This is excerpted from Burning the Midnight Oil for the Coalition Change Strategy, on the Burning the Midnight Oil blog hosted by the Daily Kos (thought to the best of my knowledge with neither the advise nor consent of kos).

In tonight’s thought, I continue thinking on the coalition change strategy, and in particular on how to expand the base of the coalition. The focus is on one particular dimension of building the coalition that is close to my heart, after my experience in working on this essential dimension of a green transport policy fight.

First Verse

Actually, the workers here are also better off … if exports to the US are balanced by imports from the US

A little while back … oh, the summer or fall of 2006, if I recall correctly … I discussed an International Trade system that was the total opposite of the NAFTA model … focused, that is, on trade between producers in different countries, instead of being about surrendering national sovereignty on flows of wealth across national borders.

I just want to raise one point from that system tonight. Producers on both sides participate based on more than 50% of the “value added” of the product produced inside that country, entering qualifying product into a catalog, and importers in the foreign country bid in terms of the foreign currency, and the system regularly sorts out a working exchange rate to allow the largest possible number of bids to be met.

And in that system, the US$ stay in the US, with the dollars paid into the system by US importers providing the funds to pay US exporters, and the same way in the developing country. Everyone pays and everyone is paid in their local currency … only the goods cross borders.

For those of you unfamiliar with the thrilling details of the System of National Accounts … “Value Added” is a way of accounting for the sales price of finished goods by looking at the total price received at each stage of production.

Now, take something abstract, like a Shaker rocking chair. Who d’ya think is going to have a better chance of having more than 50% US Value Added … a small business producing furniture in, say, Knoxville, Tennessee … let’s call it Joe Public & Sons Furniture … or “Furniture R Us Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of the WeSaySo Corporation”?

Which is going to get the best benefit from access to that catalog … Joe Public & Sons, used to selling to a mix of local and regional retailers and wholesalers, or Furniture R Us, with their access to the international connections of WeSaySo?

Obviously, NAFTA, with its heavy focus on cross-border “investment”, is tilted to the WeSaySo’s of the world. Who is looking out for the Joe Public & Son’s of the country?

Second Verse, Same as the First

Social security crisis in 20 years you say? … guess I’ve seen worse problems

Also a little while back … also sometime in 2006, I’d guess … I discussed the big Social Security sham. That is the fiction that the monopoly producer of fiat currency somehow needs to “pile up money” in a cave somewhere, so Social Security payments can be met 30 years from now.

It’s all a fiction. Under Reagan, the Corporate Party, with agreement from both its radical reactionary wing inside the Republican party and its moderate wing inside the Democratic party, “fixed” social security by moving it from Pay As You Go to “Build Up A Surplus”.

While the “surplus is being built up”, what we are doing is shifting our tax system off of strongly progressive corporate income taxes and moderately progressive personal income taxes onto regressive capped payroll taxes. That was on the promise that, when the Boomers are mostly retired and we are in the demographic squeeze until they have started to die off in large numbers, the “surplus” will be drawn on by shifting the tax structure back, and using corporate and personal income taxes to “repay” the “special bonds” in the trust fund.

Well, this is obviously a case of I will pay you on Tuesday for a Hamburger Today. As the date of the transition comes, we start hearing the organs of the Corporate Party, like the Washington Post, start beating the drum of “saving” Social Security from a crisis that is unlikely to occur and which can be faced up to and solved if it does occur.

However, given the “crisis”, it is straightforward to “fix” it.

• Return the trust fund to Pay As You Go, by rebating the rate of overpayment in the previous year, rounding the rebate down to the next 0.25%.
• When we reach the point that there is no rebate to make, at that time the trust fund taps a levy on payroll income above the cap, up to half the Social Security payroll tax rate.
• And immediately shift Supplemental Social Security to funding by a levy on payroll incomes over the cap, up to half the current Social Security payroll tax rate.

So its a “cross that bridge when we come to it” system.

Again, I want to focus on one part of the proposal. Who is more likely to be run by more people with most of their personal salary income above the $100,000 cap on income taxed for Social Security … Joe Public & Sons, or Furniture R Us? Who is more likely to feel the most relief if their “business contributions” for the first $100,000 of each employee’s income goes down by 1% to 3%?

I reckon that when the Reagan Revolution with collusion from the Corporate Wing of the Democratic Party took the American worker for a ride on the Social Security Deal … which was then further locked into place under Bush-41 (whose legacy only looks good when set against his own son’s abysmal record) … so was small business.

Now, not all small business will benefit under the policy above. In particular, those raking it in will probably be in the same boat as the WeSaySo corporation. But those doing it tough … give them some immediate relief on their side of payroll tax, at the same time as putting a little more money in the pockets of their customers on payday, that could well be a good deal. Obviously their local Chamber of Commerce won’t tell them so … but then again, when Reagan wedged off those blue collar “Reagan Democrats”, it sure as hell wasn’t by getting the union bosses to say nice things about him.

Third Verse, Same as the First, Little Bit Louder and a Little Bit Worse

So, did’ya catch the game on Sunday?

OK, and finally Connie Mae. This is “Carbon Neutral” finance corporation, along the general lines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, what it finances is investments that reduce carbon emissions … either by reducing energy consumption, but also by increasing carbon neutral energy supplies.

The big twist … a twist that seems to go over the heads of the current main rivals in the Democratic field … is that loans do not have to be secured against mortgages. With the loans based on the amount of the investment that is self-funding, they can be tied to the utility payments  that are being reduced by the investment.

Now, as any contractor or DIY retailer would recognize, I have already said the magic words … “finance”.

If a genuine, fully fledged Connie Mae is established, that means that contractors that are approved by Connie Mae could go out and hustle for business, and if they can find entirely self-funding improvements, they can contract to do the work with the word funded by payments on the utility bill that is being cut by the work. And, of course, the Connie Mae side of the utility payment is a fixed amount, while the payment for the electricity, natural gas, or water is only going to be heading in one direction over the next two decades.

Of course, it depends critically on how Connie Mae is set up … but if it is set up right, it can level the playing field between small business and big corporations in a big growth industry of the next two decades.

So, that’s the song.

Heck, I could keep on singing more verses of this same song. The fact is that while the radical reactionary wing of the Republican Party have relied on small business as part of its local ground troops, anytime there is a conflict of interest between big transnational corporations on the one hand and local and regional producers on the other hand … local and regional producers get the short end of the stick.

In terms of a Coalition Change Strategy, “all small business” is too diverse a group to target. Just as the Reagan Republicans when developing their strategy for undermining Democratic blue collar support, we have to be smart about understanding the different interests and motivations of different groups of small businesspeople.

The important thing, however, is to take the task seriously. If we are serious about pursuing the national economic interest, even when it runs counter to the vested interests of transnational corporations, we have the opportunity to offer opportunities to small business that the radical reactionaries simply cannot match.

We won’t get there, however, by talking at small businesspeople, and still less by talking at a stereotype of small businesspeople. We have to engage small businesspeople in discussion, and search for the common ground.

We have to take the time to get past established US Chamber of Commerce policy positions to get at what people are trying to accomplish, and then use ingenuity to try to develop alternate approaches that appeal to the same goals …

… and alternate approaches that also clearly offer the opportunity to make common cause with such an unlikely rabble as a bunch of dirty green hippies, commie labor union activists, and wild-eyed small-r republican small-n nationalist Energy Independence activists.

If nothing else, the exercise in taking people seriously when we don’t come to the table with similar ideas on policy will be good for our karma.

Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you’re going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.

Butch Hancock

The way I see it, the crises we face in this country and the world are symptoms of a power structure gone wrong. Way wrong.

We, the citizens, need to reconfigure the power structure. In order to do that, we need to understand how the invasion of theocrats, outsourcing of essential governmental functions, mega media ownership concentrated in the hands of corporatists, and global corporate domination/trade agreements have shaped the world right now: the war in Iraq, health care, education, taxes, war, poisonous industrial processes, environment and climate change, energy, et al. While all these issues are, on their own, daunting and urgent, none of these issues will be resolved without repairing our governmental infrastructure. Period. The story tonight is about the theocrats’ impact on our deteriorating social structures.

Divine Transmissions

What is most disturbing… about the Bush administration, is not merely its devout corporatism, but the way in which it uses religion in the service of the corporatist agenda.

It does so in a way that explicitly identifies the Bush agenda with God’s, and suggests that Bush’s every step is divinely inspired. Bush asks his followers to stick with him as an act of faith — he’s a good man with good advisors and he prays and he’s not Clinton, so he must be right.

It became apparent early on in George Bush’s presidency that he was facilitating the infiltration of our government by theocrats. Theocrats: evangelicals, but ramped up and with one looming objective: to legislate their version of control Christianity.

Theocrats are foot soldiers of the corporatists, a relationship that delivers a one-two punch. Social control satiates theocrats, while corporatists run everything else. And they all want it run brutally. Until the only thing left for us is the desperate hope that God will save us in the next life… as long as we subscribe to certain behaviors in this one. What a fucking set up.

Their strategy was beautifully simple…  Howard Dean’s state-by-state idea emulates it now. The theocrats filled seats on school boards, township committees, and state houses. They got their infrastructure in place FIRST. Not quiet or like they were hiding anything. Because the brains of the operation had us… yeah, you and me… all figured out. We’d be dismissive, ignorant, and just too damned consumed by our own small perspectives to worry about whether the Ten Commandments hung in a federal courthouse or if creches really belonged on municipal property. The Ralph Reeds knew we didn’t take them seriously. Further, we arrogantly thought they were ridiculous. Oh… and they could never take over… those things don’t happen here.

For evangelicals, a bid to reclaim America

“We have God-sized problems in our country, and only God can solve them,” Richard Land, a prominent leader of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), told the group. Their mission is not simply to save souls. The goal is to mobilize evangelical Christians for political action to return society to what they call “the biblical worldview of the Founding Fathers.” Some speak of “restoring a Christian nation.” Others shy from that phrase but agree that the Bible calls them not only to evangelize but also to transform the culture.

Theocratic strategists knew our politicians were terrified to wade into Constitutional debates over the separation of church and state. In fact, Democrats and Republicans alike pandered to the zealots among us. Yup, those very same theocratic groups who work hard at restoring America thusly…

Anti-evolution teachings gain foothold in U.S. schools

Janet Gastil, a 13-year incumbent with a safe seat… in San Diego County, did not even realize she was facing serious opposition in the 1990 election until she woke up on the morning after the vote. She had been defeated by an obscure Christian candidate who had avoided public appearances and had instead promoted himself in church newsletters, leaflets and “in-pew” registration at churches.

Theocrats Target Military

Mikey Weinstein…has talked with hundreds of present and former cadets and staff at the academy, and has become convinced that the conflict is not between Christians and Jews, but between aggressively evangelical Christians and everybody else.

Preaching Politics from the Pulpit

… Pastor Russell Johnson… one of the most important figures in Ohio politics today… runs an organization that mobilizes so-called “patriot pastors”… to elect candidates who agree with conservative Christians on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

A Loss Of Faith

 

Now, here’s my problem. Because I get the theocrats. I get George Bush. What I don’t get are the Democrats. These guys were supposed to be on our side. Bill Clinton was the E age: energy, environment, elderly, education, ‘ealth care, ecology… these were people who said they wanted to end racism/sexism/ageism et al. These were supposed to be the good guys. btw, I recommend watching Kuo’s interview by Bill Maher.

So why didn’t the good guys grab onto David Kuo? I would have. In a heart beat.

Wouldn’t it have been a coup to work with Kuo, the former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives? Kuo wrote an incredibly important book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, about the sacrilegious marriage of politics and Jesus and the unfulfilled promises of the Bush administration to fund its own faith-based initiative. Wouldn’t Kuo’s story have the potential power to neutralize support for BushCo, even if it didn’t garner votes for Dems?

Part of the problem, Kuo says, was indifference from “the base,” the religious right. He took 60 Minutes to a convention of evangelical groups – his old stomping ground – and walked around the display booths, looking for any reference to the poor. “You’ve got homosexuality in your kid’s school, and you’ve got human cloning, and partial birth abortion and divorce and stem cell,” Kuo remarked. “Not a mention of the poor.”

“This message that has been sent out to Christians for a long time now: that Jesus came primarily for a political agenda, and recently primarily a right-wing political agenda – as if this culture war is a war for God. And it’s not a war for God, it’s a war for politics. And that’s a huge difference,” says Kuo.

Kuo said that after four years, Bush’s promises remained unfulfilled. Unbelievably, the tax incentives for charitable giving were stripped at the last minute from the $1.6 trillion tax cut legislation to make room for the estate-tax repeal… legislation that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest among us and did nothing for the least among us. So you tell me, why didn’t the Democrats grab this guy and his story?  Even if the Democrats couldn’t convince the evangelicals to vote for them, they might have convinced them to stop supporting BushCo. But anyone who knows me already understands what I’m thinking… Democrats weren’t (and apparently still aren’t) interested in changing the power structure…

Here’s more on how those cwazy Theocwats have been restoring America…

• Tennessee Evolution Statutes, 1925 & repeal

• Kansas OKs Anti-Evolution Teaching Rule

• Louisiana Parish Affirms Teaching Evolution’s Faults

• Evolution/Creationism News

• Fringe Evangelicals Distort US Military Policy

• Marching as to War

• Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps

• Religious right groups are raking in the cash

In the now-here’s-a-good-idea department…

Stephen Prothero, Chairman, Department of Religion, Boston University, asks… “How can we engage a politician who is rightly or wrongly invoking the Bible or using religion for political purposes without knowing something about religion ourselves, as citizens, journalists and academics? Prothero thinks the impact of religious illiteracy on foreign policy is even more significant: Did we understand Iraq as a place where people are, in many cases, primarily motivated by religion?”

And in the this-guy’s-a-hero department……

Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock

The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute “voters’ guides” that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn’t the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?

After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues and let people watch mature adult videos if they so wish, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns.

In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek “power over” others – by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have “power under” others – “winning people’s hearts” by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said.