Democrats Are Still Compromising Away Women’s Rights – What’s Wrong with the Pro-Choice Movement’s Strategy? | Truthout

tags: policy

• But plenty of prochoice activists, bloggers and writers are wondering if Planned Parenthood and other organizations are too close to Democrats to really pressure them. After a fight around private insurers covering abortion during the healthcare reform debates, Megan Carpentier reported for RH Reality Check that prochoice groups had actually cut their lobbying budgets when Obama took office, while antichoicers had ramped theirs up.

FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists

tags: policy

• Another explanation is that this document is no mistake, nor is it an isolated case. It is a reflection of a coordinated campaign to target animal rights activists who, as the FBI agent notes, cause “economic loss” to corporations.

Naomi Klein’s Inconvenient Climate Conclusions | Common Dreams

tags: policy Sustainability

• the idea that we can win the climate fight without engaging in ideological battle over these core questions about the role of government has always been a fantasy. Trying to dodge this fight is a big part of why we lose, and we need to get over it. It’s no coincidence that the countries with the most enlightened climate policies are also, overwhelmingly, the most social democratic.

Naomi Klein’s Inconvenient Climate Conclusions | Common Dreams

tags: policy Sustainability

• the idea that we can win the climate fight without engaging in ideological battle over these core questions about the role of government has always been a fantasy. Trying to dodge this fight is a big part of why we lose, and we need to get over it. It’s no coincidence that the countries with the most enlightened climate policies are also, overwhelmingly, the most social democratic.

In 2012 you can waste your vote on Obama or…

tags: policy

• In 2012 you can waste your vote on Obama pretending that the Republicans have shackled him, but as Paul Hawken points out, he could always use his voice if he had some backbone. People like Hawken and McKibben have earned my respect from their actions – they will be the ones who help address climate change. Do you really think Obama will?
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ8scoNnGS8
• Hi Leif. I think to take this position one has to accept that changing the political status quo will take more than the 2012 election. It could take 1-2 decades of serious effort, the force of the entire Occupy generation spent in this one …thing. But we can’t address climate change without a working government. So we have to get good government.

  The Democrats simply can’t address climate change. This needs to be the great call in 2012, for any candidate at every level, and the great decision-maker: can you or can you not address climate change? When I say to people don’t vote Obama or don’t vote Democrat, I’m also saying throw all your energy into studying and working in politics from the most local council race to the national, and work every day, not just once every 2 or 4 years. This way, even if we get Republicans we still know the challenge is to field our own independent candidates.

  I truly believe that people who vote Democrat out of fear pf the Republican alternative are being gamed by a very cynical system.

• I also believe that people who vote Democrat out of fear of the Republican alternative are not helping to address climate change. Out of good intentions unfortunately they’re helping to delay solutions – and we know what this means, it mean…s disaster. So if we seek true solutions to climate change, and if we understand how urgent the need is, with no time to waste, then we have to start changing our long-held political habits. The Republicans are corrupted by ideology and corporate money. The Democrats are only corrupted by corporate money. But both parties are sufficiently corrupted by corporate money that this world will burn before any regular political solution emerges. It HAS to take our action, we HAVE to get political, and we HAVE to throw the Democrats away as a solution because they’ve failed consistently and nothing will change them except to see that we have the power and the will to take them out of office. Did you read Tim DeChristopher’s piece on this concept?

  http://www.grist.org/politics/2011-11-14-letter-from-a-climate-activist-in-prison-tim-dechristopher

DeChristopher – Obama should lose the election

tags: policy

• I was so glad to see DeChristopher lay this concept on the table. Voting for either of the the two main choices is NOT going to solve the climate crisis. The only solution must come from our own political action. Multitudes of deeply concer…ned good people must now begin to wean themselves away from their addiction to the Democrats, and not be afraid of the Republican bogeyman. It doesn’t matter who wins in 2012 unless it’s our own candidates – we will continue to lose, the planet will continue to lose even with a Democrat majority and Obama at the helm. Habeas corpus will still be suspended, the corporate police state will continue to encroach with approval from the White House, the planet will continue to warm irreversibly, and we will help to doom life on this planet because we couldn’t face the prospect of turning away from the Democrats and working tirelessly for political solutions of our own making.

It’s time for Ralph…

tags: policy

• don’t believe that Nader split the Democrat vote. I’d argue that the Democrats have co-opted the Green vote. And when we should all be working tirelessly to build a new platform with new candidates committed to climate solutions, instead …we waste our votes on Democrats who are in pawn to the corporations the same as the Republicans. The greatest myth is that the Democrats will solve climate change – they will not. Only we can do that.

political solution to climate crisis

tags: policy

• I submit that the trajectory of solution coming from the Democrats and Obama combined is woefully inadequate to solve the climate crisis – such… that another four more years simply continues the failure. We end up in disaster.

  Against this failure of the climate, what comparatively can be the disaster of the Republicans in office? Under Bush the environmental lobbies fought hard and sharply. Under Obama, they recognize themselves that they’ve been lulled into inactivity (until recently). Obama’s administration continues to advance the police state, corporate rule continues unchecked – we CANNOT fix the climate without representative government, and this is severely broken across both parties.

  Thus the only true answer to climate crisis is to fix politics – to get political ourselves and put in our own candidates. This can’t all be achieved by 2012 – but to move forward in the name of all the living things on this planet we have to be unafraid of Republicans, and fight regardless, instead of hoping the Democrats will help. If we blithely waste our votes on them instead of working ceaselessly in our own political actions every day then we have failed to meet the challenge.

• I’m trying to say that if you only see two choices in 2012, then I have to keep working every day until you see at least a third realistic choice, and hopefully an entire political movement that grips you like the Occupy movement has gripped us all. And it needs to be persuasive because to believe that a third option will “split the Dem vote” as the old meme goes, will only buy us four more years of climate failure. In fact the Dems and the Repubs both have split the vote of the true solution, which is trying to be born right now, and which I assume will gather force as 2012 progresses. With all respect, yours is the very opinion that any new political force needs to change. Of course I’m familiar with this opinion, it used to be mine also. I wish I had the articulation to persuade you to this other view, but thanks for the chance to try.

Nader didn’t “give us Bush”

I don’t believe that Nader split the Democrat vote. I’d argue that the Democrats have co-opted the Green vote. And when we should all be working tirelessly to build a new platform with new candidates committed to climate solutions, instead we waste our votes on Democrats who are in pawn to the corporations the same as the Republicans. The greatest myth is that the Democrats will solve climate change – they will not. Only we can do that.

tags: policy

• Ross Hunter Climate change says we don’t have to the time to proceed on the current trajectory. Re-electing Obama and Democrats will NOT fix climate change in time to save us. Letting the old corrupt system fall wherever it falls and working for new climate-committed candidates is the only solution.

  I submit that if anyone votes Democrat simply from fear of the Republican alternative, they are being gamed by the good-cop, bad-cop system that has crushed grass roots movements for a century.

  And anyone who thinks voting once every 4 years is enough is missing the opportunity to work ceaselessly day after day for a true political solution – our own candidates, at all levels from local to national. This will take time but it won’t even start until we start.

  I used to like Obama but I prefer habeas corpus – the police state edges closer, and Obama’s record is truly scary in this arena. Republicans or Democrats, the rhetoric is different but the paymasters are the same – and they are opposed to climate solutions.

• I was so glad to see DeChristopher lay this concept on the table. Voting for either of the the two main choices is NOT going to solve the climate crisis. The only solution must come from our own political action. Multitudes of deeply concerned good people must now begin to wean themselves away from their addiction to the Democrats, and not be afraid of the Republican bogeyman. It doesn’t matter who wins in 2012 unless it’s our own candidates – we will continue to lose, the planet will continue to lose even with a Democrat majority and Obama at the helm. Habeas corpus will still be suspended, the corporate police state will continue to encroach with approval from the White House, the planet will continue to warm irreversibly, and we will help to doom life on this planet because we couldn’t face the prospect of turning away from the Democrats and working tirelessly for political solutions of our own making.

‘We have lost respect’ – former US Senator — RT

tags: policy

• “Most people are unaware of the fact that over the last year, the Obama administration chased out of the United States… over 500,000 people. If we had a media that is all honest – this would have been front page and hotly discussed,” he reveals.

  “Obama is raising a billion dollars for his re-election campaign, and he has made a statement which demonstrates what respect he has for the people. He made the statement ‘We’re not going to take any money from special interests’. I tell you – the billion dollars come from special interests,” ex-Senator Gravel accuses.

Capitalism vs. the Climate | The Nation

tags: policy

• This is a crucial point to understand: it is not opposition to the scientific facts of climate change that drives denialists but rather opposition to the real-world implications of those facts.

Obama -Dems Waste of a vote

tags: policy

• Points of discussion: Obama didn’t simply not get around to restoring habeas corpus – this is a policy of his administr…ation. He didn’t fix the economy, not because the republicans wouldn’t let him but because his campaign donors wouldn’t let him. Check his cabinet, compare those people (the enemy) with economists who call bullshit on this economic collapse. Even Krugman shows Obama to be less an accidental disappointment, rather more a politician who was exceptionally gifted on the campaign trail (where did the oratory go now? Answer, he can’t make those promises now in office where he would have to fulfill them).

  It goes much deeper than this, to 1 crucial point: that the Democrats historically have acted to co-opt grass-roots movements into themselves, where they go to die, to become placid and toothless. The Dems play the good cop side of a two-headed monster, and we buy into it because the scare of the Repubs is so awful. The reason then that a Democratic majority doesn’t achieve anything is that most of the Dems would rather keep their jobs safely in a minority and not be called to fulfill their legacy platform.

  The answer to all this lies in the activism happening at the grass roots and not yet co-opted into the Dem party. The millions of voters in environmental groups are testing Obama right now with the Tar Sands actions – he alone can stop the pipeline, without being able to blame any other forces. So by January 1, expect to see the results of this.

  Watch also all the movements happening, from the Occupy actions to the Coffe Party actions, to the November 6 action – on and on great forces are shaping themselves that at any point you and I and others can join with

• If you vote for the Dems because the Repubs are terrible then you’ve been fooled for another four years. I expect plenty of pressure to be applied on me in 2012 to vote Dem, to stave off the Republican alternative – but you know what, most of the people applying that pressure step up to politics once every four years and they think that’s enough. I’m actively involved in politics, starting right here with our city council, every day of every year. Can your commenters here say the same?

  The answer to all this is to stop being lazy and voting every few years, and instead to become actively involved in politics all the time – this is the eternal vigilance we were warned was necessary, this is the answer being manifested at the grass roots right now, this is the only solution that exists, and anything less than this is beneath discussion if solution is what we’re discussing.

• We thought the hour had produced the man, and this was a plausible belief but it won’t help this country or this world if we insist blindly on believing in Obama, when a serious study will show that he is not the answer. If we had a hundred… years or two, I believe we could continue to evolve past these current political logjams. But climate change says we have no time at all – so it’s up to us. What matters is, what next?

  Gretchen the candidates are not completely visible to me yet but that’s not the real point. The real point is that we can no longer choose from the sorry assortment presented, as if we have no other choice. We have another choice. We will organize into voting blocs and run our own candidates, on platforms of campaign reform, political accountability and climate justice. With a responsive political machinery, actually we don’t need platforms, the right things to do are quite obvious to anyone not vested in the wrong things.

  And it doesn’t matter if we get results in 2012 – this can take 10 years if it has to, and whatever authentic shift occurs in 2012 will scare the shit out of the established parties, setting them on the defensive, and forcing them into multiple mistakes. Eventually we win.

• Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont shows how powerful a single independent representative can be. We’ll run independents, or whatever the party comes to be called. Consider the forces in play right now.

  Bill McKibben will circle the White House with people in November, exactly one year from the election. Van Jones and his group plan to run 2,012 candidates in 2012. Occupy “Everything” is everywhere. The Coffee Party is organizing. Avaaz has ten million petitioners and is now aiming for 20 million. Everyone is mobilizing, and the only way this can come to nothing is if we think we need to give away this power to an established political party, by voting blindly for the Democrats or Obama.

  Power comes from organizing. That’s all that’s needed to get power. Power is the one thing you can’t fake, you either have it or you don’t. In politics the vote is one piece of power and when we throw it away on liars we hurt ourselves and the world.

• Finally, for the moment – sorry no links for all the above references, but do listen to Annabel Park for 4.5 minutes explaining what’s actually happening in this country today. As she says, massive engagement is the answer. And it’s what’s happening. We’re making our own hope, our own change:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXclZz0RbSk

2012

tags: policy

• Points of discussion: Obama didn’t simply not get around to restoring habeas corpus – this is a policy of his administration. He didn’t fix the economy, not because the republicans wouldn’t let him but because his campaign donors wouldn’t let him. Check his cabinet, compare those people (the enemy) with economists who call bullshit on this economic collapse. Even Krugman shows Obama to be less an accidental disappointment, rather more a politician who was exceptionally gifted on the campaign trail (where did the oratory go now? Answer, he can’t make those promises now in office where he would have to fulfill them).

  It goes much deeper than this, to 1 crucial point: that the Democrats historically have acted to co-opt grass-roots movements into themselves, where they go to die, to become placid and toothless. The Dems play the good cop side of a two-headed monster, and we buy into it because the scare of the Repubs is so awful. The reason then that a Democratic majority doesn’t achieve anything is that most of the Dems would rather keep their jobs safely in a minority and not be called to fulfill their legacy platform.

  The answer to all this lies in the activism happening at the grass roots and not yet co-opted into the Dem party. The millions of voters in environmental groups are testing Obama right now with the Tar Sands actions – he alone can stop the pipeline, without being able to blame any other forces. So by January 1, expect to see the results of this.

• Watch also all the movements happening, from the Occupy actions to the Coffe Party actions, to the November 6 action – on and on great forces are shaping themselves that at any point you and I and others can join with

  If you vote for the Dems because the Repubs are terrible then you’ve been fooled for another four years. I expect plenty of pressure to be applied on me in 2012 to vote Dem, to stave off the Republican alternative – but you know what, most of the people applying that pressure step up to politics once every four years and they think that’s enough. I’m actively involved in politics, starting right here with our city council, every day of every year. Can your commenters here say the same?

  The answer to all this is to stop being lazy and voting every few years, and instead to become actively involved in politics all the time – this is the eternal vigilance we were warned was necessary, this is the answer being manifested at the grass roots right now, this is the only solution that exists, and anything less than this is beneath discussion if solution is what we’re discussing.