Mediaboss Marketing

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ Three aspiring state politicians hope their progressive bent will help them lock the Democratic nominations for state Senate and Assembly today, June 6, in the primary elections.

New Jerseys 40-member Senate and 80-member General Assembly combine to make up the state Legislature. Its members work to enact laws, serving all Garden State residents and constituents in their individual districts.

The 17th legislative district is comprised of portions of Middlesex and Somerset counties. The area covers New Brunswick, Piscataway, North Brunswick, Milltown and Franklin.

Sign Up for E-News

William Irwin aims to become the Democratic candidate for state senator in the 17th legislative district. His running mates, Heather Fenyk and Ralph Johnson, hope to represent the districts blue team for two Assembly seats in the general election.

The challengers are running on behalf of the Central Jersey Progressive Democrats, a faction founded last year on the ideals and policy goals of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Theyre facing incumbents from the Middlesex County Democratic Organization and the Somerset County Regular Democratic Organization.

Todays winning candidates will square off against Republican opponents in the fall.

Primary elections offer partisans the chance to choose their candidates in the November general election. Registered Democrats may vote in their partys primaries, and Republicans may do the same for their party.

Unaffiliated voters may ask for a ballot from either party at their polling stations. By doing so, however, voters become registered with the party in whose primary they voted.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. For information on where to vote, click here.

TAPinto New Brunswick sent questions to each Senate and Assembly candidate from the 17th legislative district. Below are answers from the three Central Jersey Progressive Democrats. Their responses may have been edited for grammar, style or brevity.

William Irwin, Piscataway resident running for state Senate

Describe your background and why you are qualified for the office.

I am honored to be leading a slate of candidates to take back our party and our government.

A former resident of New Brunswick and Franklin, Ive been a homeowner in Piscataway for 19 years with my wife and sons. A volunteer Little League manager, I have served as president of Piscataways Board of Education since 2014, when I was first elected. I ran in response to growing class sizes in our schools. As a former teacher (masters and bachelors degrees, both from Rutgers University), I thought I could help be part of the solution. I am proud of our boards work, including adopting the states first policy to protect immigrants in our school community, to defend the rights of our transgender students, to ensure a strong food justice policy and securing academic excellence and national recognition for our work. I have worked to ensure that our students and staff have an exceptional learning environment by reducing standardized testing in our schools.

I am a Progressive Democrat who deeply believes in an agenda for social, political and economic justice for all. I will bring these values and my experience of grassroots advocacy and policy change to the Legislature.

What do you consider the most pressing issue facing the state, and how would you address it?

Our slate of candidates believes resistance to the Trump administration and the fight to secure economic, political and social justice are the most pressing issues facing our residents.

On Nov. 8, I felt despair like so many, but on Nov. 9, I got to work. I was heartened by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders call to begin the process of rebuilding our party. I looked to the Democratic leaders we have representing us in Piscataway and at the state level, and only heard silence from them. I did not see champions of working people. Instead, I saw leaders who are collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to implement Trump's immoral and illegal immigration plans. I saw elected officials withholding support for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, and doing little to stop the Williams Transco pipeline from coming into our community. Our Democrats helped Chris Christie cut the estate tax for 3,500 wealthy families by raising the gas tax on everyone else. I asked myself, Whose side are they really on? They certainly dont seem to be on the same side as the people I know in my community.

Unlike my opponents, I will actually stand up to Trump and represent my constituents.

If you are elected, what would you do to specifically help the constituents of the 17th legislative district?

I believe deeply in the policy objective outlined by Sen. Sanders and am glad our slate has adopted them as our own.

We are working to advance an agenda for social, political and economic justice for Middlesex County residents. I believe in raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, in ensuring equal pay for equal work and investing in community facilities that benefit us all.

Our slate is opposed tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that are paid for by increasing the tax burden on the working and middle class. Last years Transportation Trust Fund deal is one example of this; our Democratic leaders supported a regressive tax on gas, which everyone pays, but cut the estate tax for 3,500 wealthy families. Thats wrong for residents of LD-17, who often have long commutes, and limited public transportation choices.

I will work to stop the Williams Transco pipeline and end collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. I will be a member of the NJ Resistance Caucus in the Legislature, and stand up for working families. Our entire platform is available on our website at http://www.centraljerseyprogressivedemocrats.org.

Heather Fenyk, New Brunswick resident running for state Assembly

Describe your background and why you are qualified for the office.

I am a nonprofit director, working mother, small business owner and community organizer who has lived in New Brunswick with her family for almost two decades.

I have a proven track record of running successful social services and environmental organizing, including as a founding member of both the New Brunswick Community Food Alliance and New Brunswick Green Team, and as founder of New Jerseys newest watershed association, the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership. I have never run for political office before, but I have a strong understanding of policy and of how government can work to help solve our common concerns.

In the state Assembly, I will fight to let residents have a voice in how we build our communities in deep and meaningful ways that include: fair and welcoming immigration status, school funding reform, environmental restoration, business incubation and creative economies. I am encouraged by the enthusiastic grassroots effort we have organized in a very short time, making clear that the Central Jersey Progressive Democrats platform speaks to the core values of our communities. We are proving that the best way to win is to talk about our core values, and to talk about restoring democracy to local decision-making.

What do you consider the most pressing issue facing the state, and how would you address it?

I am very concerned about restoring American democracy, which requires a shift from business as usual politics to direct and active engagement by the Democratic Partys progressive base.

I see the opportunities that have made prior generations of residents proud to call New Jersey home--great public schools, good local jobs and neighborhoods with a sense of place--slipping away from too many people. I am running, as part of an amazing slate of candidates, because I see career politicians working on behalf of land developers and entities that have no sense of the true character of the towns we call home.

If you are elected, what would you do to specifically help the constituents of the 17th legislative district?

I believe our leaders must resist the Trump Agenda, including opposing his immoral and illegal executive orders.

Like my running mates, I was disappointed last fall year when our Democratic representatives worked with Governor Christie to shift the tax burden of paying for roads and bridges from the top 3,500 wealthiest New Jersey families and onto to the middle and working classes by raising the gas tax on the rest of us.

I oppose the creation of the proposed Williams Transco Gas Pipeline, which is slated to bring unneeded fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania underneath large sections of Central Jersey, under Raritan Bay and utilize a compressor station that would have to be built on the South Brunswick/Franklin border. This pipeline serves no public interest and will needlessly put people in danger while undermining efforts to reverse global warming and wean our country from fossil fuels.

I believe that New Jersey should be aggressively pursuing a clean and renewable energy future, not capitulating to the fossil fuel. I support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour to make sure all our residents and communities thrive.

Ralph Johnson, Piscataway resident running for state Assembly

Describe your background and why you are qualified for the office.

I am a Progressive Democrat who believes in social, economic and political justice and answering the call to take back the Democratic Party.

Since 2014, I have served on the Piscataway Board of Education, the only three time Magna award recipient in America by the National School Board Association. I am a current Lieutenant and a 20-year veteran of law enforcement, a two-term Piscataway school board member, a Pop Warner Football and Little League Baseball coach, the chair of the boards School Culture and Climate Committee, delegate to the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey and former educator.

Unlike my opponents, who are both white men, I can represent my communitys diversity and increase the representation of African-Americans in New Jerseys General Assembly. I have lived with my wife and four children in Piscataway since 2001.

I have a masters degree in education from Saint Peters College, a bachelors degree in political science from West Virginia University and a certification of administration and supervision in education and a standard teaching license. I am an active member of the Mens of Christ Fellowship Ministry, and worshiping and serving the Lord with Zion Hill Baptist Church of Piscataway.

What do you consider the most pressing issue facing the state, and how would you address it?

After the election, I was disappointed and worried about what a Trump presidency would mean for my community, my friends and my family.

Sen. Sanders call to run progressives for local office really resonated with me; I know that we need to stand up for ourselves, and to be the change we wish to see. I believe it is time for the American people to make a fundamental decision to get actively involved in the Democratic process or be a bystander.

Our current representatives are corporate Democrats and do not fight for working families. They voted for the Transportation Trust Fund, which raised the gas tax--one of the most regressive taxes--for millions of working people and seniors in the state, but cut the estate tax for 3,500 wealthy families. They have done nothing to protect our immigrant neighbors, and they are vigorously not opposing the Williams Transco pipeline.

The people of the 17th legislative district deserve better, and I look forward to the opportunity to represent our shared beliefs in the state Assembly. I encourage people to review our position statements at http://www.centraljerseyprogressivedemocrats.org.

If you are elected, what would you do to specifically help the constituents of the 17th legislative district?

As a member of the state Assembly, I would stand up to Donald Trump at every opportunity and stand up for working families, not millionaires and billionaires.

Our current representatives are not part of the NJ Resistance, which is fighting the Trump agenda by passing progressive state legislation. I wont sit on the sidelines; I will be in the fight for $15 and work to make sure that New Jersey is a safe and welcoming community for all of our neighbors. Ill use my service to ensure that everyone benefits, not just the wealthy few.

I will fight for the school funding formula to be fully funded, so residents of LD-17 get the state support they pay for and deserve. I believe we should reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and oppose the Williams Transco pipeline and gas compressor station slated to be built in Franklin.

Voters in our communities want leaders who will listen and respond to them. Voters I have talked to say that our current representatives do not respond to their calls or concerns. Our communities are tired of being taken for granted. I will listen and I will advocate for the needs of all of my constituents.

Read the rest here:
Sanders-Inspired Progressives Aim to Secure Democratic Nod in the ... - TAPinto.net

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks at the March for Truth rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. (The Real News / YouTube)

The Trump administration has already done enormous harm to the United States and the planet. Along the way, Trump has also caused many prominent progressives to degrade their own political discourse. Its up to us to challenge the corrosive effects of routine hyperbole and outright demagoguery.

Consider the rhetoric from one of the most promising new House members, Democrat Jamie Raskin, at a rally near the Washington Monument over the weekend. Reading from a prepared text, Raskin warmed up by declaring that Donald Trump is the hoax perpetrated on the Americans by the Russians. Soon the congressman named such varied countries as Hungary, the Philippines, Syria and Venezuela, and immediately proclaimed: All the despots, dictators and kleptocrats have found each other, and Vladimir Putin is the ringleader of the unfree world.

Later, asked about factual errors in his speech, Raskin floundered during a filmed interview with The Real News. What is now boilerplate Democratic Party bombast about Russia has little to do with confirmed facts and much to do with partisan talking points.

The same day that Raskin spoke, the progressive former Labor Secretary Robert Reich featured at the top of his website an article hed written with the headline The Art of the Trump-Putin Deal. The piece had striking similarities to what progressives have detested over the years when coming from right-wing commentators and witch hunters. The timeworn technique was dual track, in effect: I cant prove its true, but lets proceed as though it is.

The lead of Reichs piece was clever. Way too clever: Say youre Vladimir Putin, and you did a deal with Trump last year. Im not suggesting there was any such deal, mind you. But if you are Putin and you did do a deal, what did Trump agree to do?

From there, Reichs piece was off to the conjectural races.

Progressives routinely deplore such propaganda techniques from right-wingers, not only because the left is being targeted but also because we seek a political culture based on facts and fairness rather than innuendos and smears. Its painful now to see numerous progressives engaging in hollow propaganda.

Likewise, its sad to see so much eagerness to trust in the absolute credibility of institutions like the CIA and NSAinstitutions that previously earned wise distrust. Over the last few decades, millions of Americans have gained keen awareness of the power of media manipulation and deception by the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. Yet now, faced with an ascendant extreme right wing, some progressives have yielded to the temptation of blaming our political predicament more on a foreign enemy than on powerful corporate forces at home.

The over-the-top scapegoating of Russia serves many purposes for the military-industrial complex, Republican neocons and kindred liberal interventionist Democrats. Along the way, the blame-Russia-first rhetoric is of enormous help to the Clinton wing of the Democratic Partya huge diversion lest its elitism and entwinement with corporate power come under greater scrutiny and stronger challenge from the grassroots.

In this context, the inducements and encouragements to buy into an extreme anti-Russia frenzy have become pervasive. A remarkable number of people claim certainty about hacking and even collusionevents that they cannot, at this time, truly be certain about. In part thats because of deceptive claims endlessly repeated by Democratic politicians and news media. One example is the rote and highly misleading claim that 17 U.S. intelligence agencies reached the same conclusion about Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committeea claim that journalist Robert Parry effectively debunked in an article last week.

During a recent appearance on CNN, former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner offered a badly needed perspective on the subject of Russias alleged intrusion into the U.S. election. People in Flint, Mich., wouldnt ask you about Russia and Jared Kushner, she said. They want to know how theyre gonna get some clean water and why 8,000 people are about to lose their homes.

Turner noted that we definitely have to deal with allegations of Russian interference in the election, its on the minds of American people, but if you want to know what people in Ohiothey want to know about jobs, they want to know about their children. As for Russia, she said, We are preoccupied with this, its not that this is not important, but every day Americans are being left behind because its Russia, Russia, Russia.

Like corporate CEOs whose vision extends only to the next quarter or two, many Democratic politicians have been willing to inject their toxic discourse into the body politic on the theory that it will be politically profitable in the next election or two. But even on its own terms, the approach is apt to fail. Most Americans are far more worried about their economic futures than about the Kremlin. A party that makes itself more known as anti-Russian than pro-working-people has a problematic future.

Today, 15 years after George W. Bushs axis of evil oratory set the stage for ongoing military carnage, politicians who traffic in unhinged rhetoric like Putin is the ringleader of the unfree world are helping to fuel the warfare stateand, in the process, increasing the chances of direct military conflict between the United States and Russia that could go nuclear and destroy us all. But such concerns can seem like abstractions compared to possibly winning some short-term political gains. Thats the difference between leadership and demagoguery.

Norman Solomon is the coordinator of the online activist group RootsAction.org and the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of a dozen books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

See more here:
'Russiagate': When Progressives Sound Like Demagogues - Truthdig

There is certainly no shortage of examples of progressive attempts to silence unacceptable political speech. From Charles Murray to Ann Coulter to David Horowitz, the Left has upped its game when it comes to censoring, and in some cases even silencing, its political opponents. Some Yale students have even gone so far as to petition for a repeal of the First Amendment in its entirety.

Nobody, however, has done more to reveal the true nature of modern progressives illiberalism than Fresno State professor Gregory Thatcher. Thanks to cell-phone video and a timely complaint filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, Thatchers utter contempt for contrary political thought was exposed after he directed students to scrub pro-life messages that had been scrawled on campus sidewalks by the Fresno State chapter of Students for Life. This sort of mentality is endemic in American academia and increasingly in society at large.

A month prior to the incident, Students for Life e-mailed the appropriate authorities at the University, asking for permission to move forward with their chalking plans. Their request made clear that the plan would aim to convey different facts about development in the womb and celebrat[e] pregnant and parenting students hard work as they pursued their education with messages such as Support Pregnant and Parenting Students, Pregnant on Campus Initiative, and Know Your Title IX Rights. Ultimately, Fresno States Event Review Committee approved the request, just as it had approved many other similar requests in the past.

Pursuant to the approval, the students proceeded to chalk a sidewalk near Fresno States library on the morning of May 2. The messages included provocative statements such as love them both, choose life, save the baby humans, and unborn lives matter.

As seen in the video, after Students for Life chalked around three dozen of these hate-filled messages, students who admitted they had been deputized by Thatcher began scrubbing the sidewalk. Professor Thatcher then came rushing out to the pro-life students, demanding they put an end to the messages and directing them to an unidentified free-speech area. After the pro-life students informed him that they had received university approval for their activities, Thatcher himself began scrubbing, and told the students, You had permission to put it down....I have permission to get rid of it....This is our part of free speech. As if that werent enough, Thatcher concluded by emphasizing that college campuses are not free-speech areas.

Let that sink in for a moment: College campuses are not free-speech areas. If Thatchers right about that, its only because he and his progressive ilk have succeeded in perverting the sacred academic mission of free and open inquiry beyond recognition. Thankfully, they dont seem to have thus succeeded at Fresno State, which in the wake of the incident reaffirmed its policy that freedom of expression is allowed in all outdoor spaces on campus, essentially throwing Thatcher under the bus.

More important than the incidents specifics are what it reveals about the mindset of progressives such as Thatcher. Not only did he think he had the duty to erase messages he deemed offensive, he deputized students as censors to more efficiently fulfill that duty. Instead of encouraging pro-choice students to write their own messages alongside the pro-lifers, as would have been entirely appropriate, Thatcher exhorted his young charges to erase the pro-life messages and then chalk pro-choice ones in their place. Instead of engaging in a war of ideas, progressive such as Thatcher demand that contrary views must be silenced, lest innocent snowflake students be triggered by such provocative messages as, A person is a person, no matter how small. (Who knew Dr. Seuss could be so upsetting?)

Of equal importance is Thatchers distorted view of the powers that the First Amendment bestowson a political opponent. Though there is no more sacred a right then ones ability to express a political message, that right does not empower one to silence political messages one does not agree with. The Supreme Courts jurisprudence on the question of a hecklers veto is mixed, but as the ADFs complaint notes, Thatchers actions censored the content and viewpoint of Plaintiffs expression. (Fresno State appears to concur, noting that those disagreeing with the students message have a right to their own speech, but they do not have the right to erase or stifle someone elses speech under the guise of their own right to free speech.)

Thatchers mindset is, unfortunately, far from unique. On campuses across the country, the same illiberal attitude toward disagreeable speech is growing, and the broader public must take notice. As Nebraska senator Ben Sasse put it at a recent Federalist Society event, The idea that any American could think the First Amendment might go too far means that we as a people havent done the first things of teaching it.

We as Americans can and must do better to protect the vibrant and free exchange of ideas.

READ MORE: Liberal Bullies Threaten Free Speech Potemkin Universities: Breaking Faith with a Legacy of Free Inquiry The Roots of Campus Progressivisms Madness

Jake Curtis is an associate counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Libertys Center for Competitive Federalism.

Read the rest here:
The Campus Speech Police Come to Fresno State - National Review

The Trump administration has already done enormous harm to the United States and the planet. Along the way, Trump has also caused many prominent progressives to degrade their own political discourse. Its up to us to challenge the corrosive effects of routine hyperbole and outright demagoguery.

Consider the rhetoric from one of the most promising new House members, Democrat Jamie Raskin, at a rally near the Washington Monument over the weekend. Reading from a prepared text, Raskin warmed up by declaring that Donald Trump is the hoax perpetrated on the Americans by the Russians. Soon the congressman named such varied countries as Hungary, the Philippines, Syria and Venezuela, and immediately proclaimed: All the despots, dictators and kleptocrats have found each other, and Vladimir Putin is the ringleader of the unfree world.

Later, asked about factual errors in his speech, Raskin floundered during a filmed interview with The Real News. What is now boilerplate Democratic Party bombast about Russia has little to do with confirmed facts and much to do with partisan talking points.

The same day that Raskin spoke, the progressive former Labor Secretary Robert Reich featured at the top of his website an article hed written with the headline The Art of the Trump-Putin Deal. The piece had striking similarities to what progressives have detested over the years when coming from right-wing commentators and witchhunters. The timeworn technique was dual track, in effect: I cant prove its true, but lets proceed as though it is.

The lead of Reichs piece was clever. Way too clever: Say youre Vladimir Putin, and you did a deal with Trump last year. Im not suggesting there was any such deal, mind you. But if you are Putin and you did do a deal, what did Trump agree to do?

From there, Reichs piece was off to the conjectural races.

Progressives routinely deplore such propaganda techniques from right-wingers, not only because the left is being targeted but also because we seek a political culture based on facts and fairness rather than innuendos and smears. Its painful now to see numerous progressives engaging in hollow propaganda.

Likewise, its sad to see so much eagerness to trust in the absolute credibility of institutions like the CIA and NSA -- institutions that previously earned wise distrust. Over the last few decades, millions of Americans have gained keen awareness of the power of media manipulation and deception by the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. Yet now, faced with an ascendant extreme right wing, some progressives have yielded to the temptation of blaming our political predicament more on a foreign enemy than on powerful corporate forces at home.

The over-the-top scapegoating of Russia serves many purposes for the military-industrial complex, Republican neocons and kindred liberal interventionist Democrats. Along the way, the blame-Russia-first rhetoric is of enormous help to the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party -- a huge diversion lest its elitism and entwinement with corporate power come under greater scrutiny and stronger challenge from the grassroots.

In this context, the inducements and encouragements to buy into an extreme anti-Russia frenzy have become pervasive. A remarkable number of people claim certainty about hacking and even collusion -- events that they cannot, at this time, truly be certain about. In part thats because of deceptive claims endlessly repeated by Democratic politicians and news media. One example is the rote and highly misleading claim that 17 U.S. intelligence agencies reached the same conclusion about Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee -- a claim that journalist Robert Parry effectively debunked in an article last week.

During a recent appearance on CNN, former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner offered a badly needed perspective on the subject of Russias alleged intrusion into the U.S. election. People in Flint, Michigan wouldn't ask you about Russia and Jared Kushner, she said. They want to know how theyre gonna get some clean water and why 8,000 people are about to lose their homes.

Turner noted that we definitely have to deal with allegations of Russian interference in the election, its on the minds of American people, but if you want to know what people in Ohio -- they want to know about jobs, they want to know about their children. As for Russia, she said, We are preoccupied with this, its not that this is not important, but every day Americans are being left behind because its Russia, Russia, Russia.

Like corporate CEOs whose vision extends only to the next quarter or two, many Democratic politicians have been willing to inject their toxic discourse into the body politic on the theory that it will be politically profitable in the next election or two. But even on its own terms, the approach is apt to fail. Most Americans are far more worried about their economic futures than about the Kremlin. A party that makes itself more known as anti-Russian than pro-working-people has a problematic future.

Today, 15 years after George W. Bushs axis of evil oratory set the stage for ongoing military carnage, politicians who traffic in unhinged rhetoric like Putin is the ringleader of the unfree world are helping to fuel the warfare state -- and, in the process, increasing the chances of direct military conflict between the United States and Russia that could go nuclear and destroy us all. But such concerns can seem like abstractions compared to possibly winning some short-term political gains. Thats the difference between leadership and demagoguery.

Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.

Read the original post:
Dangerous Discourse: When Progressives Sound Like Demagogues - HuffPost

As Trump stumbles, and maybe crumbles, progressives are confronting a painful truth: Trump is a reflection of a much bigger problem the rise of runaway inequality and the failure of the liberal establishment to address it.

Between 1980 and 2014, the gap between the top 100 CEOs and the average worker climbed from $40 to one to an incredible $844 to one. All boats did not rise. During that time the real income of the average worker (after accounting for inflation) actually declined. Both Republicans and Democrats alike rushed to deregulate Wall Street, which is a major cause of these enormous gaps.

The Democrats, who once spoke for these working people, are in real danger of losing them. Since 2008, they have given up 917 state, local and federal elected offices. There are now 33 Republic governorships.

In workshops around the country, weve been asking participants why Trump won. The answers primarily focus on the Comey letter, Hillary as a poor candidate, the Russian hacking, anti-establishment protest, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, and so on..

In no instance is there any self-reflection from progressives about our own role in any of this. Isnt it possible that maybe, just maybe, the enormous rightward drift has something to do with us with how progressives are organized and disorganized? At the very least, we should admit the obvious: all of this happened and continues to happen on our watch. To not take some responsibility for this growing calamity is to concede that we have no agency, no power, and no effective strategy to forge meaningful social change.

The Hazards of Silo Organizing

For the last generation, progressives have organized themselves into issue silos, each with its own agenda. Survival depends on fundraising (largely from private foundations) based on the uniqueness of ones own silo. Each group must develop its own expertise and activities which distinguish it from other groups. Each needs to proclaim that its issue is the existential threat, be it climate change, police violence, abortion rights or health care. The net result of this Darwinian struggle is a fractured landscape of activity. The creativity, talent and skill are there in abundance, but the coherence and common purpose among groups is not.

Siloed organizational structures also make it extremely difficult to cooperate on a common program to reverse runaway inequality, There is little incentive to form a grand progressive alliance to build what the Sanders campaign, for example, had set in motion. Better to launch your own national effort and claim that it is the center of the organizing universe.

It is therefore not surprising that the two biggest progressive challenges to runaway inequality in the last decade Occupy Wall Street and the Sanders campaign did not arise from within these siloed organizations. OWS largely grew from a notice in Adbusters, a Vancouver, BC, journal. Most of those who did the occupying at the 900 encampments also did not come from progressive siloed organizations. In fact, the non-profit/NGO community more or less watched from the sidelines.

Similarly, the Sanders campaign also did not emerge from a concerted effort among progressives to create a new politics within the Democratic Party. Rather, it was driven by Bernies own social-democratic vision that he had been espousing for over 40 years, year after year after year. When his effort showed signs of life, progressives broadly divided between the idealists feeling the burn and the pragmatists seeking to back a sure winner, who at least would provide access to progressive ideas.

The advent of Trump certainly has unleashed an enormous amount of progressive activity. In addition to the many sizeable marches, there are now approximately 5,000 Indivisible groups making life miserable for Republican office holders. However, nearly all of this activity is anti-Trump and defensive. There is no common Indivisible national agenda, nor is there a common organization to set a coherent strategic direction.

More importantly, pure anti-Trumpism guarantees we will be talking to the already convinced. By focusing solely on Trump, it becomes next to impossible to reach the Trump voters who also voted for Sanders and Obama.

Some argue that such outreach is a waste of time because there really are not that many Obama-to-Sanders-to-Trump voters. Unfortunately, exit polls do not give us enough data to reasonably estimate the size of this hybrid voting population. But sources inside the United Steelworkers, for example, report that 50 percent of their members who voted, voted for Trump. Given how representative those members are of the broader working class, were probably looking at several million Obama-Sanders-Trump voters.

We do know this: In the state of Michigan there was a 500,000 vote loss from Obama (2012) to Clinton (2016). It was minus 290,000 in Pennsylvania and minus 222,000 in Wisconsin.

Very few, if any of our siloed progressive organizations are targeting these working people. Danger ahead.

It will not be easy for progressive to reach out to Trump voters, unionized or not. In part, that is because anti-Trump defensive activity has become the basis for a new wave of silo organizing and fundraising. Each group is claiming that its activities will be the most effective means for upending the Trump agenda and returning Congress to the Democrats.

The animosity towards Trump voters runs deep. One prominent progressive educator told me privately that Trump voters should be viewed as terrorists that their anti-establishment revolt was like throwing a grenade into a crowd, and were the collateral damage. Others argue that the Trump voters really are deplorables when it comes to their racism, sexism and anti-immigrant beliefs.

The suspicion also spreads to those who do want to reach out to these Obama-Sanders-Trump voters. They are often criticized for favoring class over race for failing to put anti-racism as the central feature of all organizing and educational efforts. So for example, if addressing white skin privilege is not a major part of the education, then the education is viewed as catering to the racist white working class.

This can cascade into a series of litmus tests on race, gender, immigration, abortion, global warming, etc that must be passed in order to be welcomed into the progressive community. While there is no denying that these issues are of critical importance, the net effect of administering such tests is that progressives will be stuck within their own bubbles.

Were facing a moment of truth about education and social change. We need to decide whether or not we believe that real education about big picture issues can make a difference in how people see the world. This kind of education is not the same as campaign propaganda, sound bite memes or technical training about how to get out the vote or organize an action. Its about building a broad-based discussion on how the economy works and doesnt work, and how to make it serve us all. Here are some of its features:

1. Placing a Target on Wall Street: By showing how and why society is growing more unequal, runaway inequality education (see runawayinequality.org) lays bare the ways in which Wall Street and its CEO partners engage in financial strip-mining, the immoral siphoning away of wealth from our jobs, communities and families. The weapons of financial engineering are many including mortgage fraud, high interest student loans, stock buybacks, payday loans, too big to fail/jail, bailouts, tax loopholes, tax breaks, off-shore accounts, privatization of public assets, and many, many more. None of our silos are immune from ravages of financial strip-mining

2. Building Common Ground: Big picture education can tie together virtually all the issues that we care deeply about. Runaway inequality and runaway finance are linked to runaway global warming. The forces causing runaway inequality are connected to the rise of the prison population and the expansion of private prisons where we now warehouse millions of our impoverished youth. Its tied to the attack on union rights, the decline of good paying jobs, the harassment of immigrants and the failure of our corporate-run health care system. This educational process helps us see that our issue silos are in fact deeply connected.

3. Safe space for Dialogue: A strong educational process provides an excellent venue to have dialogue with those that do not immediately share every progressive value or position. Ive done runaway inequality workshops with Trump voters and the response has been positive. They too want to understand why the richest country in the history of the world cannot provide decent paying jobs and adequate public services for all its people.

4. Developing and Spreading a Common Agenda: Such an educational process also leads naturally to testing and sharing a common agenda to reverse runaway inequality. Such an agenda, in the form of a petition, can serve as an educational tool, and, if it catches on, a way to shift the public debate towards a social-democratic agenda. (See here for national polling results on how young people reacted to such an agenda.)

Learning from the Populists of the late 19th Century

Over a century ago, small farmers, black and white, in the Midwest and South organized a potent mass movement to challenge the power of Wall Street. They called for cooperative enterprises, public banks, public ownership of railroads and telegraph, a progressive income tax and many other limits on corporate power. Their agenda led to many state and nation reforms as well as paving the way for the New Deal and its tight controls on Wall Street.

The key to their organizational successes was education. They fielded 6,000 educators to help build their chapters and spread the word in the 1880s and 1890s. Today we would need about 30,000 to do the same, given the growth of our population.

Building such a network, however, requires having faith in the power of education. It requires that we understand that runaway inequality ties us all together and can only be tackled through a broad-based common movement with a common agenda. This educational process asks us to have the confidence and courage to engage in dialogue with a wide range of people who also care about building a better society for themselves and their families.

None of this will come easy. Our silos provide us with strength. We take pride in our identities and are empowered by them. Also, it is very difficult for us to even imagine what a common movement might look like, let alone how to build one. But we can be sure of one thing: Building a fairer and more just society will require a massive educational movement. As the Populists taught us, it can be done.

(For those willing to take that leap, please join us in building the runawayinequality.org educational network. We need you. We need each other.)

Les Leopold, the director of the Labor Institute, is currently working with labor unions and community organizations to build the runawayinequality.org educational network. His book Runaway Inequality: An Activist Guide to Economic Justice serves as a text for this educational campaign. All proceeds go to support these educational efforts.

The rest is here:
Will Progressives Only Talk To Themselves? - HuffPost