1. Think bigger. For decades, we've been chasing the rightward-drifting center--a k a the "middle class"--by throwing huge chunks of our agenda overboard like ballast from a leaky ship. Now the Democrats are, however shakily, back in power, and their program is so modest you need a microscope to see it. Raise the federal minimum wage in stages to $7.25--all the way back to its 1979 levels. Restore (some) taxes on the superrich. Fund cheaper student loans. Let Americans import prescription drugs from foreign countries. There's something so pathetic about that last item: The drug companies have us cornered, but maybe you can escape! How about: Raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour and index it to inflation so it won't decline in value again. Single-payer healthcare for all. Quality childcare for all. Decent affordable housing--an issue that's dropped off the radar screen even as housing costs have skyrocketed. Free or nominal tuition in public universities--sounds like utopian madness until you realize that public higher education actually was free, or cheap, until the 1980s. To complaints that these things cost too much, George W. Bush has provided a simple reply: If the government can pay for the war in Iraq--$355 billion and counting--it can pay for anything.
And
5.Avoid weasel words. Like "spirituality." It's "religion." And "faith"--that's "religion" too. And while you're at it, define your terms. What is a "working family"? What is "the middle class"? Do these phrases mean anything more than "virtuous people entitled to make a moral claim on society"--as opposed to those criminals, drug addicts and welfare moms liberals used to care about? And speaking of liberals, whatever happened to them? And to leftists? How come we're all "progressives" now?
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