Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Democratic Vistas of 2014: Five Reforms to Make Our Politics Matter
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/02***SNIP
1. Demand a Right to Vote for all Americans.
The last decade has seen a steady assault on voting rights in the United States, with restrictive Voter ID laws, changes in early-voting and same-day registration rules and, in 2013, a US Supreme Court ruling that Congressman John Lewis, D-Georgia, said stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Department of Justice and key members of the House and Senate have taken steps to counter the assault at the federal level, and state-based efforts such as North Carolinas Moral Monday movement are pushing back. These efforts are vital.
***SNIP
2. Get More States on Record for Real Reform of Elections.
Sixteen states have formally petitioned Congress to enact a constitutional amendment to overturn the US Supreme Courts Citizens United rulingwhich frees corporations to spend as much as they choose to influence elections, and which continued a process of striking down federal, state and local campaign-finance reforms. These states have formally recognized that votes should define the electoral process, not dollars. Groups such as Free Speech for People, Move to Amend, Public Citizen, Common Cause and People for the American Way have made tremendous progress at the local and state levelsworking with limited resources and shamefully scant media coverage. Theyve won support from Democrats, Republicans and independents in state legislatures across the country, and theyve organized and won statewide and local referendum votes. In just three years since the Supreme Courts Citizens United ruling, we have come one third of the way to amending the US Constitution to reclaim our democracy and to ensure that people, not corporations, shall govern in America, says John Bonifaz, co-founder and executive director of Free Speech For People.
***SNIP
3. Vote for a Raise
Senator Bernie Sanders is right when he says of the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, Most people understand that is a starvation wage. Individuals cant live on it, families cant live on it. Working with the ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, California Democrat George Miller, and Senate Education, Health, Labor and Pensions Committee chair Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Sanders is pushing for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and index future increases to the rate of inflation. Thats a good start, but its a tall order in the face of determined opposition in the Republican-controlled US House.
***SNIP
4. Vote for Equal Rights
The Equal Rights Amendment struggle of the 1970s and early 1980s was an intense, inspiring and heartbreaking fight to finally guarantee equal rights for women. A massive right-wing pushback prevented the project from succeeding at the timealthough it opened up debates that would lead to significant progress on a number of legislative fronts. In recent years, there has been something of an ERA renaissance. Three years ago, on the 100th Anniversary of International Womens Day, then-Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, proposed legislation to eliminate the congressionally imposed deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. And in February 2013, the New Mexico state House of Representatives formally asked Congress to lift the deadline for ERA ratification. At the same time, new versions of the amendment have been introduced.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
5 replies, 650 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (7)
ReplyReply to this post
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The Democratic Vistas of 2014: Five Reforms to Make Our Politics Matter (Original Post)
xchrom
Jan 2014
OP
mother earth
(6,002 posts)1. Why not, indeed (snipped from beginning of above article)
We have frequently printed the word Democracy. Yet I cannot too often repeat, that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened, wrote Walt Whitman in Democratic Vistas. It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted."
Whitman penned his essay on the American experiment in 1871. And there has been much progress since. Yet, there is much history yet to be enacted.
So why not make 2014 historic?
Why not assert a progressive politics that is more vital and determined than what has been known to this point?
Why not stop reacting and start asserting a real reform agenda?
Whitman penned his essay on the American experiment in 1871. And there has been much progress since. Yet, there is much history yet to be enacted.
So why not make 2014 historic?
Why not assert a progressive politics that is more vital and determined than what has been known to this point?
Why not stop reacting and start asserting a real reform agenda?
TY, xchrom & WW.
K & R
May 2014 be truly a new beginning.
vi5
(13,305 posts)2. Such a sweet kid...
The author of that seems to genuinely believe there are enough elected Democrats not in bed with corporations/Republicans (even non-Blue Dog ones, who claim to not be but then vote the opposite of that claim) to actually get any of this stuff done.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)3. New beginnings are born out of stark realizations.
2014 may bring a new path.
vi5
(13,305 posts)4. Agreed, but the only way to a new path...
Is to oust many of those who led us down the old, bad path in the first place.
And unfortunately there are far too many who are far to squeamish to do that. And that's not even getting into the power structure that keeps those people in place to begin with.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)5. These are the times that try men's souls...for sure.
I agree, but that's exactly what lies before us, isn't it? Are we ready or do we bow in servitude? That choice is before all of us.