Election 2011 Reflections

As we celebrate the victories of Tuesday, we must ask ourselves, “Why did we need these victories in the first place”?  Why did Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce need to be recalled in the first place?  Why was there a need for Phoenix Councilman Greg Stanton to face lobbyist Wes Gullett in a mayoral run-off election?  Why did the voters of Ohio need to overturn a law that would have banned collective bargaining for all government employees?  Why did the voters of Maine need to overturn a law that eliminated the right of same day voter registration, a right that voters of Maine had enjoyed for decades?

The simple answer is because in 2010, Democratic candidates were chicken shits who ran away from liberal ideals and goals.  They ran away from single payer healthcare.  They ran away from fair taxation.  They ran away from helping those with the least among us.  They ran away from holding corporations and banks responsible for their destructive and most likely illegal actions.  They ran away from supporting public education.  They ran away from supporting the rights of workers to collectively bargain.  They ran away from breaking up the banks and reinstating Glass-Steagal.  They ran away from truly helping America’s homeowners facing foreclosure.   They ran away from truly helping the unemployed.  They simply ran away.

It is true that we liberals don’t march lockstep like conservatives do.  Just look at how many liberals fell for the Waiting for Superman bullshit.  But, if liberals have one cohesive message it is “I am here for you”.  We believe that collectively we can better help the individual.  As we help that individual we help the community.  As we help the community we help the town.  As we help the town we help the county.  As we help the county we help the state.  As we help the state we help the nation.

There is no reason why anyone in this nation should go hungry.  There is no reason why anyone should go without quality medical care.  There is no reason why anyone in this nation should have to live under a highway overpass.  There is no reason that we should be building more prisons.  There is no reason why we should be vilifying those who choose to live and work in this nation, just because they are undocumented.  There is no reason why our public schools shouldn’t be palaces of learning.  There is no reason that teachers shouldn’t be celebrated instead of vilified on a daily basis.  There is no reason that DOMA should still be the law of the land.  There is no reason why corporations have more rights than actual people.

If there was ever a time for liberalism it is now.  If Democrats want to win back the legislatures, the governor’s mansions and the House of Representatives, they need to fully embrace liberal ideals and goals.  They need to give liberalism a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek.  If we can make liberal ideals and goals the focus of all Democratic candidates we can stop having to recall ultra-conservatives because they will no longer be in office.  We won’t need to repeal conservative legislation at the ballot box because that legislation would never have come to the floor.

We need to flood our city councils, county boards, statehouses and governor’s mansions with liberals and those who will fight for liberal ideals and goals.  We need to make it so as conservatives find it impossible to get elected.  We need to stop running, turn around and fight.

The Memo: Being Bold Is The Only Solution

In our nation's history, we are always at our best when we are at our boldest.  The Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, the Emancipation Proclamation, Seward's Folly, the building of the Hoover Dam, the creation of Social Security and Medicare, going to the moon, etc.  These were all bold steps for our nation, propelling us into an unknown, but ultimately better future.  It is when we are timid, implementing plans with the least resistance that our nation suffers.  To be at our best in these troubled times, we need to be bold.

Bold Plan #1: Rescind the Healthcare Affordability Act in its entirety and replace it with a simple Medicare for All plan, including allowing Medicare to use its buying power to lower drug costs.  By giving the option to everyone to purchase into the most efficient medical insurance system, we spread out the risk and make health care insurance available to everyone, not just to those that can afford it.

Bold Plan #2: Get rid of Medicaid and place all those currently on Medicaid into the Medicare system.  We all know that Medicaid was a grand experiment of cooperation between the states and the federal government to provide medical care to the poor and working poor.  But that "cooperation" is Medicaids biggest flaw.  It created inefficiencies that led to higher costs.  Also, by relying on the states to pay a portion of the program's costs, state politics trumped providing the necessary funds.  As we have seen in Arizona, Medicaid's budget was cut by over $500 million while the legislature provided over $500 million in tax cuts to corporations.

Bold Plan #3: Institute a complete overhaul of our infrastructure.  Replace all of our nation's crumbling bridges, roads and highways.  Create a national high speed passenger rail system connecting every major city.  Replace all of the crumbling pipes.  By implementing such a complete overhaul, we will put millions of people to work while also increasing our overall efficiencies.

Bold Plan #4: Replace our crumbling schools with palaces of learning.  By creating environments that are safe, bright, full of the latest technologies and conducive to learning, we will be better preparing our children for the future.

These are my bold plans, feel free to share your bold plans in the comment section.

Our Nation Is A Mess

Our nation is a mess.  Our nation's public schools are crumbling.  Our nation's roadways and bridges are falling apart.  Our nation's banks are "too big to fail" and at war with their customers and homeowners.  Our nation's for-profit health care system is a disaster.  Our nation's poor and elderly are under attack as never before.  Our nation's unions are demonized as the source of all our ills and our nation is basically without a leader.  And our nation's elected officials have made pledges that run counter to the Constitution.

Instead of building palaces of learning and fully funding our public schools, we divert precious tax dollars to "charter" schools that can pick their students and to private and parochial schools through "vouchers".  Instead of repairing our cities roadways, replacing bridges and building public transportation we spend billions of tax payer dollars on sports stadiums and entertainment districts.

Instead of breaking up the "too big to fail" banks, we showered them with billions in tax payer funds.  They repaid us by foreclosing on homes they couldn't prove they owned the loans to.  Instead of allowing anyone to purchase into Medicare at cost, we are forced to purchase health care insurance from for-profit corporations.  Instead of expanding our social safety nets that protect our poor and elderly, our elected officials have cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations while destroying the social safety net.

Instead of celebrating the improved working conditions, wages and benefits for their members and non-members, we have elements of our society who wish to blame all of our financial problems on unions and destroy them.  And instead of working toward solutions that benefit all Americans, we have elected officials who have made pledges to Grover Norquist and others that preclude them from honest negotiations and compromise.

Adding to all this we have a president who starts off all negotiations with compromises that mirror what the other side wants.  We have a senate majority leader who couldn't find his spine even if it was placed in front of him.  We also have a Speaker of the House who can't even get 60 members of his own party to do what is right for the country instead of being mired in their hyper ideology.

Our nation is a mess and until we come to a consensus that doing what is right for our nation is better than doing what is politically expedient our nation will continue to be a mess.  I just don't see that happening any time soon.

The Tirade: Why Aren't Schools Palaces of Learning?

Photo of RFK Community Schools Courtesy of LA Times

In August of 2010, we learned that the Los Angeles School District was about to open the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools at the cost of $578 million.  Of course, Matt Drudge put up a red flashing light and used his dog whistle to help fuel an outcry against the school as an educational "Taj Mahal".

My questions for this Tuesday morning is simple: Why aren't we building palaces of learning?  We seem to have no problem asking tax payers to fund the latest billion dollar football stadium that might be used for 10 or 15 years, but bitch when it comes time to build a new school that will be used for the next 50 or more years.

Our politicians like to pay lip service that education of our children is important, yet currently all of the focus is on standardized testing with none of the focus on the environment that our children learn.  Many of schools are not much better than modified prisons, a place to warehouse children, where uniformed policeman patrol the halls and lunch rooms.  Some of these schools were built in the early 20th century with a few updates and modifications along the way, which rather speaks to their longevity as places of learning.

I think it is a major mistake to build schools that are primarily warehouses.  I think we should be building monuments to learning that rival the beauty of the Taj Mahal and many houses of worship.  We should be building schools that utilize the latest technology, that stimulate learning and refocus education on the art of teaching instead of teaching a standardized test.  Our politicians need to stop giving massive tax breaks to the likes of Wal-Mart to build their latest big box store and instead invest those monies tomorrow's schools today.

No longer should a student sit in a classroom with too little natural light.  No longer should a student sit in a classroom where they need to wear a parka because the antique radiator isn't working.  No longer should a student be eating in a lunch room where the food has to be shipped in from Pizza Hut because the kitchen doesn't pass code.

Instead of asking our populace to be voting on hundreds of millions (if not billions) for the latest professional sport stadium, we should be asking them to approve that spending on schools.  We should be asking them to build the next Buckingham Palace, the next Versailles, the next Taj Mahal.  Not for kings and queens to live in, but for our princes and princesses to learn in.  That's right, our students shouldn't be treated as vagabonds, but as royalty and they should be taught in palaces of learning.