Quote of the Day

…is from a 2012 article titled “Profit is Theft” by Tim Hjersted. In it he makes a solid (albeit very casual) case for why profit is theft. Often we hear right-libertarians who argue that “taxation is theft.” Yet seldom do hear the argument that profit is theft.

Just to make sure this is totally clear, let’s say a worker does 8 hours of work to produce $160 in value for the company. If everyone was paid the full value of their work this person would get paid $160. Instead, this worker is paid $8 an hour and receives $64, while the other $96 goes to the owners. When this wealth extraction occurs day after day after day, it’s no wonder we see the rich getting richer while the poor stays poor. The working class is getting robbed by the very nature of the wage-based employee/owner system.

–M

The “Centre” on Healthcare is still Rightwing

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about the growing need for the “centre” to rise as a political force in America. The story goes that American politics have become so polarised between the far left and the far right that we need to find candidates who will be ‘middle of road’ candidates, thoughtful arbiters who can sift through partisanship and provide reasonable, centrist solutions to appeal to the centre yada yada yada.

The problem with this notion is that it’s entirely false in its premise. Washington is not divided between the far right and the far left. I’d even go as far as to say that other than a handful of politicians in Washington, there is no “left.” What we have in government is the far far right of Republican party which has shifted severely to the right since the days of Reagan, and the centre-right corporatism of the Democratic party which also has moved severely to the right since the days of Reagan. In fact, the Democratic party is now about right where the Republican party was in the 70s and early 80s. Are they less right than the Republicans now? Of course, but they’re still rightwing. 

The reality is that the “centre” between the far far right of the Republicans and the centre right of the Democrats is still far right. The middle between Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz is basically John Kasich who is still a very conservative, far right Republican. Predictably, throughout Trump’s time in office, John Kasich has on multiple occasions been highlighted by the media as a sort of “voice of reason” in the age of Trump. There is no “left” in Washington today.

One of the best examples of this is the healthcare debate. Obamacare is Romneycare. Plain and simple, the Affordable Care Act is a rightwing, Republican plan that was made up by the Heritage Foundation in the late 80s and championed by folks such as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, and Chuck Grassley in the mid 90s and ultimately implemented in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney in 2006. This is how the Republicans win even if they lose. By running to the hard right, Republicans got Obama down to their own  proposal from the 90s. If they won, they got their even more rightwing plan, and if they lost, they still got their rightwing plan from a decade ago that they would then pretend to oppose. Flash forward and today we are once again debating healthcare as the Republicans propose a repeal and replacement of their own plan from the 90s. Paul Ryan spearheaded the House bill, the American Healthcare Act, and now the senate is working on it’s own version of the House bill. Think about that. Our current healthcare debate is basically between Romneycare and Ryancare. Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were on the Republican ticket in 2012. They lost that election, and yet here we are deciding which of their healthcare bills we are going to have. Even worse, it’s the Democrats who are defending Romneycare. Rather than propose an actually progressive or liberal plan, the Democrats opt instead to just defend Romneycare.

Rightwing Democrat, Tim Kaine, recently started tweeting that he wants to ‘work with the Republicans to create a bi-partisan’ deal on Obamacare. In other words, he wants to meet them half way. Now think about the ramifications of that. From a progressive viewpoint, there isn’t a “middle” or “centre” between people dying and going bankrupt because they don’t have healthcare and people not dying and going bankrupt because they don’t have healthcare. Even under the ACA there are still 30 million Americans without health insurance. Under the House bill, Ryancare, that number would go up to about 50 million. So what the Democrats are basically saying is that, ’50 million Americans without healthcare is unacceptable (true) but 30 million Americans without healthcare is just fine’ ?? How about zero Americans without healthcare?

Elizabeth Warren recently made the case that Democrats need to abandon their centre-right approach and embrace a progressive option on healthcare. Warren told the Wall Street Journal,

President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts. Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.

So Democrats have two paths, they can either take the Tim Kaine route and do a “bi-paritsan” bill with the Republicans that blends Obamacare, an already rightwing plan, with Ryancare, a very rightwing plan and we end up with a rightwing plan, OR they can take the Warren route and provide an actual alternative and campaign on medicare for all. The second route is by far the best path forward. A recent Q poll found that 60% of Americans support medicare for all including 60% of independent voters. 

Taking the “centrist” approach is not a winning strategy and it only ensure that our politics stay rightwing. 

Though technically, since the Democrats are centre-right that means if they truly want to move back toward the centre, they should move to the left. Just a suggestions.

 

Progressives: Everyone should have healthcare as a right.

Republicans: No they shouldn’t.

Tim Kaine: Come on guys, let’s meet in the middle.

–M

America is not a Centre-right Country

One of the oldest and most exhausted memes in American politics is the notion that America is somehow a “centre-right” country. It’s repeated over and over as commentators and analysts attempt to dissect the electorate. On election night as results came in, CNN’s John King told viewers that, “America is a centre-right country, it’s a lot more conservative, especially out in the heartland, than Democrats think.” In 2015, Politico magazine ran an article with the headline: No, America Isn’t moving Left.

A huge reason this narrative keeps getting passed around is because it’s the clear interpretation of the Gallup Political Views poll. Gallup tracks what Americans self identify as and the most recent results, at least at face value, confirm that America is centre-right. 36% percent identify as conservative, 34% identify as moderate while 25% identify as liberal. Based on that, most Americans are either conservative or moderate or some combination. That would indicate that America is in a fact centre-right country. End of story right? Wrong. Although this is based on what people directly self identify as, people often aren’t the best at describing themselves and may not know what those terms mean policy wise. They may think they’re conservative, but they could also be wrong.

To that, let’s look at polling on specific issues and see if America is till a centre-right country.

Healthcare: On the issue of healthcare, the liberal position would be to have a universal healthcare system where the government guarantees healthcare as right. The conservative position would be to not do that and to have a market based system with choice and competition. So what do the American people want? According to a Gallup poll from 2016, 52% of Americans believe it’s the responsibility of the government to provide healthcare to everyone. In another 2016 Gallup poll, 58% of Americans favoured replacing the ACA with a federally funded health service. More recently, a Quinnipiac poll from last month showed that 60% of Americans support expanding Medicare to cover all Americans, creating a universal medicare for all programme. 

Taxes: Concerning taxation, the liberal position is that we should have a progressive tax system where those who earn the most should pay more in taxes. Conservatives believe we should either a) have a progressive tax system but one where the top marginal rates for the wealthy are kept low, b) have a flat tax where everyone pays the same rate, or c) abolish the income tax altogether. Bottomline: conservatives believe in reducing taxation, particular for the rich to spur production. According to a 2017 Gallup poll from April, 63% of Americans believe that upper income people pay too little in taxes. 67% believe that corporations pay too little in taxes. Obviously if one thinks that someone pays too little, they think they should be paying more in taxes, i.e. raise taxes on the rich. A Vox poll from last year found that 73% of Americans support raising taxes on the rich.

Education: The progressive position concerning higher education is that we should have tuition free college for university students. The country used to have basically free college and liberals think we should do that again by making college tuition free. The conservative position on this is basically just not doing that. Not hard to find the difference on this one. However, while many argued that Bernie Sanders was “unelectable” due his “far left” positions, often citing his support for tuition free college, a  poll from last year actually found that 62% of Americans supported the idea of making college tuition free. Go figure.

Minimum Wage: The liberal position on minimum wage varies, but they all include raising the minimum wage. The level it should raised to varies among people; some say $10, some say $12, some say $15. Bernie Sanders ran on raising the minimum wage to $15 which of course was met with the usual “unrealistic, unelectable” critiques. Conservatives typically argue we should either do nothing about the minimum wage and keep it at current levels or go as far as saying we should get rid of it all together. The logic behind this is that if you raise the cost of labour on employers, the quantity demanded will drop, costing jobs. And yet, according to a YouGov poll, 66% support raising the minimum wage to $10, 59% support raising it to $12, and even 48% supported raising it to $15. However, in terms of how the minimum wage is set, which is ultimately more important, a University of Maryland poll found that 63% of Americans believe it should be tied to inflation which would contain built in raises based on inflation. That would automatically put it closer to $15 even if you initially passed a $10 bill but then tied it to inflation. 

The Environment: This one is pretty straight forward. Liberals believe in protecting the environment and helping preserve it by enacting policies designed to curb the effects of climate change. This includes a number of proposals such as a carbon tax, switching to renewable energy etc. Conservatives on the other hand, while not opposed to protecting the environment, believe that any policies about the environment, should place economic growth first. Fortunately, there is a Gallup poll that asks this exact question, whether environmental protection should be given priority even at the risk of curbing economic growth, or if economic growth should be given priority even if the environment suffers a bit. Overall, 56% of Americans think the environment should be given priority while just 35% said economic growth. Also in the poll, 59% said the government is doing too little to protect the environment and 69% support more strongly enforcing environmental regulations.

So across the board, Americans heavily give liberal answers to policy questions. 60% of Americans support medicare for all. 63% of Americans want the minimum wage tied to inflation. 63% of Americans want to tax the rich more. 59% want the government to do more to protect the environment. 62% of Americans favour making college tuition free. So while more Americans may identify as conservative or moderate, interestingly enough, when you ask them about specific policies, they heavily give liberal progressive answers. Thus, this notion that America is somehow a “centre-right” country would appear to be wildly inaccurate. 

–M

Democrats Need a Progressive Manifesto

In order to have any hopes of winning back the house, the senate, and eventually the White House, Democrats have to have a strong manifesto to run on. They cannot continue to simply be the anti-Trump party. As we have seen with Hillary Clinton and Jon Ossoff, that doesn’t work. When they go low, going high does not work either. The Democrats must provide a robust and unapologetically progressive platform and offer a clear alternative in order to secure electoral victories. This begins first by not ignoring progressive candidates running for office. James Thompson and Rob Quist would have both benefitted greatly and may have easily won had the DNC and DCCC lifted a finger to help them. The DCCC’s job is to help elect Democrats and they completely ignored both candidates. The Democratic party must expand its base, not shrink it. That means opening up to and allying with the Greens, independents, and Democratic Socialists. 

Beyond that, the Democrats have to provide a strong alternative to the Republican platform. No longer can Democrats continue to be the centre-right conservative party running against the hard right conservative Republican party. Given that the Democrats are already right of centre, I agree with some that they must move toward the centre. But  that would mean moving to the left, not further to the right.

In addition to the already strong stances Democrats have on LGBT rights, women’s reproductive and health rights, and issues pertaining specifically to minorities, all of which should be strengthened even more, Democrats must adopt and run on the following positions in order to provide a clear alternative to Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell in order to secure victories in 2018 and 2020:

• The implementation of a Universal Healthcare system modelled after either the UK or Australia. This means a federally funded healthcare programme that is free to all citizens at the point of use.

• Raising taxes on the richest 10% and especially the top 5%. The creation of a 45% and 50% tax rate along with the closing of all tax loopholes for individuals and corporations.

• Abolish tuition fees for public university students as well as investing in public primary and secondary education as well as free Pre-K schooling. 

• Guaranteed paid time off, maternity/paternity leave for all workers. The right for all workers to have access to a Labour Union. Allowing employees the right of first refusal when the company they work for is for sale. Banning all unpaid internships and increasing apprenticeships. 

• Elimination of all corporate money in politics. Outlaw any and all PACs and overturn Citizens United. 

• Ending corporate welfare, enforcing strict anti-trust laws, and the reinstating of the Glass-Steagall act of 1932.

• A strong infrastructure bill to invest in our communities and repair our roads and bridges. 

• Reforming the criminal justice system by ending mandatory minimums, reinstating voting rights to ex-felons, decriminalising or legalisation of medical and recreational marijuana. Implement and strongly enforce sweeping reforms to our police forces to reduce the number of unarmed and innocent (black) people murdered by police officers.

• Invest in renewable energy to preserve and sustain our environment, create new jobs, and help curb the effects of climate change. Move completely away from fossil fuels. 

• Build new affordable housing structures, index the federal minimum wage to inflation, and provide each citizen with a universal basic income.

By adopting some, most, or all of this will make the Democrats once again the party of workers and re-establish the New Deal coalition. The working class is largely composed of minorities and according to the Economic Policy Institute, by 2032, minorities will be the majority of the working class. Minorities will benefit most from; medicare for all, free college, a living wage, and criminal justice reform. By supporting and strengthening the working class, we are also supporting and strengthening minority communities as we prepare for a country with no majority race by 2055. The idea that it’s the White Working Class vs Minority communities and women is a false dichotomy. Women and minorities are the working class.

By adopting these proposals, Democrats will provide a clear alternative to the Republicans. 60% of Americans support medicare for all. 63% support indexing minimum wage to inflation. 73% support raising taxes on the rich. 62% support tuition free college. Being unapologetically progressive and providing a strong alternative to the Republicans is the only way forward for Democrats. Any call for running to the “centre” is simply a call to be more conservative and be Republican-lite and is unacceptable.