Regarding Massachusetts, I have to say Bill's comments hurt, because they're true. I worried, mostly privately, about that lack of direction in January of 2007. We have to remember that things got so ridiculous in the years of Mitterdämmerung (04-06), that the big things we wanted out of a Patrick administration seem kind of technical, unglamorous: Keep health care on stable footing; root out the obvious hackery in state government; set basic progressive priorities in education and the environment; and yes, same-sex marriage.
But it's true, there weren't three or four glaring action items around which we could all rally. (Casinos sure as hell weren't on that list.) It was the barnacles of sixteen-years-plus of neglect and cowardice that needed scraping. The Big Dig Culture didn't accumulate overnight; $22 billion wasn't spent all at once. We didn't let the 'Pike and MBTA get themselves into this mess by anyone's express policy agenda. The central issue was how power and accountability were distributed in the government. That's not an easy thing around which to organize and focus a movement. It really does matter who controls the executive, and where they feel they derive their power and legitimacy, i.e. their “mandate”.
This will also be true for the next President, who will have to renew a sense of decency, mission, and professionalism in government. We've had a Department of Justice that became a Department of Political Vendettas; an Environmental Protection Agency that refused to protect the environment; a FEMA which couldn't manage emergencies; and so forth. The hole is deep. Musharraf of Pakistan was criticized for the weakening of institutions under his undemocratic rule; we have seen something like that here.
But the big issues on the national scale are indeed legislative. We should start organizing and pushing on the issues that are likely to require all of our pressure, in order to counteract the corporate interests to the extent we can. Averting climate disaster is not optional; covering the uninsured is a moral necessity.
I'll have more on that health care bullet point soon.
That will help set an agenda early and often. With a Dem Congress and a Dem WH, get those budgets that often don’t get handled until the Fall done by July 1. All of ’em. Even if that means a few move quickly with little fanfare or adjustment. By getting a chunk of the budget done quickly, it’ll free time to tweak one or two spending bills, and it will help stave off the temptation of every interest to grab tons of loot now that the Dems have the veto pen.
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p>Then, the key is to kill many birds with each stone. Fund green energy research at universities to help subsidize education too. Use clean energy to reduce illness due to localized air and water pollution. Use the troops coming home as an opportunity to provide them health care in a systemic way that can be moved over to the citizenry at large. Perhaps most importantly, slice the deficit by 10% in the first year, with “hooks” to slice more.
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p>If the Dems can use the savings in Iraq to (a) fund more public health care, (b) fund more clean energy capacity, and (c) cut the deficit, they’ll have accomplished quite a bit in a year. They don’t have to hit home runs until 2010. A couple of singles will go a long way toward reversing the damage while the Dems hash out bigger picture policies behind the scenes.
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p>Well, you’re in luck!
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jobs are not hiring full timers since they’d have to pay benefits. So instead, people are working 40-60 hours on a combination of jobs, and they still have no healthcare.
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p>The businesses would be willing to hire people at a cost of living wage (ok that might be too naive to think that) if they didn’t have to pay benefits on healthcare.
Ah, the time before the election. When the air is full of blissful promise. And promise. And promise. When the public waits for post-election time and the promises to evaporate into thin air as smoke rings, reminding us that talk is cheap. I hope our Democratic Party lays off the empty promise business a little to start shoring up our foundations of government.
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p>Healthcare, climate and an end to the war are all very nice, but what good are they if there is no human rights left in this country?
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p>Healthcare alone means little. It seems to be a problem that is not going away with universal healthcare. Even in today’s system a patient waits three or four months for an appointment only to be told they have to see a different specialist. Another three or four months to see the other doctor. Canada has that problem now. They’re sending some patients to the USA to pay for it themselves. Universal healthcare won’t solve this, but will serve to exacerbate it. Is healthcare better if you can’t get it, but it’s free? Anyway, can a country in dire financial straights enact another costly federal program? I doubt it.
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p>Global Warming or Climate Change. Another great science championed by politicians and Hollywood stars. Already our politicians are solving this problem by taking food from the hungry and turning it into ethanol so it can be mixed with gasoline to make a less efficient fuel. I’m sure the starlets will fly off in their private jets with their entourage and photographers to be photo’d with the starving children. What other great solutions to a problem that may or may not exist are waiting in the wings? Hey, if a typical human produces 100 watts a day, how much global warming can we prevent by starving 20,000 per day? Oh!, for the day a government program didn’t make a bad situation a catastrophe…
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p>The Iraq war. Now that people are genuinely disgusted with the war without end, we are told that it will end soon. We’re told that just before elections. Even by a candidate who was recently talking about 100 years! So many politicians making so much on this war, I can’t see it ending anytime soon. Neither the Republicans nor their Democratic enablers want to kill the goose that continues to lay the golden egg. Who wants to announce layoffs at General Dynamics, Ratheon, Textron, etc? What’s the impetus to end the war?
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p>The rights of a free people. That’s an issue to vote for. (Some have died for.) Reinstate the rule of law. Pull back the dogs of the police state. The idea was that the government was supposed to work for the people. Now the government agencies maintain an adversarial relationship with the citizens. And, stop granting more powers to government terrorists. How many people are left out in voterville that will support freedom? What party is left that supports at least a modicum of civil rights? Certainly not the Republicans. Freedom is an issue that could be grabbed by the Democrats, fire the imagination and the hopes of the people. Why not support a freedom platform in America?