Not a bad mission statement
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Lots of talk about what the Democrats should propose as their manifesto or mission statement for the midterm elections. Of course everyone believes they should come up with the equivalent of "The Contract On For America."
I thought of this again when I was re-reading Bill Moyers' On America. In it, he writes about another time when the public spirited journalism of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World recommended this short platform for politicians back in 1883:
- Tax Luxuries
- Tax Inheritances
- Tax Large Incomes
- Tax Monopolies
- Tax the Privileged Corporation
- A Tariff for Revenue
- Reform the Civil Service
- Punish Corrupt Officers
- Punish Vote Buying
- Punish Employers Who Coerce their Employees in Elections
A person can dream can't he?
One, the social struggle against greedy elites goes back a wee bit longer than 125 years, two, the day Democrats adopt an actual populist legislative agenda is the day the people turn government control back to them and, three, if we had an independent, watchdog press, an ignoramus like George Bush (or Ronald Reagan) would never have made it past the Republican primaries (even in their bids for state governorship).
On the other hand, we very nearly created true social egalitarianism under Democrat social policy, building the greatest, most prosperous middle-class society while, at the same time, the most prosperous and productive commercial sector the world has ever known (kind of makes you wonder what kind of idiots would think those policies were a bad thing). Plus, it took almost the entire course of civilization, until the last century, before it became inappropriate to 1) own slaves, 2) sell your children, and 3) beat your wife. We very nearly stamped out religious bigotry (along with doctrinaire religion) until the recent Republican-assisted reactionary backlash from fundamentalist, religious zealots. If we’re lucky (and smart), modern-Republicanism will be just a temporary setback.