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New poll out indicates that the country is clearly, massively, overwhelmingly progressive. While they talk about cutting so-called entitlement programs in Washington, the American people have completely different priorities.
When asked what’s the first thing they would do to balance the budget, Americans had an unmistakably clear answer — raise taxes on the rich. It came in number one by a mile, with a whopping 61 percent.
If that wasn’t progressive enough, cutting defense spending came in number two, with 20 percent.
And if all of that wasn’t clear enough, when asked about cutting Medicare, only 4 percent were in favor of it. Only 3 percent wanted to cut Social Security as a way to balance the budget.
I thought the country was center-right? That’s what all of the pundits tell us 24/7 on television. What happened now? Do those answers look center-right to you? They look decidedly center-left to anyone with a pulse.
Washington is going to hate this news because they were just getting ready to cut people’s Social Security. That’s what the president’s Deficit Commission suggested. That’s what all of the Republicans are massively in favor of. That’s what a lot of the Democrats are already saying is “necessary.” All the meanwhile, they just gave a $407 billion tax cut to the richest people in the country.
Well, apparently the American people disagree with Washington’s priorities. If the Democrats, Republicans and the president persist in trying to cut Social Security in the face of these numbers, then we will know that we have lost our democracy altogether. That the people in power couldn’t give a damn what we want. That the take over of the American government by the corporations, the rich and the powerful is complete.
Every time you hear any politician or pundit say we have to cut Social Security or what they derisively call entitlement programs (you paid into them your whole life, that is why you are “entitled” to them), send them this poll. And ask them why they don’t care at all about the will of the American people.
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12 Comments
too bad Obamabush and company are not progressive maybe the country could move forward! Thanks Cenk for the SS rant on the Ed Show we need more of that from others..but Obamabush wants to cut SS because he has courage to make the right call and it will create jobs! Sure right :),,when people ask me why things are so bad I only to recite a few names; Jimmy Carter who get attacked by a rabitt while fishing; Ronald Reagan who had to have his wife coach him while making speeches; George H Bush who got loaded and barfed on a diplomat; Bill Clinton who ..well name it and he did it; George W Bush who is just plain dumb and now Obama who likes to pretend he is George W…need I say more?
I mean this in all seriousness; it seems like the biggest hurdle political progressives have to clear is convincing friends and neighbors that they (the friends and neighbors) are actually progressive and simply misinformed about the relative status of their own convictions.
The conservative media have done a great job of tying progressive values to: 1. lack of a work ethic (welfare moms, lazy union members, etc); 2. anti-religious orientations (e.g. war on Christmas), 3. staunch (and cowardly) pacificism; and, 4. lack of realism. Progressives need to counter these lies point by point:
1a. Progressives value actual work (real labor that makes you tired and sweaty) more than GOPers. Progs value “real pay for real work”. GOPers value money, not work. Therefore, the less the bottom 75% get paid, the less value they have in the eyes of the GOP elite.
2a. Progs value religious ideals of truth, equality, compassion, etc. and guard against the perversion of religion for personal or political gain. It is progressives who are instinctively against the Talibanization of the American Right.
3a. Progs believe in the necessity of just wars, and in the moral depravity of unjust wars of choice/aggression/profiteering
4a. Progressives are the true realists. We’ve been right about the devastating effects of 25 years of trade policy, the Iraq war, the threat to the middle class, the repeal of DADT, the costs of cuts to education, the health insurance disaster, and so on. We are *right* because we are the “adult” and “grown-up” realists.
If we just countered these 4 points then we would be in much better electoral (and economic) shape.
How can anyone agree with this thesis.
Before the midterm election, House Republicans publically announced their first priority as being, taxcuts for the wealthy, yet Democrats were thrown out of office by the dozens. Boehner was right out there in front the cameras with a placard, a new Republican ‘Contract with America,’ or some such plan showing that continuing taxcuts for the wealthy was their number one priority, and it was carried by national TV news.
The results of the midterms are known: the House became Republican.
So I remain skeptical with the idea that the country is majority progressive.
Thanks!
Look at who won and who lost. In both parties, the most conservative candidates — both Blue Dogs and Tea Partiers — got shellacked for the most part.
People are frustrated and don’t know where to turn, more than anything.
Thanks – this is a very good point. The potential is out there, we all just need to get our act together. Despair is unwarranted.
I realize that everyone is discouraged by Obama’s betrayal, but we have to accept than in this Flimflam Nation, where fraud (far more than force) is fundamental to our way of life, getting taken for a ride by a politician we trusted is a chance of war – it isn’t the twilight of hope. Instead of folding, we double down.
Some ideas about how to leverage our advantage:
A progressive spine for the Democratic Party
Due diligence and three-candidate monte
The attack on entitlements is simply an attack on an enacted or basic right to make a claim on the government. One does not need to refer to the distinction typically made between welfare and non-welfare government payments to criticize the rightwing attack on entitlements. One need only point out that any society that kills these kind of entitlements is one that has chosen to devolve to a lower moral order.
USA! USA! USA! We are Devo! USA! USA!
Elections in America are very imperfect mechanisms for expressing the majority preference on an issue.
In other words, a difference exists between a collective preference and an election result. If the difference is large and enduring, one can claim on that basis that the political system in question is a weakly democratic one.
“And ask them why they don’t care at all about the will of the American people.”
Maybe because the Legacy Party duopoly in which they function is designed to thwart and obviate the will of the American People?
Maybe because as long as ‘progressives’ and people of conscience continue to ratify and endorse “Least Worst” as good enough, they have no incentive to care about this illusory, 9th grade civics postulate, “the will of the American People.”
How much hard cash has the “the will of the American People” contributed to their account this cycle? A lot less than Goldman Sachs and AIPAC, so guess who gets prompt servicing?
“That the people in power couldn’t give a damn what we want. That the take over of the American government by the corporations, the rich and the powerful is complete.”
I think that point was clear when 77% of the American people wanted the Public Option.
If we were any other country, our “elections” would be monitored…..but probably only to make sure the candidates the powerful want…won.
Not that I’m going to stop voting, unless they start requiring a chip to do it.
It’s really going to be hard to watch the blabbing heads on MSNBC now that they have a target. Ed mentioned the attack on SS ONLY NOW that the R’s are controlling the House. Nary a word when it was Obama’s deficit commission recommending the cuts
The best way to double down, then, is to work at bringing in somebody who’ll be a genuine progressive, take genuinely progressive stands, and won’t engage in this sort of “bait and switch” crap that Obama has engaged in from the get-go…inotherwords, since well before the last POTUS Election, when his votes for FISA and continued funding for our war on Iraq, not to mention tons of other stuff that he’s pulled since taking office.