A People's Platform for the Democratic Party

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/article/169300/peoples-platform-democratic-party

Political conventions have two purposes: to nominate candidates and to shape agendas through party platforms. There will be no mystery this summer regarding the nomination of candidates. And the agendas of both parties are reasonably well defined. While the degeneration of the Republican brand will be confirmed in Tampa, the Democrats will evolve in Charlotte with the addition of a marriage equality plank to the party platform. The full embrace of LGBT rights by a major party comes as the culmination of a long struggle to bend the arc of history toward justice. In the same spirit, we propose six more planks for a People’s Platform—one grounded in current activism and animated by the belief that the party must define itself in a more boldly progressive direction.

§ A Robin Hood Tax. Michael Moore was right when he said, “America is not broke.” But America will act like it is as long as politicians of both parties fail to challenge the prevailing view that our resources are insufficient to maintain Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—let alone expand essential programs to meet pressing social needs.

***SNIP

§ Medicare for All. The Affordable Care Act has passed constitutional muster, to the relief of the Obama administration and the millions of Americans whose access to healthcare depends on it. But the ACA is merely a first step in the direction of fixing a system rendered dysfunctional by profiteering. The regulatory and oversight framework established by the ACA must be linked to an expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, which already provide care for tens of millions. This will move us toward a system giving all Americans the care they need, at a cost the country can afford. Groups like Progressive Democrats of America and key unions have long advocated this approach, and they have a base in Congress led by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman John Conyers. To learn more, go to sanders.senate.gov, pdamerica.org and laborforsinglepayer.org.

***SNIP

§ Regulation of the Banksters. We agree with Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren when she says the Dodd-Frank reform bill didn’t go far enough in addressing the challenges posed by “too big to fail” banks. Warren wants Congress to “put Wall Street reform back on the agenda” by enacting a new Glass-Steagall Act that “would separate high-risk investment banks from more traditional banking.” Yes! But as the mortgage crisis and the Libor-fixing scandal illustrate, Congress must do more. Representative Marcy Kaptur’s Return to Prudent Banking Act, which has seventy-eight co-sponsors, would crack down on the banksters and revive the New Deal boldness of the Democratic Party. For more, go to kaptur.house.gov and banksterusa.org.

[xchrom]

1. I'll give this 1 kick. Nt

[Comrade_McKenzie]

2. K&R. nt

[1-Old-Man]

3. As much as I hate to say it I don't believe one thing in your bullets will come to pass

Particularly with the second and third bullets. There will be no Robin Hood tax and health care insurance schemes will not be expanded toward single payer any farther than existing legislation accounts for. And as much as I admire them I have never seen either John Conyers or Bernie Sanders lead the Congress any anything, not even after Bernie actually went to the Senate floor and 'filibustered'. Its a shame, but that's the way it is. Let this election be anything resembling close and you will see a new congress that is just as cowardly as its predecessors. There is not much hope that we will retake the House and we might even lose the Senate, so I just don't see any change coming from that third of Government.

[woo me with science]

4. It's nice to dream,

but what do we do about the corporatists who are actually running the party?