SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Think US Is Moving Far Left? That Terrain's Not Even Close
Nov 16, 2008
The infernal machinery of reactionary America -- the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and its animatronics version on Fox News, The Weekly Standard, the nasal intellects of talk radio like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- would have you believe that Barack Obama's presidency will be a radical break from right-leaning America. If only. Here's what radical would look like.
Health care. Enough tinkering in fear of universal health care. The single-greatest obstacle to universal and affordable care is the insurance industry. Eliminate its role in health. It's a disease whose only effective cure is a single-payer system such as Medicare. Its overhead is cheaper than private-sector insurance. Its coverage is universal. The care it enables is private and up to individual choice. I'd much rather pay my $5,000-a-year premiums in the form of a national health tax supporting a system like that than the capricious system in place now. With a national system, I'd have the satisfaction of knowing that 71 million uninsured and underinsured fellow-Americans are covered. Bonus radicalism: End for-profit hospitals.
Taxes. You know you're in a Salvador Dali world when the Democratic presidential candidates pretend $200,000 earners are middle class and their Republican mirrors evoke the Boston Tea Party when you propose raising taxes a miserable 3 percentage points on people making more than $250,000. "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society," in Oliver Wendell Holmes' words. We just haven't been paying them much for the past 28 years, which explains why we've become so uncivilized (shoddy health care, shoddy schools, shoddy roads). So: Return marginal tax rates -- all rates -- to their Clinton-era levels. Forget about a middle--class tax cut. I don't make that much money, but I'm embarrassed, for my children's future especially, at how little federal taxes I pay, though the results are all around me. Capital gains and dividend income? Tax it at the same rate as all other income. Bonus radicalism: End the handout known as the mortgage-interest deduction except for low-income first-time homebuyers.
Energy. Thomas Friedman's serial analogies are murder on the English language, but he still has brilliant ideas. The $1-a-gallon federal surtax on gas was one of them -- a great idea in the 1990s, still a great idea today no matter what the price of gas is. If we want the double-bang of an incentive to drive less, energize the alternative-energy sector and finance it, there's no fairer, quicker way than a gas surtax. Bonus radicalism: An extra 25-cents-per-gallon tax dedicated exclusively to new mass-transit projects such as light rail and bullet trains. (Gas prices are ready to fall below $2 per gallon, so if we could put up with $4.50 per gallon a month ago, we can put $3.25 per gallon to good use before the next shock).
Star wars. After 25 years, $160 billion and barely a couple of pretend-success tests, the Reagan-inspired missile-defense system is still doddering on at $10 billion a year. Time to junk it, along with the $380-million-a-plane F-22 Raptor fighter program, developed more than two decades ago to fight ghosts once known as Soviets. Bonus radicalism: Welcome gays in the military.
Immigration: U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, the Connecticut Republican, was unfortunately defeated two weeks ago. His "blue card" idea shouldn't be: A "blue card" to every illegal immigrant willing to work and pay taxes, as a first step to a Green Card -- and citizenship. It's not amnesty. It's Americanism at its best. Bonus radicalism: Mr. Obama, tear down that wall going up along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Domestic security. Close the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration's single-biggest, most useless and abusive (of dollars and liberties) expansion of government since Harry Truman signed the equally toxic National Security Act of 1947. Bonus radicalism: Abolish the CIA -- or at least half of those 18 spy agencies in the country's $40-billion-a-year "intelligence community."
Iraq and Afghanistan. Quit fantasizing that the "surge" did more than sedate loathing -- among Iraqis or toward Americans -- or that it could be applied to Afghanistan. It's not that Iraqis and Afghans can't make peace, but they won't as long as foreign powers muck it up for them. Withdraw troops from both, replace them with plenty of economic aid and a few special forces focused exclusively on al-Qaida. The next war, anyway, is in Pakistan. Bonus radicalism: Withdraw all remaining 35,000 to 45,000 U.S. troops from Europe. Time to let those Europeans carry their own weight.
That would be radical, at least relative to the fearful, self-serving conservatism of the past three decades. In reality, it's only mildly liberal -- and unlike anything Obama is proposing. As I said: If only.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Pierre Tristam
Pierre Tristam
Pierre Tristam is a journalist, writer, editor and lecturer. He is currently the editor and publisher of FlaglerLive.com, a non-profit news site in Florida. A native of Beirut, Lebanon, who became an American citizen in 1986, Pierre is one of the United States' only Arab Americans with a regular current affairs column in a mainstream, metropolitan newspaper.
The infernal machinery of reactionary America -- the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and its animatronics version on Fox News, The Weekly Standard, the nasal intellects of talk radio like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- would have you believe that Barack Obama's presidency will be a radical break from right-leaning America. If only. Here's what radical would look like.
Health care. Enough tinkering in fear of universal health care. The single-greatest obstacle to universal and affordable care is the insurance industry. Eliminate its role in health. It's a disease whose only effective cure is a single-payer system such as Medicare. Its overhead is cheaper than private-sector insurance. Its coverage is universal. The care it enables is private and up to individual choice. I'd much rather pay my $5,000-a-year premiums in the form of a national health tax supporting a system like that than the capricious system in place now. With a national system, I'd have the satisfaction of knowing that 71 million uninsured and underinsured fellow-Americans are covered. Bonus radicalism: End for-profit hospitals.
Taxes. You know you're in a Salvador Dali world when the Democratic presidential candidates pretend $200,000 earners are middle class and their Republican mirrors evoke the Boston Tea Party when you propose raising taxes a miserable 3 percentage points on people making more than $250,000. "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society," in Oliver Wendell Holmes' words. We just haven't been paying them much for the past 28 years, which explains why we've become so uncivilized (shoddy health care, shoddy schools, shoddy roads). So: Return marginal tax rates -- all rates -- to their Clinton-era levels. Forget about a middle--class tax cut. I don't make that much money, but I'm embarrassed, for my children's future especially, at how little federal taxes I pay, though the results are all around me. Capital gains and dividend income? Tax it at the same rate as all other income. Bonus radicalism: End the handout known as the mortgage-interest deduction except for low-income first-time homebuyers.
Energy. Thomas Friedman's serial analogies are murder on the English language, but he still has brilliant ideas. The $1-a-gallon federal surtax on gas was one of them -- a great idea in the 1990s, still a great idea today no matter what the price of gas is. If we want the double-bang of an incentive to drive less, energize the alternative-energy sector and finance it, there's no fairer, quicker way than a gas surtax. Bonus radicalism: An extra 25-cents-per-gallon tax dedicated exclusively to new mass-transit projects such as light rail and bullet trains. (Gas prices are ready to fall below $2 per gallon, so if we could put up with $4.50 per gallon a month ago, we can put $3.25 per gallon to good use before the next shock).
Star wars. After 25 years, $160 billion and barely a couple of pretend-success tests, the Reagan-inspired missile-defense system is still doddering on at $10 billion a year. Time to junk it, along with the $380-million-a-plane F-22 Raptor fighter program, developed more than two decades ago to fight ghosts once known as Soviets. Bonus radicalism: Welcome gays in the military.
Immigration: U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, the Connecticut Republican, was unfortunately defeated two weeks ago. His "blue card" idea shouldn't be: A "blue card" to every illegal immigrant willing to work and pay taxes, as a first step to a Green Card -- and citizenship. It's not amnesty. It's Americanism at its best. Bonus radicalism: Mr. Obama, tear down that wall going up along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Domestic security. Close the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration's single-biggest, most useless and abusive (of dollars and liberties) expansion of government since Harry Truman signed the equally toxic National Security Act of 1947. Bonus radicalism: Abolish the CIA -- or at least half of those 18 spy agencies in the country's $40-billion-a-year "intelligence community."
Iraq and Afghanistan. Quit fantasizing that the "surge" did more than sedate loathing -- among Iraqis or toward Americans -- or that it could be applied to Afghanistan. It's not that Iraqis and Afghans can't make peace, but they won't as long as foreign powers muck it up for them. Withdraw troops from both, replace them with plenty of economic aid and a few special forces focused exclusively on al-Qaida. The next war, anyway, is in Pakistan. Bonus radicalism: Withdraw all remaining 35,000 to 45,000 U.S. troops from Europe. Time to let those Europeans carry their own weight.
That would be radical, at least relative to the fearful, self-serving conservatism of the past three decades. In reality, it's only mildly liberal -- and unlike anything Obama is proposing. As I said: If only.
Pierre Tristam
Pierre Tristam is a journalist, writer, editor and lecturer. He is currently the editor and publisher of FlaglerLive.com, a non-profit news site in Florida. A native of Beirut, Lebanon, who became an American citizen in 1986, Pierre is one of the United States' only Arab Americans with a regular current affairs column in a mainstream, metropolitan newspaper.
The infernal machinery of reactionary America -- the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and its animatronics version on Fox News, The Weekly Standard, the nasal intellects of talk radio like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- would have you believe that Barack Obama's presidency will be a radical break from right-leaning America. If only. Here's what radical would look like.
Health care. Enough tinkering in fear of universal health care. The single-greatest obstacle to universal and affordable care is the insurance industry. Eliminate its role in health. It's a disease whose only effective cure is a single-payer system such as Medicare. Its overhead is cheaper than private-sector insurance. Its coverage is universal. The care it enables is private and up to individual choice. I'd much rather pay my $5,000-a-year premiums in the form of a national health tax supporting a system like that than the capricious system in place now. With a national system, I'd have the satisfaction of knowing that 71 million uninsured and underinsured fellow-Americans are covered. Bonus radicalism: End for-profit hospitals.
Taxes. You know you're in a Salvador Dali world when the Democratic presidential candidates pretend $200,000 earners are middle class and their Republican mirrors evoke the Boston Tea Party when you propose raising taxes a miserable 3 percentage points on people making more than $250,000. "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society," in Oliver Wendell Holmes' words. We just haven't been paying them much for the past 28 years, which explains why we've become so uncivilized (shoddy health care, shoddy schools, shoddy roads). So: Return marginal tax rates -- all rates -- to their Clinton-era levels. Forget about a middle--class tax cut. I don't make that much money, but I'm embarrassed, for my children's future especially, at how little federal taxes I pay, though the results are all around me. Capital gains and dividend income? Tax it at the same rate as all other income. Bonus radicalism: End the handout known as the mortgage-interest deduction except for low-income first-time homebuyers.
Energy. Thomas Friedman's serial analogies are murder on the English language, but he still has brilliant ideas. The $1-a-gallon federal surtax on gas was one of them -- a great idea in the 1990s, still a great idea today no matter what the price of gas is. If we want the double-bang of an incentive to drive less, energize the alternative-energy sector and finance it, there's no fairer, quicker way than a gas surtax. Bonus radicalism: An extra 25-cents-per-gallon tax dedicated exclusively to new mass-transit projects such as light rail and bullet trains. (Gas prices are ready to fall below $2 per gallon, so if we could put up with $4.50 per gallon a month ago, we can put $3.25 per gallon to good use before the next shock).
Star wars. After 25 years, $160 billion and barely a couple of pretend-success tests, the Reagan-inspired missile-defense system is still doddering on at $10 billion a year. Time to junk it, along with the $380-million-a-plane F-22 Raptor fighter program, developed more than two decades ago to fight ghosts once known as Soviets. Bonus radicalism: Welcome gays in the military.
Immigration: U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, the Connecticut Republican, was unfortunately defeated two weeks ago. His "blue card" idea shouldn't be: A "blue card" to every illegal immigrant willing to work and pay taxes, as a first step to a Green Card -- and citizenship. It's not amnesty. It's Americanism at its best. Bonus radicalism: Mr. Obama, tear down that wall going up along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Domestic security. Close the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration's single-biggest, most useless and abusive (of dollars and liberties) expansion of government since Harry Truman signed the equally toxic National Security Act of 1947. Bonus radicalism: Abolish the CIA -- or at least half of those 18 spy agencies in the country's $40-billion-a-year "intelligence community."
Iraq and Afghanistan. Quit fantasizing that the "surge" did more than sedate loathing -- among Iraqis or toward Americans -- or that it could be applied to Afghanistan. It's not that Iraqis and Afghans can't make peace, but they won't as long as foreign powers muck it up for them. Withdraw troops from both, replace them with plenty of economic aid and a few special forces focused exclusively on al-Qaida. The next war, anyway, is in Pakistan. Bonus radicalism: Withdraw all remaining 35,000 to 45,000 U.S. troops from Europe. Time to let those Europeans carry their own weight.
That would be radical, at least relative to the fearful, self-serving conservatism of the past three decades. In reality, it's only mildly liberal -- and unlike anything Obama is proposing. As I said: If only.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.