Sirotablogtag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//42008-07-20T15:28:58ZMovable Type Enterprise 1.52A Bad Situationisttag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.35092008-07-20T15:25:07Z2008-07-20T15:28:58ZI hung out with Sam Seder last night here in Austin at the Netroots Nation conference. He told me about his new movie, A Bad Situationist. You can now get it on DVD here....David Sirota
I hung out with Sam Seder last night here in Austin at the Netroots Nation conference. He told me about his new movie, A Bad Situationist. You can now get it on DVD here.
The Real Center vs. the Fake Centertag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.35072008-07-18T05:21:32Z2008-07-18T15:34:56ZWACO, TEXAS - I'm filing this weekly column dispatch at a rest stop outside of Waco, Texas on my way to the Netroots Nation conference. On the drive from Dallas, I've been listening to talk radio and obsessing over the...David Sirota
WACO, TEXAS - I'm filing this weekly column dispatch at a rest stop outside of Waco, Texas on my way to the Netroots Nation conference. On the drive from Dallas, I've been listening to talk radio and obsessing over the concept of "the center."
I'll admit it - I'm more than a bit obsessed with the ongoing attempts by today's propagandists (read: politicians and Washington pundits) to distort where the mythic "center" is. Whoever controls the definition of the center, controls a huge amount of political power because they control the very parameters of what policies are - and are not - acceptable for serious consideration.
Back in 2005, I wrote this article for the Nation on how forces inside the Democratic Party exist almost exclusively to make Democratic politicians believe the "center" is far to the right of the American public. Now this week, I wrote this new newspaper column looking at the debate surrounding Barack Obama's recent policy shifts.
For the last few weeks, every reporter, politician and pundit in Washington have been saying Obama's endorsement of warrantless wiretapping and shifting statements on NAFTA and Iraq are moves to the center.* But, as my column shows, the empirical public opinion data show that those are moves away from the center of American public opinion.
This is the invisible propaganda system I'm talking about - the one that tries to impose the skewed center of elite opinion in Washington, D.C. on the rest of the country - even though the center of opinion in the rest of the country is far different from that Washington "center." And if you think this distortion is inadvertent, then I've got some real estate to sell you. As the column shows, there's a very clear reason why those in D.C. want to distort the center.
You can read the full column at the San Francsico Chronicle, Denver Post, Ft. Collins Coloradoan, In These Times, TruthDig, Credo Action or Creators Syndicate's website.
The column relies on grassroots support, so if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site. Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help.
* Obama has said he has not shifted position on NAFTA and Iraq - and that he's been entirely consistent. Whether that's true or not is not important in the context of looking at how the media and politicians try to skew the terms of our political debate. The point here is that the Establishment portrays positions supporting warrantless wiretapping, NAFTA and staying in Iraq as "centrism" when the empirical data shows such positions are on the extreme fringe of American public opinion.
The View From the Grassy Knolltag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.35062008-07-18T03:58:23Z2008-07-18T03:59:42Z I'm in Dallas for a book event tonight, and I stopped by to check out Dealy Plaza, where President Kennedy was killed. This is the view from behind the fence at the infamous grassy knoll....David Sirota
I'm in Dallas for a book event tonight, and I stopped by to check out Dealy Plaza, where President Kennedy was killed. This is the view from behind the fence at the infamous grassy knoll.
NYT's Egan Discovers The Race Chasm - Then Seems to Justify Ittag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.35032008-07-17T00:54:07Z2008-07-17T01:18:54ZThe New York Times' Tim Egan - normally a pretty original writer who I'm a big fan of - today discovers the Race Chasm, about four months after it was first discussed and then debated all over the media: People...David Sirota
The New York Times' Tim Egan - normally a pretty original writer who I'm a big fan of - today discovers the Race Chasm, about four months after it was first discussed and then debated all over the media:
People who live in states with few blacks seem more open to the idea of a president who is not white. Perhaps race is more of an abstract, an ideal. The raw, sometimes tribal clashes of ethnic groups, where a long-ago slight can harden into a political attitude, seems less pronounced.
Thus, Obama is ahead in Oregon, which has a black population of 1.9 percent, but is having trouble in Michigan, where 14.3 percent of the population is black and the white suburban diaspora has complicated views about race informed by black-majority Detroit. (emphasis added)
That part in bold makes me wince, actually. He seems to be employing euphemisms that - whether deliberately or accidentally - seem to justify the racism inherent in the race chasm. For instance, he seems to be substituting the innocuous word "complicated" for the word "racist." Worse, he appears to be using the term "informed by" as a euphemism for the term "understandable considering." After all, "informed" implies that the racism they have developed from living near black-majority Detroit is merely a product of being objectively educated (a synonym for "informed") - and therefore, those racist views are supposedly understandable because they are the supposedly logical result of objective education, rather than prejudice.
I'm not saying Egan is a racist, as this was probably inadvertent (and again, I am a fan of Egan's work). But when I read this passage, the phrasing really jumped out at me as yet another example of how racism can be so subtly woven into our language and our media.
Lou Dobbs & the Double-Edged Sword of Populismtag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.35012008-07-16T19:27:19Z2008-07-16T19:27:46ZLast week, I appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs tonight to discuss the economic meltdown and the political fallout that will come from it. You can watch the clip here: This clip shows the good side of Dobbs - the side...David Sirota
Last week, I appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs tonight to discuss the economic meltdown and the political fallout that will come from it. You can watch the clip here:
This clip shows the good side of Dobbs - the side where he's the only person on cable television consistently talking about major economic issues and questioning the corruption of both political parties. For doing that, he should be applauded.
Of course, there's a bad side of Dobbs: the side that comes out when he talks about - and takes extremist positions on - cultural issues like immigration. This is not admirable, to say the least.
I've been on Dobbs' radio show to argue with him about his stance on immigration (which I, of course, disagree with). In my book, I got a behind-the-scenes look at his show, analyzing how the CNN anchor has deliberately tried to create Uprising TV, and how in doing so, he really personifies the double-edged quality of political populism.
Some have said that progressives shouldn't go on shows like Dobbs or networks like Fox News, and if they do, they should loyally defend the Democratic Party at all costs. I vehemently disagree. We have to fight for our issues in any venue offered to us, knowing that if we fight effectively we will win the war of ideas. We also have to adopt a movement psychology, reject Partisan War Syndrome, and fight for issues in these arenas regardless of party. I, for one, am willing to appear in almost any venue to push the progressive uprising.
That reminds me: I'll be on Fox News today right around 5pm EST to talk politics on their newsroom segment. Tune in.
GOP Brags That McCain Will Continue Bush's Economic Legacytag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34952008-07-15T18:44:02Z2008-07-15T18:51:50ZLast week, I appeared on Fox News to discuss the inflammatory comments by Phil Gramm (John McCain's top economic advisor) and how those comments really epitomize the Republican Party's country clubbish, let-them-eat-cake outlook on the economy. Notice about half-way through...David Sirota
Last week, I appeared on Fox News to discuss the inflammatory comments by Phil Gramm (John McCain's top economic advisor) and how those comments really epitomize the Republican Party's country clubbish, let-them-eat-cake outlook on the economy. Notice about half-way through as the Republican strategist I'm debating actually acknowledges that McCain's major idea for fixing the economy is continuing George W. Bush's tax policies - and that when she's called out for saying that, she tries to deny what she just said:
The interchange is instructive for two reasons.
First and foremost is the admission: namely, that Republicans still want America to believe that the way to steady the economy is to follow Bush's efforts to slash taxes for millionaires. As I show in the very first chapter of my book, this is a prescription being rejected even in some of the most conservative parts of the country.
Second, there is the denial: When called onto the carpet for wanting to continue the policies of the most unpopular president in history, Republicans start running for cover to the point of claiming they never said what they just said. The denial is a tacit acknowledgment of the power of the populist uprising now boiling throughout the country. The GOP knows the country is very angry at conservatives' free market fundamentalism - and so will deny and obfuscate to pretend they aren't championing such fundamentalism.
Of course, moments after appearing on Fox, my email in-box was filled with hate mail from conservative viewers. For instance, Dave in Bokeelia, Florida told me "Gramm was abolutely correct" in blaming Americans for the economic downturn, then asked, "Why don't you get and your boyfriend move to Denmark or some other socialist country?" (apparently, he's not aware I'm happily married to my wife, Emily). Then he declared, "Obama has already lost, you moron."
A guy named Charles angrily asked, "When did raising taxes ever stimulate economic growth?" then said "raising taxes will only cause a deeper recession," and added "Do your homework before berating someone on television." Apparently, he forgot that our most recent economic boom during the 1990s came immediately after President Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy.
My favorite was from a guy named Steve who wrote, "hey girlyboy, do you have any idea how pitiful you look to normal folks when you open your sissy moth beging the government to help?" (that is his spelling - for real).
These comments show how powerful conservative propaganda has been - it has convinced a number (albeit a dwindling one, according to polling data) of people to believe that the real problem in our country is that we have too few royalists running the government - not too many. Though this conservative ideology is clearly on the ropes, the Fox News clip shows that the GOP is going to continue trying to ram it down our throats.
This is an ongoing series from the national tour for THE UPRISING. You can order The Uprising at Amazon.com or through your local independent bookstore.
Paterson makes great move on food stamps in NYtag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34932008-07-11T15:19:38Z2008-07-11T15:31:28ZIn the midst of soaring food prices, New York Gov. David Paterson today announced a plan that will increase federal food stamp aid to at least 114,000 low-income households. The new program will leverage rules that increase food stamps for...Austin Guest
In the midst of soaring food prices, New York Gov. David Paterson today announced a plan that will increase federal food stamp aid to at least 114,000 low-income households. The new program will leverage rules that increase food stamps for any poor person who is also enrolled in a state-funded energy assistance program.
The upshot: if someone qualifies for even $1 in energy assistance, their food stamp allocation can be increased by as much as 50%. Paterson's proposal essentially amounts to a plan to enroll more folks in Section 8 housing into the energy assistance program. Absent much-needed food stamp aid in the recent economic "stimulus" package, this plan should provide at least a partial solution for mitigating the swipe at folk's pocket books (and stomachs) that the agribiz giants are taking as they bring in record profits in these times of need.
Hopefully other states will follow New York's lead.
The Homogenization of American Politicstag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34922008-07-11T13:35:00Z2008-07-11T14:00:17ZTo paraphrase Jerry Garcia, my book tour has been a long, strange trip - but as my newspaper column this week notes, it has been strange in how much of the same I've seen. As our culture has homogenized and...David Sirota
To paraphrase Jerry Garcia, my book tour has been a long, strange trip - but as my newspaper column this week notes, it has been strange in how much of the same I've seen.
As our culture has homogenized and as our economy has been Wal-Mart-ized, our politics have - rather unfortunately - followed suit. As I've found in my travels, the concept of thinking globally, acting locally is a foreign one to many political activists. No matter where you go, the focus is almost exclusively on federal elections - and more specifically, the presidential election - to the exclusion of almost everything else. I'm not saying great local work isn't being done - it sure is. But it is undeniable that the political focus in this country - whether among rank-and-file voters or even among activists - is almost completely on the palace drama of presidential campaigns.
The rise of truly "national politics" is something of a modern phenomenon. In many past eras, Congress and the presidency has been seen as secondary or merely equal in importance to state and local politics. A century ago, for instance, a congressional seat was seen as almost a ceremonial position when compared to offices like mayor or alderman.
The column delves into why there has been such a monumental shift in political focus. And let me be clear: the change is due to more than just a broad shift toward cultural homogenization. Congress and the president has usurped more and more power from states, meaning the federal arena has, indeed, become more important in recent years than it was in the past.
That said, the balance is way out of whack. You can have a conversation about the presidential race with almost anyone these days - yet most people have no idea who their state legislator is. Just like Wal-Mart has destroyed local downtown commerce, the one-size-fits-all national political culture is destroying local political cultures all over America.
As I say in the column, there are certainly some upsides to the homogenization of our politics. We can have truly national conversations about major issues. But the downside is that for all the sound and fury of national cable television and radio talk shows, many of the most pressing crises we now face require major changes in state and local political arenas. And if those arenas are ignored under a flood of cable television shows that make, say, David Gergen's blathering about the latest presidential soap opera drama more important than, say, your local legislator's votes, then those crises are not going to be solved - or worse, they will be manipulated by Big Money interests that will fill the political void at the state and local level because they know those arenas are where the real rubber hits the road.
You can read the full column at the San Francsico Chronicle, Denver Post, Ft. Collins Coloradoan, In These Times, TruthDig, Credo Action or Creators Syndicate's website.
The column relies on grassroots support, so if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site. Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help.
Getting Rolled Is A Wake-Up Call For Progressivestag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34902008-07-11T01:12:46Z2008-07-11T01:13:06ZOver at the TPM Cafe Book Club, I just authored a post about how getting rolled on the FISA issue by Obama should be a wake-up call to progressives. Even more provocatively, I riff off OpenLeft's Matt Stoller to look...David Sirota
Over at the TPM Cafe Book Club, I just authored a post about how getting rolled on the FISA issue by Obama should be a wake-up call to progressives. Even more provocatively, I riff off OpenLeft's Matt Stoller to look at how Obama's success in either taking over or ignoring major pieces of new progressive infrastructure speaks to how much of that new progressive infrastructure is either still too weak or too partisan to really wield power. But, the latest moves in the FISA fight do offer some hope.
Check out the whole post here.
More on McCain and right wing health care "reform"tag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34892008-07-10T16:43:39Z2008-07-10T23:05:56ZThis today from PSN's Adam Thompson on the right wing plan to "reform" health care by forcing folks into indivudal plans with high out-of-pocket costs: As with John McCain's health care reform proposals, the Florida and Georgia plans are indicative...Austin Guest
This today from PSN's Adam Thompson on the right wing plan to "reform" health care by forcing folks into indivudal plans with high out-of-pocket costs:
As with John McCain's health care reform proposals, the Florida and Georgia plans are indicative of the Right's allegiance to "consumer-driven health care" - the idea that Americans will use less care if they must pay more out-of-pocket. As the New York Times reports, Sen. McCain wants Americans to purchase their insurance in the volatile and costly individual market, eschewing the stronger bargaining power and better consumer protections found in employer-based and large group coverage. The problem with this approach is that high out of pocket costs - which are the result of high deductible and limited benefit plans - lead consumers to avoid necessary care, resulting in worse outcomes and higher system-wide costs in the long run.
Adam's piece does a great job of outlining the flaws of state-level attempts to implement the kind of bilking-in-disguise approach that I slammed McCain for introducing yesterday. It also comes on the heels of another timely article in the Times about the vangard of the health care reform battle in the states. Colorado's legislation to subject insurance premium rate hikes to strict supervision gets a much-deserved nod. More importantly, the article spends a good deal of time expounding the benefits of pooling, the best thing going as far as pragmatic approaches to health care for all making real advances at the state level.
An important benefit of pooling, and one that gets a great deal of well-deserved play in the Times piece, is that it will enable small businesses who can't afford to cover their employee's healthcare to do so, and to help those small businesses who are doing the right thing and providing coverage but getting hammered in the pocket book as thanks for their generosity.
Quite a sad state of affairs as laid out by the Times:
Nationally, the percentage of businesses with fewer than 200 employees that offer insurance fell to 59 percent last year, down from 66 percent as recently as 2002, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. And less than half of the smallest companies, those with under 10 employees, were providing coverage last year.
But can states really do anything to remedy this situation?
Mr. Massingham has seen premiums go up by about 50 percent in some years, only to fall drastically after New Hampshire in 2006 began forbidding insurers from using the health of a company's employees to set premiums and put stricter limits on rate increases.
At least they seem to be digging in the right place.
Hopefully increased exposure for the kind of pooling bills like the Connecticut model featured prominently in the Times piece will help build federal support for the most sensible and politically feasible reform option on the table. Otherwise the states will just continue to do what they do best: fight uphill battles to stretch limited means toward solving the nation's toughest problems.
McCain's latest great idea: throw more money at a broken systemtag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34862008-07-09T15:39:52Z2008-07-09T23:37:43ZFor anyone paying attention to health care in the states, this article in the New York Times today should come as a welcome relief. The problem of health insurance for "high-risk" individuals is perhaps one of the most difficult and...Austin Guest
For anyone paying attention to health care in the states, this article in the New York Times today should come as a welcome relief. The problem of health insurance for "high-risk" individuals is perhaps one of the most difficult and perplexing knots in the dilemma of trying to achieve coverage for the nearly 50 million uninsured people in the U.S. Perhaps the best thing about this article is that it brings much needed attention to the difficulty that states are having and will continue to have in funding high-risk health coverage in times of increasing budgetary strains brought on by the energy and housing crises.
What the McCain proposal outlined in the article lacks is any real solution for how to address the problem within a comprehensive framework, and opts instead to further privatize the market by removing tax breaks for people who receive employer-funded coverage, incentivizing more expensive individual coverage plans, and throwing subsidies at a broken system, much like the much ballyhooed Massachussetts plan which hasn't really succeeded in much other than marginally increasing the number of insured and filling insurance company coffers by forcing folks to buy coverage plans they can't afford.
The main impact of McCain's plan would most likely be to further pad insurance company profit margins while doing nothing to put a lid on the spiraling costs of coverage plans and provider services. His proposal, which essentially amounts to moving the burden of providing health care from employers to workers, who will be coereced into entering the more expensive individual coverage market, seems like a recipe for further leveraging the inequities in health care coverages that currently make the U.S. the laughing stock of the developed world.
For a real solution, we need to come up with comprehensive approaches to cover all people in a way that equitably splits costs between employers and employees and which puts competition to work in a way that forces profit-bloated insurance companies to compete for people's business rather than prey on their inability to exit a captive market. Obama's proposed requirement that health insurance companies not refuse coverage to anyone is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't address the larger issue of how to avoid singling out high risk individuals for targetted bilking or how to create a comprehensive framework to help everybody achieve greater access to affordable care.
To do this, the most sensible approach is to create larger coverage pools in which risk is spread among all the participants, thus increasing everyone's access to affordable coverage and forcing insurance companies to compete for large blocs of consumers with increased clout to bargain for better rates.
Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker provides an eloquently conceived version of this approach in his comprehensive Health Care for America plan. While Obama has been influenced by Hacker's work, even he is yet to put forward a comprehensive pooling plan that would bring coverage to all Americans. Fortunately, states like Wisconsin, Washington, and Connecticut are picking up the slack.
Last year, the Wisconsin Senate passed a bill called Healthy Wisconsin that would provide coverage to all Wisconsinites through a state-administered pool of private group coverage plans on which insurance companies would have to bid and which would be funded by a payroll deduction paid by both employers and employees. The bill was defeated in the Republican-controlled House, but Wisconsin Dems are widely expected to re-take the house by running on a mandate to pass Healthy Wisconsin.
This year, Washington State Senator Karen Keiser introduced a bill modelled directly on the the Healthy Wisconsin model. Her bill got slated for an interim fincancial feasibility study and will be reintroduced next term. Connecticut jumped on board as well, introducing a more modest version of the pooling plan that would have grant voluntary access to the state's public employee group plan to non-profits and small businesses. The bill was vetoed by Republican Governor Jodi Rell, who drew much heat in doing so, opening prospects for passing the bill with or without her approval next session.
While the problem of insuring high risk individuals is one of the more pressing issues in today's health care debate, what is clear is that the kind of shortsighted measures McCain is putting on the table won't do much other than drive more people into more unaffordable care, and that the kind of real efforts to provide comprehensive coverage that are being forwarded in states like Wisconsin and others provide the example that our national leaders should be following.
Debating the Uprising at TPM, NPR and CNNtag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34852008-07-09T15:30:52Z2008-07-09T15:45:03ZWe're having a great conversation and debate over at TPM Cafe about The Uprising. This morning I wrote a post about 5 ideas to move this populist uprising into a full-fledged progressive movement. You can read it here. I'll be...David Sirota
We're having a great conversation and debate over at TPM Cafe about The Uprising. This morning I wrote a post about 5 ideas to move this populist uprising into a full-fledged progressive movement. You can read it here. I'll be talking about these themes on Diane Rehm's NPR show from 11am to noon EST. You can listen in here. I'm also scheduled to be on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight sometime between 7pm and 8pm tonight. Tune in.
My Return to Bloggingtag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34842008-07-09T13:34:28Z2008-07-09T13:37:22ZIt has been a little over a month since my book, The Uprising, has been released, and now I have a little more time as the schedule lets up - and so I'm back blogging here at Credo Action full-time....David Sirota
It has been a little over a month since my book, The Uprising, has been released, and now I have a little more time as the schedule lets up - and so I'm back blogging here at Credo Action full-time. Thanks to Austin Guest for holding down the fort here for the last few weeks - he may again fill in if he's got some time.
For the next two weeks, I'll probably be posting 1-2 items a day here - and then by August, I should be back up to 100% full speed of the usual 3-4 posts a day.
State partytag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34642008-06-25T22:32:59Z2008-06-25T22:37:28ZGood times over at Progressive States Network last week. It was one of those events that makes you proud to be working in state politics, where contrary to conventional wisdom, you can actually get a lot done to move the...Austin Guest
Good times over at Progressive States Network last week. It was one of those events that makes you proud to be working in state politics, where contrary to conventional wisdom, you can actually get a lot done to move the kind of populist progressive agenda to which the usual suspects in D.C. are so resistant.
Whither New York?tag:action.credomobile.com,2008:/sirota//4.34572008-06-24T22:30:15Z2008-06-24T23:34:08ZOur friend Mr. Sirota has a new diary today about the topic that's on just about everyone's mind where I work in NYC: what's going to happen now that stalwart Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno is on the way...Austin Guest
Our friend Mr. Sirota has a new diary today about the topic that's on just about everyone's mind where I work in NYC: what's going to happen now that stalwart Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno is on the way out?
If you want to catch the most up-to-date dirt on the shady FBI investigation subplot to Bruno's exit or the swirling gossip around his likely successor, be sure to check out the Albany Project, which, as always, are keeping it on lock when it comes to tracking even the smallest minutiae of New York State politics.
However, if, like David, you agree that Bruno's exit is a major opportunity for progressives to make a national impact through state-level, then you'll want to do a little more than that. The most important question to be asking right now is not when or why or how Mr. Bruno is leaving but rather what exactly a newly emboldened New York progressive caucus in the New York legislature should do once he does.
For starters, they should move more aggressively on the agenda of affordable health care, green jobs, paid family leave, and a fairer tax system that the New York Working Families Party has been pushing for the last few years with increasing success. They should push forward on even more proactive measures to address the foreclosure crisis than the compromise deal currently on the table: measures that would send a message to the rest of the nation that even Wall Street's own back yard is up to the challenge of putting serious regulatory constraints on predatory lenders and of offering relief to average families rather than investment bankers. Then they should sit down and think seriously about how to work closely with other progressive states in the region like New Jersey and Massachusetts about how to build a state policy platform that can push the national debate. They could start by taking a cue from New Jersey with its recent passage of National Popular Vote legislation (not to mention the aforementioned paid family leave).
Of course, all the talk right now is swirling around who's in who's out and how this will affect the Democrat's chances of re-taking the Senate next year. But if this truly golden opportunity for progressive change is going to turn into anything more than the latest in a series of party power grabs, we've got to think about it from a broader perspective. As the last two years in D.C. have so woefully proven, a Democratic House or Senate hardly equates to a progressive majority. This state needs to use this opportunity to renew its focus on the policies and the ideas that will move us forward into a more progressive national leadership position. Otherwise it doesn't much matter who's in the driver's seat.