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The New Populist Movement: Organizing to Take Back America.
The New Populist Movement: Organizing to Take Back America.
Mar 2014
The new progressive populist movement is rising up in the United States. Inspired by an expansive vision of greater economic opportunity for all Americans, this new movement is also fueled by anger over politicians' broken promises. After decades of recurring economic crisis, which now seems systemic and permanent, millions of Americans have come to realize that much of our democratic system is now owned by a moneyed elite that use their power to resist real change and to manipulate the economy for their own financial gain.
Even the mass media know something big is going on. At the end of November, a Washington Post headline announced, "More liberal, populist movement emerging ahead of 2016 elections." And the New York Times, in a September article, reporting on the new progressive insurgency, cited the excitement generated by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the new populist mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. These and other media reports have been based on important new populist victories that represent the visible tip of a very large iceberg:
Low-wage workers and their allies have filled the streets of America's major cities, demanding a living wage and the right to bargain for wages and benefits. Their basic demand, echoed now by political leaders, is that full-time work should pay enough to keep a family out of poverty.
The cry of "break up the big banks" is now heard from protests at bank shareholder meetings to the halls of Congress. Many of the groups who worked to pass the Dodd-Frank bill have joined with housing advocates and others to demand Wall Street prosecutions - and real bank reform championed by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. Warren.
Lawrence Summers, President Obama's top choice for Chair of the Federal Reserve, was stopped from getting that important job by a coalition of civic activists, including women and financial reform groups. Their favorite, Janet Yellen, was appointed instead.
The national debate on the future or Social Security has been flipped - from "Stop cutting benefits" to "Expand Social Security." Activists got Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin to introduce a bill with Sen. Sherrod Brown to expand benefits. Sen. Warren helped achieve critical mass. Conservative "Third Way" operatives attacked, but actual Third Way Members of Congress denounced their own group - and several actually embraced Social Security expansion. And after grassroots pressure, President Obama withdrew his plan to cut Social Security benefits...
Political reporters have tended to frame the New Populism as either a challenge to President Obama - or as an agenda and constituency for whoever might run against Hillary Clinton. But hard experience has taught us we need to build an independent force that can fight the big corporate interests and shape a positive agenda for all politicians who claim be for progressive change.
To be clear, this new movement is still coming together, most visible politically in the grassroots campaigns to raise the minimum wage and extend unemployment insurance.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-hickey/the-new-populist-movement_b_4899347.html
Mar 2014
The new progressive populist movement is rising up in the United States. Inspired by an expansive vision of greater economic opportunity for all Americans, this new movement is also fueled by anger over politicians' broken promises. After decades of recurring economic crisis, which now seems systemic and permanent, millions of Americans have come to realize that much of our democratic system is now owned by a moneyed elite that use their power to resist real change and to manipulate the economy for their own financial gain.
Even the mass media know something big is going on. At the end of November, a Washington Post headline announced, "More liberal, populist movement emerging ahead of 2016 elections." And the New York Times, in a September article, reporting on the new progressive insurgency, cited the excitement generated by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the new populist mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. These and other media reports have been based on important new populist victories that represent the visible tip of a very large iceberg:
Low-wage workers and their allies have filled the streets of America's major cities, demanding a living wage and the right to bargain for wages and benefits. Their basic demand, echoed now by political leaders, is that full-time work should pay enough to keep a family out of poverty.
The cry of "break up the big banks" is now heard from protests at bank shareholder meetings to the halls of Congress. Many of the groups who worked to pass the Dodd-Frank bill have joined with housing advocates and others to demand Wall Street prosecutions - and real bank reform championed by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. Warren.
Lawrence Summers, President Obama's top choice for Chair of the Federal Reserve, was stopped from getting that important job by a coalition of civic activists, including women and financial reform groups. Their favorite, Janet Yellen, was appointed instead.
The national debate on the future or Social Security has been flipped - from "Stop cutting benefits" to "Expand Social Security." Activists got Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin to introduce a bill with Sen. Sherrod Brown to expand benefits. Sen. Warren helped achieve critical mass. Conservative "Third Way" operatives attacked, but actual Third Way Members of Congress denounced their own group - and several actually embraced Social Security expansion. And after grassroots pressure, President Obama withdrew his plan to cut Social Security benefits...
Political reporters have tended to frame the New Populism as either a challenge to President Obama - or as an agenda and constituency for whoever might run against Hillary Clinton. But hard experience has taught us we need to build an independent force that can fight the big corporate interests and shape a positive agenda for all politicians who claim be for progressive change.
To be clear, this new movement is still coming together, most visible politically in the grassroots campaigns to raise the minimum wage and extend unemployment insurance.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-hickey/the-new-populist-movement_b_4899347.html
Very good article. It goes on to list the 12 big elements of the emerging New Populist agenda:
1. Revive Sustainable Economic Growth, Creating Jobs for All.
2. Invest in America's Infrastructure and in New Jobs for the 21st Century.
3. Make Work Pay - and Fight to Reduce Inequality in America.
4. If the Rising American Electorate Succeeds, America Succeeds.
5. Guarantee Access to High Quality Public Education for All.
6. Strengthen and Expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
7. Make the Rich and Corporations Pay Their Fair Share.
8. Stop Bad Trade Deals, and Balance Trade Based on Global Labor Rights.
9. Reform the Financial System to Safely Serve the Productive Economy.
10. Invest in Energy Technologies that Drive a Sustainable Economy.
11. Reduce the Military Budget and Invest at Home.
12. Strengthen Democracy.
91 replies
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And that was in Ohio, where the only signs you saw in favor of Democrats were anti-rethug/Kasich:
And that was because the Democrat running for Governor was a complete idiot.
And rethugs won in a landslide.
People ARE allowed to disagree with posts.
Disagreeing with someone as opposed to being disruptive is the critical distinction.
I think we're seeing massive organization across the country. Personally, I've been heartened and astonished at the numbers in the demonstrations regarding the paramilitary turn of the police. It's not just national: it's international!
Re the naysayers, we just need to move on. They'll hop on the bandwagon eventually. Right now it's a lot easier to sit back in their easy chair and scoff at the efforts of others. Pay them no mind; unfortunately, it's the best they can do at the moment.
Cher
Thanks Cher!
Or someone knew you were being sarcastic and just didn't like your point. It definitely wasn't a "hijack".
hmmmm...
Sad, sad words, but true. Too many Americans have fallen for the lie that they pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. The hatred toward people who get government assistance but acceptance of corporate giveaways is stunning.
I have a friend, republican, who abhors government assistance programs for people, although she has two daughters benefiting from these programs, but she will defend all the tax breaks & cuts for the corporations, because, "they provide jobs & would raise prices if we don't." 
I reminded her that they are shipping our jobs overseas & prices go up all the time, but she just says, "it would be worse if we taxed them." 
How do you even combat that kind of thinking?
It's just easier to say FDR. 
But she was especially important to the start of the Civil Rights Movement~
Eleanor became an important connection for Franklin's administration to the African-American population during the segregation era. Despite the President's desire to placate Southern sentiment, Eleanor was vocal in her support of the African-American civil rights movement. After her experience with Arthurdale and her inspections of New Deal programs in Southern states, she concluded that New Deal programs were discriminating against African-Americans, who received a disproportionately small share of relief moneys. Eleanor became one of the only voices in the Roosevelt White House insisting that benefits be equally extended to Americans of all races.[82]
Eleanor also broke with precedent by inviting hundreds of African American guests to the White House.[83] When the black singer Marian Anderson was denied the use of Washington's Constitution Hall in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Eleanor resigned from the group in protest and helped arrange another concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.[49] Roosevelt later presented Anderson to the King and Queen of the United Kingdom after Anderson performed at a White House dinner.[84] Roosevelt also arranged the appointment of African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune, with whom she had struck up a friendship, as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration.[85][86] To avoid problems with the staff when Bethune would visit the White House, Eleanor would meet her at the gate, embrace her, and walk in with her arm-in-arm.[87].
...Roosevelt's support of African-American rights made her an unpopular figure among whites in the South. Rumors spread of "Eleanor Clubs" formed by servants to oppose their employers and "Eleanor Tuesdays" on which African-American men would knock down white women on the street, though no evidence has ever been found of either practice.[91] When race riots broke out in Detroit in June 1943, critics in both the North and South wrote that Roosevelt was to blame.[92] At the same time, she grew so popular among African-Americans, previously a reliable Republican voting bloc, that they became a consistent base of support for the Democratic Party.[93]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt
Eleanor also broke with precedent by inviting hundreds of African American guests to the White House.[83] When the black singer Marian Anderson was denied the use of Washington's Constitution Hall in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Eleanor resigned from the group in protest and helped arrange another concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.[49] Roosevelt later presented Anderson to the King and Queen of the United Kingdom after Anderson performed at a White House dinner.[84] Roosevelt also arranged the appointment of African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune, with whom she had struck up a friendship, as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration.[85][86] To avoid problems with the staff when Bethune would visit the White House, Eleanor would meet her at the gate, embrace her, and walk in with her arm-in-arm.[87].
...Roosevelt's support of African-American rights made her an unpopular figure among whites in the South. Rumors spread of "Eleanor Clubs" formed by servants to oppose their employers and "Eleanor Tuesdays" on which African-American men would knock down white women on the street, though no evidence has ever been found of either practice.[91] When race riots broke out in Detroit in June 1943, critics in both the North and South wrote that Roosevelt was to blame.[92] At the same time, she grew so popular among African-Americans, previously a reliable Republican voting bloc, that they became a consistent base of support for the Democratic Party.[93]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt
And just as a fun side note, she was good friends with Amelia Earhart.
