We don't need a national discourse on poverty but a shift in attention away from disadvantage toward an examination of the concentrated advantages provided to those already flourishing in our society. It then becomes clear that it is not only poverty but inequality that plagues the poor.

It's easy to interpret the 2012 election as a ratification of Barack Obama's first term. But down in Austin, the LBJ Presidential Library is making a strong case that the legacy voters cemented in November was Lyndon Johnson's.

In 2000, I co-convened the "Shadow Conventions," which ran concurrently with both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and shined the spotlight on three issues that neither party was seriously addressing: the corrupting influence of money on our politics, the persistence of poverty in America and the disastrous war on drugs. Twelve years later, these three problems have gotten worse. So we are bringing the Shadow Conventions back -- but this time we are using HuffPost Live and the Huffington Post platform to put these neglected issues center stage and make it possible for you to be part of a real discussion about them. In fact, HuffPost Live has already created "green room" pages where you can learn more about these issues, leave a comment and sign up to join an on-air Shadow Convention conversation. Click here for the drug war green room, here for poverty and here for money in politics. The Shadow Conventions are your conventions -- let your voice be heard.

The Occupy movement seems to have all but disappeared from media coverage over the past months. Is this due to the fever pitch of the presidential campaign, or has the movement's time come and gone?

The President has to tell the American electorate that the future lies, not in a second round of trickle-down economics, but in the creation of a second New Deal, one inclusive of those left out the first time 'round.

The United States has proven over several decades to be more tolerant of poverty and of homelessness and other associated ills than is the case in other industrialized countries.

Back in the 1930s, it took FDR two goes to get his New Deal up and running. It is time for the Obama Administration to take heart from that, and have a second go itself.

There is no lobby for the poor in this country. The only thing that they can rely on is a little bit of government assistance to keep their dignity and their opportunities alive.

Today, Harrington is almost a forgotten figure. Contemporary historians and sociologists still cite Harrington in their studies of poverty, but few Americans under 50, including most activists with unions, community organizers and civil rights groups, have heard of him.

Last year more Americans relied on food stamps to eat than at any time since the program began in 1939 -- 46 million. Yet once again some voices are starting to wonder whether we really need robust anti-hunger programs in America.

News of rising poverty makes headlines one day. And the next it is forgotten. This year is no different.