Take This Job and Ship It: - Senator Byron Dorgan (D)

Byron Dorgan, the junior senator from North Dakota, may well have laid out in his new book, Take This Job and Ship It, the first rough roadmap for Democrats to find their way back into the hearts and heads of the anxious working and middle classes of America, our natural constituency at which Republicans have been nibbling away for the past decade or so.

Dorgan's main thesis, as the subtitle indicates, is that corporate greed and the egregious effects of outsourcing are destroying this country. Through tracing the consequences of our free trade policy on middle America, the senator is able to crack open the door to related discussions on global human rights and child slavery, corporate tax evasion, national security, energy independence and planetary environmental problems. This exploration of ever-expanding cause and effect allows him to sketch the outlines of an emerging muscular liberal populism for the Democratic Party, shorn of populism's historical nativist rhetoric and permitting Americans to see themselves both as citizens of a great country and responsible residents of the world.

The book opens with a mind-numbing list of personal stories and specific closures of once-great American companies - the makers of Etch-a-Sketch, Hula Hoops, Fruit of the Loom, Fig Newtons, Levis ... the list goes on and on. A particularly poignant anecdote relates how the workers at Huffy Bikes spent their last days on the job peeling the trademark American flag off the handlebars and substituting stickers of the globe in its place.

From there, Dorgan spreads out to take on - passionately - the multi-national corporations leading the charge to relocation. He outlines for laypeople in as straightforward way as possible some of the arcane tax maneuvers and loopholes used to reap corporate tax benefits; he calls companies to account for the "exported misery" they're visiting on other countries, where child slave labor and inhuman working conditions prevail; he rails against the practice of corporations that renounce their American corporate citizenship to avoid taxation; he deplores the trend of industry insiders being moved to agencies that nominally regulate the very same industries. Big Pharma in particular draws a cannon-load of fire as the subject of a whole chapter illustrating every aspect of what's wrong with multi-nationals today. Wal-Mart too earns the dishonor of a chapter of its own (which opens with Dorgan quoting Norman Mailer's mayoral campaign slogan: No more bullshit!).

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/7/161930/8532

I am currently reading "The People's Business: Controlling Corporations & Restoring Democracy." The authors are both affiliated with Citzen Works. Dorgan's book sounds like a good companion book.

We absolutely must get the corporate personhood issue discussed at the national level.

You did a good job on the outline of this book. I'm surprised a lot more people here haven't weighed in on their opinions. Sen. Byron dorgan has written about the most important issues that affect our whole way of life. I grew up in a time when anyone leaning towards socialism was called a 'commie' or dragged before the 'UnAmerican Activities Committee', and his patriotism was questioned. That was a big Republican thing then. Now it has been the Repubs who have sold us down the river, and in my book are the real traitors. Too bad Dorgan is such a low key guy. He may be the best hope for the Dems in 2008.

But had to say I just started this book and it should be a Xmas gift to EVERYONE we know. It is an easy read but explains exactly how America is going down the drain because of our jobs. He explains the economy we need to be a strong country succinctly. Even dumb Repukes should be able to understand this.