{"id":322547,"date":"2017-08-20T23:42:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T22:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/make-america-safe-again\/"},"modified":"2017-08-20T23:42:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T22:42:31","slug":"make-america-safe-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/make-america-safe-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Make America Safe Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Through six months of Donald Trump the progressive resistance has been\u00a0united by opposition to his policies. The good news is that we have\u00a0stopped his legislative program.\u00a0 The bad news is that most Americans\u00a0don’t understand what progressives stand for, other than opposing\u00a0Trump. Now’s the time to bring forward an agenda that emphasizes
safety.<\/p>\n

“This six-month period provides a golden opportunity for progressives and Democrats, in general, to tell voters what they stand for. \u00a0So far, the results have been underwhelming.”<\/span>During the next six months, Trump won’t change.\u00a0 He’ll continue to\u00a0lie, bloviate, and feather his own nest.\u00a0 His racism and resentment\u00a0will become more obvious.\u00a0 \u00a0And congressional Republicans will careen\u00a0from issue to issue without challenging Trump or accomplishing\u00a0anything of significance.<\/p>\n

This six-month period provides a golden opportunity for progressives\u00a0and Democrats, in general, to tell voters what they stand for.\u00a0 So\u00a0far, the results have been underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Democrats have responded with “A Better Deal.<\/a>”\u00a0Washington\u00a0Progressives have their own “Progressive Agenda<\/a>.” \u00a0Both documents are too complicated.\u00a0 They follow the losing HRC\u00a0prescription: “when in doubt hand the voter a policy paper.”<\/p>\n

An affective progressive agenda should contain only a handful of\u00a0objectives. And, hopefully, one or two memorable phrases.<\/p>\n

Affordable Healthcare: The obvious place for progressives to begin is\u00a0with healthcare.\u00a0 The resistance has beaten back Republican attempts\u00a0to repeal the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0 Progressives believe in\u00a0strengthening Obamacare and expanding Medicaid into the 19 states that\u00a0do not have it.<\/p>\n

We should aim higher.\u00a0 Progressives should advocate Medicare for All;\u00a0a concept easy to remember.\u00a0 We stand for safety through the\u00a0democratization of healthcare.<\/p>\n

Economic Equality: Most Americans believe the system is rigged.\u00a0 61\u00a0percent feel “the country is headed in the wrong direction.”\u00a0 Voters\u00a0continue to rank “the economy” as the number one problem.<\/p>\n

While the stock market is booming and total employment is at record\u00a0levels, most Americans do not believe capitalism is working for them.\u00a0Consumer-credit is at near-record levels; Americans carry more than $1\u00a0trillion in credit-card debt.<\/p>\n

The Progressive Agenda offers a thirteen-point proposal “to restore an\u00a0economy that works for working Americans.\u201d\u00a0 While they are all good\u00a0important, progressives need to identify one or two memorable ideas\u00a0that differentiate them from Republicans.\u00a0 Two suggestions:<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Feature the slogan: Give America a raise. The Progressive Agenda\u00a0suggests: “Raise the federal minimum wage, so that it reaches\u00a0$15\/hour, while indexing it to inflation.” Republicans have shown no\u00a0interest in this measure but it’s one that resonates with most voters.\u00a0(A recent poll<\/a>\u00a0found that 74 percent of respondents favored raising the minimum
wage.) Safety through better wages.<\/p>\n

The second suggestion is adopt the slogan: Make Capitalism work for\u00a0everyone.\u00a0 One of the unnoticed sections of “A Better Deal” is the\u00a0section on “Cracking Down on Corporate Monopolies<\/a>”\u00a0(pdf)\u00a0which states:<\/p>\n

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The extensive concentration of power in the hands of a few\u00a0corporations hurts wages, undermines job growth, and threatens to\u00a0squeeze out small businesses, suppliers, and new, innovative\u00a0competitors… A Better Deal on competition means that we will revisit\u00a0our antitrust laws to ensure that the economic freedom of all\u00a0Americans\u2014consumers, workers, and small businesses\u2014come before big\u00a0corporations that are getting even bigger.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This break up monopolies stance represents a dramatic change from\u00a0previous Democratic platforms.\u00a0 It differentiates progressives from\u00a0Republicans and is an issue that resonates with voters in general\u2014for example, a 2015 poll found that a majority of Americans favored\u00a0breaking up the largest financial institutions.<\/p>\n

Of course there are many other issues that could be featured in a\u00a0progressive agenda; among these are climate change, immigration,\u00a0reproductive rights, and criminal justice to mention only a few.\u00a0Rather than add another issue to the three already mentioned, it would\u00a0be more productive for the progressive agenda to focus on values.<\/p>\n

The place to start is with safety.<\/p>\n

America is a great country but American democracy is not working for\u00a0everyone.\u00a0 We need look no farther than the Charlottesville violence,\u00a0or the number of voters that believe the country is headed in the\u00a0wrong direction, to understand that Americans are not satisfied with\u00a0the status quo.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump won the presidency because his slogan, “make America\u00a0great again,” resonated with more voters than did Hillary Clinton’s\u00a0slogan, “stronger together.”<\/p>\n

Trump’s slogan, “make America great again,” was interpreted by many of\u00a0his supporters as, “let’s return to the fifties when America was\u00a0number one in the world and white men called all the shots.”\u00a0Clinton’s tepid slogan was interpreted as “let’s keep doing what Obama\u00a0has been doing,” an endorsement of the status quo.<\/p>\n

Progressives need an effective alternative to “make America great\u00a0again.”\u00a0 Make America safe again.\u00a0 This reflects the reality that\u00a0because of economic inequality and Donald Trump, most Americans are\u00a0fearful.\u00a0 They fear for the future because the economy is not working\u00a0for them and they do not have adequate healthcare, education, or\u00a0housing.\u00a0 Many Americans fear for the future because of climate\u00a0change.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Charlottesville violence reminds us that many\u00a0Americans are fearful because of the color of their skin, or their\u00a0gender\/sexual orientation, or their religion or country of origin.\u00a0Donald Trump has brought bigotry and hate into the mainstream.\u00a0 He has\u00a0legitimized the politics of resentment.<\/p>\n

It’s time for progressives to stand up to Trump’s hate-filled conduct\u00a0and proclaim to all Americans: We will make America safe again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Via Common Dreams<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through six months of Donald Trump the progressive resistance has been\u00a0united by opposition to his policies. The good news is that we have\u00a0stopped his legislative program.\u00a0 The bad news is that most Americans\u00a0don’t understand what progressives stand for, other than opposing\u00a0Trump. Now’s the time to bring forward an agenda that emphasizessafety. “This six-month period provides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":322515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-322547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}