by Robert Reich

[elleng]

As we slouch toward a critically -important election year, Democrats are expressing a degree of confidence bordering on smugness, and that makes me worry. This morning I got an email from a key Democratic operative. “The Republicans are showing America how nuts they are,” he writes. “With Trump, Cruz, or even Rubio they can’t possibly win the presidency. They’ve turned off Latinos, women, blacks, young people, older people. Odds are they’ll also lose the Senate. Maybe even the House.”

This is dangerous hubris. In 2014, Republicans won their biggest House majority in Congress in almost a century, and most of the winners are every bit as conservative as the current candidates for president. Republicans also control 32 governorships, including deep-blue states like Maryland, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Under President Obama, Democrats have also lost more than 900 state legislative seats. Not to mention the current right-wing Republican majority on the Supreme Court.

Anyone who thinks the next election is going to be easy for Democrats and progressives is kidding themselves. Republicans are digging in -- with gerrymandered districts, voter ID laws, and every other possible means of keeping their congressional and state majorities, and taking the presidency. Even if Donald Trump gets the nomination, it’s going to be an uphill fight. Which means you and I and everyone we know who understands the damage being done by the extreme right -- and by the growing concentration of income, wealth, and political power in the hands of a very few -- will have to work like hell.
What do you think?

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?fref=nf

[pipoman]

1. Robert Reich, traitor to US labor,

"Which means you and I and everyone we know who understands the damage being done by the extreme right -- and by the growing concentration of income, wealth, and political power in the hands of a very few -- will have to work like hell. 

He is describing his exact role in this. He sold out US labor when he had the opportunity to be the voice of US labor....now he wants to pretend that he isn't the problem...he is a traitor.

[elleng]

2. Details and dates, please.

[pipoman]

7. See #6

[dreamnightwind]

5. I tend to disagree with this assessment

though I agree that he was in a position to make a difference and didn't while in the Clinton administration. I have read his words and watched him speak (TV, Youtube) many times over the last 10 years or so. I am no apologist for corporatists or financial deregulators, quite the opposite. In my opinion Reich is sincerely and doggedly working to reign in the runaway financial industry, and to bring us to a more equitable and just society. His voice is consistent and persistent, guided by a heart that is in the right place and the wisdom of knowing the system from the inside.

I recently got into a (mostly worthless) DU discussion over whether to give Hillary such benefit of the doubt as someone who has seen the light and is working for actual reform that favors the 99%. I completely reject that possibility. In my opinion she positions herself for political expediency and makes no challenges to power interests, instead considering them her base.

Reich, in my view, is an example of someone that actually came out of it on the other side, from the halls of power to working in our interests from the outside. I trust him about as much as I trust anyone in this political world, save Bernie or Warren, who have long and loud histories of going up against wealth and power.

I don't think of him as a traitor at all. He was part of a team (and what precise role he had in those dynamics is something I wonder about, Summers was obviously the alpha deregulator) in the 90's that did join wth Newt, Greenspan, etc., to deregulate the financial industry. So in that way you could call him a traitor. But I see him more as someone who was there, participated, saw the consequences of those policies, and has for some time now been putting his energy into advocating for the actual reforms we need to fix things. He's an excellent spokeperson for where we need to go, and throwing him out as a traitor is to waste a great resource and an excellent man. YMMV, of course.

[pipoman]

6. His outspoken and continued support for NAFTA when 90% of labor opposed it

Was a test of whether he answered to corporate masters or the workers he was representing. To this day he pretends his support for NAFTA was the right thing to do...that it had no affect on the bullshit wealth disparity he is oh so outspokenly opposed to now that nobody is enriching him for taking obviously 1% positions. He writes of his bewilderment of what happened to the middle class as if his failure to the middle class had nothing to do with it. He pretends he is principaled while he is actually just another corporate mouth who would sell out again if anyone cared enough about what he said to be paid to take a position.

Then there's this:

Despite his reputation as a liberal and a friend of working men and women, Reich knows how to walk both sides of the street. I recall that he rarely, if ever, mentioned unions during his four years as Secretary of Labor. He has no problem backing proposals that cheer business more than labor, like ending the corporate income tax. If you read his recent book, Supercapitalism, you would think Steve Forbes was the writer. But no, it's the former Secretary of Labor calling for eliminating a tax that helps keep down the tax burden on working men and women across this nation. Does Senator Obama support that Reich idea? Is eliminating the corporate income tax going to be part of the "change we can believe in"? 

Reich says that corporate responsibility is counterproductive. He thinks it's a distraction. That's beautiful. Here we have a former Secretary of Labor, someone who should know better, taking the GOP line that corporations need to focus on making money and forget about everything else. The movement for social responsibility has promoted ethical decision-making in business, community development programs, day-care centers, HIV-AIDS training, family-friendly workplaces, and more. To suggest that those developments are a distraction from the responsibility of corporations to amass profits for shareholders, as Secretary Reich does in his book, is shameful. 

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/97450

[dreamnightwind]

8. You're still arguing against his support of Clinton admin policies. He opposes TPP

and everything I've read and heard from him is excellent.

If you're on "my" side of opposing unregulated capitalism and "free" trade, I think you'd do well to pay attention to what he is saying. I agree he was allied with the Clinton free traders when in their administration, there is no arguing that, but he consistently, from what I've seen, is on the right side of things these days and I'm quite sure it isn't just political posturing, I can tell the difference, and I've heard Reich speak and read him a lot, thank you.

[pipoman]

9. No, I am just tired of reading of his ongoing, redundant

shtick bewilderment of what has happened to the middle class....he knows what happened....

He's been quite the advocate for labor since it doesn't matter what his position is.....when it mattered he sold out.

[dreamnightwind]

10. It still matters

but I share your frustration with what happened during the Clinton administration, pretty much continued under Obama. Part of why I support Bernie. Peace.

[Dems to Win]

3. K&R!

I sometimes see cockiness on our side and shudder a bit.

Lots and lots of people are angry at The Establishment and may well vote for a celebrity bomb thrower. I fear that Trump could beat Hillary, and it's not a pretty thought.

So many people are eager to see Trump get the nomination because they think he will lose big to Hillary, but I say they should be careful what they wish for.

[mgmaggiemg]

4. agree that we should not sit back on our heels

everyone across the nation needs to do their bit by helping people register and get to the polls...because that is true...if the dems do their job they should do fine....