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The Secret History of America's Pro-Tax Movement by Elizabeth Pearson, nextnewdeal.net | November 9, 2012
How do Americans really feel about taxes? Anti-tax groups and limited-government activists are quick to invoke a long American tradition of tax revolt and resistance in making the case that aversion to taxes is as American as apple pie. But this simple narrative gets the story wrong. The most recent such indication came on Election Day, when voters rejected tax limitation measures and supermajority requirements in Florida and Michigan and Californians strongly endorsed increases in the sales tax and income taxes for high earners in order to fund public education. Though notable in a political environment dominated by anti-tax rhetoric, such support is actually not as exceptional as it seems. It’s worth remembering, now that the election is over and we turn to the looming fiscal problems that confront state and federal governments, that Americans also have a long history of embracing and defending higher taxes. read more »When Obama Won, So Did America’s Future by Joe Conason, truthdig.com | November 8, 2012
What Barack Obama tried to tell America in the hour of his remarkable victory is that the nation’s future won on Election Day. Seeking to inspire and to heal, the reelected president offered an open hand to partisan opponents in the style that has always defined him. “Tonight,” he said, “despite all the hardship we’ve been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I’ve never been more hopeful about our future.” In the days ahead, there will be time to absorb the magnitude of this moment—achieved under the cloud of persistent unemployment and a multibillion-dollar campaign of calumny—but the president clearly knows that he returns to the White House with a renewed mandate. Against great odds, he won nearly all the same states that elected him in 2008 and won the popular vote despite an enormous, angry backlash in the old Confederacy. read more »6 Reasons Why the 2012 Election Will Be Considered Historic by Robert Creamer, Huffington Post | November 8, 2012
Tuesday's election was important for many reasons. Its outcome will certainly benefit millions and millions of people -- both in the United States and around the world. And President Obama's campaign will be remembered as one of the best-run political efforts in the history of American politics. But beyond the many important short and mid-term consequences, I believe it will likely be remembered as an inflection point in American political history. Here are six reasons why. read more »Revenge of the Pot-Smoking, Gay-Marrying, Women-Empowering, DREAMing Liberals by Chris Weigant, Huffington Post | November 8, 2012
I have to admit, I did not write a concession column, just in case I needed it. Seriously, a man running for the most powerful office in the country didn't bother to plan for one of the two contingencies that were guaranteed to happen last night? And he wanted us to let him make crucial decisions for all of us? Willard Mitt Romney's shocking lack of preparedness last night, when it came to speech time, was truly the icing on the sweet, sweet cake of Barack Hussein Obama's second victorious election, at least for me. Then I looked around at the rest of the election, and saw that America hadn't just re-elected a black man to the White House, but the entire country lurched leftwards last night in a significant fashion. Which is what my title refers to (conceived in homage to the greatest subtitle on a book, ever. read more »Now the Work of Movements Begins by Amy Goodman, truthdig.com | November 8, 2012
The election is over, and President Barack Obama will continue as the 44th president of the United States. There will be much attention paid by the pundit class to the mechanics of the campaigns, to the techniques of microtargeting potential voters, the effectiveness of get-out-the-vote efforts. The media analysts will fill the hours on the cable news networks, proffering post-election chestnuts about the accuracy of polls, or about either candidate’s success with one demographic or another. Missed by the mainstream media, but churning at the heart of our democracy, are social movements, movements without which President Obama would not have been re-elected. read more »Values, Not Demographics, Won the Election by Joel Benenson, The New York Times | November 8, 2012
MUCH of the coverage of Tuesday’s results has focused on the strength of Barack Obama’s coalition — minorities, women and young voters. But that analysis misses the real point. The contours of the 2012 presidential race were shaped less by the country’s changing demographics than by the underlying attitudes and values of American voters, who are always far more complex than they appear to pollsters. The president’s victory was a triumph of vision, not of demographics. He won because he articulated a set of values that define an America that the majority of us wish to live in: A nation that makes the investments we need to strengthen and grow the middle class. A nation with a fair tax system, and affordable and excellent education for all its citizens. A nation that believes that we’re most prosperous when we recognize that we are all in it together. read more »America’s Increasingly Diverse Electorate Is Heard by William Pfaff, truthdig.com | November 8, 2012
Abroad, the widely noted aspect of Barack Obama’s reelection victory was its social and class character. The president was reelected by a majority of American minorities. He won 93 percent of the African-American vote, which is hardly surprising, but also 71 percent of the Hispanic electorate, while his part of the white active electorate diminished about 10 percent from the share he carried four years ago. This is an inevitable result of the steady ethnic diversification of the American population and the increasing incidence of inter-ethnic or interracial marriage, with a consequent diminishing of the originally dominant Caucasian component in the make-up of the population of the United States, and of the historical culture that the founders possessed. read more »Progressive Breakfast by Bill Scher, OurFuture.org | November 8, 2012
MORNING MESSAGE: Obama Has Political Capital read more »Democracy Pushes Forward by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | November 8, 2012
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. read more »A Progressive Surge by The Nation, The Nation | November 7, 2012
We are glad the 1 percent were rebuffed at the polls. We are glad the racist minority that still poisons this country’s politics failed to get their way. We are glad that progressive politics—small-dollar donors, early voting, an expanded and diverse electorate—made the difference. We are ready to help—or to push—President Obama to have a successful second term. Whatever intransigence he meets in Congress, there’s much that President Obama can do with his executive power—on immigration, as we’ve seen, on ratcheting down the drug war, and even on carbon emissions and climate. But we don’t need tweaks; we need deep structural change. It’s up to the organized people who defeated organized money at the polls in this election to make that happen. read more »
The Latest
Robert Borosage on C-Span Talks Jobs And the Economy, wc-spanvideo.org | October 17, 2011
If GOP wins, Expect More Obstruction, The Washington Post | October 19, 2010
I'm cautious about the conventional wisdom that the Democratic Party is about to get flattened by a Republican steamroller. Pollsters are less certain than they'd like you to believe about who's a "likely voter" and who isn't. more »
Joe Manchin's oddly inspiring debate performance, salon.com | October 19, 2010
Man, did John Raese lay it on thick Monday night. more »
The Feds New Bubble (Masquerading As A Jobs Program), tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com | October 19, 2010
That Sinking Feeling, The New York Times | October 19, 2010
Sen. Schumer: ‘Sour’ Electorate Reluctant to Give Democrats Credit for Efforts, thehill.com | August 13, 2010
Asked why the Democrats are still expected to lose seats in November after passing major bills like healthcare reform, credit card reform, a fair-pay act and Wall Street reform, Schumer said voters are frustrated and don’t feel the effects of the legislation. more »
'Enforcement First' Has Already Happened on Border with Mexico, The Washington Post | August 13, 2010
We were eight Mexican peasants, one smuggler and me -- desperately stretched out in dirt furrows in the night. The Border Patrol helicopter with its huge searchlight kept coming closer. It stopped, hovered and turned the other way.
"Madre," whispered Pablo, who at 17 was the youngest among us. more »
Senate Passes Border Security Bill, Los Angeles Times | August 13, 2010
In Senate, Two Democrats Get the Job Done, thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com | August 13, 2010
In a highly unusual session, the chamber of filibusters and anonymous holds temporarily came back from its summer recess on Thursday to send a border security measure to President Obama’s desk and to pass a resolution honoring former Senator Ted Stevens — with only two senators present, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, both Democrats.
Hispanic Media Turn on President Obama, Politico | August 11, 2010
Univision’s Jorge Ramos, an anchor on the nation’s largest Spanish-language television network, says Obama broke his promise to produce an immigration reform bill within a year of taking office. And Latinos are tired of the speeches, disillusioned by the lack of White House leadership and distrustful of the president, Ramos told POLITICO.
