iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app More

Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors
Robert Reich

GET UPDATES FROM Robert Reich
 

The Real Battle in 2012 and Beyond (Video)

Posted: 07/11/2012 3:13 pm


It's not merely Republicans versus Democrats, or conservatives versus liberals. The larger battle is between regressives and progressives.

Regressives want to take this nation backward -- to before Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Medicare; before civil rights and voting rights; before regulations designed to protect the environment, workers, consumers, and investors. They want to sabotage much of what this nation has achieved over the last century. And they're out to do it by making the rich far richer, turning Americans against one another in competition for a smaller and smaller slice of the pie, substituting private morality for public morality, and opening the floodgates to big money in politics.

Progressives are determined to take this nation forward -- toward equal opportunity, tolerance and openness, adequate protection against corporate and Wall Street abuses, and an economy and democracy that are working for all of us.

The upcoming election is critical but it's not the end of this contest. It will go on for years. It will require that you understand what's at stake. And that you energize, mobilize, and organize others.

Please take a look at the accompanying video -- and share it.

ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

 

Follow Robert Reich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RBReich

FOLLOW POLITICS
It's not merely Republicans versus Democrats, or conservatives versus liberals. The larger battle is between regressives and progressives. Regressives want to take this nation backward -- to befor...
It's not merely Republicans versus Democrats, or conservatives versus liberals. The larger battle is between regressives and progressives. Regressives want to take this nation backward -- to befor...
 
 
  • Comments
  • 898
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Favorites
Highlights
Bloggers
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2 3 4 5  Next ›  Last »  (11 total)
03:55 PM on 07/20/2012
The ridiculous comments on this thread betray something disturbing: regressives are actually hell-bent on calling this brilliant author above names with no evidence or facts to back up their nonsense.

It is unbelievable.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PlacidLife
08:20 PM on 07/13/2012
If America is not about all for the common good, then its a failed dream. We'll all fall under the yoke of a old and new tyranny.
11:47 AM on 07/13/2012
I wish they would split the U.S, One side for Obama and the other for Romney. I know what side I'd live.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
gerald4
licensed mechanical and electrical engineer
11:36 AM on 07/13/2012
Dr. Reich:

Do you believe that the USA should adopt the progressive/socialist/communist form of big government like Russia where everybody has (had) a job working for the government, the government owns everything, and the government collects everything that the people produce and then some politically appointed family connected government elite bureaucrat doles out the food, shelter, and clothing required to sustain our lives according to the bureaucrat’s whim or desire?

Isn't it really a question of a big government taking care of everybody, or small government where people are required to take care of themselves?

Most of the individuals in any future communist nation would want to work at something other than producing the basic food, shelter, clothing and other products required to sustain life.

The producers would strive to become members the a non-producing greedy government elite bureaucrat society, demanding and wanting the disgruntled producers to produce more and more so that privileged individuals of the government elite bureaucratic society class can keep themselves busy as musicians, poets, actors, social workers, philosophers, historians, politicians, bureaucrats, administrators, police, firemen, judges, military, school teachers, anthropologists, archeologists, and other endeavors that do not create any of the food, shelter and clothing necessary for maintaining the lives of the population.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
gerald4
licensed mechanical and electrical engineer
12:14 PM on 07/13/2012
The non-producing members of the government elite bureaucratic society will then let, require, and/or force those that the elite have deemed to be lower class to work harder and produce more and more of the food, shelter, and clothing required to sustain the lives of all of the people including the elite class of bureaucratic government employees.

Under the communist system, some citizens (the non-producing greedy elite family connected government bureaucrats) are "MORE EQUAL" than other citizens (the lower class citizens that make the things that the elite government bureaucrats (and the producers) consume!

US citizens would then have traded businessmen, industrialists and Wall Street financial wizards who now control the conditions and terms of their employment (or servitude) for an elite class of family connected (almost royal) government bureaucratic employees who will be controlling our employment (or our conditions of servitude), and they would then dole out our share of the necessities of life to each of us according to our needs, not according to the amount that he/she produced!
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
WeAreSoDoomed
...but pretending otherwise
03:16 PM on 07/13/2012
Because you say "progressive/socialist/communist " to describe Democrats/Liberals automatically means your ill informed, biased & probably not worth reading.

BUT, then I do read it to find you are actually a comedian...What a Hoot!
11:23 AM on 07/13/2012
What Reich calls " progressives" are mostly just big government, command and control people. Free enterprise creates the wealth, and distributes it according to merit -i.e. those who contribute the most receive the most. It is the fairest system of life and production ever devised. Then after free enterprise has created wealth, the big government command control types come along to appropriate it to themselves and give it out to those they think should have it. When they find what they call a problem, they immediately call for more power and wealth for themselves, so that they can "fix" it ( by giving public money away). They never look for the free enterprise solution, and always seek to demonize those that do.
photo
ProgressivePartisan
Retired CWA/USMC vet
11:23 AM on 07/13/2012
HURRAH!
photo
Si1ver1ock
the bread of wickedness, the wine of violence
10:57 AM on 07/13/2012
He hits some important themes...well most of them. People are finally beginning to call it what it is... sabotage. As Jon Stewart said, They break $hit then complain that is is broken and Obama hasn't fixed it.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
OHexpat12
09:32 AM on 07/13/2012
Well done, Prof. Reich. This doesn't encourage me to participate in this false election process,but leaves me more committed to the occupation of the nation.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
09:14 AM on 07/13/2012
Well Proggys - are we all registered, at least ?

Occupy the Voting Booth

Just once i'd like to call the Dems on their bluff, and hand them an excuse-proof controlling majority. I suspect that's their worst nightmare.
12:09 PM on 07/13/2012
In 2009 it was America's worst nightmare.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
David Durham
Just a guy who tries to stay informed and stand fo
09:04 AM on 07/13/2012
I agree with Mr. Reich here, but one thing he doesn't cover is the fact that currently the Democratic Party is, and has been, marginalizing its Progressive wing. One of the worst aspects of Citizens United is that in order to compete in fundraising all politicians will have to tap corporate funding and avail themselves of SuperPac money. The real danger here is that all politicians will get used to this new dynamic, as if we didn't have enough problems in campaign financing before CU, and so will the country thereby making all this new terrible stuff just 'business as usual'. And it's Progressive candidates who will suffer the most. See, Progressives don't like to take corporate campaign contributions. In this they are almost alone. They would rather be beholden to voters instead of big contributors. This is why they've been marginalized. They are a pain in the butt for bought politicians to deal with because they irritatingly care about the poor, the working class and the middle class more than they care about corporate profits. And Citizens United may well kill Progressives because now the only way to compete is to sell out.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cabinetmaniac
Think for yourself. Question authority.
10:14 AM on 07/13/2012
The money has almost always been on the other side.

photo
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Valerie Keefe
08:54 AM on 07/13/2012
It's not a bad analysis, but two things: Reich describes the right as devious when really, they're openly disingenuous from week to week.

And secondly, since when was every person with a uterus cis? And since when was that the only reproductive right to be exercised? This stuff continues to bug me about much of the organized left. Reproductive rights woulda killed ya to say?
abetterplace
Capitalistic reverand
03:57 AM on 07/13/2012
The real battle is between those that must work to earn their living and those that want to sit on their butts and receive a gvt check every month while doing nothing.
08:08 AM on 07/13/2012
Who are these people? Where are your numbers? Just b/c it makes you feel good to believe this type of juvenile nonsense, doen't make it so....but keep believing it. The country won't improve, but you'll sleep well at night.
08:12 AM on 07/13/2012
I work my but off to earn my living. One of my co-workers, who has a disabled wife, had his electricity turned off this week. Please tell me where I can go to get this mythical "gvt check" that conservatives are always lying about.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jerry Bourbon
12:58 AM on 07/13/2012
Regressive public employee unions versus the taxpaying American citizens.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Archimedes Guass
04:15 AM on 07/13/2012
There you go-a living,breathing example of historical ignorance. Clearly,you don't consider working people to be taxpayers or you wouldn't have made that comment. You also clearly desire a return to the legalized slavery that existed in this country before unions.

It's amazing. Republicans love to badmouth China-but the truth is,they're jealous they can't have it that way here for anyone who can't pay thier admission fee into voting-i.e. the top 2 percent.

It's disgustingly hypocritical. They don't give a damn about this country. Just thier own pockets.
08:12 AM on 07/13/2012
Union workers, on average, are better paid - you know, because they are part of a union. Therefore, they pay more actual tax dollars than their non-union counterparts. Also, I don't believe you must surrender your citizenship when you pick up your union card.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
Lorem Ipsum
• • •
12:38 AM on 07/13/2012
Isn't his point that the party labels are no longer accurate? Aren't there progressives in each party, and regressives as well?

Forward, Robert.
06:59 AM on 07/13/2012
False quivalence. Again.
photo
novelist2000
veritas non olet
12:27 AM on 07/13/2012
Let me put the cat amongst the pigeons. It seems to me that the idea of a 'grand coalition' has fallen by the wayside. The idea of a grand coalition is, that when a country is facing severe difficulties, the two main forces unite to pull the cart from the mud. Maybe America's difficulties are less severe than they appear to this voyeur thousands of miles away. I have never been there and will, in all likelihood, never get to visit, either.

When problems need solving it is not providing solutions to keep barking at the other guy. You only get there if you unite, guaranteed.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cabinetmaniac
Think for yourself. Question authority.
10:22 AM on 07/13/2012
The regressives don't want to solve the problems.

They are the proximate cause of most of them.