PDA-Chicago is talking about: Strategic Proposal for Progressive Victory

Submitted by Michael on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 14:28

Michael Lemke, a Chicago native with degrees from U of Chicago, Yale and NYU School of Law, has worked as a technical writer in Silicon Valley, an attorney, and an instructor Malcolm X College.

by Michael Lemke

The failure of the Democratic supermajority to act, and the recent disastrous Supreme Court decision make clear that the time has come for Progressives to take organization to the next level.

What follows is a plan for Progressive victory.

Open Memo to All Progressives and Progressive Organizations:

Strategic Proposal for Progressive Victory

PART I: The Problem: Symptoms.

In 2008, Democrats won the Presidency and large majorities in the House and the Senate by promising real change. Republicans have not enjoyed comparable majorities since 1923; [1] George W. Bush accomplished most of his major policy objectives, from tax cuts for billionaires to illegal wars, with much smaller margins. Yet current Democrats, despite a 60-member caucus in the Senate, have failed to deliver on their promises, as a glance at major policy areas shows:

Growth and Prosperity. Most Americans want a new economic strategy that will create good jobs and steady, sustainable growth based on “real” production, ending the long, painful decline in the income and prosperity of ordinary Americans. [2] They want policies that reduce wealth inequality and share with workers the rewards of their increased productivity. But Corporate Democrats refuse to abandon their supply-side fraud of recession-creating, wealth-destroying bubbles that capture all “growth” for the rich.

Health Care. A majority of Americans [3] and American physicians [4] want a single-payer national health insurance program, HR 676 (Improved Medicare for All). Single payer would solve our cost and access problems, saving tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars annually. [5] But Corporate Democrats instead drafted corrupt bills designed to benefit the insurance and pharmaceuticals industries, mandating uninsured Americans to buy costly and inadequate for-profit insurance, or pay a fine.

Foreign Policy. A majority of Americans want to end the Iraq and Afghan wars, cut ordinary military spending, and end the outrageous abuses of the for-profit mercenary sector. Instead, the President has expanded our presence in Afghanistan, has failed to withdraw from Iraq, and has increased war spending to record levels—wasting resources to profit military-industrial contractors, while burying Americans in debt.

Banking and Finance. Deregulation, securitization, and an explosion of dangerous structured finance products in the 1980s and 1990s enabled corrupt Wall Street traders to engineer devastating bubbles in the housing and securities markets, shorting the entire U.S. economy, destroying the housing market, and creating a global recession. A majority of Americans opposed the bailouts and want powerful Glass-Steagall-style regulations restored. But Corporate Democrats have done nothing to break up the big banks or shape for consumers and small businesses a safe and serviceable financial sector.

Energy Policy. Most Americans want to fight climate change and create a stable and independent energy supply safe from gaming in the commodities and futures markets. They want wind and solar clean energy using American-made turbines and panels, a smart electrical grid for the 21st century, improved public transit, electric cars, green building, efficient appliances, and a global treaty. But Copenhagen failed, and Corporate Democrats’ corrupt “cap-and-trade” schemes will only increase pollution.

Fair Trade. Americans understand that “free trade” isn’t free, that globalization isn’t fair, and that current U.S. trade policies are destroying our domestic economy, outsourcing jobs, exploiting workers worldwide, and degrading the planet. They want a revitalized American manufacturing sector protected by fair trade laws that don’t ignore externalities in product costs. They also want fair labor laws, including freedom to join unions. But Corporate Democrats have blocked the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and refuse to address globalization.

Why have Democrats failed? Ignoring the needs and desires of their constituents, Corporate Democrats in 2009 themselves deliberately and systematically obstructed reform in every major policy area, using as cover the fallacies of “bipartisanship,” “pragmatism,” “incrementalism,” “centrism,” and “triangulation.”

Part II

The Problem: Causes and Consequences.

First, let’s examine a few false explanations of Democrats’ failure to serve the will of the people:

Corporate Democrats pretend that Republicans have blocked reform. This is nonsense: not a single GOP vote was needed to pass any powerful reform. President Bush used reconciliation to pass a controversial, destructive agenda with only 51 votes in the Senate.
Corporate Democrats assert that most Americans don’t really want change, and prefer half-measures and inaction. This, too, is nonsense. A majority of Democrats and Independents feel enraged and betrayed—as shown by the backlash in Massachusetts.
Corporate Democrats assert that some small-state senators and Blue Dog representatives’ constituents tend conservative, so these officials must oppose reform. The truth is that Corporate Democrats (like Baucus and Nelson) are paid millions by out-of-state “special interests” to kill reforms that their constituents desperately need.

We’ve heard enough excuses. We need real choices and a real chance for change.

What We Are Witnessing Is Not Continual Failure, but Continual Success.

What actually explains Democrats’ failure? The reality is that Corporate Democrats have not failed, but instead have attained nearly all of their corporate paymasters’ major objectives.

Corporate Democrats have expanded military spending, twisted health care reform into corporate welfare, blocked regulation of the financial sector, obstructed energy reform, and kept fair trade and the EFCA off the table. Given the American people’s overwhelming desire for real change, Corporate Democrats have delivered for their corporate clients continual, consummate success.

The ugly truth is that Corporate Democrats and Republicans work in unison to obstruct reform and maintain the corrupt status quo. Beginning in the 1970s, both parties were gradually taken over from within by agents of trade associations who oppose the public interest and despise the people-oriented, social-democratic policies of the New Deal. These Corporatist politicians have gained a stranglehold in both parties, as the Bush/Obama era has made painfully clear. The "failure" of the "Democratic" supermajority to act has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that Corporatists now enjoy total control, imposing de facto single-party rule in America.

The Corporatist Corruption of the American Political System

We Progressives already know the cause of our problems in every policy area: big business “special interests” in every major industry have formed powerful trade associations and lobbies that enable supposed “competitor” corporations to band together and engage in cartel-like behavior, pooling resources and power to game the political markets in order to game their product markets. Trade associations such as America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the American Petroleum Institute (API), the American Gas Association (AGA), the Coal Trading Association (CTA) and the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), among others, accomplish their destructive goals by

funding the campaigns of political candidates, who serve their interests while in office;
expending vast sums on lobbying and advertising to promote policies favorable to their industries, at the expense of the public interest;
drafting actual laws and policies in cooperation with beholden lawmakers; and
rewarding Corporatist lawmakers and staffers with massive revolving-door payoffs as industry or trade association executives, consultants, or lobbyists, upon voluntary retirement or when disgusted voters kick the corrupted incumbents out of office.

We also already know the consequences of this system of corruption—laws and policies that

destroy the economy and outsource jobs via trade policies neither “free” nor fair;
inflate vast bubbles in assets (housing, securities) and commodities, creating recessions;[6]
plunder taxpayers to bail out Wall Street pyramid schemes and fraud;[7]
deny health care to 46.3 million Americans[8], killing at least 45,000 people[9] a year;
waste trillions of dollars on unnecessary, illegal wars based on lies, exploding our debt;[10]
distort and fix markets[11] to unfairly redistribute wealth from workers to the cartels;
institutionalize schemes of corporate welfare, price-fixing and graft;[12]
obstruct technological progress and product improvements (clean energy, electric cars);[13]
neglect needed investments in infrastructure (e.g., public transit) and education;
game energy costs and prices through opaque speculation (oil futures) and collusion;[14]
stifle real, sustainable growth for all in favor of shortsighted cash-grabs for the few;
create regressive tax schemes[15] to unfairly redistribute wealth from workers to the rich;
reduce the real income, prosperity, and standard of living of most Americans;[16]
create and exploit systemic crises in every policy area and obstruct needed reforms; and
usurp our government and corrupt our laws to consolidate Corporatist power.

We know that these Corporatist policies caused the current economic recession and have resulted in a staggering decline in the standard of living, real incomes, and prosperity of ordinary Americans.

We reject the preposterous idea that corporations have a right to representation in Congress, or to elect officials, or to write laws, or to pay off politicians for betraying the public interest.

We defy rule by stakeholder fiat, and we assert that the legitimate, Constitutional purpose of government is to create laws and policies that best promote the prosperity of all Americans—creating regulated, democratic capitalism for the many, not oligopolistic, Corporatist capitalism for the few.

Hoping to bring real change and end Corporatism in America, progressives and independents worked hard to elect Democrats in 2006 and 2008. But we were betrayed: the very “Democrats” we put in office joined with the GOP to work for Corporatist interests against us.

Part III:

Why Corporations Win: Analysis of the Corporatist Advantage

Progressives have understood the Corporatist problem for a long time. We know that the solution is not simply electing “Democrats,” because Corporate Democrats work with Corporate Republicans to block reform. We know that we need to elect real Progressives and hold them accountable.

But all too often, candidates positions themselves as Progressives in primaries, “move to the center” in the general, and govern as Corporatists. Once they take office, we have no leverage. Senators don’t face reelection for six years. Incumbents get big money from cartels. And if they lose, they’re paid off through the Revolving Door, so they don’t fear voter backlash.

How do the Corporatists do it? The answer is that Progressives lose every battle because corporations understand the logic of collective action better than we do. For decades, trade associations have taken corporate organization to a higher level, exploiting their organizational advantage to game the political parties and impose Corporatist rule. They’re like small groups of soldiers able to defeat large armies because they fight in phalanx against disorganized hordes.

The current attempts of progressive organizations to combine in larger and more united coalitions and alliances are therefore a necessary and important organizational development. But even if Progressive organizaitons in each policy area united in common action for a single goal--and even if these coalitions united across multiple policy areas to form a powerful national alliance for lobbying and protest--corporations would still enjoy organizational supremacy.

That is because our true enemies aren't really AHIP and SIFMA--those are merely heads of the hyrda. The heart of the evil is Corporatism itself, the whole superstructure of corruption that has effectively disenfranchised the American people. In other words, corporations win not only because their meta-organizations are more united than ours, but also because they implemented a revolutionary political idea: Corporatists formed a de facto "Shadow Party" and used it to take over the "conventional" political parties from within.

Over many decades, Corporatists gradually developed external centers of law and policy formation, alternate decision-making conduits, and a rival system of incentives for officals and staffers. Imposing this "shadow system" on existing institutions, they gamed and corrupted our electoral and legislative processes, created de facto "single-party" rule.

Corporatists infiltrate parties, select candidates, fund their campaigns, manage them, hold them accountable, and reward them through the Revolving Door.
Members of this unofficial, de facto Corporatist Party are easily identifiable by their resumes, corporate campaign donations, votes, and payoffs on leaving office.[17] These people know who they are: most of the members of Congress.
De Facto Corporatist Party members don’t “conspire.” Conspiracy isn’t needed, because Corporatist practices evolved gradually and have become the standard culture on the Hill. They are enshrined in the traditions of the House and the Senate and institutionalized in K Street and the for-profit lobbying industry. Corporatist senators and representatives commit their antidemocratic sabotage openly, in the light of day; they call it Business as Usual.

If we wish to defeat them, we must develop our own “Shadow Party” with our own external decision-making conduits, incentives, and culture—a "system" of our own that can fight Corporatist corruption by electing true Progressives and holding them accountable. And like the Corporatists, we must do this not by starting a “conventional” third party, but by creating an unofficial, de facto, virtual Party that can take over existing parties from within.

But how can voters break through the electoral catch-22s created by the Shadow Party so as to effectively challenge the corrupt seat of Corporatist power, the U.S. Congress?

Why American Voters Lose Every Election: the Electoral Catch-22s

The main electoral catch-22 is the Defensive-Voter Dilemma. Many Democrats argue that third-party challenges to Corporatist Democrats split the vote, spoil elections, and elect Corporatist Republicans. The same fear prevents conservatives from challenging Corporatists in the GOP.

In consequence, Corporatists hold hostage the frustrated base of each party, extorting votes from unhappy voters through false promises on social "wedge" issues. As a result, the first category of American voters—big-party "Base Voters"—lose every election.

The Defensive-Voter Dilemma is also the bane of the second (and smallest) category of voters: "Third-Party Voters." Because so many Base Voters insist on "voting defensively" for "the lesser of two evils," few Americans believe that conventional third parties can win. So third parties fail, and Third-Party Voters, too, lose every election.

A third category—so-called "Swing Voters"—vote on the principle of "throw the bums out." Swing Voters, like other voters, understand the realities of defensive voting and believe that third-party votes are wasted. So they alternate between the big parties. When Republicans create economic disaster, they vote Democrat; when Democrats do nothing, they vote Republican. In short, Swing Voters vote for the "opposite party"; but there is no opposite party, because Corporatists ensure that every candidate is a "bum." So Swing Voters, too, lose every election.

Finally, there is the fourth (and largest) category of voters: the stay-at-homes. These voters see the catch-22s clearly; they believe that all candidates have been corrupted. As one frustrated voter said, "The Democrat’s a pile of crap, the Republican’s a sack of shit. Why should I vote?" So they stay home, making it even easier for Corporatists to game elections and win.

Criteria for an effective electoral solution:

To beat the Corporatists, we need a strategic breakthrough that (1) enables Base Voters to vote for truly Progressive candidates under traditional big-party labels; (2) enables Third-Party Voters to vote for a new kind of "third party" capable of attaining real power; (3) enables Swing Voters to vote for a real "opposite," anti-Corporatist party in general elections; and (4) restores hope to disengaged Stay-at-Home Voters and gives them real reason to come to the polls.

PART IV:

The Solution: a “Virtual” Progressive Party

It’s no surprise that corporations have achieved a higher level of organization than we have. Transaction costs work in their favor. And in a "two-party system" plagued by electoral catch-22s, voters have no effective means of punishing incumbents—a circumstance that aided the Corporatist "Reagan Revolution," as routine shifts between the conventional parties cloaked the Shadow Party’s gradual consolidation of power.

But in 2008, Corporatist Democrats won too many seats. Unable to use the obstruction of Republicans as an excuse for inaction, and unwilling to pass any real reforms, Corporatist Democrats could no longer conceal what they are—the "left" wing of a united Corporatist Party.

And so Americans finally know the truth. At present, we’re like a legitimate government languishing in exile because of some antidemocratic coup. We need to take organization to the next level and beat the Corporatists at their own game to restore democracy to America.

In other words, we need a "Virtual Progressive Party": a new kind of political party that can compete with the Corporatist Shadow Party by taking over "conventional" political parties from within. By a "virtual" political party, we don’t mean some Internet-only grouping, but a revolutionary new kind of political organization comprised of committed voters and activists using innovative new electoral and legislative tools to end Corporatist power.

It should be clear by now that to fight corporate power, Americans need both a broad grassroots movement and a principled electoral apparatus.

While it is true that a mass movement focusing on influencing the legislative cycle via demonstration and protest can give voice to people’s anger and thereby bring some pressure to bear on lawmakers, it is also true that in our current corrupt system, elected officials are ultimately accountable not to the People, but to the cartels that fund, manage, and reward them through the Revolving Door.

Thus, a movement that limits itself to protest is reduced to demanding concessions from active obstructionists and enemies of the People—in essence, to begging corrupt Corporatist politicians for crumbs. Such an approach can bring only fatally flawed compromises drafted as corporate welfare—not the full, real solutions that Americans, small businesses, and the total economy desperately need.

Moreover, many despairing and disillusioned Americans, understanding that they have been effectively disenfranchised, have little energy for protest, because they have little confidence that protest alone can bring the change we need. Similarly, these same voters have little hope in an exclusively electoral strategy based on "electing Democrats," or even on "electing Progressives." Indeed, in the absence of hope for systemic change, even the few truly Progressive officials we elect have little credibility, relevancy, or power. At present, many of these officials gradually lose hope of accomplishing the People’s will, and either give up, or give in to corporate power.

A mass movement without a political arm will fail. An electoral strategy without real accountability is futile. And real accountability without a permanently organized electorate to support our platform and lawmakers through the full legislative process is impossible. We need a solution that can restore hope to voters and candidates alike. We need a revolutionary new political arm for the mass movement. We need the Virtual Progressive Party.

PART V:

PLAN FOR THE VIRTUAL PROGRESSIVE PARTY

1. We need a "Declaration" or manifesto that voters everywhere can agree to.

Just as Revolutionary Americans drafted and signed a Declaration of Independence with a clear narrative explaining colonists' common grievances, common values, and common cause, so too Americans need a "Declaration Against Corporatist Corruption" as a Founding Document for our Virtual Progressive Party. This document, located on a web page for all voters to sign, should

• explain the problem and clearly identify enemies (provide a narrative that members can understand and fit new facts into);

• declare our common values (government for the People, not for corporations);

• state our goal of restoring democratic government and growing prosperity for all;

• be so self-evident that almost every ordinary American already agrees with it; and

• act as an open petition, an official membership list, and a new tool for power.

2. We need a “Short List” or platform for immediate action in major policy areas.

Any united movement without specific goals will accomplish nothing. But a long laundry-list ofobjectives is confusing and divisive. Therefore, Progressives should adopt an evolving "Short List" of legislative objectives. As each goal is accomplished, a new goal can be added to the list.

The initial list must follow several basic principles. It must:

• include revolutionary, needed reforms—not half-measures or compromises;

• include important goals from different policy areas to unite voters in a powerful alliance;

• maintain ideological focus (i.e., include only reforms in which the main obstacle is Corporate power—not some other problem, like voter bigotry), so as to unite as many workers and consumers from as many voter categories as possible; and

• include reforms that most Progressives, and a majority of Americans, already agree with.

Because most progressives have achieved near consensus in health care, peace, finance, energy, and fair trade, and because all Progressives support election reform (knowing as they do the nature of the Corporatist problem), it is proposed that the initial List should include

i. Fully publicly funded elections and the outlawing of revolving-door payoffs;

ii. A HOLC-style emergency program to reduce mortgage principal and interest, prevent foreclosures, and stabilize the housing market;

iii. Improved Medicare for All (HR 676);

iv. Ending the Iraq and Afghan Wars and cutting ordinary “defense” spending 33%;

v. Using the savings from the military budget for massive fiscal-stimulus investment in American-made solar and wind power and a smart energy grid, creating jobs;

vi. Aggressive Glass-Steagall-style re-regulation and breakup of big banks; and

vii. The Employee Free Choice Act.

3. We must use the Declaration and Short List as tools to form a Voting Bloc: we must endorse and support only candidates who will (1) sign the Declaration, (2) vow to reject corporate money, and (3) fight for the Short List; and we must Boycott, Blacklist, and Challenge any candidate or incumbent who refuses to do so.

As stated earlier, one perennial difficulty is that Corporatist candidates often masquerade as Progressives, only showing their true allegiance after taking office. Therefore Progressives must use the Declaration and Short List as an unambiguous test for determining which candidates are truly Progressive and will actually fight for the People—and which, given a clear choice, will not reject Corporatist power, and hence cannot be trusted.

• In "conventional" primaries, VPP members should donate money, time, and assistance only to candidates who agree to the Declaration, vow, and Short List.

• VPP members should Boycott and Blacklist all Corporatist candidates and incumbents.

• "Progressive Party" elected officials (of whatever "conventional" affiliation) must do everything in their power to bring Short List Items to a vote, to reject any weakening of Short List demands, and to enact the Short List, no matter what Corporatists argue. Previously endorsed officials who vote for bills antithetical to the Short List should be stripped of "Virtual Party" status. Their signatures are removed from the Declaration and they are subject to blacklist, boycott, and primary challenge.

• In order to address "defensive voting" concerns, it might be argued that where the endorsed VPP candidate loses a conventional primary, it might be advisable for VPP members to quietly support the lesser of two Corporatist evils. It is countered, however, that the real power of the VPP lies in the leverage that real accountability creates, and in a clear and unambiguous identification of enemies. Voting for the lesser of two evils is what brought us to this desperate pass. Therefore, total boycott is recognized as a necessary means of protecting our new-found power. The stakes are no less than the salvation of the American republic from a corruption so dire that our nation no longer merits the adjective "democratic." The Declaration is true; the List is fair. Progressives who want to defeat the Corporatist abomination should not spend one penny, speak one word, or cast one vote for any equivocating Corporatist, who by pretending to quibble over details, refuses to take the People’s side against our corporate enemies, and thereby seeks to destroy the essence of our power and to defeat our just demands.

• Just as candidates are asked to "sign on the dotted line," so also members are asked to hold up their end of the bargain, by committing to the Voting Bloc, recruiting other members, and engaging in action to support the legislative agenda.

• Once the VPP is up and running, it should present the Declaration and Short List to every elected official. An incumbent of any party who signs the Declaration, vows to reject corporate campaign finance donations, and agrees to fight for the Short List becomes an official member of the VPP and the "True Progressive Caucus" on the VPP website.

• In this way, a "real" Progressive Caucus of actual elected officials can come into existence quickly, without the inconvenience of waiting for an election, or asking candidates to change their conventional or “official” party affiliations.

PART VI:

Advantages of the Proposed Strategy.

A "Virtual Progressive Party" has an excellent chance of victory because it:

• restores real meaning and power to voting, rescuing Americans from the Defensive-Voter Dilemma and associated electoral catch-22s;

• is built upon a Declaration and Short List that are brief and clear and that a majority of Americans already agree with;

• learns from the organizational strategies of our Corporatist enemies, creating a "virtual" party to challenge the Shadow Party;

• creates an innovative "adhesion social contract," enabling ordinary Americans in different districts to overcome transaction costs and act together to elect allied candidates, fight for a united platform, and hold their Caucus accountable;

• is easy to join: individuals need only sign the Declaration Page;

• creates an instant and growing power base of real elected officials, without the inconvenience of waiting for an election or conventional party affiliation changes;

• can create a "stampede" or "bandwagon" effect, as fear of voter rejection influences officials to switch sides to save their reputations; and

• can go viral.

PART VII:

Yes, We Can.

Some Democratic and Independent voters, despairing and accustomed to defeat, may argue that it simply can’t be done. These pessimists will claim that a new "virtual" political party simply can't work and will never defeat the entrenched Corporatist "Shadow Party" that has a deadlock on the traditional (and illusory) "two-party system."

Other pessimists will raise "defensive voting" fears. They will object that existing Democratic candidates won’t agree to sign the Declaration, reject corporate money, or fight for the Short List. They will insist that only "baby steps" will take us anywhere, or that Progressives need to be "bipartisan," because most Americans don’t really want change. They will argue that "real change takes time"—even though there has been almost total obstruction in every major policy area for decades, such that the fight for single payer has taken nearly eighty years.

In short, supposedly progressive nay-sayers will argue everything and nothing. What they are really saying, is "No, You Can’t."

But they are wrong: ordinary Americans' hour has come.

President Obama used some powerful rhetoric to win Americans’ votes and rise to power.

He talked about "the Audacity of Hope"--and showed us only rhe audacity of Wall Street.

He talked about “the Change We Need”—but gave us only Corporatist “Business as Usual.”

Above all, he said again and again, “Yes, We Can.” He convinced Americans to chant those words; he persuaded many to believe them. But then most of his so-called “Democrats” betrayed us. Despite huge majorities, they showed themselves loyal to our most pernicious enemies. Even now, these same Corporatist betrayers are conniving to murder our hopes, exploit our families through schemes of unjustified “profit,” and reduce the American people to worsening demoralization, poverty, joblessness, disenfranchisement, defeat, and despair.

If not this “Virtual Progressive Party,” then what?

If not now, when?

If not we, who?

President Obama was right about one thing: We are the people we have been waiting for.

Don’t believe the Shadow Party’s lies. Rise up and take the power that is your birthright.

Organize your own organization to create the CPO and the Virtual Progressive Party today.

(SCROLL PAST THE END NOTES TO READ THE DECLARATION AGAINST CORPORATE CORRUPTION AND THE INITIAL PROPOSED "SHORT LIST.")

__________

END NOTES

[1] Compare Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, “67th Congress (1921-1923),” http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/index.html with “111th Congress (2009-2011),” http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/index.html, and “Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present,” United States Senate, http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/one_item_and_teasers/partydiv.htm.

[2] Real median household income has declined over the last 12 years. See, e.g., “Typical Families See Incomes and Earnings Decline,” John Irons, http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20070905, September 5, 2007. For helpful analyses of wealth inequality, see Emmanuel Saez: “Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Updated with 2007 Estimates),” August 15, 2009 and the many other articles at Saez’s home page, http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez; for a cogent discussion of the relation of bubbles, wealth inequality, the wage gap, and recessions see Ravi Batra’s Greenspan’s Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan 2005, p.141 ff.

[3] See, e.g., “Another Poll Shows Majority Support for Single Payer,” Healthcare-Now!, http://www.healthcare-now.org/another-poll-shows-majority-support-for-single-payer/.

[4] See, e.g., Roger Bybee, “The Doctors’ Revolt,” July 1, 2008, The American Prospect, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_doctors_revolt.

[5] The Physicians for a National Health Program estimate that eliminating the zero-value-added, for-profit private health insurance industry would reduce America’s total health care costs by at least $400 billion a year—more than enough to insure all 46.3 million uninsured and to reduce costs and improve coverage for millions of underinsured Americans. http://www.pnhp.org.

[6] See, e.g., Nobel Prize economist Joseph E. Stiglitz’s Freefall. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010, p. 77ff, and Ravi Batra, Greenspan’s Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2005, p. 155ff.

[7] See, e.g., Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story, “Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won,” December 23, 2009, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html?_r=2&hp.

[8] Physicians for a National Health Program, “Our Mission: Single-Payer National Health Insurance,” http://www.pnhp.org.

[9] A recent study published in the American Journal for Public Health estimates that at least 45,000 Americans die annually from lack of access to health care. See David Cecere, “New Study Finds 45,000 Deaths Annually Linked to Lack of Health Care,” September 17, 2009, http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-lack-health-coverage.

[10] See Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz, “The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3Trillion Dollars, and Much More,” March 9, 2008, Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html.

[11] See, e.g., Jason Leopold, “Enron Caused California Blackouts, Traders Say,” MarketWatch, May 16, 2002, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/enron-caused-california-blackouts-traders-say

[12] E.g., the “Medicare Advantage” graft scam created in the “Balanced Budget Act of 1997” and the pharmaceuticals price-fixing scheme in the Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2000.

[13] See, e.g., Chris Paine, Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006).

[14] See, e.g., David Segal, “$100 Million Dollar Payday Poses Problem for Pay Czar,” New York Times, December 23, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/02bonus.html?hp.

[15] See, for example, the many tax cuts created for the rich by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 200, and retained throughout eight years of dual wars and mounting deficits.

[16] E.g., real median household income has declined over the last 12 years. See “Typical Families See Incomes and Earnings Decline,” John Irons, http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20070905.

[17] A perfect example is Billy Tauzin, former Democratic representative who helped Republicans kill health care under Clinton, switched parties; passed the pharmaceuticals price-fixing scheme in the Medicare Prescription Drug Act in 2000; and in 2005 left Congress to take his seven-figure annual payoff as President of PhRMA, in which role he sought to twist healthcare reform under Obama into an outrageous scheme of corporate welfare. Richard M. Cheney, Tom Daschle, and Robert Rubin are other instructive examples.

Declaration Against Corporatist Corruption, January 25, 2010

We united American citizens hereby declare that the greatest danger to our democracy today is the domination of our politics, laws, and policies by organized corporate power.

In every major industry, supposed “competitor” corporations have banded together into trade associations, pooling resources to promote policies that increase their own profits, no matter how devastating to ordinary Americans, small businesses, the public interest, and the total economy.

These consortia and cartels, including America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the American Petroleum Institute, and the International Peace Operations Association, among others, have for decades gamed our politics by

funding the campaigns of political candidates, in order to buy their votes;
expending vast sums on lobbying and advertising to promote their destructive agenda;
drafting actual laws and policies in cooperation with beholden lawmakers; and
rewarding responsive lawmakers and staffers with Revolving-Door payoffs, including jobs as corporate or trade association executives, consultants, or lobbyists, upon retirement from office, or when disgusted voters reject the corrupt incumbents.

We know that by these corrupt means these “special interests” have twisted both the Democratic and Republican Parties into dual tools of de facto Corporatist single-party rule, in order to

destroy the economy and outsource jobs, via trade policies neither “free” nor fair;
inflate bubbles in housing, securities, etc., to impoverish ordinary Americans;
institutionalize schemes of corporate welfare, profiteering, and graft;
game energy costs and prices through opaque speculation and collusion;
distort and fix markets to unfairly redistribute wealth from workers to the cartels;
block laws and regulations protecting citizens from outrageous corporate abuses;
plunder taxpayers to bail out pyramid schemes and fraud in Wall Street;
rack up trillions in debt to wage unnecessary, illegal wars on false pretenses, and
usurp our government and corrupt our laws to consolidate Corporatist power.

We know that these Corporatist policies have caused the current recession and have resulted in a staggering decline in the standard of living, real income, and prosperity of most Americans.

We reject the preposterous claims of many of our elected officials, who pretend to believe that corporations have the right to representation in Congress; or to elect officials; or to write laws; or to pay off politicians, through revolving-door remuneration, for betraying the public interest.

We defy such Corporatist corruption of our democracy and assert a self-evident truth: that the legitimate and Constitutional purpose of our government is to adopt those laws and policies that best promote the prosperity, liberty, and equality of all Americans—creating regulated, democratic capitalism for the many, not corrupt, Corporatist capitalism for the few.

Therefore, we hereby swear to use all legal means necessary to destroy the Corporatist domination and to restore democratic government for and by the People to the United States of America.

The “Short List”

or current platform

of the “Virtual” Progressive Party of America

We, the united “virtual” Progressive Party, hereby declare that we will support any candidate or incumbent, of whatever “conventional” party affiliation, who will sign our Declaration Against Corporatist Corruption, reject corporate funding, and fight for our current “Short List” of demands; and that we will boycott, blacklist, and reject any candidate or official, of whatever party, who refuses to sign our Declaration, who takes corporate money, or who opposes, delays, or seeks to obstruct the passage of these just, reasonable, and long-overdue reforms:

Fully publicly funded elections for all state and federal offices, and the outlawing of revolving-door payoffs to politicians for betraying the public interest;
An effective, HOLC-style emergency program to compel reductions in mortgage principal and interest, prevent foreclosures, and stabilize the housing market;
An immediate end to the Iraq and Afghan Wars, transfer of all peacekeeping operations to the UN, elimination of the outrageously wasteful Corporatist mercenary sector, and reduction of ordinary “defense” spending by 33%;
Massive public investment of the military savings to create U.S. jobs, building wind turbines, solar panels, wind farms, solar installations and a smart electrical grid that will provide desperately needed energy security, stability, independence, and infrastructure for the 21st century;
HR 676, Improved Medicare for All, saving at least $400 billion annually, making American businesses more competitive, and insuring all of the uninsured;
Rigorous Glass-Steagall-style regulation of banking, breakup of big banks, and creation of a fair, safe, and serviceable financial sector for consumers and small businesses; and
the Employee Free Choice Act.

Proposal completed Jan. 25, 2010; first posted on PDA website Feb. 4; revised Feb. 20.

If you are interested in learning more about the Strategic Proposal For Progressive Victory or the "Virtual" Progressive Party, please contact Michael at michael.lemke@yahoo.com.

BIO: Michael Lemke, a Chicago native with degrees from Chicago, Yale, and NYU School of Law, has worked as a technical writer in Silicon Valley, as an attorney, and as an instructor of composition at Malcolm X College. A former MoveOn and union organizer and current member of Progressive Democrats of America and Chicago Single-Payer Action Network, Michael once had the honor of being laughed at by natural gas industry lobbyists in a Capitol Building elevator for his "Clean Energy Now" button (while volunteering for the Union of Concerned Scientists to promote wind power in 2002). He listens in memory to that laughter from time to time; it acts as a continuing inspiration. Michael, who like many millions of Americans currently is an "underutilized worker," is an active member of the Illinois bar.

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