Elections matter. If there’s any doubt about why, take a look at what’s happening right now in New York State. In the 2018 election, Democrats took control of the New York State Senate for the first time in a decade. This long sought-after victory means that New Yorkers can now boast of having unified government—with a Democratic governor, Senate, and Assembly.

Taking full advantage of their overwhelming mandate, New York State Democrats are barreling ahead with legislative priorities on hot-button issues like reproductive rights and gun control. Stalled for years by the Republican majority in the Senate, these are previously drafted progressive reforms that were ready to go once Democrats took back the Senate. Even Governor Andrew Cuomo appears to be unpacking his more progressive instincts.

We’re just at the beginning of New York’s new political adventure but already the Democratic majority has demonstrated that they can get their act together and pass major pieces of legislation that are sure to make progressives giddy, while making New York State a healthier, safer, and more just place to live for everyone. On the red side of the aisle, I imagine that conservative pols and their constituencies must be seething. If anything can be said with certainty in the world of politics, it’s that New York’s Democrats and progressives should savor the moment and make the most out of the next two years because the backlash is surely waiting in the wings.

Reproductive rights

After passing easily through the state’s Senate and Assembly, on January 22^nd, marking the 46^th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade, Governor Cuomo signed into law The Reproductive Health Act (RHA). RHA protects New Yorkers’ right to choose no matter what happens on the federal level as legal challenges to Roe v. Wade make their way to the new conservative majority now sitting on the Supreme Court.

The Reproductive Health Act, which takes effect immediately, updates and codifies New York State law with federal case law and puts New York’s reproductive laws (not updated since 1970) in accordance with the original decision in Roe v. Wade (1973). The bill maintains the legality of abortion within twenty-four weeks of a pregnancy or at “any time when necessary to protect a woman’s life or health.” Breaking with past precedent and breaking new ground, the bill expands access to abortion by authorizing healthcare professionals besides physicians—like nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants—to legally perform the procedure.

Gun control

An astounding six gun-control bills passed in the state’s Senate and Assembly since the swearing in of the new Democratic majorities. Praising New York State’s legislators, Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organization founded and led by parents and family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, called the legislation “monumental gun violence prevention measures.” Those measures include:

• Extreme-Risk Protection Orders. Allows law enforcement, family and household members, and school officials to seek a court order that requires an individual to relinquish firearms in their possession if they are deemed likely to harm themselves or others.
• Effective Background Check Act. Extends national in-state background checks to up to thirty days.
• Bump Stock Ban. Prohibits possession of devices that accelerate the rate of fire of a firearm.
• Preventing School Districts from Allowing Teachers to be Armed. Prevents schools from authorizing anyone other than a security officer, school resource officer, or law enforcement to carry a firearm on school property.
• Gun Buy-Backs. Authorizes state police to write regulations for gun buy-back programs so that all buy-back programs are consistent across the state.
• Out of State Mental Health Records. Allows New York State permitting authorities to review out-of-state mental-health records for out-of-state applicants for gun permits.

The post New York votes in unified government and goes full-on progressive appeared first on Occasional Planet.

I recently received an email from Senator Claire McCaskill, D-MO, asking for my ideas about Congress’ efforts in the months to come.

As Claire says, “some of the best ideas for what to tackle come directly from constituents, and that’s why I’m asking for your help. I want to know what you believe Congress should focus on this year.” Great! I have a chance to get behind my Senator and see that important stuff gets done.

It was a bit of a letdown when I went to take the survey. Here are the options Claire put forth:

• Continuing to expand job and business opportunities
• Holding government accountable by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse
• Protecting consumers
• Making the tax code fairer and simpler
• Continuing to improve care and services for military veterans
• Protecting rural post offices and shoring up the U.S. Postal Service
• Preserving Social Security and Medicare
• Combatting sexual violence on college and university campuses

Really? That’s the best she can do?

Okay, there’s a box labeled “Have something else in mind? Let us know here.” A big box with lots of room. Skipping the proposed checkbox topics, I filled the suggestions box with issues like gun control, campaign finance reform, increasing the minimum wage, greater police accountability and lots more.

There, that should do it. Click submit. Oops, I’m taken back with a message that I must check at least one box.

Okay. Fill out the form again, check at least one box, refill the suggestions box with the important stuff. Click submit. Next screen: FORBIDDEN. What’s THAT mean?

As it turned out, if any “other” suggestions were entered, the survey response was FORBIDDEN. Surely, her staff would have tested the survey site to make sure that other ideas from her constituents would be heard. But then, maybe not.

What happened to the Democratic party of Mario Cuomo at the 1984 Democratic National Convention?

In his eight minute address, he spelled out a vision of the Democratic party and of this country that bears repeating today. Referring to Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill,” Cuomo said,

“But the hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this city’s splendor and glory. A shining city is perhaps all the President sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But there’s another city; there’s another part to the shining the city; the part where some people can’t pay their mortgages, and most young people can’t afford one; where students can’t afford the education they need, and middle-class parents watch the dreams they hold for their children evaporate”

Spend time watching that speech and you will get a vision of what could be.

Full text of Cuomo’s speech here.

Michael Gerson recently wrote for the Washington Post, that Democrats are stuck in the past. He referred to Cuomo’s speech. He said it, “provided progressives with the best version of themselves, as tribunes of the forgotten and excluded.” He goes on to say that Bill Clinton shifted the party’s focus more to the center.

Gerson then complains, “President Obama has now effectively undone everything that Clinton and the New Democrats did in the 1980s and ’90s. Issue by issue, today’s Democratic Party is about where it was in 1979.”

If only that were so.

The post Dancing with Claire and ghosts of Democrats past appeared first on Occasional Planet.

During his first inaugural address in 2008, President Obama made a sweeping pledge to undertake the task of turning our ship of state in a new direction.

The President warned that course corrections would not be easy or quick. He predicted change would come slowly and incrementally and would be difficult to achieve. He could not have been more right. Those of us caught up in the euphoria of Obama’s election were ill prepared for what followed the celebrations of that first night.

Little could Obama—or we—imagine how ugly and destructive Republican opposition would be to the person and proposals of our forty-fourth president. Little did Obama know, too, how many from the progressive wing of his own party would lose trust in him and bitterly denounce what they saw as a lack of courage to push through policies for a more progressive future.

I know very little about the finer points of how politicians and diplomats conduct the day-to-day of domestic or foreign policy. But I’ve got an open mind (I think), and I can see what’s happening around me. It seems clear that Obama and his administration have been steadily pursuing a major course correction in foreign policy (and, unfortunately, less successfully in domestic policy) since that first inaugural address.

In other words, Obama has been living up to that first day’s pledge.

And at least some of that course correction looks like it’s working.

Case in point: Syria. Diplomacy and the threat of military force successfully maneuvered Syria/Russia into disclosing Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons for the first time ever and into allowing U.N. inspectors to monitor the destruction of those weapons.

Second case in point: Iran. Isn’t that the world’s pariah that’s finally sat down at the negotiating table after years of economic sanctions to talk with the U.S. and the international community without the shock and awe of airstrikes by the U.S. or Israel?

Maybe I’m missing nuances available only to the cognoscenti, but the easing of tensions with Syria and Iran certainly look like foreign-policy successes to me. Not all of Obama’s foreign-policy decisions have been  so successful. Most prominent is the policy of drone strikes that has taken the lives of far too many innocents along with the lives of intended terrorist targets. The drone program must surely be judged a failure based on “collateral damage” alone.  I’m not alone in predicting that this cornerstone of Obama’s national-security program will surely be judged harshly by history.

However, progressives who slam Obama and his tenure in office should take a moment to reflect soberly on the contrast between Obama and the previous administration. Have some of us forgotten how flat-footed and belligerent foreign policy was during the Bush era? Remember how countries were labeled evil as if we and the world were living inside an adolescent’s dream video game? Remember how just talking to adversaries was verboten in the neo-con playbook of Cheney and Rumsfeld?

(Recently, that bit of stupidity made an encore following Nelson Mandela’s funeral when conservative media manufactured a brouhaha over President Obama’s handshake and exchange of politesse with Cuba’s Raul Castro. How dare he, they snarled.)

Observing Obama’s appointments at the State Department and the Defense Department, it seems the President has quietly committed in an incremental fashion to a rebalancing toward the use of soft power, a concept first articulated by Harvard professor Joseph Nye, that refers to an approach that encourages parties to acknowledge shared goals through dialogue and exchange.

Who could have predicted that it would be Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense in Obama’s first administration and a holdover from the Bush administration, who first articulated Obama’s step away from the prevailing emphasis on hard power—that is, military force, the threat of military force, or coercion—that gripped Washington during the Bush years. Gates was the first to call for enhancing soft power when he called before Congress for a “dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security—diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign assistance, civic action, economic reconstruction and development.”

From Robert Gates to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton—who traveled the globe tirelessly in support of civil-society activists and understood the power of women’s rights for advancing economic development and peaceful societies—to Secretary of State John Kerry to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, it’s clear that Obama’s appointment of those individuals represents a commitment to the use of soft power on the international stage.

And now, as we enter the sixth year of the President’s time in office, it’s becoming ever clearer that Obama’s turning of the unwieldy American ship—particularly in the foreign-policy realm—was more than just a metaphorical flourish that defined the speech of his life.  It turns out it may indeed be a promise kept.

The post Obama’s accomplishments: The shift to softer power appeared first on Occasional Planet.

As long as our country has Gail Collins, Rachel Maddow and Elizabeth Warren,  I can clutch a tiny bit of hope in my wrinkly, age spotted hands.

Truthfully, I’ve given up looking for the next progressive era.  In the 20th century, our society swung back and forth from conservative to progressive times as regularly as the big old clock in the White House hallway.  During the 1920’s, 50’s and 80’s we took a step back to figure out how to incorporate all the progressive changes from the previous years.  According to this cycles theory, the 1990s and early 2000’s should have seen a burst of new laws and programs to extend and improve on the progress made earlier.

But times had changed by the end of the “American century,” and another giant leap forward was not in the cards.  Michele Bachman is crowing now about how the tea party destruction of Obamacare is their historic opportunity to bury liberalism forever. Given all the cuts to programs that help the poor, the Affordable Care Act may be the only survivor of the right wing, corporate funded attacks on American families.

But all is not lost.  Better late than never.  Every revolution needs a whole slew of different talents.  First, someone has to distract us from the pity party we so much enjoy.  Gail Collins does this with pin prick humor.  Then we need the ‘splainer.   No one can teach us what we need to know better than Rachel Maddow.  OMG – charts, maps, historical lessons.  Who knew that the number of federal judgeships was evenly divided between those appointed by Republican presidents and those appointed by Democratic presidents?  And that there are 93 vacancies?   We would never get that kind of background – that very important information – from lamestream media.  So now we know why the whole confirmation of judges thing in the Senate is such a big deal.

Once our attention has been diverted away from all the terrible news, and the cloud of doom has been lifted from us, we need a charismatic leader to inspire us to crawl out of our protective cocoons.   Elizabeth Warren has the right combination of talents and the sincere desire to make life better for the 98% of us not part of the robber baron class.

So time will tell.  Harry Reid finally got enough support in the Senate to change the filibuster rules.  Rachel Maddow says this is “a really big deal.”  I’ve been pretty hard on old Harry from time to time.  I’ll call his office today and thank him for finally bringing the hammer down on Republican obstructionism.

But the good old boys’ time is about up.  The times they are a changin’.  Economic populism is in the ascendancy.  We can never go back to the days of Camelot, but we can pull ourselves together for the next reimagining of what a fair and just society looks like.  Let’s do it.                                                                                                                                 

The post Women will lead the way appeared first on Occasional Planet.

So many progressive role models, so much for them [and us] to do–and so many ways to do it. When things get tough for liberal ideas–as they are now–we need to keep reminding ourselves of the society-changing impact that activism, commitment to liberal principles,  and perseverance in the face of long odds can have.  Here on Occasional Planet, we’ve been publishing mini-profiles of people who have made a difference–whether it’s through their writings, their organizational skills, their heroic efforts on behalf of people in need, and the examples they set for the rest of us. You can find a new one every week, up there in the right-hand corner of the page. What continues to amaze us is the diversity of people who persist in doing this work, and the vast variety of ways they’ve found–or created–to help make the world move forward.

Now, just to make it a little more fun to learn about these inspirational people, we’ve created an on-line, video quiz: We show you a photo, you guess who it is, and then we reveal the details, including our subject’s claims to progressive fame.  You may not recognize some of them at first glance, but stick around, because all of them are definitely worth knowing about–and emulating.

Ready to try it? Here goes:

[Music credit: Tom Cascino, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/]

The post Guess the progressive: A video quiz appeared first on Occasional Planet.

The backlash against voter suppression may have begun. Following highly publicized efforts by Republican-led legislatures to make voting harder for citizens during the 2012 Presidential election, voting rights advocates are fighting back. And, according to Progressive States Network, more and more states are now looking at enacting significant reforms to modernize voter registration and protect and expand voting rights.

Some of the developments are smart applications of technologies that our current, 19^th-Century based voter registration and voting system could not have anticipated. And some are baby steps that, nevertheless, move us in the direction of expansion, rather than restriction, of voting rights in what politicians regularly tout as the “world’s greatest democracy.” None, however, are slam-dunks. For every rights-expanding proposal, there’s an equal and opposite reaction pushing back, mostly from Republican legislators who are either stuck in the past and uncomfortable with new technologies, or scared to political death of enfranchising groups that could defeat them. We can feel good that progress is happening, but if the shenanigans of the 2012 election tell us anything, there is no end to what some politicians will do to suppress the vote.  Here’s a roundup [April 2013] of recent developments:

Connecticut

The Connecticut state House passed a joint resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to allow early voting and no-excuse absentee ballots. The resolution passed by a 90-49 vote, with 12 members absent. It goes next to the Senate and then to a public vote in the 2014 election. If Connecticut passes the amendment, it would join twenty-seven states and Washington, D.C., in allowing voters to vote by absentee ballot without requiring a reason; 32 states and Washington, D.C., have early voting; and two states use automatic mail voting instead of traditional polling sites, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Colorado

Colorado has taken a first step toward a sweeping change in voting. Under consideration in the Colorado legislature is the Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act, which would send mail ballots to every voter, allow election-day registration, and put all counties on a real-time, statewide database that supporters say would weed out cheaters who try to vote twice. It’s a long-shot at this point, but it’s a worthy effort to drag voting into the 21^st century in Colorado, and perhaps become a role model for other states.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania progressive lawmakers want their state to become the 36th to have some form of early voting. [Did you say Pennsylvania? Home of voter ID designed to ensure that Mitt Romney would win the state? Wow.] In addition, a bill with bipartisan support that would allow online voter registration could pass the state Senate later this month [April 2013] and then head to the House.

In an article published in the Post-Gazette, the executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania said that states with early voting consistently have higher voter turnout. In addition, said a Democratic state legislator, the issue should not be a partisan one, as Republican candidate Mitt Romney carried 20 of the 32 states that allowed early voting in November.

West Virginia

According to the West Virginia Gazette, a bill passed on April 16 by the West Virginia legislature will make it easier for voters to register and vote. Under the new law, citizens will be able to register online to vote if they already have a digital signature on file with a state agency, like the Division of Motor Vehicles. The bill allows county clerks to transfer a potential voter’s signature from a driver’s license application to the voter registration form.  West Virginia’s Secretary of State also says that, eventually, the state will be able to use other identifiers, such as a Social Security number, to allow online registration for people without a signature on file.

Delaware

Ex-felons will have their voting rights restored immediately thanks to legislation passed in Delaware. Non-violent felons will now be able to vote immediately after discharging their criminal sentences according to an amendment passed by the Senate removing a constitutional provision barring felons from voting for five years after the fulfillment of their punishments.

Hawaii

A bill passed the Senate and now goes back to the House for a vote on Senate amendments that would allow voters to register at early voting locations.

Maryland

A bill that had previously passed the state House has now passed the state Senate. It will allow same-day registration, expand early voting and allow voters to obtain absentee ballots online.

The post Positive signs for voting-rights laws—even in Pennsylvania appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Progressive ideas are alive in 2013—and not just as talking points. They reflect what Americans actually value and want, and nowhere is that more evident than in Minnesota and Colorado, where progressive-based laws are on the state legislative agenda. Recently, Progressive States Network posted highlights of bills either under serious consideration or already passed in those two states. Take heart, progressives: Contrary to what right-wing conservatives would like us to believe, and what they’re pushing in many state legislatures, America is not anti-union, anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-same-sex marriage, anti-education funding or anti-sensible-gun-control.

Here are some highlights from the Progressive States Network roundup:

What’s up in Minnesota?

• A bill has been introduced into the Minnesota legislature that would allow unionization of child-care and home-healthcare workers.
• Also introduced was a minimum-wage bill that would increase the rate from $6.15/hr [below the current federal rate] to $10.55 an hour by 2015.
• Both houses in Minnesota gave final approval to health exchange bills.
• Governor Dayton’s budget calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, and a recent poll shows that  54 percent of Minnesotans favor higher taxes on net incomes above $150,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
• An omnibus election reform bill moved forward in a state Senate committee. It would include early voting and no-excuse absentee voting.
• A bill that would increase funding for education, in an effort to equalize funding across districts.
• The leader of the Minnesota College Republicans joined a bipartisan group of legislators, members of clergy, and others who are supporting a marriage equality bill.

And in Colorado…

• The landmark ASSET tuition equity bill won final approval from the state legislature with a bipartisan vote and is now on its way to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk.
• State Sen. Angela Giron, Chair of PSN’s National Immigration Working Group and co-sponsor of the bill: “We are now going to be able to reward young people who have played by the rules. They are now going to be able to give back.” [Denver Post]
• Seven bills to prevent gun violence advanced in the state legislature. Gov. Hickenlooper is on record as supporting three of the bills, including universal background checks and magazine capacity limits.
•  A state House committee advanced a civil unions, one supported by 70% of Colorado voters.
• A new joint (and “joint”) committee was established to craft laws to regulate marijuana in the state, following a constitutional amendment approved last year that directed the state to authorize retail sales.

The post Minnesota and Colorado: Where the progressive agenda is alive and…progressing appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Obama won. But we’re far from done. How long did it take after President Obama won the popular vote and the electoral college for Republicans to assert that, despite all that pesky evidence, their ideas won and that, basically, nothing has changed? Hours?

So, it’s clearly not realistic for Democrats and the left to enjoy victory and take a break. The media is already speculating about 2014 and 2016, and even if you think that’s premature and silly, it’s reality. In addition, both the Democratic and Republican parties–as well as potential candidates–are already positioning themselves for those elections. And state legislatures have wasted no time in moving forward on unfinished business [for example, Michigan’s lightning quick passage of right-to-work-for less legislation] and gathering momentum for other agenda items. We need to stay on high alert.

That’s why, suggests Winning Progressive,  we need to stay actively engaged in the political process. And the site offers a helpful 10-point program for doing exactly that. The list also includes helpful resources for information and action. Here’s the plan:

1. Don’t be distracted by side issues, punditry and the incessant chatter.  The war against voters, women, unions, workers, education, healthcare, science, the gay community, immigration, minorities, the President and even Christmas will continue. And keep your eyes on the Heritage Foundation.

2. Get your voter identification, or if you have what’s needed in your state [or may be required in the future] help someone else update theirs.  Just because the election is over doesn’t mean Republican dirty tricks will stop. Don’t wait until another election is near: do it now. National Conference of State Legislatures has a database with all state voter identification requirements.

3. Register to vote and make sure your registration has actually been recorded. During this past election, Republicans destroyed Democratic registrations, switched Democrat registrations to Republican or failed to record them at all.  It isn’t enough to just sign your name…make certain you are “correctly” registered to vote…even if you just voted…take nothing for granted.

4. Follow the legislation that affects your life, and the voting record of your state and federal representatives. OpenCongress is a non-profit, non-partisan public resource where you can track all of the legislation in Congress.

5. Don’t get blindsided.  Candidates have records! Voters have a tendency to make decisions based on campaign rhetoric, when candidates are telling the public “what we want to hear”, but candidates have records that will give a clue to what they “really” believe. Project Vote Smart is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that gives the biographies, voting records, issue positions, ratings, speeches and campaign information of politicians. Another is On The Issues.

6. Pay attention!  “States Rights” have very special implications and because of gerrymandering, Republicans control many state governments and are likely assured to do so for the next 10 years.  It is where the “real” assault is taking place.  Who runs your state?State Government – USA.gov. – Resources and websites on U.S. states and territories, local and city governments.

7. Let common sense, instinct and knowledge be your guide.  We are all too often swayed by emotional and superficial values.

8.Find reliable sources to stay abreast of current events.  Try to steer clear of ideological agreement and seek out sources that report based on facts.  Sadly, that may not always be the media, so it’s important to

9.Do your own fact-checking. Congress.org is a nonpartisan news and information website dedicated to encouraging civic participation.

10. Get involved and stay involved.  Support petitions, contact your representatives…rally for the legislation and legislators who support your cause.  Write, call, fax, email, tweet, rally …make your voice heard!

The only thing I’d add would be to keep the conversation alive. Not only do we need to watchdog the right, we need to keep talking about the progressive agenda and why it’s better for our country. We need to remind ourselves–and those around us–that it’s about doing things in the interest of the common good, looking out for the well-being of others, doing the big things collectively that individuals and states can’t do for themselves, continuing to ensure access to the basics of democracy–and all of the other pillars of progressivism. And, finally, we need to keep repeating that even Americans who claim to want “less government” depend on it everyday.

The post 10 ways to stay politically engaged, even after winning the 2012 election appeared first on Occasional Planet.

There’s still time to push the progressive agenda forward in Congress before the big Republican majority takes over in January 2011, and that’s what Senate Democrats should do. This is not a time for caving in, giving up or doing nothing. At the very least, during the lame-duck session of Congress, the outgoing Democratic leadership could force a showdown on issues that matter, clarify the Democratic message of empathy for disadvantaged people, and make Republicans say “No” again and again.

It won’t be easy. Several US Senate seats will change hands for the fall session, as their new occupants—voted in via special elections to fill vacant seats—will be sworn in immediately. One of those seats belongs to Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois, a party-switch that adds a 42^nd Republican to the minority. This change means that Democrats will need at least two Republicans and every Democratic senator to stop a filibuster.

The odds are stacked against the liberal agenda, but that’s not a good enough reason to stop trying. Here’s the to-do list that liberal/progressive advocates want Congress to tackle before the January changeover.

Pass the DREAM Act

This bill would give young immigrants who join the military or attend college a path to legalization. It’s currently a provision in the defense authorization bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who survived a close-call re-election, made a campaign pledge—on the Spanish-language Univision broadcasting network—that he would bring it up for a lame-duck vote. Do it, Harry.

Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

President Obama has said, repeatedly, that he favors repealing this law, which bars gays and lesbians from serving in the military. The provision is part of the defense authorization bill. Republican leaders have loudly protested that attaching DADT to the larger—and more popular—bill is a sneaky tactic.  Perhaps the Democrats could bring up DADT as a stand-alone bill and force a clean, up-or-down vote, calling the Republicans’ bluff.

“We have the votes, including Republican votes, to repeal DADT if the bill can just get on the floor,” says Fred Sanz, vice-president of the Human Rights Campaign, which has been a leading advocate for repeal. DADT has already passed the House of Representatives.

Extend unemployment benefits

In July, the Senate approved a fourth extension of unemployment insurance benefits, but that extension runs out at the end of November. Republicans tried hard to stop the extension, and they have promised to oppose another one. [Do their constituents know that they voted against something so clearly beneficial to so many suffering people?] Allowing jobless benefits to expire could be tragic for millions of people. And extending unemployment benefits is an idea favored by Americans who want to do the right thing. Democrats may find that they don’t have the votes to get this job done, but a legislative demonstration of support for unemployed people would be a principled stand that would underscore the difference between the Democratic and Republican agendas.

Save the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class

President Obama is on record as wanting to “decouple” tax cuts for the wealthy from tax cuts for the middle class [families with combined incomes of less than $250,000]. He even has offered to compromise on the upper income limit. But newly emboldened Republicans now say that compromise and “decoupling” are off the table. This is another issue that shows the enormous gap between Democratic and Republican philosophies. It’s an issue that, framed effectively, could help people understand and realize the worth of the progressive agenda. [It has been suggested, for example, that President Obama and the Democrats recast the “Bush” tax cuts as President Obama’s “tax fairness” agenda.] But however it’s labeled, standing up for middle-class tax cuts—and insisting that the wealthy pay their fair share—even  in the face of inevitable defeat—would be a valuable “messaging” opportunity.

If, beginning in January, we’re going to have to suffer through a Congress whose Republicans believe they have a “mandate” to repeal every iota of progress that has been achieved in the past two years, can we at least count on Democrats to take a stand on principle and let America know what the progressive agenda is really about?

The post A progressive “to-do” list for lame-duck Congress appeared first on Occasional Planet.