The Sanders Challenge (Demo)

Tweeting that “America needs a political revolution,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders threw himself Thursday into the race for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

Sanders is in many ways the mirror image of Hillary Clinton, the favored candidate in the race. She has universal name recognition, unlimited funds, and a campaign operation rife with experienced political pros. He is not widely known, has little money, and has never run a national campaign. But in a populist moment, he is the real deal – a full-throated, unabashed, independent, uncorrupted, straight-talking populist. And that is a big deal.

Sanders will focus his campaign on the great challenges facing the country: a politics corrupted by big money, and an economy where the rules have been rigged by the few to benefit the few. That reality won’t be changed by politics as usual, where the viability of a candidate is measured by how much money he or she can amass in the backroom “money primary,” and the message of a candidate is judged by its poll-tested ability to appeal to voters without alarming donors. It will take an independent political movement to change our course – and Sanders will run as its Tom Paine, summoning Americans to save their democracy.

Sanders has already released a 12-point Economic Agenda for America. He has been a leader in what is increasingly a consensus agenda for Democrats: an increase in the minimum wage, paid sick days, paid vacation, pay equity, affordable child care.

But Sanders’ agenda is far bolder. It addresses the structures that are geared to generate extreme inequality. Since 1978, CEOs have increased their own pay by almost 1,000 percent, while the wages of 90 percent of Americans have lost ground. As Sanders says, that can occur only if the rules are systematically rigged to favor the few.

So Sanders calls for an end to the corporate-defined trade and tax policies that have racked up unprecedented and ruinous trade deficits while shipping good jobs abroad. He is a leader in the effort to stop fast track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is supported by the Democratic president, the Republican congressional leadership and the business lobby.

He calls for breaking up the big banks, and making Wall Street serve rather than savage Main Street. The big banks are more concentrated than ever. Too big to fail, too big to jail, they are too big to exist. His leading donors are unions, not Wall Street bankers.

He calls for expanding, not cutting back basic security programs for America. He would lift the cap on Social Security payroll taxes to expand benefits to address the looming retirement crisis. He would move to a national health care plan – Medicare for all – that takes on the insurance and drug lobbies and makes health care a right. He would provide two years of debt-free college or advanced training for every student willing to earn it.

He calls for empowering workers, protecting the right to organize, fostering worker-owned cooperatives, while curbing the perversities of CEO compensation. This would help ensure that workers share in the profits and productivity that they help to generate.

He calls for fair taxes on the rich and corporations to invest in rebuilding our decrepit infrastructure and in renewable energy, creating jobs while leading the global effort to address catastrophic climate change.

He challenges the bipartisan consensus that America must police the globe, arguing that endless war will waste precious lives and sap our resources. He was against the Iraq intervention from the first lie.

And of course, he opposes big money in politics, and will drive reforms to clean up Washington’s corrupted revolving door lobby culture.

Many pundits suggest that there is little difference among Democrats. All are social liberals. All have become more “populist” in line with the times. But the real question is who is prepared to take on the entrenched structures that generate inequality and drive down wages. Sanders will put that question to voters and to his rivals.

 A Test of Populist Energy

Sanders’ candidacy is less a test of the power of the populist message – its reach is apparent as even Republicans struggle to address economic inequality – than a test of populist energy and independence.

He starts with little money and less staff. He will camp out in Iowa and New Hampshire, raise money over the Web, largely in small donations. His message will be powerful in retail politics – house parties, rallies, town meetings and debates. The biggest obstacle is less to convince voters that he’s right than to convince them that he’s a serious candidate, worth supporting. He has to find ways to get a hearing. And he has to find ways to overcome understandable cynicism.

That is the challenge to the emerging populist movements. Will they be willing to support a long-shot candidate who is carrying their message? Or will they be fearful of alienating the powers that be, isolating themselves politically and losing their “access.”

For example, the brilliant Run Warren Run movement is headed to a moment of truth. It has built, by all accounts, the best operation on the ground in Iowa of any campaign. But the candidate of its dreams, Sen.Elizabeth Warren, remains clear that she has no intention of running. Their best hope now to get her to change her mind is to support Sanders big time, and show the power of his message in Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders might be the Gene McCarthy to her Bobby Kennedy, opening the space for her to come in. He might also simply take her place as their champion. But that requires going full out for Sanders and against Hillary and other potential contenders. Are they independent enough to do that?

Similarly, the money-in-politics groups have shown that their issue is an increasingly potent one. Now they have a candidate who can credibly put the issue at the center of his campaign. Are they independent enough to recognize that, magnify his message, and rally to his side?

Similarly, labor leaders understand that they cannot survive with business as usual. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka argues that to get labor’s support, candidates must step up:

“We want action. We want big ideas, and we want structural change. We want Raising Wages. That also means no candidate can be all things to all people and still meet this standard. Standing with working people once in a while won’t work. Candidates can’t hedge bets any longer….

Sanders meets that standard and puts labor’s challenge to the test.

The Sanders Effect

How Sanders will fare remains to be seen. The obstacles are forbidding. Clinton is a powerful and popular opponent. Sanders needs enough money to create the presence that will enable voters to see him as a serious choice. He has to rally activists to supply the energy that can supplant expensive paid field operations. Coming from Vermont, he has limited connections with the minority voters who are critical to the Democratic coalition. He has to find a way not only to get his message heard, but also how to get around the established gatekeepers in the black and Latino communities who will be lined up with Clinton. He has to exceed expectations in Iowa and New Hampshire, and see if he captures the public’s attention.

Many pundits and activists argue he’ll be good for Clinton. Like a batting practice pitcher, he’ll help her hone her stroke for the general election, and move her to the left. This is insulting to both Sanders and Clinton. She’s an experienced and sophisticated leader and candidate. She’s been moving to the left in part because the problems of the country leave little choice, and in part because that is where the voters are. She’s been in presidential politics for over a quarter century. She doesn’t need a practice run.

And win or lose, Sanders’ campaign will have far greater importance than serving as Clinton’s trainer. His message will reach millions, helping to reinforce the central realization that the rules have been rigged against them. He will powerfully attack Republicans for both their fawning billionaires competition and their reactionary economics. He’ll attract new energy, young organizers and activists who will gain experience and grow. New talented leaders will emerge through the campaign, using it to widen their own base and establish their own credentials. Out of the Jesse Jackson campaign in 1988, for example, came Paul Wellstone, who ran his operation in Minnesota and David Dinkins who put together the winning coalition in New York City, and many more.

Running for president against the Clinton operation, with little money and limited name recognition, risks embarrassment and reputation. Sanders has decided that the stakes are high enough and it is time to take that risk. Whether you support him or not, don’t discount him. He’s the real deal and this is a big deal.

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/05/02/the-sanders-challenge/

Fundamentally, Bernie Sanders effectively is saying that the system is broken, and is rigged to economically benefit the wealthy ownership class (although Sanders never refers to the word OWNERSHIP except in point 3 referring to workers owning as members of cooperatives the businesses they work at). Concentrated wealth-creating, income-producing capital ownership is at the heart of the problem of economic inequality.

While Sanders performs a great service by defining the extent of economic inequality, he does not offer the necessary solutions to the problem of economic inequality and therefore must be made aware and supportive of far, far better approaches and solutions. Nor has there really been any offered by those stuck in the one-factor world of thinking that the ONLY way to earn income is through a JOB. This is why with every proposal, whether by Republican or Democrat or other political party policies makers, the component that justifies the economic policy is JOB CREATION. Yet there is NEVER a discussion which addresses who will benefit from the ownership of the economic scheme. What we need are policies and rules that will unite America, reform the system, and empower EVERY citizen to benefit economically from owning expanding shares in the corporations that are growing the economy.

Sanders points underscore just how inadequate our corporate and tax policies are, and how our priorities are wrong. The rich are getting richer through constant capital ownership accumulation aided by government policies and rules that extend huge tax breaks for corporations with no stipulation for broadening ownership of America’s corporations. Driven by the Republican Party, whose mantra is to protect corporate ownership concentration and profitability of those who presently OWN America––the wealthly capital ownership class––further reducing the corporate tax rate WITHOUT eliminating all tax loopholes and subsidies and the stipulation that all corporate profits by fully paid out as dividend earnings to the owners of the corporations will result in more unjust corporate ownership concentration and enrichment of the wealthy ownership class at the expense of the vast majority of working Americans stuck in the rut of wage slavery.

Of course, the call for lowing corporate tax rates is ALL in the name of JOB CREATION, and Republicans blame outsourcing and the loss of jobs on what they believe is a high nominal tax rate that American corporations pay. But if the Republicans and the Democrats and other political party policy makers really want to end investment abroad and job outsourcing, then why not completely eliminate the corporate income tax in exchange for paying out fully the dividend earnings to the owners of the corporation and replacing retained earnings and corporate debt financing of economic growth (neither of which creates new capital owners) with the issuance and sale of new full-voting, full-earnings payout corporate stock that represents the to-be-formed physical capital assets that would grow the economy? This would refocus investment in American corporations who want to grow the economy in our homeland, result in the creation of new capital owners who would make up a broad corporate ownership base, effectively empower the new owners to own the “machines” that are destroying jobs and devaluing the worth of labor, and effectively stimulate REAL (not make-work) employment opportunities as we build a FUTURE economy that can support general affluence for EVERY child, woman, and man.

How can we simultaneously grow the economy and create new capital owners?

We will need to reform our broken system in which economic growth is hindered by the slavery of “past” savings. The denial of consumption or “past” savings has been the primary means necessary to financing economic growth. We need to adopt new policies to provide the necessary system reforms to abate the further concentration of wealth-creating, income-producing capital ownership and ensure that continual broadened capital ownership and corresponding wealth building occurs and benefits EVERY citizen as the economy expands.

The most significant system reform needed is to equally empower EVERY citizen, without the requirement of “past” savings or capital asset equities, to acquire personal ownership shares in FUTURE wealth-creating, income-producing capital asset growth. This can be accomplished using insured (facilitated with private capital credit insurance or a government reinsurance agency––ala the Federal Housing Administration concept), interest-free capital credit loans issued by local banks repayable out of the FUTURE fully paid out dividend earnings generated by profitable investments in the corporations growing the economy. This objective can be achieved with the passage of the proposed Capital Homestead Act.

This is what I recommend Senator Bernie Sanders incorporate into his 12-point economic plan:

• Invest in our crumbling infrastructure with a major program to create business employee ownership opportunities and jobs as a stipulation for taxpayer monies allocated to contracts for rebuilding roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools.

• Show how the proposed Capital Homestead Act would develop new system reforms to support production and workers in the United States instead of giving tax breaks to corporations which ship investment and jobs to low-wage countries abroad.

• Stand for policies that make it easier for workers to join ownership unions and bargain for ownership sharing, fair wages and benefits.

• Stand for raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour but make it clear that this is not the solution but a temporary expedient as workers gain over time substantial dividend-payment income from their shock ownership in the companies that employ them.

• Stand for providing equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make.

• Reform trade policies that have shuttered morn than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs through tax policy reform and tariffs where necessary.

• Make a college education virtually free.

• Make affordable child care a reality.

• Restore and strengthen policies that would break up big banks and create insured, interest-free capital loan financing so that EVERY citizen has the equal opportunity to acquire stock ownership in the companies that are growing the economy without requiring them to pledge past savings or asset equities, or to reduce their present income. The six largest banks now have assets equivalent to 71 percent of our gross domestic product, over $9.8 trillion. They underwrite more than half of mortgages and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards.

• Support a universal health care system as an extension of Medicare-for-all that provides better care at less cost. In no way should this preclude private providers of health care services.

• Expand Social Security by lifting the contributions caps. This is a temporary expedient as citizens gain over time substantial dividend-paying stock ownership in America’s corporations and build retirement security.

• Reform the tax code by: (1) eliminating all tax loopholes and subsidies; (2) providing an exemption of $100,000 for a family of four to meet their ordinary living needs; (3) encouraging corporations to pay out all their profits as taxable personal incomes to avoid paying corporate income taxes and to finance their growth by issuing new full-dividend payout shares for broad-based citizen ownership; (4) eliminating the payroll tax on workers and their employers, but pay our of general revenues for all promises for Social Security, Medicare, government pensions, health, education, rent and subsistence vouchers for the poor until their new jobs and ownership accumulations provide new incomes to substitute for the taxpayer dollars to fill these needs; (5) creating a tax rate that would be a single rate for all incomes from all sources above the personal exemption levels so that the budget could be balanced automatically and even allow the government to pay off the growing unsustainable long-term debt. The poor would pay the first dollar over their exemption levels as would the hedge fund operator and others now earning billions of dollars from capital gains, dividends, rents and other property incomes which under some tax proposals would be exempted from any taxes; (6) substituting inheritance and gift taxes with a transfer tax imposed on the recipients whose holdings exceeded $1 million, thus encouraging the super-rich to spread out their monopoly-sized estates to all member of their family, friends, servants and workers who helped create their fortunes.

A more comprehensive set of solutions can be found in the platform of the Unite America Party, a platform that is offered for adoption, by any political party or candidate.

Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/…/capital-homestead-act-a-plan-for…/ and http://www.cesj.org/…/capital-homestead-act-summary/.

Support the Unite America Party Platform, published by The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/platform-of-the-unite-ame_b_5474077.html as well as Nation Of Change at http://www.nationofchange.org/platform-unite-america-party-1402409962 and OpEd News at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Platform-of-the-Unite-Amer-by-Gary-Reber-Party-Leadership_Party-Platforms-DNC_Party-Platforms-GOP-RNC_Party-Politics-Democratic-140630-60.html.