The Voices

thenation.com — Last week marked the beginning of Black History Month. This year, we have 29 days during which we will celebrate the many contributions of African Americans to our nation’s history. This is a month when we make heroes of people who overcame real, systemic and often legal oppression. We lift up, in President Obama’s official proclamation, “a story of resilience and perseverance” to inspire and educate the public about a part of this nation’s history that wasn’t told a generation ago. But in all of the celebration of a selective highlight reel of history, too often we overlook the reality of our present and how far we have yet to go to realize a better future where we all have enough to thrive — not just survive.

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politics.salon.com — For too long progressives have been content to work within an economic discourse largely set by conservative principles, hostile to state action while idolizing free markets and corporate power. Indeed, the last time a sitting Democratic president launched a reelection campaign with his State of the Union address, it was Bill Clinton, who declared proudly that “the era of big government is over.” Sixteen years and one economic meltdown later, America is facing an election that is about more than candidate personalities, or even policy platforms; it is about the war of ideas, and at stake is nothing less than our collective political and economic future. Progressives can only win this long-term battle by finally articulating a deeper and more coherent vision of progressive political economy, one that sharply contrasts with conservative ideals.

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January 30 marks the 130th birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt. For most of today’s generation, FDR has become a somewhat distant figure, far removed from the day-to-day struggle to make ends meet at a time of slow growth and high unemployment. They know from their history books that FDR launched the New Deal in the midst of the Great Depression, and that he led the nation to victory in the Second World War. But aside from these basic facts, the average American knows very little about the extent to which the government — and America’s role in the world — was transformed in the critical years between 1933 and 1945. Yet, if these same individuals were to pause for a moment to consider just how much Franklin Roosevelt’s leadership continues to influence their lives, they might soon conclude, as the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. once observed, “that the world we live in today is Franklin Roosevelt’s world.” more »

politics.salon.com — It’s not even the general election season, and we’re already seeing the electoral process dominated by super PACs, funded with unlimited donations and protected by a paper-thin veil of “independence.” The super PACs operating in the GOP primary have managed to delay disclosing their donors until next month, but the identities of who funded these groups will be public. Groups in a different category — those that don’t ever disclose donors — haven’t started operating in any prominent way, but you can be sure they will in the fall. I’ve recently explored how we got to this point. But what about the prospects for reform of a system that so many are disillusioned with?

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washingtonpost.com — If you heard a loud "gulp" Tuesday night after President Obama's State of the Union address, it probably came from Republican political strategists as they realized their party's odds of capturing the White House this fall are getting longer. Obama may be no Ronald Reagan, but he's no Jimmy Carter, either. The obligatory list of accomplishments and initiatives was embellished with bits and pieces of what will likely be Obama's standard campaign speech. At the heart of his argument for a second term is his assertion that the American dream of upward mobility has been hijacked — that the rich and the powerful have rigged our economic and political systems to favor their interests over those of the average citizen.

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inthesetimes.com — In 1977, two Boeing 747s collided on an airstrip in the Canary Islands. According to accident investigators, those who survived the initial blast in one plane had time to escape before a fire consumed the wreckage. But eyewitnesses reported that many remained in their seat looking perfectly content – as if nothing was wrong. Not surprisingly, dozens of these dazed victims were burned to death, and the episode became a reminder of the so-called normalcy bias – a cognitive phenomenon whereby many who are faced with imminent disaster instantly convince themselves that everything is normal and that they don't have to modify their behavior. Unpleasant as this anecdote is to recount, it exemplifies the psychology at the root of one of America's most destructive traits: our obsession with materialism and consumerism.

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rollingstone.com — There is a lot to digest in a recent series of events on the Prosecuting Wall Street front – the two biggest being Barack Obama's decision to make New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman the co-chair of a committee to investigate mortgage and securitization fraud, and the numerous rumors and leaks about an impending close to the foreclosure settlement saga. There is already a great debate afoot about the meaning of these two news stories. At the very least, Obama's recent acts were interpreted as a public move toward economic populism: if the president was looking to associate himself with that word, he did a good job, since there were literally hundreds of headlines about Obama's "populism" the day after his State of the Union speech. I think it's impossible to know what any of this means yet. There is a lot to sort out and a lot that will bear watching in the near future. Just to recap, here's what's at stake right now.

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truth-out.org — Rarely have so few imposed such damage on so many. When five conservative members of the Supreme Court handed for-profit corporations the right to secretly flood political campaigns with tidal waves of cash on the eve of an election, they moved America closer to outright plutocracy, where political power derived from wealth is devoted to the protection of wealth. The decision in Citizens United giving corporations the same rights as living, breathing human beings will likely prove as infamous as the Dred Scott ruling of 1857 that opened the unsettled territories of the United States to slavery whether future inhabitants wanted it or not. It took a civil war and another hundred years of enforced segregation and deprivation before the effects of that ruling were finally exorcised from our laws. God spare us civil strife over the pernicious consequences of Citizens United, but unless citizens stand their ground, America will divide even more swiftly into winners and losers with little pity for the latter.

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newdeal20.org — In his annual State of the Union Address, President Obama spoke of the generation of Americans who "triumphed over a depression and fascism" to build "the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known." This story is typical of the millions of Americans who struggled through the twin crises of the 1930s and 40s, when the United States was transformed from a country brought to its knees by fear and economic paralysis to the single most powerful nation on the planet. But contrary to popular myth, this transformation — which included the birth of the modern middle class — did not take place by accident or miraculously emerge as the result of the initiative of millions of "rugged individualists." It came about because, under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt, the American government pursued policies that directly benefited working Americans.

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thenation.com — Walking by Zuccotti Park, you might think that Occupy Wall Street had vanished into thin air. But if you walk a few blocks further, to the public atrium at 60 Wall St, you'll find working groups deep in conversation. The work of Occupy continues, in New York City and across the country as well. Indeed, some Occupy groups have begun campaigns with a specific goal: policy reform. One of the most substantial examples of policy efforts within Occupy is a group called Occupy the SEC, which for months has been meeting twice weekly to review the 298-page Volcker Rule through a diligent, line-by-line reading and analysis. The group's goal is to submit a public comment to the Securities and Exchange Commission examining potential loopholes in the rule. When implemented, the Volcker Rule, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, will restrict American banks from making certain forms of speculative investments, such as proprietary trading.

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