2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWho, as President, will make it better for Main Street?
Most people who think and write about these things agree that a resilient and healthy America must be based upon local economic activity that eschews extraction of value by big, distant companies and instead connects people where they live, work, and play.
Too many cities, towns and neighborhoods, though, are either overcrowded or sprawling (or both), with food deserts, crumbling or missing infrastructure, alienated people behind wrought-iron gates or under iron bridges, or just planted at the computer or TV while the "community" outside slips away.
Since 1950 the suburban development experiment has provided the framework for much of this, and since 1980 "trickle-down" capitalism has gutted the working class cash flow that both built Main Street prosperity and destroyed it with the Big Box plan. All the while various public programs at all levels of government have sought to ameliorate the ill effects of the decline, with mixed success but with an ever-increasing bureaucracy supported by an ever-more-fragile tax base.
So who, as President, is most likely to lead us to a place of solutions for this? (Perhaps I should say "more likely" since this is GD-P, but the case could be made that a Republican for the next four years could bring about the necessary cataclysm to start the overhaul.)
Bernie's trillion-dollar infrastructure plan: does that build connected communities, or is it just more short term make-work? What does Hillary have that's likely to set the tone, and the ball rolling, for building America from the blighted ground up?
First, do you agree that local solutions must come? And then, make the case for your candidate to do something to get the 21st Century started in America.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Ron Green
(9,823 posts)to address the OP?
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)medicare for all, he has already introduced a bill in Congress and it did not make it out of committee, as a congressional member part of his position is to get other congressional members to endorse a bill and the necessary support to get the bill passed. The committees are a part of the process before the vote. Placing issues which is proven failures on the candidates agenda will not change anything, no action, no solution.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)Don't make me laugh.
cali
(114,904 posts)Metric System
(6,048 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)This is a major issue that is too much ignored. Everyone gripes about the impact, but it seldom enters the national political sphere.
IMO the culture and values that Bernie come out of is much more supportive of local solutions and community.
Clinton represents Wal Mart homogenous culture and the imposition of the corporate imperitive.
I'm on my cell phone (ahem) and can't type long but it is a subject that should be more discussed
uponit7771
(90,363 posts)Last edited Tue Feb 2, 2016, 08:00 PM - Edit history (1)
... that the current historically gerrymandered GOP congress will present to any legislation left or right?
Someone who's not going to proffer marketed slogans meant to inspire the few but leave out "the fewer" ... in practice... and then deliver very little other than a "fight"?
Someone who can develop a relationship with people they need to work a vision vs telling these very people that they're their savior via proxies.
Someone who has an imperfect track record of LEADING little revolutions of all sizes vs sitting on the sidelines and throwing rocks and proffering adversity against those in charge?
Just to name a few
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)uponit7771
(90,363 posts)... didn't build that" is telling no?
tia
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)(I'm assuming that's your candidate) would bring about local and sustainable economic activities. Would it be about growth, or more about mutual connectedness and support?
randome
(34,845 posts)Congress wields the power. If the 'revolution' does not recognize that, nothing will change.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)when we regard the problems of community?
uponit7771
(90,363 posts)... things done
DanTex
(20,709 posts)TBF
(32,090 posts)as evidenced by Walmart closing 100+ stores this month. As Bernie reminded us last night - we the people bailed out Wall Street and now it's time for payback. The form that takes in a civilized society is taxation. We tax trades, we tax on the income over 120K (or whatever the current cap is on social security - I can't recall the exact amount), we raise capital gains back to taxation at 100% like we did pre-Reagan, the list goes on and on. The very wealthy, especially with inherited wealth, have been getting a free ride. With that funding we can come up with all sorts of public infrastructure programs and it needs to come from the top down. Now, when those funds are distributed as grants and the like than localities will have some say in how they are spent, what is key to fix, etc. but yes I do believe this needs to be centralized with a much more generous federal minimum wage in place and civil rights and gender protections. Can a republican bring about the type of overhaul we need? Absolutely not. Privatizing everything ensures that profit is the only motive. That's what we've tried the past 35 years and frankly it has been a huge disaster for all but the very richest people. And it is even literally killing people - to wit most recently I give you Flint, MI. No, this truly does need to be an overhaul, or a revolution if you will, and we need Bernie Sanders to lead it.
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)a sense of ownership into the regeneration of local economies. Is a higher minimum wage enough? Or is that more detachment from the reality of "place making?"
I don't know the answer to this; I just know what we've done so far hasn't worked.
TBF
(32,090 posts)by and large. So how much do we involve them, connect with them, or do we completely keep a distance? As an agnostic person myself I appreciate separation of church and state, yet they really are not completely separate given that they are essentially non-profits for tax purposes. But for many people that is where connection is.
ETA - the higher minimum is non-negotiable in my view, but you make good points re connections
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)Saul Alinsky and the Back of the Yards activities were closely connected with Catholic Bishops and Protestant ministers in Chicago, and of course the Black churches were central to the Civil Rights movement.
It's tricky on DU to talk about the Church; there's lots of antipathy around it. But as a community organizer it's powerful in that it moves more quickly than government and (ideally) without the profit motive of the market.
Pope Francis has brought a new awareness of the Church's role in community building, and I think that's why Bernie Sanders gives him props occasionally.
TBF
(32,090 posts)it would be pretty poor if I missed that one.
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)based on their argument that the state minimum wage initiative is unconstitutional (an unfunded mandate the county "can't afford." They push the usual claim that $13.65, or thereabouts, will inflate everything and cause small businesses to lay off people or close up.