Category Archives: Donald Trump

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Can the Democratic Party Avoid a Train Wreck?

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The Super Tuesday election results effectively narrowed the Democratic primary race to Joe Biden versus Bernie Sanders. While Elizabeth Warren has not withdrawn from the race at this point, she does not appear to have any realistic path to the nomination.

The Democratic Party is deeply divided between its moderate insider, establishment wing and its progressive outsider, anti-establishment wing. If the Party cannot figure out how to bring these two factions together, it may very well be headed for a train wreck at its July convention. Such an outcome would be a disaster for the Democrats, and, most likely, hand Donald Trump the keys to the White House for a second term. That, in turn, would leave our American democracy in shambles. So, how can the two factions unite and avert a train wreck?

A major step toward unity would be for Tom Perez, the chairman of the DNC, to call a summit meeting in the next month. The sooner the better. Perez should invite the campaign chairs of the remaining viable candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, assuming she was still in the race at the time of the meeting. President Obama, Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi should also be strongly encouraged to attend.

The purpose of the meeting would be to develop an agreed upon strategy for uniting the Party regardless of who wins the nomination. While this may not be easy to achieve, having an agreement in advance of the convention before tempers flare and a blowup occurs would be in everyone’s best interests.

Here are some suggestions for an agreement signed by all the candidates that, I believe, would greatly assist in uniting the Party:

  1. The candidates and their campaigns promise to work to unite the Party in coordination with the other wing.
  2. The candidates and their campaigns promise to run positive campaigns that focus on their own achievements, attributes and ability to defeat Trump. They promise not to run negative ads against their primary opponents that could raise fears or doubts about those candidates which could be used by the Trump campaign in the general election.
  3. The candidates and their campaigns promise not to say or imply that any other candidate cannot beat Donald Trump in the general election.
  4. The candidates and their campaigns promise to make uniting the Party a major piece of each of their campaigns for the remainder of the race.
  5. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the candidates promise that whoever wins the nomination will nominate for vice president a person from the other branch of the Party. By effectively creating a coalition ticket, this will go a long way toward unifying the Party. It will also demonstrate a sincere desire to work together to find common ground between the two wings. A major failure of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy was her nominating Sen. Tim Kaine for vice president, another moderate. By doing so, she lost some energy and commitment from the progressive wing of the Party, which could have helped her win the election.

Other pieces could be added to such an agreement. But some compact along these lines needs to be made very soon. For the Democrats to be in the strongest position to win the election, they have to come together and produce a huge voter turnout. If the Party does not find a way to truly unite, it will be seriously weakened come November.

Write, call or email DNC Chair Tom Perez  (202) 863-8000/ https://democrats.org/contact-us/; Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer,(https://www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/email-chuck, US Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121); and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (https://www.speaker.gov/contact, House of Representatives switchboard 202-225-3121) and urge them to convene a summit to develop a unity strategy. For the good of the country and the planet.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Democratic Party Must Revive Its Progressive Values

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From FDR’s New Deal to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the Democratic Party took pride in being the party of the people. During this period, Democrats championed the rights of union members, women, black and brown minorities, the poor, whoever was getting shortchanged in American society. But when Bill Clinton won back the White House for the Democrats in 1992, the party began losing its way.

Clinton was the chair of the DLC, the Democratic Leadership Council, that steered the party away from its progressive traditions and toward a centrist, business-friendly, Republican approach to government. In 1993, he “helped gut America’s manufacturing base by promoting and passing the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA,…” NAFTA failed to protect the interests of working Americans and “signaled that the Democratic Party—the “progressive” side of the U.S. two-party system—had accepted the reactionary economic ideology of Ronald Reagan…” (See https://www.alternet.org/2015/06/15-ways-bill-clintons-white-house-failed-america-and-world/)

In 1996, Clinton worked with Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republicans to enact the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which gave states control of welfare programs. According to the Atlantic, “‘Welfare reform’ didn’t fix welfare so much as destroy it,…” Twenty-plus years after the passage of welfare reform, the number of poor American children has exploded and black welfare recipients are subject to the system’s most stringent rules. (See https://www.alternet.org/2015/06/15-ways-bill-clintons-white-house-failed-america-and-world/ and https://www.history.com/news/clinton-1990s-welfare-reform-facts.)

In addition, Clinton curried favor with Wall Street at the expense of most Americans by signing into law more financial deregulation legislation than any other president, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. Among the worst acts was his dissolution of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which had protected people’s savings accounts from being used by investment banks on speculative financial deals. This was a major factor leading to the 2008 Great Recession.

When President Obama took over the Democratic Party, he followed in Clinton’s footsteps by bailing out Wall Street while providing little assistance to the millions of Americans who had lost their homes in the Great Recession. By the time Hillary Clinton ran for president in 2016, the American people were fed up with the Establishment of both parties who favored Wall Street and their big donors over them. That opened the door to the White House to outsider Donald Trump.

Now outsider Bernie Sanders is leading the Democratic primary race. Given the recent history of the Democratic Party, it stands to reason that a major factor in Sanders’ rise in popularity is his rejection of the centrist establishment, Clinton approach of fostering close connections to Wall Street and Big Money. Somehow the party establishment has not gotten the message: The American people are tired of playing second fiddle to corporate America and Big Money interests.

Sanders promises to revive the progressive values of FDR, JFK and LBJ. He’s calling for what most Americans want: a $15/hr. living wage (67% according to Pew Research Center) , healthcare for all (56% according to Kaiser Family Fdn), stricter gun control laws (60% according to Pew), and a Green New Deal (80% of registered voters according to Yale Program on Climate Communication). Yes, it’s radical to the Establishment who want the government to continue protecting its interests at the people’s expense. But it’s not radical to all those who’ve seen little rise in their income, higher and higher health insurance and pharmaceutical bills, more and more friends and family shot to death, and the government doing very little to remedy these and other real problems.

People like MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews are the radical ones. His calling Sanders’ Nevada primary victory akin to the Nazis conquest of France is outrageous. The “liberal” media seems just as threatened by Sanders as the Establishment. They both fear losing their power and influence in the political arena, and don’t get how fed up so many Americans are with Washington and its do-nothing politics.

Trump conned America into believing he would clean “the swamp.” But, he’s only made it worse. If the Democratic Party wants to win in November, it better get behind the man that truly speaks for the people. Bernie looks like the real deal. He appears to be the only candidate who is building a mass movement, including millions of disillusioned and new voters, capable of the wave election needed to sweep Trump out of office. Given the chance, Sanders really could “Make America Great Again.”

Email the DNC at info@dnc.com, Chris Matthews at hardball@msnbc.com, or, call MSNBC at (212) 664-4444 and tell them to stop bashing Sanders and work with him to defeat Trump.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

 

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Democrats Must Unite Now!

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It’s hard to determine which Democratic candidate has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump in November at this point in the primaries. Since the Democrats’ overriding goal is to beat Trump, it’s even harder to understand why so many mainstream Democrats are bashing Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Party’s current leading contender.

Many Americans believe that a second Trump term could be the end of democracy in the United States. According to Truthout, “there’s an actual (Republican) project to rewrite our Constitution, turning America into a corporate-run oligarchy.” See https://www.truthdig.com/articles/trumps-reelection-could-spell-the-end-of-american-democracy/.

Nevertheless, if Sanders gets the nomination, some observers presume that the Democratic Party will “hope that Bernie Sanders gets destroyed by Donald Trump, and then wag their fingers at the left for the next 20 years until they get another Bill Clinton.” See https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-clinton-machine-will-do-anything-to-stop-bernie-sanders/.

It’s difficult to imagine that the Democratic Party would really rather endure four more years of Trump with the likelihood of the destruction of our democratic republic than a populist Sanders presidency promoting many of the ideals that the Democratic Party has long stood for. But, for a fair number of centrist Democrats that appears to be the case.

The Party seems to think that a more moderate candidate like Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar or Bloomberg would have a better chance of winning the Whitehouse than Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the other progressive still in the race. Party leaders conveniently forget that all the Party’s recent presidential defeats were led by more centrist establishment Democrats like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore. The only recent Democratic presidential winner was Barack Obama, a relative outsider who excited millions of Americans with his message of “hope and change.”

Could it be that the Democratic establishment is more concerned with maintaining control of the Party than with beating the want-to-be autocrat Trump? Is the party establishment not much different than the Republicans in that it is willing to put party over country? If Sanders wins the nomination, will the Party give its full support to its nominee for the good of the country, or sit on its hands because it didn’t get its way? Which is exactly what the Party fears Sanders’ supporters will do if he doesn’t get the nomination.

The truth is the American people are fed up with Washington insiders from both parties who are more interested in advancing their party and serving Wall Street and their Big Money donors, than they are in supporting Main Street and the concerns of average Americans. Outsider Trump got elected, in large part, because he ranted against the Washington swamp and empathized with angry blue-collar workers ignored by both parties.

The only way Democrats win this November is with a candidate that will motivate voters to turn out in record numbers. Clearly, Trump is a very flawed candidate, but he does have a good economy, a corrupt Republican Party and a strong base behind him. Republicans will purge voter rolls, reduce polling locations and do whatever else they can to ensure Trump is declared the winner.

Consequently, the Democratic presidential candidate cannot just rely on anti-Trump sentiment to take back the White House. Many regular Democrats failed to vote in 2016 because Hillary Clinton did not inspire them. She did not have a clear, strong inclusive message that grabbed voters. Hundreds of thousands of Obama voters in Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee stayed home which gave Trump his margin of victory. Contrary to Clinton’s allegations, Sanders was not responsible for Hillary’s losing the election.

Bottom line: the establishment Democrats and the progressive Democrats, the centrists and the leftists, must come together now. Not after a huge convention fight in July which will likely result in more bitterness and divisiveness, leaving the Party with a great self-inflicted disadvantage going into the general election. Today, every Democrat must loudly and clearly declare that “we are all in this together” and that we will all wholeheartedly support whomever demonstrates he or she has the people’s support by winning the primaries. And, the Democratic National Committee must vigorously promote that strategy right away.

To win in November, the Democrats must unite now under the common purpose of defeating Trump and taking back our country. As concerned citizens, we all must do whatever we can to help make that happen. Here’s what you can do:

Call, write and/or visit your Democratic county and state party leaders.

Call, write and/or visit your elected Democratic Representatives (202-224-3121) and Senators (Toll free 866-338-1015).

Demand that the Democratic moderates and progressives come together for the good of our nation. Divided we fall. United we win.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/how-to-unite-the-democratic-party/blog/. Join the unstoppable movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Never Give Up!

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“Never give up. No matter what is going on around you. Never give up,” counsels the Dalai Lama.

We are in very perilous times. Donald Trump just had the best week of his presidency. Except for Mitt Romney, the Republican Senate stuck together and found Trump “not guilty” in his impeachment trial, while the Democrats couldn’t even competently conduct the Iowa state caucus. The stock market is at an all time high. Though the economy is quite good for those at the top, a great many Americans have seen little benefit from it. Unemployment is low, but wages have not kept pace. Trump has his highest poll ratings ever and he’s feeling pretty invincible, an autocrat in the making.

I feel we are living in a period somewhat comparable to 1933 Germany, the year the democratically elected Reichstag relinquished its constitutional authority and power to Hitler and the Nazis. That is effectively what the Republican senators did when they found Trump not guilty of abusing his power. Now he feels free to use the presidency for whatever scheme will further his own personal and political interests. Like many Americans, I’m angry and nervous, and getting more so day-by-day.

How could it have come to this? Where did we go wrong? And, what do we do now to save our country from this criminal egomaniac who believes he can do whatever he wants and be president for life?

It’s this last question that we need to focus on: What do we do now to ensure Trump is not re-elected in November? Here’s a few suggestions:

First, don’t panic. It’s alright to be afraid and in despair about the state our nation is in. Express your anger, fear, disgust, whatever, but please don’t let it get the best of you. Your fellow Americans need you to keep it together and fight for what’s right. Your country needs you.

Second, don’t be fooled by all the misinformation and lies coming from Trump, or, for that matter, from the Democrats. The fact that a partisan Senate failed to hold Trump accountable does not make the serious charges against him a “hoax.” Nor, does the Democratic establishment’s efforts to bash Sen. Sanders mean he would be trounced by Trump in the general election. See https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/11/sanders-crushes-trump-18-points-among-independent-voters-new-national-general.

Third, believe in yourself and the goodness of others. We have the wisdom, the strength, the compassion and the understanding to get through this. Do not give up hope. Remember America survived the Civil War and overcame Nazi Germany.

See https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/02/05/trump-impeachment-acquittal-steve-almond fbclid=IwAR3UN7ipM1dem8nqeZy4aelzW4DnpEGt4iLkpOqoQNx9_XvDwhQ5Re7FMlI.

Fourth, allow your feelings to be a positive motivating force to move you to constructive action. Find something that you believe can help make a difference. If it doesn’t work, try something else. Become a voter registrar. Join an organization working to root out corruption and make our elections fair. Support a candidate you believe can beat Trump. Get involved in the struggle for the soul of America. Taking action is good therapy for disillusionment.

Fifth, connect with your fellow Americans. We are all in this together. Don’t isolate yourself. Defeating Trump and his cohorts requires that we work together. We need to build a huge movement that is “too big to fail.”

Finally, heed the Dalai Lama’s advice: “Never give up. No matter what is going on around you. Never give up.”

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/how-to-unite-the-democratic-party/blog/. Join the unstoppable movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Don’t Let Them Steal the Election Again!

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Our government is failing us. We can rightly place a good deal of the blame on Mitch McConnell and the senate Republicans who orchestrated the sham impeachment trial of President Trump, refusing to allow any witness testimony or documental evidence. While the outcome would most likely have remained the same, the American people had a right to see and hear all the evidence. In truth, the trial was a cover-up and the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.

However, there’s plenty of blame to go around for our deteriorating democracy. Just last month we marked the tenth anniversary of the infamous Citizens United decision which opened the floodgates of dark money into our political system. We can thank the U.S. Supreme Court for that punch in the gut to our democratic principles.

But don’t think it’s all a conservative Republican conspiracy that’s killing our democratic republic. While President Barack Obama’s policies saved the country from near economic collapse, his refusal to prosecute the Wall Street bandits who brought down the economy effectively gave the perpetrators of the 2008 Great Recession the greenlight to do it again. Consequently, many blue-collar Obama voters turned to Trump in 2016, believing he would clean up the Washington swamp and protect them from further Wall Street corruption.

And, don’t forget President Bill Clinton, who abandoned FDR’s Glass-Steagall Act, which had put a firewall between commercial and investment banking for some 66 years. When Clinton agreed to take down that wall, he opened the door wide to overzealous investing. This led to the fraudulent Wall Street practices which, in large part, contributed to the 2008 economic collapse.

Al Gore and the Democratic Party also played a role in our national downfall when they conceded the 2000 election and failed to support the Congressional Black Caucus’s legitimate challenge to Florida’s fraudulent Electoral College delegation. We paid for Gore’s lack of bold leadership and the Democrats’ timidity with eight years of George Bush and the disastrous Iraq War.

Nevertheless, there is a fundamental difference between these major political decisions. While the Democrats have made serious political and policy miscalculations, their inclination has been to put country over party. Gore conceded the 2000 election for the good of the country. Obama focused on restoring the economy rather than punishing the bankers, believing it was for the common good.

Republicans, on the other hand, often favor party over country in their continuous onslaught to control the government. The Republican senate’s sham impeachment trial protecting their party’s president from the country’s right to the truth is just the latest illustration.  Moreover, the Republican Party has been stealing our elections through voter suppression, voter registration purges and other election manipulations for more than 100 years. Their thirst for power increasingly takes precedence over upholding fundamental American principles of fairness and equality upon which our nation was founded.

For example, in 2019 alone, the Republican-controlled state of Ohio purged nearly 500,000 voters, most of them suspected Democrats. The Democratic Party failed to prevent the purge, and is on course to lose this critical swing state yet again. According to  & Truthout (See https://truthout.org/articles/election-theft-is-a-120-year-tradition-lets-end-it-this-year/), “the corporate Democrats did win the presidency in 2000, 2004 and 2016. Each time they walked away without a word (except to blame the left). The Gore, Kerry and Clinton campaigns all were shafted by the GOP stripping the voter rolls and flipping electronic vote counts. But instead of fighting to change the basic nature of our electoral system, they have blamed the left — and left the machinery of theft in place. So the same pattern of fraud and deceit that cost the Democrats three of the last five presidential elections could strike again in 2020.

“Put simply, since the theft of Florida 2000, the Democrats have failed to protect the vote, failed to provide reliable voting machines and failed to abolish the Electoral College — all of which could enthrone Donald Trump in 2020….

“Officially decided by 537 votes, the 2000 election in Florida was turned by Gov. Jeb Bush’s stripping of more than 90,000 people allegedly with felony convictions (the vast majority of them people of color) from the voter rolls, disenfranchising them using a law from the former Confederacy…. But Ralph Nader is still being blamed for the Democrats’ defeat.”

We must not allow this to happen again. Join the grassroots movement at the Transformative Justice Coalition, vote.org, and rockthevote.org fighting to protect our 2020 elections.  If our democratic republic is to survive, it is up to all of us to ensure that this movement succeeds.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Please share this blog on Facebook, other social media and with your email lists. Subscribe to the blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/how-to-unite-the-democratic-party/blog/. Let’s connect and build an unstoppable movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

 

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Heart of Our Dilemma

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The Struggle for the Soul of America is a weekly blog focusing on issues related to the current state of our country, the 2020 elections and the urgent need for the American people to act to save our democracy. I hope you will find the blog worth your time, encourage others to read it, and join in the struggle for the soul of America. Previously published blogs in this series may be found by clicking on the blog link on the home page of  my website, https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/.

The impeachment trial of President Trump that started today is a major battle in the struggle for the soul of America.  On one level it’s all about politics, pitting the Democratic majority in the House against the Republican majority in the Senate. On closer examination, however, it’s about upholding the Constitution, the highest law of the land. Specifically, under the Constitution it is an abuse of his executive power for Trump to solicit a foreign power to assist him in his re-election campaign. Moreover, it is an obstruction of Congress’s impeachment power for Trump to fail to produce documents or to order government officials not to testify when Congress has lawfully subpoenaed them.

But, it goes even deeper than that. The fundamental question that Trump’s impeachment trial raises is who are we as Americans and as a nation. Does our country truly stand for the basic principles of fairness and justice, and that no one is above the law?

Unfortunately, the Senate does not appear inclined to address these fundamental issues. Despite taking an oath to impartial justice as jurors in the trial, many senators would rather play politics than stand up for American values and conduct a full and fair trial in order to make an impartial judgement based on all the facts. Isn’t the Senate, let alone the American people, entitled to see all the documents and hear from all the relevant witnesses? In effect, the soul of the Senate, its ability to be fair, true to its oath and protect the Constitution, is also on trial.

At this critical juncture in our country’s history, I believe each one of us must do some serious soul searching and ask: How far am I willing to go and what am I willing to sacrifice to ensure that my country maintains the rule of law and continues on the path toward a truly representative democracy?

In response to my initial blog last week, someone wrote to me and suggested I replace “struggle” in the name of the blog with something more positive. He felt that most people “don’t…want to struggle.” While I tend to agree with his perception, I think he inadvertently struck at the heart of our dilemma. While we are in a life and death struggle for the survival of American democracy, most Americans don’t have the time and/or the inclination to actively engage in this fight as if their freedom and, perhaps, even their lives depend on it. If we are not willing to face this struggle head on, we will never be able to muster the courage, make the sacrifices and produce the resources to save our country from those who are actively engaged in transforming it into an autocracy, or worse.

Of course, we do not want to struggle. But, do we really have a choice? Whether it was ending slavery, gaining women’s suffrage, defeating Nazi Germany, establishing civil rights, or any other major battle in American history, being willing to struggle and sacrifice was central to overcoming the opposition and prevailing.

That brings us back to Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. We cannot just sit back and watch it unfold on TV. We must stand up and make our voices heard by calling senators, writing letters to the editor, demanding the trial include witnesses, marching in the streets, calling in to talk radio shows, sitting in at Congressional offices, whatever it takes. We are the foot soldiers in this battle for the soul of America. It is up to us to turn our country around.

Bruce Berlin

This blog is an extension of my book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America. Please share my blog on Facebook, on other social media and with your email lists. Feel free to make comments or ask me questions. Subscribe to the blog at the top, left hand side of the blog page on my website, https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/how-to-unite-the-democratic-party/blog/, and keep sharing it with everyone. Let’s connect and build an unstoppable movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

Bruce Berlin is a retired, public sector ethics attorney. He is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution, and a practitioner of Buddhist meditation. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

Where Are the Democrats?

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While Donald Trump and the Republicans struggle to pass any meaningful legislation, there is one thing they know how to do well. That is, grab the public’s attention in order to enlarge and intensify their base of support.

            Long before he declared his candidacy for president, Trump was in the spotlight claiming Barak Obama was not a legitimate president, falsely asserting Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya. At the same time, House Republicans, though they knew they didn’t have enough support in the Senate, voted again and again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, in a very visible effort to sabotage the president’s signature piece of legislation and rally their base.

            Now the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak. Trump is in the White House and the Republicans control Congress. But where are the Democrats? Yes, they rolled out their “Better Deal” package of economic reforms back in July,1 but how many Americans even remember that three months later, let alone got excited by it then?

            Since Trump became president, there have been a multitude of speeches, tweets and decisions that the Democratic Party could have pounced on to galvanize support for its fight for everyday Americans of all races and ethnicities. Trump’s failure to unequivocally denounce the white supremacists’ march in Charlottesville is a primary example. Another is his ongoing feud with gold star families who have lost loved ones serving our country. Yet another is Trump’s use of the presidency for his personal financial gain in violation of the Constitution. And then, there’s the Republican Party’s bankruptcy of values in their continuing to back Trump, knowing he is utterly unfit to be president.2

            So, where are the Democrats, the “opposition party,” when our country desperately needs them? Why haven’t they risen to the occasion?

            The sad truth is the Democratic Party does not have the courage, boldness or vision to overcome Trump and his Republican cronies. Since Obama was elected president, the Democrats have lost over 1,000 elected positions across the country. Rather than offering Americans a visionary agenda that would inspire their base and draw in new voters, party leaders like Nancy Pelosi timidly stick to the center of the political spectrum despite polls that indicate the majority of Americans want more progressive programs like Medicare for All. In fact, Democrats have achieved their greatest political and policy successes when they have ignored the “centrists” and promoted bolder policies like the New Deal and Medicare.3

            Even worse than maintaining their middle-of-the-road positions, old guard Democrats are actively blocking the Party from moving to the left. At a recent Democratic National Committee meeting, Chairman Tom Perez, who became chair earlier this year only due to the strong backing of the Obama-Clinton wing of the Party, ousted from DNC leadership positions four long-serving officials who represented the so-called “Sanders wing” of the Democratic Party. These officials all had backed Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison over Perez for the chairmanship. Consequently, despite it’s call for unity, “the Democratic establishment is ruthlessly tightening its grip on the party.”4

         This does not bode well for the Democrats in the 2018 mid-term elections. A divided party is a weak party. Why would Sanders supporters turn out if all they will get in return is more of the same centrist policies that don’t come close to meeting their needs or desires? Is total control of the Party more important to establishment Democrats than winning elections, stopping the Trump/Bannon takeover of our country, and improving the lives of most Americans? The Democratic Party needs to do some serious soul-searching now, before it’s too late.

1 See https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/why-the-democrats-better-deal-is-political-suicide.

2 See https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59e7dc46e4b0e60c4aa367cb.

3 See https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/10/25/why-centrists-will-sink-democrats-if-they-havent-already.

4 See http://inthesetimes.com/article/20627/dnc-purge-ellison-perez-bernie-sanders-left-center/.

 

The Shameful Republican Congress

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The political pressure cooker in Washington is nearing the boiling point. Republican Senator Bob Corker’s (R-TN) recent public proclamations that “the White House has become an adult day care center” and that President Trump was risking World War III are just the tip of the iceberg. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson thinks Trump is a f—king moron. And, Chief of Staff John Kelly is continually scrambling to manage Trump’s constant outbursts. Our nation is in deep trouble.

Meanwhile, a great number of Republicans in Congress agree with Corker’s assessment that Trump lacks the stability and competence to succeed as president. An October 12th L.A. Times editorial declared that it is “beyond question…that many Republicans in Congress and around the country and even in the president’s own Cabinet consider him a potential menace to the country: an under-qualified man of poor judgment, a bellicose hothead who returns small slights with disproportionate attacks. “1

Nevertheless, despite the mounting danger that Trump poses to the nation, Republicans are not calling for hearings to determine whether to impeach the president. It seems Republicans are more concerned with achieving tax cuts for their wealthy donors than they are with protecting the nation from an unstable, incompetent commander-in-chief. Republican sources reportedly have indicated that they want to enact tax reform before considering impeachment.2 Sadly, they are not ready to place the future of our country ahead of party politics.

Republicans are between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they want to achieve at least some of their legislative agenda and they need Trump’s support to do that. On the other hand, the Republican Party brand is being seriously tarnished by Trump and establishment Republicans would like nothing better than to remove him from the White House.

Unable to repeal and replace Obamacare, congressional Republicans’ main objective now is a major overhaul of the tax code. If they turn on Trump, any chance of their accomplishing this goal would disappear and their re-election prospects would diminish as well. In fact, they are afraid of Trump’s base. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former alt-right advisor, is already preparing to primary practically every sitting Republican senator running for re-election next year.

At the same time, Trump has attacked many Congressional Republicans and blames them for failing to pass his legislative priorities, even though he, himself, has done little to help them achieve his agenda. While only 29% of Americans view the Republican Party favorably, 79% of Republican voters still support Trump.3 Consequently, with few exceptions like Sen. Corker, Republicans on the Hill are unwilling to publicly express their displeasure with the president despite the fact that a great many of them would like to see the Trump administration end.4

While Corker’s comments have shed some light on congressional Republicans’ true sentiments, what will it take for those same legislators to turn on Trump? On Monday, October 16th, the president falsely asserted that former president Barack Obama and other presidents did not contact the families of American troops killed in duty.5 He made that claim despite the fact that Trump, himself, had not called to console the families, nor had he spoken publicly about the four Green Berets killed in an ambush in Niger two weeks ago. Since then, Trump chose to spend a good deal of his time playing golf, picking a fight with the NFL players over their right to protest, and mocking Sen. Corker’s height, instead of paying his respects to these fallen warriors and their families.

Trump’s failure to pay tribute to the families of these soldiers brought this response from San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich:

“This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner – and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers – is as low as it gets.  We have a pathological liar in the White House: unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this President should be ashamed because they know it better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.”6

That congressional Republicans continue to ignore Trump’s inexcusable behavior and utter unfitness for the presidency is the greatest shame of all, and the gravest danger to our country.

1 See http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-corker-trump-20171011-story.html.

2 See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-impeachment-latest-robert-reich-former-republican-senator-unhinged-tax-bill-us-a7996341.html.

3 See http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/24/politics/cnn-poll-republican-party-approval/index.html.

4 See http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeachment-articles-republican-impeach-685831.

5 See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/us/politics/trump-obama-killed-soldiers.html.

6 See https://www.yahoo.com/sports/gregg-popovich-president-trump-soulless-coward-225829012.html.

American Politics in Moral Free-Fall

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            A dark cloud hangs over our country. With the recent Las Vegas mass murder and our government’s pathetic response to the devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico, America’s fall from grace quickens. While Donald Trump embodies much of that darkness, all of the blame for the ugly state of our country’s politics cannot be laid at his feet. Both political parties bear a good deal of the responsibility. When it comes right down to it, all that seems to matter to our politicians is winning and the money it takes to come out on top.

            Back in 2009, not long after Barak Obama was elected president, the Republican Congressional leadership agreed to a “strategy of all-out resistance” to the new Democratic president.1 Despite Obama’s considerable efforts to reach out to Congressional Republicans, they continually refused to work with him.2 Beating our first African-American president was much more important to the Republicans than helping millions of Americans obtain health insurance. That was the case despite the fact that Obamacare was fashioned after the conservative Heritage Foundation’s market-based proposal which Republican Governor Mitt Romney had already implemented in Massachusetts.3

                  Obama and the Democrats put politics before people as well. Rather than helping millions of Americans avoid losing their homes during the Great Recession, the Obama administration chose to direct almost all of the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds to the Wall Street banks whose corrupt and fraudulent practices were largely responsible for the country’s economic collapse.4 Moreover, Obama refused to extract foreclosure relief measures from our nation’s biggest banks in return for the huge bailout they received. Apparently, Obama and his big banker appointees cared a great deal more about the president’s campaign contributors on Wall Street than they did about average Americans on Main Street. No Wall Street bankers went to jail for the grave damage they had caused the country.5

            Since then, our politics have only gotten worse. During the entire eight years of the Obama presidency, the Republicans were the ‘Party of No.’ Unprecedented in modern American history, they refused to work with the president on practically any issue. While they were unable to defeat Obamacare, the GOP’s obstructionism assisted them in attaining numerous victories. Not only did the Republicans win back the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014, but they also denied Obama a Supreme Court appointment, won the White House in 2016 and placed their own conservative justice on the Court once Trump became president.

            Meanwhile, the Democrats continued to cozy up to Wall Street and their Big Money special interests rather than provide programs that would be most beneficial to the American people. That was the case even with Obamacare. While the program did extend healthcare to millions of previously uncovered Americans, it failed to offer a ‘public option,’ which would have helped keep consumers’ costs down. Instead of fighting for an alternative choice to compete with the insurance industry, Obama and Congressional Democrats sided with the private insurers and excluded the public option from the legislation.

            Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign further demonstrated where the Democrats’ loyalties lie. Clinton attended numerous gatherings hosted by her Big Money donors while failing to address the pressing concerns of blue-collar workers. But for the groundswell of support for Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election, the Democratic Party platform would not have focused on those issues either. Nevertheless, Clinton refused to endorse reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act and other strong Wall Street regulations, much to the delight of her wealthiest supporters.

            Trump and the Republican Party are also tied to Big Money, probably even more so. Despite his campaign promises to the contrary, Trump has not drained the Washington swamp. In fact, he has enlarged it by filling his cabinet with billionaires, who, like him, are more interested in profiting personally from their positions than they are in enhancing the public good. Take Steve Mnuchin, for example, one of several wealthy former Goldman Sachs executives now in Trump’s Cabinet. During the 2008 financial crisis, Mnuchin chaired OneWest Bank, which used fabricated and “robo-signed” documents to secure evictions, and routinely dispossessed the homes of senior citizens and people of color.6

            As Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin helped draft Trump’s new tax plan. Under this scheme, taxes will go up for many families that are just scraping by while the rich benefit. These tax increases will not pay for health care, food, or housing, but will provide the basis for lowering taxes on the wealthy, resulting in the richest one percent of families in the U.S., including Mnuchin’s, receiving an increase in income of 8.5 percent after taxes.7 This is just one of many giveaways for corporations and multimillionaires offered in the Republicans’ tax plan.

            Is there any way to stop this moral free-fall in American politics? Throughout our history Americans have risen up in mass movements — be it for women’s suffrage, labor, the environment or LBGTQ rights — and successfully demanded a reformation of our country’s values and priorities. Isn’t it time we do it again in the name of fairness and economic justice for all Americans?

Bruce Berlin is the president of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics (nmmop.org) and the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America.

1 See http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/.

2 See http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/73971-obamas-first-year-yields-few-results-in-drive-for-bipartisanship.

3 See http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/11/13/romneycare-vs-obamacare-key-similarities-differences/.

4 See http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104.

5 See https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/barack-obama-legacy-presidency.

6 See https://newrepublic.com/article/133368/donald-trumps-finance-chair-anti-populist-hell.

7 See https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/10/03/lets-stop-gops-biggest-grift-all.

 

What Do We Do Now?

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If ever there was a time to stand up and actively work for what we want our nation to be, that time is now. Our country desperately needs all of us. The future of our democracy rides on We, the people.

            Today all Americans who believe Donald Trump is destroying the fabric of our American values must come together and create the strongest possible response to Trump’s white supremacist threat to our nation. Most Americans are upset, if not outraged, with Trump’s reaction to the neo-Nazis’ violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a little more than a week ago. In fact, Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic advisor, was reported to be “disgusted.” Business leaders, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, even conservative British Prime Minister Theresa May criticized Trump’s failure to condemn the neo-Nazi demonstration.

            Still, no Republican on Capitol Hill has called for Trump’s resignation or impeachment despite his multiple transgressions against the American people and our Constitution, since he became president. More than 40 percent of the public now thinks Trump should be impeached, and he is losing support among his base as well. Moreover, a recent poll (taken just prior to Trump’s response to the violent demonstration) indicated only 29 percent of whites without a college degree, a key element of his base, “approve strongly of how Trump is handling his job.” While 13 percent also said they somewhat approve, 43 percent said they strongly disapproved, and 6 percent said they somewhat disapproved…”*

            Trump’s approval rating is now just 10 points higher than Richard Nixon’s when Nixon resigned after his party abandoned him amid the Watergate investigation. Nevertheless, without Republican lawmakers calling for his resignation or impeachment, Trump will remain in the White House.

            Meanwhile, what do the rest of us, who believe Trump is utterly unfit to be president, do? Clearly, it’s time for a coordinated, massive response for the good of our Republic. What might that look like?

            First, we must make our voices heard loud and clear, demanding that Congress initiate a formal investigation into whether to impeach the president. We must mount a huge lobbying effort, including letters to the editor, petition drives, demonstrations and sit-ins at Congressional offices at home and in DC. Congressional representatives, Republican and Democrat alike, must be barraged with calls for Trump’s impeachment. They must understand that if they do not actively support impeaching Trump, their constituents will vote for someone who will in the 2018 elections. The more they hear from us, the more likely they are to open an investigation.**

            Second, we must initiate community dialogues with our neighbors about the present state of our country, Trump’s lack of moral leadership, his apparent obstruction of the special prosecutor’s investigation, his misuse of the office of the Presidency for personal gain, and his responsibility for the growing divisiveness in our nation. We must build a very broad-based, mass movement to remove Trump from office.

            Third, we must call out Trump’s racist supporters, whether they are in the streets, the media or the halls of Congress. Americans need to know who is enabling Trump and the white supremacists’ movement that violates all the principles our country has long stood for. We have to isolate their movement, do whatever we can to eliminate its influence in our country, and develop safeguards against this ever happening again.

            Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we must build a government of, by and for the people. Our mass movement must address the needs of all Americans, including those whom Trump conned with his fake populism. We each must look into our hearts and answer the call to revive democracy in America.

            How do you answer the call? Here are some local organizations that you can contact to get involved in this movement:

Indivisible (https://indivisiblesantafe.org/); New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics (http://nmmop.org/); Retake Our Democracy (https://retakeourdemocracy.org/); and Chainbreaker Collective (https://chainbreaker.org/).

* See http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/poll-40-percent-now-support-trump-impeachment-n793251 and http://www.salon.com/2017/08/02/new-poll-reveals-donald-trump-is-losing-support-from-a-key-part-of-his-base/.

** See https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/07/12/a-house-democrat-has-filed-the-first-articles-of-impeachment-against-president-trump/.