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Three Great Progressive Ideas

The Nation. Posted January 25, 2006.


(1) Get out of Iraq. (2) Make corporations accountable. (3) Save small farmers. Congress's most progressive members offer short proposals for where to take the country.

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Editor's note: The Nation assembled 20 short political proposals authored by some of the most progressive members in the House of Representatives. The following is a selection of three of those.

Out of Iraq
by Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee

With the official case for war long since discredited, the human and economic costs mounting and evidence growing that the Bush Administration's "stay the course" policy may keep us there indefinitely, it has never been clearer that the war in Iraq is a moral and functional failure. Human decency, fiscal sanity and national security demand that we move quickly to bring our soldiers home.

The insurgency will never be quelled as long as American troops are in Iraq. It's the occupation that gave rise to the insurgency in the first place. Every day that U.S. boots are on Iraqi soil, militant anti-Americanism intensifies and more insurgents are created. As one American officer in Iraq bluntly put it: "We can't kill them all. When I kill one, I create three."

A radical shift in Iraq policy is long overdue. Sixty-one members of the House have signed a letter to the president offering concrete steps toward peace:

  • Withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
  • Establish, through the United Nations and NATO, a multinational interim security force to keep Iraq secure and stable.
  • Recast the U.S. role in Iraq as reconstruction partner, not military occupier, stepping up efforts to rebuild economic infrastructure and renouncing plans to control Iraqi oil and create permanent military bases.
  • Help establish an international peace commission, with global conflict-resolution experts overseeing postwar reconciliation and peace talks among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

The president has hinted at troop reductions in the coming year, but we fear that any drawdown will be a cosmetic, cynically timed effort to minimize Republican losses in the 2006 elections. Bush warns, self-servingly, against "irresponsible debate" on Iraq. He is well aware that November's midterm elections offer progressives an opportunity to seize the initiative and define the withdrawal debate. Let's make the most of that historic opportunity. Let's remind voters that this war is not an isolated mistake but rather the central component of a flawed and destructive foreign policy. Let's insist that candidates -- even if they claim to support troop reductions -- say whether they support permanent military bases in Iraq. With the majority of Americans now seeing Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive war through the lens of its failure in Iraq, we can finally put to rest the myth that Republicans are "strong on defense" -- and redefine the debate on security.

Accountable Corporations
by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

As they read about waste and fraud in the post-hurricane reconstruction -- and in Iraq -- my constituents in Houston are increasingly demanding stronger corporate accountability and oversight. Like Americans across the political spectrum, they see downsizing and outsourcing, excessive executive pay, the unjust dumping of pensions, accounting fraud, price gouging and other corporate abuses as fundamental threats to our democracy. They know the problem goes much deeper than some of the well-known "bad apples." They know the government condones the behavior of irresponsible corporations by giving them taxpayer subsidies and lucrative contracts.

It's time for Congress to demand that contracts and subsidies -- federal loans, grants and tax breaks -- are tied to responsible business practices. Federal regulations require that government contracts go only to "responsible" companies. But in Iraq, and now on the Gulf Coast, this standard is applied weakly; the awarding of no-bid or limited-bid contracts to corporations with government cronies as lobbyists or executives has taken even more teeth out of the accountability standards.

Congress must increase its oversight. An additional level of scrutiny should be applied to corporations with repeated violations of labor, consumer, environmental, human rights or antitrust laws, and those with multiple violations of contract-related laws (e.g., fraud or bribery). Companies that reincorporate offshore to avoid their fair share of taxes should have their tax and other benefits curtailed. A portion of their tax savings could be channeled into domestic programs that rebuild the refinery areas disabled by Hurricane Katrina.

We should use the federal purse to support a progressive vision of economic progress -- one that benefits all Americans equally and creates as many good-paying jobs as possible. To promote that kind of responsibility, Congress should make any companies that do not provide full health-care benefits to all full-time employees ineligible for federal contracts, loans, foreign aid and other subsidies -- period.

As the FEMA disaster and the lobbying scandal have shown us, we also have to improve standards of transparency and accountability. Congress must reject unqualified appointees in public safety and contract-oversight positions. We must stop the awarding of no-bid contracts to companies with close ties to federal officials. Transparent and well-publicized "pre-bid" conferences, making a special effort to include minority-owned and small businesses and representatives of struggling communities, can also help level the playing field. A pre-bid conference in my Houston district in December helped insure that $1.5 billion in federal contracts was competitively and fairly awarded. Another way to improve transparency is to post federal contracts (and large subcontracts) on a publicly accessible online database, with links to information on the companies' records of compliance with the standards of accountability that I'm proposing. Let's allow the public to see where their money is going.


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Ah, Democratic radicalism...
Posted by: drone on Jan 25, 2006 3:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Notice the common thread between all three ideas is corporate power. Corporations profit heavily from Iraq and they've been able to consolidate agriculture in the US under their banner. And so the solution is some vague notion of "accountability"? Cripes, this is what corporations *do*. The only way to make them accountable is to strip away their power to create policy and hijack government powers through proxies. These scandals go well beyond regulations x,y,z. They go to the very heart of whether corporations should be allowed to operate as uber-citizens in a democracy.

As usual, outlets like The Nation want this kinder, genler, socially responsible version of corporate power that's never existed. With friends like these....

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Corporations are not people
Posted by: pgj on Jan 25, 2006 4:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Although the Supreme Court ruled eyars ago that the bill of rights applied to corporations, their wealth combined with their potentially immortal existence makes them, in fact, superior to us meely biological people.
There is a simple remedy, however: A constitutional amendment that would say 'The first ten amendments do not apply to corporations'.

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20 Progressives in Congress?
Posted by: afrothetics on Jan 25, 2006 5:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Now, that's a headline!

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The New Progressive Agenda!
Posted by: Ottomatic on Jan 25, 2006 6:15 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
1 A Verifiable Paper Trail is Indispensable!
Voter Fraud Has Been Computerized by Two Corporations!
How can we effect the changes that we want,
If voter Fraud is so prevalent?

2 A National Health Care System is a must! Doctors should treat disease, instead of symptoms. The fragmentized approach to our National Health, is destroying us. Poisonous foods that are being fed to us. The Obesity epidemic is a direct result of eating, these poisons. Our bodies crave nutrients. Empty Junk Foods, will never satisfy those needs. Fructose and Hydrogenated Oil are poison. Fructose is converted directly into FAT and Hydrogenated Oils are Indigestible: Artery Cloggers. Bypass anyone! The nutrient value of the foods that we eat has been dropping for decades. Franken Corn and Franken Beans are poison. Rats can’t even reproduce on them!

3 A Locally Owned and Controlled Media: is essential to an informed Electorate. Without information, we are all just: Cannon Farther! Free the Airwaves. Information is the life’s blood of Democracy. Without it, we are all doomed. The Air-Waves of the Nation belong to the: People. Not: Rupert The Pervert. Take them back. Six Conglomerates own our Media. These Conglomerates Bombard us endlessly with: Lies, Talking Points and Worthless Gossip. That’s the facts Jack.

4 A Livable Minimum Wage. Three jobs, no health care and in debt is wrong. W. BU__! SH__! Wrong!

5 Campaign Finance Reform. Take the money out of politics. Billionaires are US is ruining our country. What does a Billionaire know about the problems of the working man? Who the Funk in their right mind would spend 100 million dollars to buy an election?

6 De Militarize America. Stop the War Machine. War Profiteers are Bleeding us to Death. We have no money for: Education, Health Care or School lunches! But we got TRILLIONS for: WAR Profiteers and Billionaire Tax Breaks.

7 Rebuild America’s Infrastructure.

8 Effect Energy Independence.

9 Stop Privatization!

10 Stop Pollution in it’s tracks.

11 Address Global Warming! We must prepare for the coming changes and their consequences.

12 Establish our connection to these positive ideals. We must keep these positive ideals of Cooperation, Helpfulness, Brotherly Love, Compassion, and Peace as the: Center piece of Democracy.

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» RE: The New Progressive Agenda! Posted by: Lincoln fan
These are not ideas...
Posted by: rblumberg on Jan 25, 2006 6:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...they are policy recommendations. And by confusing policy recommendations with genuine ideas, The Nation is perpetuating the failure of imagination that has mired the Progressive movement in internecine squabbles and maintained its image as a movement that lacks an ideological foundation.

Ideas, by contrast, might look like this:

There is an objective reality, and the proper method of investigating it is the method of science; acceptance of this idea means rejection of superstition, denial that bad policy can be justified as the will of God, and other nasty nonsense. It is an idea that can provide a foundation for policy.

Individual human beings have an irreducible autonomy, and any attempt to reduce people to consumers, or tax-payers, or voters - to homo economicus or imago dei or hoi polloi - leads, inevitably, to totalitarian behavior by the leaders of those who are so reduced.

Authority, with due regard to the first two ideas, derives from the collective. We are all in this together; each of us, if we choose some path other than that of the hermit or outlaw (a choice that we can make, of course, as autonomous individuals), must accept, albeit provisionally, certain norms. Those must develop in colloquy with those with whom we are in it together, and any norms imposed from "above" are oppression.

There are other ideas on which my progressive path is founded, but those three will do to correct, not the substance of the policies articulated in the article, but the description of those policies as "ideas".

Richard

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» RE: These are not ideas... Posted by: outsidea
» do more reading, please Posted by: anniedine
» Richard's ideas Posted by: anniedine
» RE: ichard's ideas Posted by: Doubtom
Number 4 and 5 on that list is:
Posted by: eileenflmng on Jan 25, 2006 7:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
4: Confronting Israel's Nuclear Ambiguity Policy
5: Confronting Israel's Human Rights Abuses

Americans provide 3 billion dollars a year to Israel but have yet to demand Israel open up the Dimona, the 40+ year old dinosaur of a plutonium plant to International Inspectors.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948 was ratified by Israel.

Article 9 states: 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.'
On Christmas Eve 2004, Mordechai Vanunu was arrested in a taxi attempting to travel the few miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to attend mass at the Church of The
Nativity. Instead, he was hauled into jail and charged with; 'attempting to leave the country.'

Article 13-2: 'Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own.'
The Israeli government refuses to allow Vanunu to leave claiming he still has a secret he has yet to tell about the underground WMD program in the Negev.
Vanunu has not set foot into the Dimona for 20 years and neither have IAEA inspectors.

Article 18: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion: this right includes freedom to change his religion.'
Vanunu claims his conversion was construed by the Israeli government as treason against the state and contributed to his being sentenced to more years than any murderer in Israel has ever served.


Donate to Vanunu's Defense Fund: http://www.serve.com/vanunu

public service message brought to you by WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org

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otto
Posted by: otto on Jan 25, 2006 7:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Great article, great job of sifting out the essential and practical from the suggestions.

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This isn't new, It's common sense
Posted by: jeffrey7 on Jan 25, 2006 7:49 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Iraq is an illegal,immoral,and almost a holy war brought on by lies and misdeeds by the elected ones. Family Farms are the backbone of America,being rubbed out by large factory farms that do tremendous damage to their local areas. There are no supports for those that work to feed the Country and the Planet. Big Business should be held accountable for the pure and simple fact that they are killing all living things for want of a paycheck. They should rightfully be made to cleanup their messes. We learned it in kindergarten,where were they? Because this country has been dipped in Greed from the beginning,ideas like these seem progressive. They are not. This is plain old common sense. Wars only provide the genesis for other conflicts,therfore they are stupid and it's supporters are idiots of the first order. Protecting the family farm by helping them stay competitive with Del Monte is to support strong family units and boost small business. Making
unrulie children,masqurading as Big Business,clean up their mess is just good parenting. Offering them money to comply
is stupid. They forced an unhealthy situation on us and should pay the cost. If we fail to let common sense prevail in our Govt workings you'd better start spending more time with your Grandchildren because there won't be any more. At least, none that can breathe without an oxygen mask

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Save small farmers is a good idea
Posted by: gladwyn on Jan 25, 2006 8:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our food is trucked 1500 miles to get to our plates. We need Iraq for present farm policies. Meanwhile our kids eat the toxic surplus of the argo industry in school cafeteria.

We need local food and bio-diesel that makes communities self sufficient. Tax the trucks and roads. Add development incentives for outlets like farmer's markets and stalls. Bring fresh organic food into the cafeterias.

If we can make a market for the products of Iraqi oil we can make one for healthy communities.

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Take control
Posted by: Lincoln fan on Jan 25, 2006 8:17 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The three great ideas chosen here:
1. War in Iraq
2. Plight of small farmers
3. Corporate Accountability

Can be boiled down to one problem. The corporate establishment, not the voters, have control of "our" government. It sets both foreign and domestic policies. The corporatocracy maintains this control through financing the campaigns of both parties.

Can campaign finance reform solve this problem? No, a finance reform with teeth will not be passed until the people take control. There have been toothless campaign finance reforms for about 150 years.

Can a third party solve the problem? Not likely. The last third party presidential candidate to win was Teddy Roosevelt almost a century ago.

Can working at a local level solve the problem? I don't think so. The problem is at a higher level.

The problem is at the level where the people's political power is traded for corporate money. This is at the top state and national leadership of both political parties. This problem is non-partisan. Both parties represent the corporatocracy; not the people. It is a fight between all voters and the corporate establishment that controls both parties.

My opinion is that only a massive grassroots movement can overcome the rich and powerful. A movement which will refuse to play in a game with the cards stacked against them.

We can use the proven power of the threat of a boycott or strike to have the majority rule both parties. To help make "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" a reality, join The Lincoln Initiative. This grassroots movement is not an organization. There are no leaders, no contributions, no registration, no meetings, no marches. Fight the revolution from the comfort of your own home. Click on join today

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» RE: Take control Posted by: blueneck
» RE: Take control Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: Take control Posted by: blueneck
» RE: Take control Posted by: Lincoln fan
It's time for a corporate death penality
Posted by: sausage on Jan 25, 2006 9:40 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Rather than just "holding corporations accountable"-- Accountablity being a concept that is batted about like a shuttlecock between Republicrats and Dempublicans--we should call for a corporate death penality.

Why mollycoddle corporate criminals. If corporations want the protections of the 14th Amendment as "persons" then they should also be subject to criminal penalties as "persons."

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Unworkable (Makes Too Much Sense)
Posted by: Wacre on Jan 25, 2006 1:00 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Three Great Progressive Ideas" from The Nation magazine was a very informative article, but I had to stop reading it because of what it omitted:

First, where's the part that says it's unamerican to curtail the ability of a company to make profits at any price? And in the effort to make that aformentioned profit, why can't a company go elsewhere to operate their plants, even if it means laying off a few thousand American workers?

Isn't a "leaner and meaner" company better for the American economy in the long run? Isn't a little "collateral damage" in the short term better than long term ruin?

Second, when can't companies lay off workers, lose money hand over foot, and then turn around and pay their executives obscene bonuses? Isn't that the very definition of capitalism?

And third, since when do companies (and for that matter government) have any responsibilty to the public in our Ownership Society? What is this, Cuba?

As you can probably guess, I could make examples all day of how such policies hurt unlimited corporate profits, but any clear-thinking person can see how distorted The Nation and American political discourse has become that such things are even discussed.

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But there's a catch
Posted by: maxpayne on Jan 25, 2006 2:35 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Virtually all Democrats must truly and ideologically unite instead of remain disunited as they've been since 1960 if these Democrats who are leading the effort are to succeed at all.

Remember, in 1994, virtually every Republican was united. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of half the Democratic Party even today when it's desperately needed.

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Not only do we need to get out of Iraq.....
Posted by: Rod in 83706 on Jan 25, 2006 6:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
we need to stop militarily occupying Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. We also need to stop supporting Israel and be neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We need to close our embassies in that part of the world and close theirs in our country. Then and only then will the terrorists turn their attention on each other and ignore us.

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Thanks for 3 Ideas, Plus
Posted by: davechris on Jan 25, 2006 8:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Congratulations to the authors of "Three Great Progressive Ideas", though they are more than ideas! I find it interesting that their three "ideas"match quite closely three critical issues I focus on in my 2005 book, "Healing the World, A Primer About the World and How WE Must Fix It For Our Children".

However, my book goes a step further and makes a strong case for WORLD GOVERNMENT NOW (not just tinkering with the UN) as the only intelligent and realistic way to deal with the global issues of War, Corporate Globalization, and our desperate need for a Sustainable Balance Between the Earth's Offerings and the Human Family. Considering fresh water and arable land resources, energy needs and global warming, we should acknowledge that even now the Earth cannot sustain its present population at a European level of living!

As many responders have noted, if "the people" do not come to grips with these issues within the next couple of decades our grandkids and all who follow will have bleak and disrupted lives and "democracy" will be a long time in making a come back.

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Globalized Farmers
Posted by: yellow on Jan 29, 2006 12:24 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It seems that the small farmer isn't what he once was. At the very height of the independant family farm just before the Great Depression of the 1930s there were over six million mostly small and medium family farms. The depression consolidated the US land tenure system so that through much of the post WWII period there were just under two million. By now there are under a million and declining.

Most of these farms are quite large and heavily dependant on the seed, fetilizer, and pesticide monopolies of a few transnational agribusiness giants. They further rely on the marketing outlets for their products on big food processors with whom they contract as factory farms heavily reliant on seasonal, migrant labor. It seems as though most of the better off family farms in this sector are not really independant at all but part of a large, vertically integrated, production chain controlled by global agribusiness. Most of the decisions taken by these farmers are shaped by the pressures created by the transnational agribusiness structure of which they are a de facto part and not independant ones. It is time to recognize what has happened to the yeoman class. Like other independant producers that epitomised past epochs of competitive capitalism, they have dramatically narrowed down and become part of a modern, globally concentrated, monopoly entities!

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Progressive Ideas
Posted by: Tiffany Twain on May 23, 2006 1:01 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Check out the APPENDIX of the Comprehensive Global Perspective at EarthManifesto.com for a summary of progressive ideas --- or read the understandings therein.

Creative ideas whose time has come can save humanity and biological diversity from current shortsighted human activities and policies. The revolution must begin!

THANKS!

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