Is it too late at night to be starting a thread at DU?

Is everyone happy with no big public works programs, a continued War on (Some) Drugs, the world's highest incarceration rate but no banksters in jail, Wall St. running things, etc.?

Does the President have no power to GOTV? Is it too much to ask for progressive Executive Orders six full years after the first Obama campaign was in full swing?

Bueller? Bueller?

-app

Government direct hiring isn't nearly as easy or effective as a lot of people think; it would probably be better to just give out the money to unemployed people.

A unilateral rescheduling of cannabis would turn out the over-60 crowd to vote GOP in numbers you would have difficulty imagining. (I can see the ad now: a black guy handing drugs to your children...) Be careful what you wish for.

You might be right that direct hiring will be less than completely efficient, especially since so many of our public agencies have been hollowed-out. But even with whatever inevitable inefficiencies that may come, I think that a modern WPA would send exactly the right messages: we're all in this together, our nation's public infrastructure matters, by working together we can make a better life for people and a better environment for us all, etc.



Really? Do you have any evidence to back this up? Sixty year olds were born in 1954, and were essentially in the peak of the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960's. Even to people ten years more senior, mj is hardly the stuff of Reefer Madness anymore. Do you really think that a simple rescheduling of a natural plant that most of them have smoked (or at least had a friend who has) at some point in their lives would really freak them out? And don't underestimate the impact that medical mj is having on that age group now that too many of them face cancer, glaucoma, high blood pressure, chronic pain, etc.

One thing I know for sure, tepid campaigning, Republican appeasement, austerity-policies, and absolutely nothing radical certainly won't get out the vote. So I'm willing to go to the mat on those two ideas I posted. What would make you so inspired that you would fight for a cause, a candidate, and a Party?

-app

Their nice blonde children would be walking home from school (even though kids haven't done that for 20 years), and a black hand would reach out and give them some pills. &quot Candidate) is trying to keep your kids safe; hasn't this gone far enough?" You're acting like voters respond to reality rather than presentation, which is a dangerous illusion.

You might be right that direct hiring will be less than completely efficient, especially since so many of our public agencies have been hollowed-out.

It's not about "efficiency", it's about the fundamental question of what will you have people do? Are Americans in general even in shape enough to dig ditches anymore? (And if so, are there really that many ditches we need dug?) Or do you just make up jobs that match their current skills and abilities? Have an unemployed sysadmin just build and maintain a server nobody needed? If there were work that needed to be done, there would be people willing to pay to do it. Is there some stack of widgets going unmade or services going unrendered that would be worth paying for? The problem is that there's not enough work needing to be done right now for everybody who wants to work to spend 40 hours every week doing that. Just institute a dole.

Last edited Tue Apr 8, 2014, 08:47 PM - Edit history (2)

We might have to agree to disagree about this. All evidence I encounter indicates that most Americans see mj as a plant, fundamentally different than pills, or PCP, or crack, etc. The 'Reefer Madness' scare tactics have been pretty played out, and were already a joke in the 1980's when I was a teenager. Sure, plenty of Americans might think that mj makes you dumb, lazy, and a munchies-ridden couch potato, but even they are well past wanting to spend tax dollars to lock people up for it. And again, all I am calling for in the Executive Order is rescheduling to Schedule V: not legalization (though legalization is certainly MY long-term goal). A well-framed campaign in conjunction with the rescheduling could easily win with the points that the current criminal penalties for mj far outweigh any damage the 'drug' itself could possibly do, consenting adults deserve a choice, Prohibition has been a consistent failure, the War on (Some) Drugs wastes enormous quantities of tax dollars, and no one is calling for it to be legal for children ...



Our national infrastructure is in shambles. We could keep ten million people busy doing worthwhile public works for decades and still not catch up. Basic construction jobs would be only one aspect. For those uninterested in repairing bridges, building new transit systems, and 'ditch digging,' there are jobs to be done replanting eroded stream banks, planting edible landscape plants in public parks, pruning trees, installing solar panels, yes - installing servers and digital infrastructure that will be very much used, and then also documenting history and writing about and photographing all these efforts.

-app

ever read. Millions of American work at backbreaking jobs everyday, you sound as arrogant and out of touch as Mitt Romney.

This is an idea from the left, not the right.

Seriously, the lack of discussion about big ideas that can motivate the electorate, and the unwillingness to lay out what we can reasonably expect of a Democratic President whom we have elected twice now is more than a little disappointing.

-app

pot and temporary jobs.

I started this thread not do discuss the most important issues ever, but to toss out ideas about what Obama, as President and Executive, could do on his own to move the country forward and also enthuse the electorate toward truly progressive candidates. I think that a cannabis reclassification would cost nothing, and generate significant pluralities of good will. A public works program would of course cost a lot, but would be well worth it, and again generate significant pluralities of good will and necessary progress.

If you think that the President could issue EO's on more weighty and meaningful issues than an unjust and unnecessary war that inflicts millions of casualties per year as its being waged against a plant , then preach it MO. If you think that he could issue EO's on more weighty and meaningful issues than putting our nation back to work while simultaneously addressing a public infrastructure crisis, I want to hear about them!

One thing I know is the 'Moderate' pro-bankster, repub-appeasement, austerity-lite mode of governance of the past six years has failed to inspire too many. The Republicans hate him every bit as much as if he had governed as an actual progressive, but most of the actual progressives I know say 'meh' at best about his almost term and a half thus far.

The mid term elections are just about seven months away. We need much, much more than the 3rd-way weak sauce to GOTV before that time.

-app

PS- Thanks for the reply, MO. I was getting tired of talking to myself.

One, for not getting back to ya sooner.
Two for misreading. Thought you were saying these should be primary points.

IMO, President Obama should focus on the economy, the ACA and illegal immigration. The most important thing this election is convincing moderates to show up and vote in November.

Thanks WillyT. I'd really like to see some big, progressive actions "From the Top" between now and 10/14 but like you said in another thread,"There Are Days When I Wonder If Some Of The Democratic Party Has Been Infiltrated..."



-app

I'd vote for twice-a-week press conferences, like FDR had: http://100days.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/obama-fdr-and-taming-the-press/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Obama is the most gifted speaker of our generation. He should stick to speaking with the press. He should put Howard Dean in charge of getting stuff done.

I bet Dean could suggest a few great, progressive EO ideas in the next few months!

Obama leaving Dean and other true progressives out of his cabinets has been an ongoing mistake. Bringing in Howard Dean, Wes Clark, and Paul Krugman at high levels could help transform Obamas final years in office to become much more effective.

-app