Protect Democracy

By Thomas Hedges

In a third-party presidential debate that took place in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, November 4. Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution), and Rocky Anderson (Justice) gathered at the restaurant venue Busboys and Poets to discuss a broad range of issues. President Obama and Governor Romney where both invited to participate in the debate, even though they are not third-party candidates. The debate, moderated by activist Ralph Nader, celebrated the impact marginalized movements and third parties have had on American history.

“Dissent is the mother of assent,” Nader began.

“Historically third parties in America have pioneered agendas opposed by the larger two parties, but which they later accepted,” he said. “These include the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote, and safeguards for workers and farmers…tonight we have an extension of that tradition.”

The four candidates addressed issues pertaining to national binding referendums, the National Defense Authorization Act, climate change, and corporate welfare, none of which were covered in the three Republican-Democrat debates.

“I don’t want to bomb Iran,” Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson said in his opening statement.

“I want to get out of Afghanistan tomorrow, bring the troops home. I think that marriage equality is constitutionally guaranteed. I want to end the drug wars, legalize marijuana tomorrow. I’d like to repeal the Patriot Act,” he said.

Johnson continued, “I would have never signed the National Defense Authorization Act. I promise to submit a balanced budget to congress in the year 2013 if elected. And I believe we should eliminate income tax, corporate tax, abolish the IRS and replace all of that with one federal consumption tax.”

Nader posed questions that highlighted issues that both the left and the right believe are important. Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode sided with Gary Johnson on most issues although incorporated gay marriage and abortion heavily into his platform which Johnson did not do as he focused more on fiscal issues.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Justice Party Rocky Anderson agreed on virtually all issues—dealing with climate change, ending torture and illegal war, ending corporate welfare, regulating the banking industry, raising taxes for the wealthy—but differ in their areas of expertise: Anderson is a lawyer and was the mayor of Salt Lake City from 2000 to 2008. Stein is a physician who has done a lot of health advocacy as well as environmental advocacy. She’s an organizer.

“It’s absolutely criminal and suicidal to proceed with a drill baby drill policy,” she said in her opening statement, “which is what President Obama has embraced along with Mitt Romney.”

Stein looks back to the F.D.R. presidency for solutions. At the center of her platform is the Green New Deal, which will provide jobs in infrastructure as well as in the alternative energy sector. She also plans to revive the social programs that were started under F.D.R. in 1933 and subsequently killed during the Bush Jr. years.

Several issues were absent in the presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). For example, moderators in the heavily scripted CPD-sponsored debates failed to press Ombama and Romney to discuss climate change, the Patriot Act, FISA, PIPA or SOPA.

The debate can be seen at Nader.Org.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi Democratic Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer Democratic Whip Rep. James Clyburn Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. John Larson Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Steve Israel DCCC Chair

Senator Harry Reid Senate Majority Leader Senator Daniel K. Inouye President Pro Tempore Senator Dick Durbin Assistant Majority Leader Senator Patty Murray Secretary of Conference and DSCC Chair Senator Charles E. Schumer Vice Chair of the Conference

OPEN LETTER FROM LEADING DEMOCRATS TO CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATIC LEADERS

HOW DEMOCRATS CAN GET BACK ON OFFENSE

Robert Frost once wrote that a liberal is someone who won’t take his own side in a debate. However humorous, that’s now a bad joke in an era when there’s a) a TV cable network that is a conveyor belt of falsehoods, b) a reactionary Tea Party tail wagging the GOP dog, c) billionaires flooding elections post-Citizens United and d) a national party paying homage more to Ayn Rand than Abe Lincoln — with malice towards all and charity for none.

Space does not permit a complete chronicle of GOP rhetoric and policies that are more extreme than mainstream: e.g., climate change is a hoax, voter fraud is a menace justifying voter suppression, regulations only impose costs never benefits, Solyndra is like Watergate and the American President hates America. Given such regressive nonsense,  where are the Democrats? The surprising answer — often defensive, defeatist, and reactive.

While President Obama is now pushing back daily and vigorously, too often the (fat) cat’s got Democrats’ tongue. Many of us have raised millions to run campaigns and understand the cross-currents in seeking votes and dollars. But though slandered as a group, Democrats rarely respond as a group. Instead of Russell Crowe saying to his fellow gladiators – “whatever comes out of those gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together” — it’s everybody-for-himself. Because money shouts, must get to calling time to hit up big donors.

So individual Democrats are left to fend that, well, we’re not anti-defense, anti-business, anti-family or pro-big government. But since wars are won not by Dunkirks but by Normandys – and since 2012 is shaping up as a clash of core beliefs — we urge Democratic Party leaders to show leadership in at least three ways:

* Frames: Let’s reframe issues so that platitudes and metaphors don’t pass for analysis. Recall when southern racists of both parties would argue that they were only defending property rights and state rights? Today, it’s CEOs and their apologists arguing that they are just champions of the first amendment when arguing that unlimited money is speech and corporations are people.

The opportunities are endless to retake the offensive. If corporations are people, can they run for office? To stop Republicans from buying or stealing elections, a viral mantra should be MoneyOut/VotersIn – overturn Citizens United, enact public funding and expand the franchise. More jobs now reduce deficits later – and if Republicans are opposing the Pentagon sequester because military spending creates jobs, presumably so does spending on public works projects. Because consumer demand is the real job-creator, it would reduce economic growth to increase taxes on the middle class to finance cuts for the rich. Here, President Obama’s “RomneyHood” hit its intended Achilles Heel.

We know the Republican political slogan – free markets, not big government. What’s the Democratic big idea? Not quite as much government? Split the difference with an extreme GOP position? If you asked 10 people on the street what each party stood for, most could answer for the Republicans but not the Democrats.

Party leaders need to declare that the issue in 2012 isn’t the size of government but our common purpose. Which is democracy, prosperity and security. In America, you can’t love your country and hate your government since we are the government, as the Oklahoma City bombing made fleetingly obvious. Yes the issue is freedom…freedom from e coli bacteria and from health care bills that bankrupt families.

With Romney-Ryan’s unpopular views on tax cuts for the wealthy and “VoucherCare” for the elderly, now’s the perfect time to frame this election as between John Galt and Modern Family – the 1% who believe “we’re all in this alone” (Sen. Durbin’s phrase) versus “everyone’s better off when everyone’s better off.” With reactionaries dominating the policy, language and financing of the GOP, the best way Democrats can win is to hit the gas not the brakes.

* Record: A weekly RepublicanReignofError could explain what would happen if those running on a right-wing-and-a-prayer actually got their way. Not just facts but stories: nieces without Pell Grants; class sizes of 50; women being criminally prosecuted for abortions; free riders overwhelming hospital emergency rooms; sea levels flooding coastal downtowns. Not many independent voters want that.

*Ideas. Among the things that make Democrats exceptional is FDR’s axiom that we pursue “bold, persistent experimentation.” Where are the successors to Social Security, GI Bill, the Americans with Disabilities Act? To help Democrats win and govern, what can be our positive mandate?

JFK wanted to “throw our hat over the wall of space.”  We can do that here on earth with a living wage, a carbon tax, a Mortgage Refinancing Trust agency, progressive tax reform, filibuster reform, corporate pension reform, public funding for public elections, universal voter enrollment – and with clear explanations how inequality retards the GDP, education investments advance growth, and a high-tech Pentagon can be smaller and more effective.

At stake then is not only winning this congressional seat or that but the very American experiment itself. With an iceberg dead ahead this Fall, it’s time for congressional Democrats to not just explain but to expose and propose. The negative frame is “Extremism Takes America Back.” The positive vision is a Progressive Patriotism that lives up to Walt Whitman’s promise that “America is always becoming.”

Signed*:

*Institutions for identification purposes only; all public offices previously held; no books listed.

James Abourezk, U. S. Representative and Senator from South Dakota.

Joan Claybrook, Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; past president, Public Citizen.

David N. Dinkins, Mayor of New York City.

Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University; political commentator, MSNBC.

Peter Edelman, legislative assistant, Senator Robert Kennedy; assistant secretary, Health and Human Services; professor, Georgetown Law School.

Christopher Edley Jr., Dean and professor, UC Berkeley School of Law; Civil Rights Commission; OMB.

Fred Harris, U. S. Senator from Oklahoma; chairman of Democratic National Committee.

James K. Galbraith, Executive Director, Joint Economic Committeee; professor of economics, University of Texas at Austin.

Jennifer M. Granholm, Governor and Attorney General of Michigan; host of “The War Room” on Current TV.

Mark Green, Consumer Commissioner and Public Advocate for New York City; president of Air America Radio.

Gary Hart, U.S. Senator from Colorado.

Jim Hightower, elected commissioner, Texas Railroad Commission; editor of The Hightower Lowdown.

Nicholas Johnson, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.

Norman Lear, TV producer, “All in the Family”; ActIII Communications; Founder, People for the American Way.

Ron Reagan, Commentator, MSNBC; co-host, Both Sides Now radio show.

Robert B. Reich, U.S. Secretary of Labor; Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley.

Russell Simmons, Founder of Def Jam Records; Chairman/CEO Rush Communications.

Derek Shearer, U. S. Ambassador to Finland; director of Global Affairs and professor of diplomacy, Occidental College.

Stanley K. Sheinbaum, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions; president, Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners.

Eliot Spitzer, Governor and Attorney General of New York State: host of “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer” on Current TV.

Reich, Lear, Dinkins, Granholm, Spitzer, Hart, Galbraith, (Ron) Reagan urge party to declare that “Republican Extremism Takes Us Back” and “Progressive Patriotism” can produce a winning mandate this Fall

The letter went to 10 party leaders such as Senator Harry Reid, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and DCCC chair Steve Israel, and was signed by, among others, Norman Lear, Robert Reich, Jennifer Granholm, Eliot Spitzer, David Dinkins, Gary Hart, Ron Reagan and Jamie Galbraith (email available on request).

In response to GOP “falsehoods and nonsense”, the former Democratic elected officials and authors ask, “Where are the Democrats? The surprising answer — often defensive, defeatist and reactive.” Why? Answers the Open Letter: “a TV cable network that’s a conveyor belt of falsehoods; a reactionary Tea Party tail wagging the GOP dog; billionaires flooding elections post-Citizens United; a national party paying homage more to Ayn Rand than Abe Lincoln — with malice towards all and charity for none — [while] too often the (fat) cat’s got our party’s tongue. But wars are won not by Dunkirks but by Normandys…”

Letter organizer and signer Mark Green, former NYC Public Advocate, explained the group’s premise: ” “We think it’s crazy that reactionary Republicans can pretend to save the damsel in distress when they tied her to the tracks in the first place. Instead of only responding to the river of lies flowing out of Tampa, aggressive progressives need to fundamentally reframe the choices and offer a positive vision that can help congressional Democrats both win and govern.”

The 20 Democrats urged “Democratic Party leaders to hit the gas not the brakes and show leadership in at least three ways:

* Frames:  Let’s reframe issues so that platitudes and metaphors don’t pass for analysis…The opportunities are endless to retake the offensive. If corporations are people, can they run for office? To stop Republicans from buying or stealing elections, a viral mantra should be  MoneyOut/VotersIn – Citizens United, enact public funding and expand the franchise. More jobs now reduce deficits later…Because consumer demand is the real job-creator, it would reduce economic growth to increase taxes on the middle class to finance cuts for the rich.

Party leaders need to declare that the issue in 2012 isn’t the size of government but our common purpose. Which is democracy, prosperity and security. In America, you can’t love your country and hate your government since we are the government, as the Oklahoma City bombing made fleetingly obvious. Yes the issue is freedom…freedom from e coli bacteria and from health care bills that bankrupt families.

With Romney-Ryan’s unpopular views on tax cuts for the wealthy and “VoucherCare” for the elderly, now’s the perfect time to frame this election as between John Galt and Modern Family – the 1% who believe “we’re all in this alone” (Sen. Durbin’s phrase) versus “everyone’s better off when everyone’s better off.” With reactionaries dominating the policy, language and financing of the GOP, the best way Democrats can win is to hit the gas not the brakes.

* Ideas: Among the things that make Democrats exceptional is FDR’s axiom that we pursue “bold, persistent experimentation.” Where are the successors to Social Security, GI Bill, the Americans with Disabilities Act? To help Democrats win and govern, what can be the positive mandate?

JFK wanted to “throw our hat over the wall of space.”  We can do that here on earth with a living wage, a carbon tax, a Mortgage Refinancing Trust agency, progressive tax reform, filibuster reform, corporate pension reform, public funding for public elections, universal voter enrollment – and with clear explanations how inequality retards the GDP, education investments advance growth, and a high-tech Pentagon can be smaller and more effective.”