Party views. Clearly they see a winner in Elizabeth and winning politics in her positions, and are coming on board. That a few Progressives can shift a party's direction is astounding. But it has always been a myth in my opinion that we are a "centrist" nation. As a nation of working people, how could we be anything but populist progressives on economic matters that affect the daily lives of so many millions?
It is beginning to get interesting, but can we maintain that interest for the many months ahead until Election Day 2016? And let us not overlook that the GOP will be defending 24 Senate seats to only 10 for Democrats this cycle. With the August recess in Congress, it would be a good time for us as constituents to have a heart to heart with our Representative and Senator in their home offices, question them on their views on the multitude of issues facing our nation, and demand they clearly state where they stand and what they will stand up for on each. And let's remember to take that information into the voting booth in 2016, because when Democrats show up and vote, we win.
- with Jonathan Stone