Category Archives: Protect & Empower

Equally protecting and empowering all citizens is morally correct.  Protecting and empowering a subset of citizens, incrementalism, is immoral.

Tracking the Growth of American Authoritarianism

“Can There Really Be Fascist People In A Democracy?”
Libertarians are stealthily taking over America.

Since the 1971 Powell Memo, America has moved closer and closer to Fascism.

 

What Socialism Is, Has Changed

Democratic Socialism is about social responsibility for all citizens through expansion of democracy in both our political and economic systems. Continue reading

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Replacing Current ABNORMAL With an IMPROVED NORMAL

We need a new and BETTER NORMAL that not only re-establishes what we’ve lost since the mid twentieth century, but includes FDR’s Second Bill of Rights (6.), and more. Continue reading

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American Socialism – Equally Empowering and Protecting All US Citizens

(A cycle of building, destroying, and now renewing/expanding) Even before FDR’s socially responsible New Deal and laws passed since, corporations and excessively wealthy individuals have been stealthily working to put our democracy in chains by neutering the Federal government, eliminating … Continue reading

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As a progressive, am I too extreme?

Am I too extreme to want representatives who will unabashedly speak out against all forms of economic injustice spawned by right-wing extremists and their belief that only the wealthy deserve government aid? Am I too extreme to want representatives who … Continue reading

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Modern Money Theory/Practice – Fixing an Under-capacity Economy.

From Intro To Modern Money Theory: “Modern Monetary Theory is partly a description of how our modern fiat, floating exchange rate currencies actually work, and partly a prescription of what we ought to do with this knowledge. MMT realizes that … Continue reading

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What I Would Teach a Child in My Care

That self-made individuals are a myth. That empathy is natural and requires nurturing. That we are all responsible for ourselves and each other. That equality is an honorable goal. That we must protect and preserve our common wealth for our … Continue reading

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Bashing Loses – Speaking Values Wins

Complaining about the idiocy of the opposition is such a distraction – a waste of time – and provides little incentive for Democratic voter turnout. Democrats need to talk about how they will address the massive economic, social, racial, and … Continue reading

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Protection, Empowerment, Freedom from Injustice, and Participation – Rebuilding the Middle Class

As an American Baby Boomer, I’ve lived under two different systems of government: Post depression/post WWII and pre 1980s government: Government of, by, and for the People requires: Government with the moral purpose to equally protect and empower ALL the … Continue reading

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Two Definitions of Government – Progressive vs Corporate

This was a response to part of business editorial on DJT’s “Wheeling and Dealing” over the Carrier jobs. _______________________________________ I agree that DJT’s approach to governing is frightening. What I take issue with is this statement from the editorial: “The … Continue reading

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Winning in Politics – Inspiring Your Supporters to Vote

Know Your Values and Frame the Debate Communicating Our American Values and Vision Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain The essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic The above list provides the subtitles … Continue reading

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Checks and Balances – Supporting the United Steel Workers

The founders of America included a fundamental idea in our Constitution: checks and balances – one branch of government checks another. This important idea is basic to our way of life and applies to any situation where abuse of power … Continue reading

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The Texas Democratic Party Wanted to Know …

I just responded to a Texas Democratic Party Survey. Here are their questions and my answers: What do you think we could have done differently? All organizations that are working to elect Democrats need to coordinate their activities to reduce … Continue reading

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Functioning Democracies Require Citizen Participation and That …

Government is crucial for building a public infrastructure that equally protects and empowers every citizen Citizenship dues are necessary to fund this public infrastructure and that these dues are in proportion to the use of said infrastructure so as to … Continue reading

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Unions Must Lead The Fight Against Climate Disruption

Demand freedom from Climate disruption – increased weather extremes and human costs resulting from significant, unseen, and rampant releases of greenhouse gasses. ———————————– Naomi Klein spoke to the members of UNIFOR, a new mega union created by the Canadian Autoworkers … Continue reading

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America’s Two Party System – The Good, Bad, and The Really Ugly

First of all, a short summary of The Lucifer Effect. It explains how events like Mi Lai, Abu Ghraib, and The Stanford Prison Experiment turned good people evil. Part of this explanation involves “bad barrels.” A bad barrel is an … Continue reading

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What’s Really Best for an ‘Unwanted’?

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks … Continue reading

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Avoiding The Right-wing Authoritarian Future – The Moral Values Way

(Unless otherwise noted, this posting includes extensive excerpts from Appendix VII, The New Patriotism, of the The 15% Solution, by ‘Jonathan Westminster,’ which is a penname for Steven Jonas. The second edition of this book that was just published, does … Continue reading

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Moral Values of the Left and Right – History Shows Which Works for All Americans

Throughout this blog, postings have provided details about the strict father and nurturant parent worldviews. Charts in some of those postings show how the dominance of one or the other of these two worldviews affects our economy. Not only did … Continue reading

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Corporate Governance Erodes Democracy As Education is Privatized

Corporate governance destroys democracy by replacing accountability to citizens with accountability to a few major stockholders and boards of directors who want reduced costs and increased profits. This change in accountability means moral values, such as protecting and empowering/educating citizens, … Continue reading

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Corporate Governance of Social Security & Medicare – An Abominable Idea for Senior Welfare

I’ve sent the following to President Obama via the White House contact web site: You might consider doing something similar to counter all the fiscal cliff fear mongering we will hear for the next several weeks. —————————————————————————————- RE: Fiscal Cliff … Continue reading

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What’s It Gonna Be: Representative Governance or Corporate Governance?

Part of President Obama’s 2012 nomination acceptance speech made reference to the different visions and choices for our future. “And on every issue, the choice you face won’t just be between two candidates or two parties. It will be a … Continue reading

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Moral Principles – What Conservatives Know and Progressives Take for Granted

Recent political ads lie about President Obama and his suggestions to the states on the national welfare program. As stated in a recent Truthout article, the producers of these ads are targeting “white working class voters” who harbor “deep resentment … Continue reading

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Why Scott Walker Won and a Book for Future Progressive Victories

In a recent article by George Lakoff, the author explains how Republicans won the message war and confirmed Scott Walker as the governor of Wisconsin. “Where progressives argued policy — the right to collective bargaining and the importance of public … Continue reading

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President Obama Should Meet with Some of the 99%

Here is a letter I sent to the White House today: RE: Dinner with OWS members Mr. President, In the past, you have offered to sit down at dinner with a few of those who have contributed to your election … Continue reading

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Love Rachel Maddow – But for a Progressive Program, There Is Too Much Conservative Worldview

The brain learns by repetition. The more repetition the more, and stronger, the links between neurons for remembering those repeated items. Adding NOT to a conservative statement only reenforces the neural connections for it. Nixon said, “I’m not a crook.” … Continue reading

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Trust Requires Accessibility and Accountability

At the end of today’s GPS on CNN, Fareed Zakaria, posed the following question, “Who do you trust more these days? Government or big business?” I have more trust for our government, as represented by our elected representatives, to do … Continue reading

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Progressives Want Protection not Just from WMDs, but PMDs and LMDs

(This article is dedicated to the former Libertarian in our software development team who just retired and has provided the seed for other postings.) To what extent should the government protect its citizens? Conservatives without Conscience (CWCs), including Libertarians, want … Continue reading

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