Strategy: The Left is Moving Right. What to do?

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OEN’s Rob Kall

OpedNews) has kicked off a discussion that is long overdue.  The longer the American left —puny or not—remains on the defensive and disorganized, mired in self-doubt, and easily outnumbered and outdone by the faux left, the worse its prospects for a meaningful role in the all-engulfing global crisis.

Rob has put together a list that enumerates just about all of the salient problems that make the current corporate-dominated status quo intolerable. It is telling that, at 55 points, it is a long indictment, a reflection of how rotten the situation has become at home. And Rob has generously left some things out: like forcing the Pentagon to leave or dismantle phony defensive alliances such as NATO. But the list provides a good departure point for a much needed analysis of Left options, and a compiled roadmap for activism in the years ahead if not a de facto program. One thing we would definitely mention in this context is that the American left has to find a way to neutralize the almost total dominance of the corporate media in its ability to shape the national debate. No battles will be won or stay won until we muster this essential strategic capability. American left activists must break out of the informational ghetto.

The Left is Moving Right. What to do?

By Rob Kall, OpEdNews Op Eds

The left has been moving further and further right and it has to stop. Here are some thoughts.

Currently Australia-based (sociologist) Salvatore Babones has written a thought-provoking article, There Is no American Left. He writes,

2-Find some serious money, committed for the long haul, to create a true progressive policy envisioning and promotion organization, like there are dozens of on the right. Surely there must be a few Billionaires  and very wealthy millionaires who are not right wing sociopaths and who can see that what the left has is not even close to enough.

And think outside the box– coming up with ideas that people call crazy and unrealistic, because the best ideas are described that way until they are discovered to be brilliant, revolutionary and life changing.

For example:

  1. -single payer healthcare for all
  2. -free college education for all
  3. -end corporate personhood. Establish death penalties for corporations. Establish laws that lead to prosecution and incarceration of corporate leaders who violate laws.
  4. -equal rights and equal pay for women and all minorities
  5. -marital rights for all
  6. -legalize Marijuana and stop release all marijuana related prisoners from jail with a clean record.
  7. -protect the commons in all aspects– make privatization much harder and more costly to do, with no profit motive.
  8. -teach activism in schools, at all grade levels. Establish university departments that study and support activism, like the arts and science are supported.
  9. -fund protests. Yes. Protests keep democracy healthy. Invest in supporting all kinds of protest. And protect protesters– from police, homeland security.
  10. -Fund investigative journalism– at least $100 billion– and develop a way to do it so those funded are not unduly influenced by those who provide the funds.
  11. -end lifelong appointments to the supreme court
  12. -end gerrymandering and make congressional districts as compact and uniform in size as possible.
  13. -end the Fed
  14. -public banking for every state, for the federal government and major cities and counties.
  15. -Shrink the most out of control part of big government– Cut the US military budget by 70%
  16. -withdraw troops from 80% of the locations we now have them based.
  17. -shut down and end our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan NOW.
  18. -Re-assess all aspects of government and cut it in half– while beefing up regulation of corporations and support for citizens.
  19. -include the costs of damage to the environment in all products
  20. -publicly finance elections– take all money out of politics
  21. -pass strong whistleblower protection laws that reward and support whistleblowers
  22. -destroy all electronic voting machines and require recountable paper ballots. Re-establish the US voting and election system as the gold standard for the world.
  23. -allow on-site voting registration for all elections
  24. -criminalize vote corruption, criminalize intentional voter disenfranchisement
  25. -make it so it costs more to live if people don’t vote. Charge higher taxes to those who pay taxes. Give less social security or medicare or medicaid or VA aid, or food stamps to those who don’t pay taxes– with reasonable outs for those with health excuses.
  26. -re-instate bank regulations like Glass Steagall and others. Support local banks over centralized ones.
  27. -apply bottom up, non-hierarchical, de-centralized approaches to as many aspects of government and funding as possible. Use the Cash for Clunkers project as an example of how to spend large amounts of money from the bottom up. Require big money contracts to be bottom up– with disbursement to local, decentralized recipients, not directly to top-down organizations.
  28. -cancellation of legislation making it a crime to protest
  29. -legislation that makes it a crime to treat or characterize protesters as terrorists.
  30. -elimination of homeland security and other funding that has encouraged turning police into robo-cops and a police state
  31. -cancellation of legislation making it legal to spy on citizens without cause.
  32. -return to a tax system like we had under Eisenhower
  33. -make it illegal for billionaires to exist
  34. -tax exotic purchases at the 50% 95% level– homes over $2 million, art over $2 million, cars over $100,000, pleasure boats over $50,000, dresses and suits over $2000, shoes over $500, cosmetic surgery that is not medically necessary, exotic travel, private jets,
  35. -make it illegal for corporations to get too big to fail
  36. -eliminate all corporate welfare
  37. -fund research and development that supports finding ways to keep companies small.
  38. -make it illegal for any corporate executive to make more than 10 times what any worker makes– base policies on Mondragon… or tax corporations that pay executives massive salaries.
  39. -give tax breaks to genuine worker owned cooperatives.
  40. -fund research and development on how to bring neighborhoods and communities back to life
  41. -eliminate the policy of measuring economic health based on growth and consumption and switch to one based on sustainability
  42. -take aggressive steps to reverse global warming
  43. -lower the retirement age, reduce hours worked per day and week, increase weeks of vacation– all to open up more jobs so more people can find meaningful work.
  44. -tax digital outsourcing.
  45. -require all companies outsource work outside the US to declare the contracts visibly and in easy to see and find ways.
  46. -invest heavily in diagnosing and treating the mentally ill, including identifying causes like violence in media and games, pharmaceuticals that create dangerous patients.
  47. -Ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Limit magazines to six rounds.
  48. -put liberal arts back into the school curriculum– art, music, dance.
  49. -bring back media ownership restrictions that we used to have that prevented massive media conglomerations from forming.
  50. -End all existing global trade agreements– they are designed for multinational corporations, not people.
  51. -require competition for drug pricing for medicare
  52. -require the educational system to build compassion, so Americans embrace the value that we are as good as the way we care for the weakest and most vulnerable– that could include showing how Ayn Rand’s ideas are very wrong for America.
  53. -re-write the  history books ala Howard Zinn and describe how pre-literate tribal people are just as good and wholesome and natural and maybe more so than those of us in the “civilized”world. Teach the values of tribal culture as a way of seeing how people in real communities treat each other and function with integrity.
  54. -research and devise ways to change our economic model so it optimizes work opportunities for all, rather than profits for corporations.
  55. -add measure of intelligence that reflect Howard Gardners model of multiple intelligences… and add one for awareness of the world– not delusions like Fox News produces– but actual awareness of facts.

I’ll stop there. I’m leaving a lot out. Some of the ideas are far outside the box. Please add to the list in your comments. Dream big. We really need it now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and website architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), and publisher of Storycon.org, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and an inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. Mediate ranks Rob Kall among the top 150 print/online columnists, often ahead of NY Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post columnists.