Along with the usual New Year’s resolutions about exercising, getting more sleep, and being more patient with the kids, progressives should add better communications to their list. We have an historic opportunity to frame the public debate this year in terms of social justice, human rights, and opportunity for all. But that requires being smarter and more deliberate in the way we talk about the nation’s priorities and future. At the very least, we need to stop using certain words and phrases that erode support for progressive values and policies. Here’s my list. I’ll ask for yours at the end of this post.

1. The Market. Building public support for a more fair economic system requires highlighting the fact that the economy is a set of human-made rules, systems, and structures, not an autonomous organism or an unbridled force of nature. Referring to bankers, CEOs, and other financial actors as "the market" obscures that reality, and reinforces the conservative notion that economic regulation is a hindrance rather than a crucial part of the rules that govern a just society. Instead, let’s clearly identify the people and institutions that are at work—for good or for ill—in our economic system. Instead of “regulating the free market,” let’s talk about “rules that hold banks accountable” or “consumer protections.”

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Here we go again. Republicans are very clear about their latest extortion threat to the American people: Unless you cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, within the next two months we will throw the US economy back into recession - by refusing to allow the US raise the debt ceiling and pay our bills - or by pushing the economy over another fiscal cliff of deep spending cuts and tax increases - or by shutting down the government by refusing to pass a continuing budget resolution.

But it is very important for progressives and politicians to remember that most Americans hate what the Republicans are doing here. Who but Right Wing terrorists could support pushing the economy back into recession, throwing millions of Americans out of work? That's what Republicans are threatening. And huge majorities also hate the price Republicans are demanding to prevent their threat of manufactured chaos: the idea of cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Republicans can get their way only if Democrats fail to realize they have the American people on our side. And once Republicans are clear about their proposals, Americans turn against them.

During the election, Paul Ryan's plan to turn Medicare into a voucher was so unpopular that candidate Mitt Romney ran away from his Vice Presidential nominee's proposal. Democrats won the election.

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It’s time for President Obama to fire and quickly replace the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Edward DeMarco, with a Director who will uphold the Agency’s mission to “support housing finance and affordable housing, and support a stable and liquid mortgage market.” DeMarco, a holdover from the Bush administration, is interim head of the FHFA, which currently oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Opportunity Agenda and dozens of other housing and consumer groups have called for DeMarco’s ouster and replacement with an appointee who will utilize a full range of effective solutions, including adjusting mortgage principal to reflect the fair market value of homes that are underwater—meaning that they are worth less than what the homeowners owe on their mortgages. DeMarco has blocked principal correction on any of the 30 million mortgages owned or backed by Fannie and Freddie, despite incentives from the Treasury Department and undisputed evidence that it would strengthen the economy while helping homeowners get back on track.

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As the election results sink in, partisans are busy debating what 2012 voting patterns mean for Republican and Democratic prospects in the next election cycle. But what lessons do this year’s results hold for those of us who are committed to expanding opportunity and protecting human rights in ways that transcend party and outlast individual elections or candidates? The lessons are plenty, including some that defy the conventional wisdom.

An American Values Majority
Political observers are arguing that Mitt Romney and conservative Senate candidates were done in by “demographics,” meaning that the traditional base of white male voters is no longer sufficient to attain electoral victory, both nationally and in an increasing number of states. The ascendancy of people of color, young people, and single women as voters, the story goes, overpowered that base in ways that will only strengthen over time.

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I joined Campaign for America's Future's Richard Eskow to talk about the "fiscal cliff" scare, austerity, Social Security, Medicare and how we WON the election so we really should be talking about jobs instead.

This was a GREAT hour, and hold the information you need to arm yourself to win holiday-dinner conversations with your right-wing brother-in-law.

The conversation refers to my post, Fiscal Cliff Scare Talk Follows Shock Doctrine Script as well as several posts by Richard Eskow including, Wall Street Finds a ‘Third Way’ to Plunder Our Wealth, The “Fiscal Cliff” Is a Hoax … and a Mel Brooks Routine, The Grand Swindle – Veterans on a Cliff, After the Election, a New Mandate – and New “Fiscal Cliff” Math

Click here to listen, or listen using the widget below:

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You can help change the economy! Big companies use their size and the fear of losing our jobs to force us to accept no raises or even lower pay and benefits. They can use their size to force communities, states and even the federal government to lower their taxes. You can help change the economy by standing with Walmart workers next week. They have the money but we have the people.

A month ago there were strikes at 12 Walmart stores and protests at more than 200 stores. Walmart illegally tried to silence organizers. Now there are strikes planned for "Black Friday." But Walmart workers aren't waiting, there are actions going on between now and next Friday, and you can join in.

Walmart is BIG. They are so big they can dictate to their supply chain, the communities where they are located, state governments, and even the federal government. And, of course, their workers. And when Walmart's workers are paid less, that puts pressure on workers everywhere else.

This is like so many other companies right now, using their size and the fact that so many people are looking for work to force wages down. And this forces pay down for the rest of us. All of this while these companies are reaping record profits for themselves.

You can stand with Walmart's workers, and demand changes in the way our economy works.

Video from OURWalmart: "Why are we standing up to live better?"

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Ohio Senator Sherror Brown won reelection by "waging class warfare" using middle-class populism. Here is how.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, faced a tough battle for reelection. Huge amounts of Wall Street, multinational corporate, billionaire and undisclosed money (China?) -- at least $35 million -- poured in. Brown beat Ohio's State Treasurer Josh Mandel and was reelected by more than 5% using a strong middle class populist argument. He called for curbing the excesses of Wall Street, and ending taxpayer-funded giveaways to huge corporations that send American jobs overseas. And Brown especially, especially championed American manufacturing over the interests of Wall Street and the giant multinational corporations.

Brown stood up for the class interests of Ohio's blue-collar voters and won reelection. He took the side of the many against the side of the big-money few.

Visit the Wage Class War website and see how candidates who supported the economic interests of the many over the few won their elections.
Earlier this year Brown was considered vulnerable because he had voted for the stimulus and Obamacare. But Brown supported the "auto bailout" and was a strong proponent of manufacturing, and of taking on China, especially over currency manipulation. Josh Mandel, Brown's opponent, opposed the auto bailout.

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By Stephen Miles and William Hartung

Nothing grips Washington more than a good scandal, particularly when it involves sex, power and money. Last week’s surprise resignation of C.I.A. Director David Petraeus has filled countless column inches and primetime minutes of television. The news of Gen. John Allen’s involvement in the scandal is surely going to keep the story at the top of the news cycle for days to come.

While our news media pours over every titillating detail of the Petraeus affair, there’s another scandal that’s gone largely unnoticed by the defense community. Last Friday, Lockheed Martin quietly announced that after having been groomed to take over for departing C.E.O. Robert Stevens this January, that would-be C.E.O. Christopher Kubasik would be resigning over a long term extramarital affair with a “subordinate employee.”

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The voters clearly voted to do something about the bad trade deals, trade cheating and currency manipulation that are draining our jobs and economy. The big money likes things just the way they are. Which will prevail -- the voters who just voted, or the big money that just lost? One week after the election in which the airwaves were saturated with Republican ads blasting China, and so far the Republicans are still siding with the money, and with China.

The Voters And The Ads They Saw

A report on campaign ads was released today by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) conducted for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). The report said, "more than 975,000 mentions were made in presidential TV advertising about the key issues of jobs, outsourcing, and trade generally or involving China specifically, and Gov. Romney’s involvement with Bain Capital."

975,000 mentions, seen my X-million people, multiplied by 2 eyes and ears each is a lot of eye- and ear-minutes that were exposed to messages calling for doing something about the problem of our trade deals hurting our jobs, factories, industries and chunks of our economy.

China

When we say trade and manufacturing and jobs, we mean "China."

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In President Obama's stunningly convincing reelection, only part of his education policies got reaffirmed -- the part he talked about most of the time during the campaign.

Meanwhile, the president's policies known to align with what is commonly called "education reform" -- which closely adheres to Beltway conventional wisdom and the druthers of rich folks -- appear to have little support on the ground.

His return to office is undoubtedly due, in part, to most Americans agreeing with his assertion that education is an essential "investment" in the future of our country.

This was "the softer part of his education agenda," as Joy Resmovits explains at Huffington Post, that he brought out in "speeches and debates" to differentiate himself from his opponent Mitt Romney.

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Take all that post-election commentary about foolish billionaires and wasted millions in political contributions with a grain of salt. Our billionaires don't have to actually win on Election Day to get their way.

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Anyone who has read The Shock Doctrine understands exactly what this "Fiscal Cliff" scare is.

If you have already read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein you have probably been rolling your eyes at all this "Fiscal Cliff" scare talk. "Here they go again" you're thinking... If you haven't read the book, you should. You really, really should.

The Phony "Fiscal Cliff" Scare

At the end of the year the Bush tax cuts expire. When this happens tax rates will rise modestly to where they were when Clinton was President. Also at the end of the year budget "sequestration" occurs. This means that the various cuts Congress approved to end the debt ceiling "crisis" will begin to phase in. (Remember, the debt-ceiling "crisis" was when Republicans refused to allow the country to honor its debts, holding the economy hostage, unless they got deep budget cuts in the things We the People do for each other.)

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The public looked at the stories about Solyndra and Sensata and voted. They voted for clean energy jobs IN the US, not for vulture capitalism that ships our jobs and industries OUT of the US. They voted to act as a united country instead of a leaving everyone on their own, in it only for themselves. They said We, the People are a people, not just a bunch of dorks out there on our own, alone at the mercy of the wealthy and powerful.

Solyndra Was About Jobs Here

Our government's investment in solar-manufacturing companies was part of an attempt to bring clean energy jobs to the US. Solar power is obviously a big industry of the future, and the countries that can build up a manufacturing/research/education/skill/supply chain ecosystem will do well. Solyndra was one of several companies working on solar technologies that the government thinks will help our economy.

After solar-panel prices dropped, partly as a result of Chinese government subsidies to their own companies, Solyndra and some other solar-power companies didn't make it. But the country still gained from the investment in expertise, research and other parts of the solar-manufacturing ecosystem that occurred in this country through the Solyndra investment.

Remember, the investment in Solyndra and companies like it is an attempt to trigger a manufacturing ecosystem here in the US, not to make a profit from individual investments.

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MORNING MESSAGE: Obama Has Political Capital

OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "So, let’s get this straight: A Republican President is re-elected in 2004 with 284 electoral votes and the pundits say he has the 'political capital' to push an extreme right-wing mandate. A Democratic President gets re-elected in 2012 with 303 electoral votes, and they’re telling us he needs to 'unite a divided country.' Nonsense. This election was a clear and unequivocal victory for the populist positions the President took on the campaign trail."

Biden, Boehner Begin Budget Dance

Biden asserts tax mandate. HuffPost quotes: "There was a clear, a clear sort of mandate about people coming much closer to our view about how to deal with tax policy."

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In the last election the forces of concentrated wealth and corporate power played the same old divide-and-conquer game they have been playing for decades, but this time it didn't work! They tried to divide us by race, religion, sex, sexual preference, class and every other wedge they could find, and it didn't work! The era of dividing the people for profit is over. Democracy pushes forward.

The Conservative Con Game

For decades a simple formula has played out. Divide us by religion, race, whatever, divert our attention, get us to vote out of feat and hate or just get us to stay away from the polls, and they can pocket the spoils. The game has been to pump a few hundred million a year into the Karl Rove/Grover Norquist/conservative movement con game and pull out billions in tax breaks, subsidies, wars-for-profit, grants of monopoly and the other fruits of the lobbying/corruption game.

This time it didn't work.

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