by Dave Johnson | Oct 31, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
Politicians often don't know about a problem – never mind fix it – unless people organize and make their feelings known. When you sign an online petition, send an email and especially donate to a cause, it can make a real difference. In the case of companies...
by Bill Scher | Oct 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
Positive Signs For Dems In Early Voting "Early Voting Numbers Look Good for Democrats" reports NYT: "Democratic efforts to turn out the young and nonwhite voters who sat out the 2010 midterm elections appear to be paying off in several Senate battleground states. More...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 31, 2014 | Blog, Education
Most folks in the Democratic Party have a problem with the Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that permitted goo-gobs of corporate and private interest cash to be dumped onto our elections. The party's platform supports amending the Constitution to...
by Bill Scher | Oct 31, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
The fundamentals of the 2014 Senate map are tilted toward the Republicans, with Democrats defending seven seats in states that Mitt Romney won. And yet, with only four days until Election Day (and many already taking advantage of early voting), the polls are all tied...
by Editors | Oct 30, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Populist Majority
The “Survey of Young Americans’ Attitudes Toward Politics and Public Service released this week by the Harvard Institute of Politics seems to send a simple, direct image: Democrats, you have lost the support of millennials. But the tragedy of this poll is that it...
by Joshua Holland | Oct 30, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Ferguson, Missouri, was a powder-keg waiting for a match long before August 9 and Michael Brown’s fateful encounter with Police Officer Darren Wilson. It is one of many predominantly black communities across the United States plagued by highly concentrated poverty,...
by Bill Scher | Oct 30, 2014 | Uncategorized
Republicans Worry About Governing "Civil war looms for GOP" reports The Hill: "Conservatives salivating over the prospects of a huge victory on Nov. 4 are pressuring House and Senate GOP leaders to go big after Election Day ... The problem for Speaker John Boehner...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 30, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
As Election Day approaches, two reports show us exactly how corrupted our political system has become. Unless voters come out in force, it looks like corporate money is about to buy itself another house of Congress. The Wall Street Journal analyzed filings from the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 30, 2014 | Populist Majority, Progressive Vision
Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg is not all doom and gloom about the Democratic Party's chances of keeping control of the Senate. The polls may suggest otherwise, but Greenberg still sees a way for Democrats to have a good outcome Tuesday – and it's through the...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 29, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
A riot in New Hampshire, and a likely acquittal in Ferguson, Missouri, underscore that blacks and whites still live in very different Americas, under very different rules. The comparison was inevitable, as the images of unrest in Ferguson were still fresh in the minds...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 29, 2014 | Blog
Originally published in Alternet A recent poll showed that more than half of all people in this country don’t believe that the American dream is real. Fifty-nine percent of those polled in June agreed that “the American dream has become impossible for most people to...
by Robert Reich | Oct 29, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
Commenting on a recent student suicide at an Alaska high school, Alaska’s Republican Congressman Don Young said suicide didn’t exist in Alaska before “government largesse” gave residents an entitlement mentality. “When people had to work and had to provide and had to...
by Bill Scher | Oct 29, 2014 | Uncategorized
House May Get Even More Extreme Tea Party may get boost in House. W. Post: "Six to eight new lawmakers are likely to replace incumbent Republicans in deep-red districts, primarily in the South ... backed by the tea party movement and will be more likely than their...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 29, 2014 | Conservatism, Jobs and Growth
Seven Republican governors who rode 2010s tea-party political wave into office, promising that their budget-slashing, tax-cutting and bowing to corporate interests would unleash economic prosperity, are now being judged harshly by voters now that their right-wing...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 28, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy
"It's the economy, stupid" is from a sign that hung in the Clinton "war room" during the 1992 election. The point was that the economy was the only thing that really mattered in the election. This election is a statement that the economy is not working for people....
by Richard Eskow | Oct 28, 2014 | Blog, Economy
An Amazon River legend says that its famous pink river dolphins sometimes become shapeshifters and assume human form to seduce unwary travelers and lure them to a magical city called Encante. The catch is that this city is underwater. Once you’ve been there you can...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 28, 2014 | Blog, Economy
The most revealing moment of our ongoing 2014 election season? That may have come last week in a Florida gubernatorial debate when former governor Charlie Crist, now a Democrat, and current governor Rick Scott, a Republican, went mano a mano over who “has led a more...
by Bill Scher | Oct 28, 2014 | Uncategorized
Conservatism Holds Back GOP In Midterms Conservatism on trial in Kansas governor's race. W. Post: "It is close because many Republicans have defected from Brownback in the wake of massive tax and spending cuts ... Brownback is attempting a balancing act, distancing...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 28, 2014 | Blog, Retirement Security
Who could’ve seen it coming? Progressives could be forgiven for developing something of a Cassandra complex when it comes to the Democratic Party’s economic stances. Here’s the latest case in point: The Washington Post and Politico have warned us that Republicans, led...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 27, 2014 | Blog
Speaking just like an American Republican, the Communist Chinese-appointed leader of Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying, said last week that if the state granted democratic rights to its poor and working class, they could dominate elections and choose leaders who would meet...
by Joshua Holland | Oct 27, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
We’re less than two weeks away from a midterm election that could decide which party controls the Senate, and ultimately shape the final two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. It’s the first complete midterm cycle since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United —...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 27, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Trade
The White House unveiled new executive actions on Monday directing federal money toward new technologies, apprenticeship programs and competitions designed to assist small manufacturers. The idea is to make the U.S. a magnet for new jobs and investment. The new...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 27, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Populist Majority
Democrats should to learn a lesson from this year's election campaigns: Democrats should be Democrats. Democrats should not try to run away from the things Democrats stand for. It doesn't work. Supporting Republicans ideas is not going to win you Republican votes. It...
by Bill Scher | Oct 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
No Republican Wave With One Week To Go Several Democratic Senate seats are not threatened, notes W. Post's E. J. Dionne: "Just as striking is how many Democrats seem to have nailed down races the Republicans had once hoped to make competitive. This has narrowed the...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 27, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
This should be a banner year for Republicans. To pick up the six seats they need to take control of the Senate, Republicans need only to pocket three open seats in red-state South Dakota, West Virginia, and Montana, and knock off endangered incumbents in states Obama...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 24, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The New York Times' David Brooks writes today in "The Working Nation": " Western economies delivered broad and growing prosperity for the middle class. This nurtured a general faith in political institutions and culminated in the democratic triumphalism of the 1990s."...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 24, 2014 | Blog
The latest annual Global Wealth Report from the Credit Suisse Research Institute has everything you would expect from a report on global wealth. And one thing you wouldn’t: a mystery. The media coverage of the new Credit Suisse report hasn’t focused much at all on...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 24, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Calling gay people names is nothing new. We’ve been called many things throughout the ages. But “gremlins”? That’s a new one. The first — and perhaps only — Wingnut WTF prize goes this week to South Carolina Republican congressional...
by Bill Scher | Oct 24, 2014 | Blog
If you have been watching the midterm elections closely, you have seen how Republican candidates are leaning left in order to take control of the Senate, how they are hugging Social Security and avoiding actual policy proposals that would ruin any chance to win votes...
by Bill Scher | Oct 24, 2014 | Uncategorized
GOP Learns To Love Social Security Republican candidates suddenly embracing Social Security near Election Day. W. Post: "Cutting federal health and retirement spending has long been at the top of the GOP agenda. But with Republicans in striking distance of winning the...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 24, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
If Republicans take the Senate next month (and if he wins his own reelection race), Sen. Mitch McConnell will be that body's next majority leader. Then what happens? McConnell's been frank about what the GOP would do with the Senate – at least when he thinks nobody's...
by Editors | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Gender Justice
An Associated Press-GfK poll published this week indicates that women are shifting to favor the Republican party. “Women have moved in the GOP’s direction since September,” the AP reported. Just a month ago, 47 percent of female likely voters favored a...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Education
When evidence emerged a month ago that education is the top “turnout message” for the Democratic Party in the upcoming election, some candidates may have chosen to act on that information. Indeed, Democratic-leaning activists have stepped up their ground game to make...
by Jim Hightower | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth, Minimum Wage
Gosh, time flies when it’s pushed along by a jet stream of greed. It seems like only yesterday that Wal-Mart announced, with much self-congratulatory fanfare, that the super-rich retailing colossus wasn’t a scrooge after all. Indeed, while the world’s largest purveyor...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Trade
Massachusetts is awarding a contract to build rail cars to CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles, a Chinese state-owned company, a subordinate of China CNR Corporation Ltd. The company will do final assembly of the cars in Massachusetts. "This is the preeminent manufacturer...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Health
The country has been subjected to weeks of ebola fear/terror/panic/propaganda going out over the airwaves – and from one network in particular -- just in time to drive fear into the election. Now a group has put together an election ad making the case that the country...
by Bill Scher | Oct 23, 2014 | Uncategorized
GOP Agenda: No Jobs. More Voter Suppression "Chris Christie Just Exposed His Entire Party's Deceitful Voter Suppression Plan" says TNR's Brian Beutler: "'Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist?' New Jersey...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
How should Democrats make their case on the economy? In the last days of the election, this isn’t a rhetorical question. For all the furor about Ebola, ISIS, Ferguson, the Secret Service, and Obama, the economy will remain the determining issue in this election. Two...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 22, 2014 | Blog, Democracy, Progressive Vision
With Election Day just two weeks away, the words of Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award recipient and Moral Mondays movement leader Rev. William Barber remind us, "If we ever needed to vote, we sure do need to vote now!" His new book reminds us of the moral power...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Oct 22, 2014 | Blog, Economy
According to a new report, the richest one percent have got their mitts on almost half the world's assets. Think that’s the end of the story? Think again. This is only the beginning. The “Global Annual Wealth Report,” freshly released by investment giant Credit...
