When will liberals stop making excuses for Obama?

Print this post.

More and more Americans are now coming forth with CONCRETE ideas on how to break out of the capitalist political stranglehold, especially the self-congratulatory fictions that feed its spurious legitimacy…Dave Lindorff advanced a simple plan a few days back, now this, and more will surely follow. All genuine crises eventually spawn responses.

BY LORNA SALZMAN

We need to “get our asses in gear” says Bernard Weiner (crisispapers.org; countercurrents).

Sensibly he does not put all the blame on either Obama or the Republicans, because he recognizes the failure of progressives themselves and understands that only their self-resuscitation will accomplish anything. Elaborating on this theme, it becomes clear that, first, progressives must unify behind a basic platform and set of demands, and second, that they must abandon the two major political parties. After this they will be able to pursue, with strength and consistency, a variety of actions.  Here are my thoughts:

1) Abandon the two major political parties. Those enrolled in either party should change their enrollment to No Party or Independent, and urge their family, friends and colleagues to do the same.

2) Use other existing affiliations (religious, civic, cultural, community, workplace, union, recreational) to promote a basic platform that encompasses the chief concerns of the broad American public: jobs, health care, military spending, environment and energy, campaign finance reform, civil liberties.

(Note: It is important to not place social/cultural issues such as Afghanistan, gun control,abortion, etc. on this list since this only plays into the hands of conservatives and the right wing and distracts from the systemic problems and changes that are needed. Obviously progressives will raise these issues with local candidates as well as individually taking these issues into account at voting time; but including them on a list of national priorities will raise a red flag and allow our adversaries a platform for their own demands, at the expense of ours. Some people may disagree with this position of course, because they are addicted to single-issue politics, but it is precisely this kind of politics that has prevented progressives from uniting behind the larger substantive and systemic issues that affect the majority of Americans. It is high time we abandoned single-issue and identity politics, the most divisive and counterproductive forms of political organizing to have afflicted us in the past century).

3)Integrate relevant and related issues now marginal or ignored into these categories, with special emphasis on environment and energy policy, with the understanding that an appropriately strong energy policy will have an impact in other areas such as public health, transportation and jobs.

4)Enter into discussions with other people and groups about how to influence and re-shape upcoming elections for congress and for president in 2012, with emphasis on forming a PAC, and on running candidates by petition or through forming a third party at the municipal or state level.

5.Circulate the new platform via the internet and in printed form and solicit citizen signatures supporting it and agreeing to vote only for those candidates who also support it in full. (I prepared such a platform/petition over a year ago which I will provide on request).

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Briefly, I see the following as being fundamental to any broad political movement:

• 100% publicly financed political campaigns plus an end to state-level laws that inhibit independent and third-party candidacies;

• Universal single-payer health care, perhaps obtained by expanding Medicare, with a mandate that no one pay more than 5% of gross income for premiums and care;

• Removal of military presence from Iraq and Afghanistan;

• End to all federal subsidies and tax breaks for all sectors (starting with energy and agriculture) as the first step in moving towards full-cost pricing of energy and goods;

• A carbon tax on all fossil fuels at point of production or import, with revenues rebated equally to all citizens; (”fee and dividend”);

• Stringent mandatory national energy efficiency standards for construction, transportation, commercial, industrial and domestic consumption, starting with public buildings and schools/institutions;

• Low-cost loans for individuals for energy efficiency compliance and retrofitting;

• Major commitment to expanding and rebuilding public transportations systems nationwide, with subsidies utilized to insure that cost to public is lower than using private cars and trucks;

• Oversight mechanisms to protect consumers and homebuyers from mortgage, banking and credit card extortion and fraud;

• Increasing income tax rate of corporations to that of the 1950s: 50%;

• Tax on financial transactions (“Tobin tax”), with revenues used to combat global poverty and climate change;

• Value-added tax on consumption of all goods except food and medicine;

• Stiff penalties and/or taxes or prohibition on corporation out-sourcing or removal of production abroad;

• Imposition of a Border Tax Adjustment (BTA) on imports with a high carbon footprint or exported by countries who refuse to curb their fossil fuel use;

• Withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO;

• Abolition or drastic reform of IMF and World  Bank;

• Creation of local and regional credit unions and banks dedicated to funding local and regional business and commerce only;

• Rigorous new laws to mandate re-use and recycling, with high taxes on use of virgin materials, non-reusable and non-recyclable packaging and containers;

• Economic disincentives and taxes on processed and pre-packaged food items;

That’s for starters.

—Lorna Salzman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Above all, Lorna Salzman is an environmental activist. Unafraid of controversy, her outspoken support for Israel has often created friction in progressive circles.