Progressive Opinion

robertreich.org — Washington has a way of focusing the nation’s attention on tactical games over partisan maneuvers that are symptoms of a few really big problems. A case in point is what’s now happening in Michigan. In the state where the American labor movement was born – and where, because of labor unions, the American middle class once had the bargaining power to gain a significant portion of the nation’s total income – Republicans and big money are striking back. Connect the dots: As unions have withered, the middle class’s share of total income and wealth has dropped. The decline of the median wage in America over the last three decades correlates exactly with the declining percentage of American workers who are unionized. And as the super-rich have grown even wealthier, they’ve been able to extend their power through the Supreme Court and the Republican Party – advancing a war on the middle class.

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slate.com — In terms of practical economic impacts, I think the "right-to-work" controversy set off by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's decision to undertake a lame duck flip-flop is perhaps overstated. If you compare Montgomery County in labor-friendly Maryland to Fairfax County in right-to-work Virginia, your overwhelming impression will be that these are very similar affluent suburbs of the same city. But apples-to-apple comparisons are hard to find and since union rules are highly correlated with other political indicators it's easy to cherry pick points. The conservative parts of America are generally poorer than the liberal parts, but also faster-growing. So if you want to claim that right-to-work laws are immiserating or growth-friendly, you can help yourself to whatever statistics you like. But what's not murky is the absurd hypocrisy that has to go into making the case for "right-to-work" legislation.

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thedailybeast.com — From the fiscal cliff to immigration, the Republican Party remains sorely divided over its post-loss platform. The “blame Romney first” camp is making a lot of noise about a kinder, gentler GOP and slamming their former frontman for an epic “47 percent” fumble. But that’s a tough sell. How do you dispatch a party’s favorite worldview—that of right-leaning “makers” and left-leaning “takers”—when the guy who popularized it got the VP nod and is now the de facto leader of your congressional caucus? Tearing a whole party away from the calming logic of bought-off voters is tough, and many on the right are still stuck on the idea. But the Republican Party must ditch this line of thinking. Sure, it’s divisive. But more important, it’s empirically false.

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colorlines.com — One of the most popular post election narratives remains that voter suppression efforts were soundly defeated. While the concept is essentially true, it says very little about how voting rights will fare in the near future—or how activists are continuing the work they began to preserve voting rights. Many voter ID measures, cut offs to early voting, and excessive voter purges were blocked or weakened at the state level in 2012, but lawmakers are aiming to propose new measures in 2013. The coming year will present local, state, and national challenges to the way we understand voting rights. People who want to become involved in the fight against voter suppression already have plenty of options on where to start.

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salon.com — In 1993, Democrats controlled both the legislative and executive branches, and they used their power that year to raise taxes on the top 1.2 percent of income-earners, creating a new top marginal rate of 39.6 percent. When that budget cleared the House (on a 218-216 vote in which every Republican voted no), the GOP whip issued a bold and frightening prediction: “I believe this will lead to a recession next year,” Newt Gingrich said. “This is the Democrat machine’s recession. And each one of them will be held personally accountable.” He still hasn’t come to terms with how wrong he was, and neither has his party. Nearly 20 years after Gingrich uttered those words, the debate in Washington carries echoes of that ’93 fight.

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commondreams.org — One of the pleasures of a weekend away from the city is visiting with people who express points of view that are different from my own. A lot of them hate government. Their comments are sprinkled with colorful references to taxes, waste, and socialism. Countering with facts and statistics doesn't seem to work. Instead, listening to their rants can be educational for a progressive, because the anti-government sentiment highlights the masterful job done by conservatives and the wealthy over the years, as they have basically convinced much of America to argue against themselves on matters of politics and the economy. It would make more sense to take on the real villains.

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jackandjillpolitics.com — Outplayed, outsmarted, outlasted, the GOP is in an ever weakening position and while the adults in the party seem to recognize it, the hysterics and the cake eaters, i.e. the Tea Party, don’t. This way lies madness. The GOP is trapped. It is a position they could correct given two cycles 2014 and 2016, if they reacted now and moved in the correct way. The GOP could embrace this reality, stop getting high on their own supply of crazy, and get on board. But they won’t, and that is why they are doomed. The President is a party ender for the GOP. That is because of race, a race toward ignorance and the hate filled passions of a fraction of the GOP.

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nextnewdeal.net — You wake early in the morning to the sound of your doorbell ringing, followed by a heavy knock on the front door. Bolting up in bed, you hear the ominous whir of a helicopter’s blades circling above your house. You race to wake up your disabled children and tell them to stay close and take only what they can carry. But even as you make a break for the back door, a glimpse of shadowy figures through your curtained windows tells you it’s already too late. They have you surrounded. The United Nations Peacekeepers are here to take your kids to school. This scenario is not too far removed from the nightmare future some Republicans claimed would unfold if the Senate had ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities earlier this week.

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salon.com — With no compromise in sight on fiscal cliff negotiations, the White House said in no uncertain terms yesterday that they are prepared and willing to go over the metaphorical cliff if Republicans refuse to allow the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans to expire. Politically, that’s a more appealing option for Democrats than Republicans, who have been boxed in. On one side, they have an emboldened president’s insistence that tax rates must go up, but on the other side they have their vows to the base, via Grover Norquist’s pledge, not to raise rates. Something’s got to to give. Without a doubt, Republicans have been dealt the weaker hand here, as a look at poll numbers from the past few weeks demonstrates. And if there were ever a time in John Boehner’s tenure as House speaker to concede big, now is it. Here’s the story, in numbers.

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