RADICALS

We have been warned to beware of radicals in the Democratic Party by multiple media outlets, pundits and politicians in the last couple of weeks. The progressives are out of touch with mainstream America, we’re told.  These cautionary words and videos will presumably help the Democratic Party win in 2020.  I’m calling bullshit.

If you look at polling, roughly two thirds of Americans were satisfied with the direction the country was heading around the turn of the century.  It began a steady downward trajectory in 2000 excepting momentary boosts from war, after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. For almost two decades, a majority of Americans have been pessimistic about the road we’re on.  For the last ten years, less than a third of Americans think we’re on course. Plain and simple English: people aren’t happy with the way things are, and they haven’t been for a while.

Offering ‘more of the same’ to people who are unhappy with ‘more of the same’ is not a recipe for electoral success.  More of the same has been the goal of elites since the dawn of time because things are already good for them. The problem is that things aren’t so good for everyone else and so the folks on top have to spend money to convince the rest of us that business as usual is in all of our best interests.

Press, pundits, party hacks and P.R. campaigns are paid to define politicians as radical or sensible to influence our feelings about them for the benefit of people paying for commercials or funding think tanks.  Radical conjures up images of hairy, bomb-throwing hippies bent on forcing your family out of their suburban house and onto a beet collective – dangerous. Sensible conjures up images of a clean cut professional who can be relied on to watch over you, your family and your money – safe.

The “radical” du jour is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 29 year old former bartender from The Bronx. She is young, smart, direct, media savvy, beautiful and seems to be authentic. Those things might make her Radically Awesome but they don’t make her a radical.  What makes her a “radical” is her stance on a few key issues.

There are five issues which, if more than lip service is paid to, will get a politician labelled as a “radical”: Green New Deal, Medicare For All, Legalized Marijuana, Gun Reform and Income Inequality.

A Green New Deal is a common sense approach to the apocalyptic threat of runaway climate change. A rapid retooling of the economy to renewable/regenerative technology, combined with the infrastructure necessary to mitigate/survive climate change will provide plenty of jobs. Moneyed interests fighting a Green New Deal are the oil and gas industries, agricultural industries, airline industries, financial & securities industries and the utilities industry. A Green New Deal is a rational step forward: Keynesian economics has been scientifically proven to work and we already have most of the technology we need. Option B is to let the clock run out in eleven years and watch the end of the world kick into high gear. Politicians who support option B are called sensible.

Medicare For All is something every other developed country has already. Our current health care system is the most expensive and inefficient in the world.  What people people want is when you’re sick enough, you can go to a hospital, if you need treatment or an operation, you get it. The moneyed interests trying to prevent Medicare For All are the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry. and the securities & investments industries. Politicians who support Medicare For All are called “radical”.  Option B is to continue allowing  wealthy executives and shareholders to shove Americans into poverty while the general health of the nation declines. Politicians who support option B are called sensible.

Gun control is another thing every other developed country implements. It’s reasonable to restrict access to firearms, especially for abusers and the mentally unwell. Countries which have enacted gun control do not suffer from the monthly mass slaughter of innocents. Option B is to continue to allow almost anyone to possess a firearm and let them choose which people should live or die when they’ve had a bad day.  Politicians who support option B are called sensible.

Legalized marijuana seeks to legalize a plant that has been tied to creativity, trade, medicine and religion for thousands of years.  Marijuana’s federal prohibition prevents research into its pain-relieving medicinal compounds at a time Americans are dropping dead in record numbers of opioid addiction. Marijuana’s prohibition costs states over $3 billion a year to enforce and damages the lives of hundreds of thousands of people a year arrested for possession.  States with legal recreational marijuana have created multi-billion dollar industries which have led to increased tax revenue, lower opioid use, fewer DUIs, lower alcohol and tobacco  consumption and decreased violent crime. The moneyed interests opposed to legalization are the alcohol industry, pharmaceutical industry and the private prison industry.  Option B is to continue to waste billions and crush the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens a year,  prevent life saving drugs from reaching the sick and invite organized crime participation in a multi-billion dollar domestic market.  Politicians who support Option B are called sensible.

Income inequality has become a steadily worsening problem in the United States.  Essentially, our laws have been written for the benefit of corporations and a few hundred  families for the last generation with predictable results.  Extreme wealth accrues in the hands of a tiny percentage of the population while everyone else gets squeezed by rising costs and diminished lives. This gives the plutocratic elite more money to sink into politics. Public goods like water, education, institutional and physical infrastructure are bankrupted and/or  auctioned off to money making schemes.  Restricting money in politics as well as pushing for higher marginal and capital gains taxes are rational policies to deal with this ever growing problem. Addressing income inequality in the U.S. is opposed by the financial industry,  the real estate industry, business associations and the energy industry. Politicians who advocate for policies to deal with income inequality are labeled as “radical.” Option B is a continuation of business as usual, leaving our children as serfs in a post-apocalyptic feudal dystopia.  Politicians who support Option B are called sensible.

We know where the money and therefore our Congress stands, but what do the American people think after the avalanche of lies thrown their way by the well-funded soothsayers of the media/political machine?

Surprisingly, we believe our own eyes.

80 percent of all registered voters support a Green New Deal. 70 percent of registered voters support Medicare For All.  62 percent of voters want marijuana legalized. 60 percent of registered voters support stricter  gun control.  63 percent of Americans say the economic system unfairly favors powerful interests. Most people consider policies to address these issues particularly responsible despite what the professionals tell them.

The real radicals are the ones telling you it’s okay if the human race goes extinct from climate change in your children’s lifetime, that Americans can’t afford healthcare unless they’re rich, that guns should be easy for anyone to get a hold of, that draconian marijuana laws are just or that income inequality is no big deal.

The sooner the establishment gets it through their thick skulls that these issues are broadly supported by the American people rather than “radicals” and Russian influence, the sooner they can win a mandate for the White House and give the American people a government we can believe in again.