At Kos, Femlaw (who deserves tons of credit for doing over there what we did here) has captured my feelings about the health care issue about as well as a any blog post can. I think that her diary is a must-read about activism and the psychology of victory vs. defeat, so rather than quote it I urge you to follow the link and read all the way through. You can also read a shorter and less moving blog post here where I explain my own perspective. Doing productive things feels good, and feeling good is a great motivator.
It’s also worth pointing out that Femlaw whipped up PTDB activism because she knew that it was the way to get things done. I more or less stumbled into it by accident. Hell, for some great entries in the oh-god-we’re-all-fucked genre of blog posting, read my first three posts after Scott Brown won Teddy’s seat. Then I phoned my Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA), mostly because my co-workers had heard enough grousing, and that felt pretty good, so I wrote a post about it. Staffers kept writing to say that the calls made a difference, and you guys wanted posts about how to do it and whom to call, and I had a gig.
So now what? I guess that Chris Dodd’s financial reform bill could use some whipping. To be honest I don’t know the details well enough to say whether it deserves our support or not. Yes? No? Any other suitable issues on the Democratic agenda? Discuss in the comments.
tudore
There are movements afoot to get ENDA up for a vote in the House that could use some help.
Whether its ENDA or DADT repeal, anyone in Maine would likely be very helpful; Collins and Snowe have shown a capacity for sanity on equality, and could come along if we create an aura of inevitability.
If that analysis is overly optimistic, that makes whipping the Dems more important.
Pigs & Spiders
They haven’t really flown the flag on any one issue yet. I’ve personally been looking forward to pimping the FCC’s National Broadband Plan—not that it’s perfect—but so far there’s nothing to whip!
Brick Oven Bill
People in a previous thread have questioned my Mathematics. As this is important, in spite of my weariness that has come as a consequence of the Healing imposed upon me, here are the numbers, provided as a public service.
Top tax bracket:
35% over $372,950.
Top 1% equals $410,097 and generated $450.926 billion of income tax in 2009:
Data here.
There is tax revenue generated between $410,097 and $372,950, but not much. So income tax generated by the top bracket is now:
$450 billion plus a small number equals less than $500 billion.
So the revenue by raising the top rate from 35 to 39.6% is less than:
$500 billion times 4.6% equals $23 billion.
Terrapin Station84
Yes. Credit where credit is due, indeed. Femlaw is a great example of what sort of impact a principled pragmatic progressive can make.
I was also a big fan of the emanations emanating from this site as well. It was a welcome relief from the ‘kill the bill’ crowd over at DK and FDL.
Short Bus Bully
I have to admit that I’m on the “sit down and panic real hard” bandwagon when it comes to Dems riding the Fail Train. I throw up my hands, piss and moan, and swear off politics forever. Again. Stoopid response.
Hell, my whole liberal family does this. Must be a democrat thing. I think it also goes hand in hand with the fact that we don’t throw bricks through people’s windows when we lose elections.
Also, too.
rob!
It looks like the big win on Sunday is already paying dividends, according to Chris Dodd.
Some Republicans have learned that this “Party of No” crap might be leading them off a cliff. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll start acting like adults again.
Except Gramps McCain; he’s just a total dick.
Pangloss
@Brick Oven Bill: Shouldn’t you be throwing bricks through the windows of people you disagree with or spitting on legislators? Because if you aren’t spewing violent rhetoric and making death threats, you’re just a RINO/Dupe of the International Communist Conspiracy.
rumpole
I think the big issue for the financial reform bill is -where- the agency is created. If it’s in the fed (controlled by greenspan, bernake, etc.) it’s going to find itself hamstrung. If it’s free-standing, that would be a lot better (esp. if it had powers to investigate, fine, etc.).
Maude
Congress is on the financial regulation bills. Dood got one bill out of commitee.
This is vital to support and loudly.
The regualations were almost gutted during Raygun and Clinton finished the job. Bush floated along on a sea of corruption.
patrick II
Kevin Drum has a post over at Mother Jones —Dismal outlook of Financial Reform. The title should give you a hint as to his opinion, particularly of the Dodd Senate bill.
Chyron HR
@Brick Oven Bill:
Thank you for sharing your Mathematics. I was not previously a supporter of the 90% tax rate, but you have conclusively demonstrated that it is necessary to rid America of the devil deficit that impedes our chakra.
John Lennon would want it that way.
Violet
I’d recommend listening to Elizabeth Warren’s interview on The Daily Show for a quick refresher of the situation.
Perhaps there is some stuff out there from her office that would clarify the issues and help with phone calls?
Short Bus Bully
After reading parts of that diary it’s really helped illuminate for me some fundamental differences between liberal and conservative in today’s politics.
Liberals: Used to getting shit on by The Man, have accepted that we lose often and that change is REALLY FUCKING HARD when you’re talking about ousting powerful, wealthy, connected political opponents. We’ve seen our heroes die, get assassinated, and fail. We’ve seen the status quo remain the same again and again. We are used to trying something new and coming up short.
Conservatives: Fighting tooth and claw to retain the status quo. Any change is a direct assault on them and everything they hold dear. The FIGHT or flight response is triggered and maintained.
Very different motivations behind our respective politics. I don’t think it’s fair to just bitch and moan about what pussies we liberals are (I do it too) when our underlying reasons for what we believe and do are so fundamentally at odds.
bemused
@Brick Oven Bill:
Believing 20 impossible things before breakfast has to be exhausting.
Hypnos
@Brick Oven Bill:
Except a 500 billion revenue on a 35% tax means a 1428 billion taxable income.
At 39.6%, that’s 565+ billion.
Not 523 as you claim.
Not so great with math, are you?
dmsilev
@Brick Oven Bill:
Court-ordered medications again?
-dms
Short Bus Bully
BOB must be getting healed by Sarah Palin’s witch doctor.
Exorcisms are tiring man.
“Get thee behind me Satan!” et al.
Mnemosyne
In femlaw’s essay, she linked to an essay that Michael Chabon wrote during the primary that I think sums up a whole lot of what’s been going on:
Obama vs. the Phobocracy
Change is scary and hard. I can’t really blame the people with crappy or no insurance who were (and are) terrified that this bill will only make things worse. Staying in the same place always seems safer than leaving, even if bombs are raining down on you. But sometimes you just have to take that chance.
Pam C./femlaw
Thank you! I’m happy to see another convert to using online organizing to boost offline action.
Let’s just say you are going to have plenty of opportunities coming up. And I warn you, it’s kind of addictive.
sparky
i guess the question here is are you looking for things coming from the establishment that are worthwhile to support, or are you looking for issues to agitate about? rather large gap between those two.
Maxwell James
To be honest I don’t know the details well enough to say whether it deserves our support or not. Yes? No?
No.
Lee
I would have to agree that the Dodd’s reform does not deserve our support.
I guess we have to rely on The House and Pelosi to actually get something done.
(and I’m ok with that)
LABiker
I can has EFCA?
mclaren
Excellent point. This line of reasoning tends to support Rahm Emanuel’s strategy — “victory begets victory.” The confidence instilled by winning a tough political fight builds momentum and changes the psychology of liberals from losers to winners, making the next fight just a little bit easier.
That said, I still predict no serious financial reform. Specifically, I predict that by the end of Obama’s second term we will not have:
[1] Any caps on bonuses in Wall Street;
[2] Usury caps nationwide on interest rates in America (few people know that nationwide usury caps were lifted by congressional legislation in 1982 and have never been reinstated);
[3] Any meaningful caps on bank fees, such as the outrageous overdraft fees;
[4] Prohibition of predatory loans;
[5] Prohibition of arcane financial instruments like CDOs.
Tonal Crow
One very meaningful financial reform would be to limit one-sided contracts.
If you’ve bought a credit score, registered a domain name, or registered for a large social-networking website, you’ve clicked “I agree” to “Terms of Service”, thus forming a contract between you and the service. If you’ve closely read those terms (which are usually lengthy and complex), you probably found a clause like this:
A seller should not be able to change a contract for services already rendered, nor for services contracted for under one version of the contract but not yet rendered at the time the contract is changed. That’s just not fair.
Nor should a seller be able to change a contract for future services without giving you adequate notice.
I’d love to see the Democrats get tough on this practice.
MTiffany
Harold Meyerson over at the Washington Post has the following suggestions:
Consumer protection agency (Already looking to be a dud from Dodd).
Targeted funding for teachers, police, firefighters, EMTs, and other municipal and safety workers.
Rep. DeLauro’s proposal for a national infrastructure development bank. (I really like this particular idea).
saucy
The Dodd bill isn’t perfect, but it is worth support. There are some excellent provisions from a progressive, good-governance standpoint. The consumer protection agency gets all the press, but the bill is much more than that. Creating a legal pathway for the government to seize and wind down failing nonbank entities, for instance, is huge. The regulators haven’t always had good tools with which to act– the Dodd bill fixes some of that by shoring up a few weak spots in the regulatory regime.
It really should include the Volcker rule, however! That would be a good rule.
furioso ateo
When are we supposed to get around to talking about immigration reform?
MTiffany
@furioso ateo: As soon as we can get the Dems to flip the immigration reform debate on its head and reframe the terms to our advantage.
Repubicans: Illegal immigrants steal american jobs.
Old Democratic Rebuttal: Illegal immigrants take jobs americans don’t want to do. (Immigrants still ‘stealing’ jobs, and now Dems implied americans are ‘lazy’ and ‘snobby’ too, because there are job they ‘won’t do’)
New Democratic Rebuttal: Illegal immigrants come to this country in search of an opportunity to work to make a better life for themselves and their families. That is precisely the work ethic that we should celebrate because it is what made this country great. (I realize I’m co-opting Republican jingo-bs here… but at least I’m making an honest point [when I do it])
There’s far more to the argument than that, like pointing out, in addition to the above, that the problem isn’t the illegal immigrants themselves, the real problem is the lack of economic opportunity in the countries these people are coming from. If these countries had healthy, functioning markets, erstwhile illegal immigrants would become entrepreneurs (as demonstrated by the fact that they take enormous risks to come here for work) in their own countries, spurring economic development, and creating new markets in the hemisphere for America companies to export to.
It all starts with turning the argument around and stop blaming the people that come here looking to make a better life, and start discussing how us foreign aid can be used to help our neighbors become richer (and make ourselves richer by doing so).
I could be wrong, but if anyone has another idea, please share. The immigration reform issue is another big issue we need to win.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
One of the wisest teacher I had in high school said something that has stuck with me to this day. He taught American Government and he was one smart guy, his classes were loaded with spirited discussions of social issues of the time (70’s). He pointed out that our country is very slow to respond but it does respond. He described it as a pendulum effect, that things swing from one point/extreme to the other and that rollover point (change of direction) is very slow.
His point was that you couldn’t give up on something because you didn’t win when you wanted to, that the only way you won was to keep up the fight and to apply pressure to counter the pendulum. He said that his view was that there was an overall pendulum effect of the ‘national sense’ and then there were the individual pendulums of specific issues.
I called, wrote (two snail mail missives) and emailed both DeFazio and Wyden to PTBD. I politely gave our (wife and self) reasons why we supported it and shot down several Republican arguments against it. After the bills passed the House I sent DeFazio a thank you email. Tonight I sent Wyden a thank you email.
In both I pointed out that this was just the start, that we would need to revisit health care issues in the future and that we would be behind them fighting to obtain health care for all Americans, up to national healthcare if necessary.
Yes. We. Did. It. :)
A very well written piece Femlaw, excellent and dead on target.
What, too soon? ;)