Tag: Political Parties

(My apologies to Thomas Jefferson)

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the citizen long guaranteed by our Constitution, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to that separation.

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all humans are created equal, and that the People of the United States of America are endowed not only with certain unalienable rights, but also with certain rights and liberties given to them by the Founding Fathers via the Constitution of the country adopted at the birth of these United States, as well as via laws passed throughout the past 239 years. That to secure these rights and liberties, the Government has been instituted among people, deriving their power from the consent of the governed, and that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it.

From Ignoring Asia

As with any trend, fad or period of history things ascend and descend some at glacial speed others like a meteor.

In 1980 Ronald Reagan became President of the United States beginning the rise of conservatism in American politics aided and abetted by the likes of Ralph Reed who helped found the Christian Coalition of America, Rush Limbaugh and the rise of Conservative Talk Radio.

Even though George H.W. Bush followed Reagan one of Americas most popular presidents he was unable to win reelection in 1992 losing to Bill Clinton. Even with that win 1994 brought about the Republican Revolution led by Newt Gingrich and his Contract for America

American conservatives would obtain their biggest triumph with the election of George W. Bush allowing them to control all branches of America’s government until 2006 midterm elections.

The Liberal Democratic Party has dominated Japanese  politics since 1958. Under their policies the Japanese began its assent to what would become the worlds second largest economy. Using what became known as the convey system. Where the Ministry of International Trade and Industry would work in cooperation with banks and leading industrial corporations to not only promote Japanese business interests but to protect them.  

The LDP’s other power base lay in the way seats in the Diet were proportioned. A uniquely  Japanese system was created one which was not democratic or by any means representative of Japans voters. The multiple seat constituencies were weighted towards rural areas rather than the cities where a majority of the population now resided.

Even though the LDP led Japan in its most prosperous times this party like the Republicans is now descending but its decent was one made by a thousand cuts.  

Japan’s Bubble Economy

In 1985 the deregulation of interest rates on deposits began. Prior to that time bank were not allowed to pay interest on deposits. The removal of this prohibition led to competition between banks for deposits and hence to interest payments. Japanese banks did not raise interest rates they charged borrowers and thus did not offset the effect of the higher costs of their funds. They made up for the drop in their profits by selling the shares of stock they owned for a long time and counted the realized capital gains as profits. But because of the obligation of cross-holding of stock among the members of a keiretsu they immediately bought back the shares at the new higher price. This meant that they were able to count the capital gains as a profit, and had to pay tax on the capital gains and yet were back again with the assets they started with. They thus experienced a net loss of cash flow on the operation. Furthermore any decline in the stock market then would mean a disguised capital loss.

With the collapse of the Bubble Economy Japan under the LDP failed to correct the situation for 10 years out of fear. Using this go slow approach a decade was lost (The Lost Decade) causing Japan’s economy to contract and consumer spending to dry-up while savings increased at a rate higher than at any other time in its history this from a country known for saving.  

Today the LDP and the Republican are as popular as a used car salesman. Why?

Because both of these parties have failed to look forward rather than to the past.

For reasons that are beyond me the Liberal Democratic Party embraces policies that are Nationalistic and Inward looking policies that remind one of the 1940’s and 50’s. They are, even with control of the Diet unable to pass an economic stimulus package, can’t recognize that single parent families exists, that education isn’t about denying history while at the same time embracing the horrors that the Yasukuni Shrine represents.

America’s Republican party has become a shadow of its former self. Once a national party it has become a regional party.

One that embraces racism, believes that the top 1% of Americas wage earners (the wealthy) should receive the full protection and services that only government can offer while ignoring those most in need Americas Middle and Lower wage earners, rather than believing health care should be a right they fight to prevent care reaching the 47 million Americans without it. Living in fear of a major health care crisis.

These two parties have become irrelevant one did it in two years while the other has done it over a period of almost 20.    

Cross-posted from my blog at Campaign for America’s Future.

Today I wrap up my series on Progressives and Liberals, Movements and Political Parties.  In the first entry of the series, I explained what I think distinguishes progressives from modern American liberals, and the distinction to be made between a movement and the political party (or parties) through which it acts.  In the second, I went into some detail on short and long term strategies, how we can use strategic campaigning to influence more Democratic candidates to run leftward, progressive campaigns.

Before I begin in earnest, I must point out that when I write about bringing the Progressive Party to all fifty states I mean we establish presences at the local level.  The reason for this is one of practicality: you cannot hope to achieve tangible, lasting results by trying to build from the top down; the only way to build any structure is from the bottom up.  An example of why this is important is the Green Party-members have tried to go national before they had solid state-level presences and infrastructures throughout the country, and a very damaging consequences has been that it has incurred the wrath of Democrats for the 2000 electoral disaster (unfairly, to be sure, but nevertheless Greens are held responsible).  Trying to win a national-level campaign without first building the local and state infrastructures required is political suicide, not to mention foolish.

So the first step is to begin at the local level.  Seek out and establish contact with like-minded progressives, and start holding meetings.  First figure out if this is something you really want to devote your time and energy to, because if no chapter exists in your state you’ll be starting from scratch, and there is a certain level of commitment necessary to build a political party from the ground up.  Once you’ve decided that you all are set on doing this, it’s time to establish a platform on which to run (for an example, see the aforementioned first entry in this series).

After that phase has been completed, you’ll need to both create a working set of party bylaws for your state or municipality and expand your network to other, like-minded progressives.  As you grow in number, those bylaws are going to come in handy since no political party can function without the organizational structure.  You’ll also want to make clear what your short and long term objectives are.  As I wrote in the second entry of this series, you’ll want to focus on finding and running candidates in areas where Democrats don’t run, or where the Democrat is a corporate-conservative.  Your best bet, of course, is to pick the former over the latter unless circumstances dictate otherwise.  Why?  Because the overall goal for the time being is to decrease the numbers of the GOP in political office, and influence the Democrats to shift leftward.  Use your own judgment, however, as to how best to achieve this goal.

Finally, you need to find candidates.  Running for political office is not for everyone.  I don’t write this to knock anyone, but again, there is a certain level of commitment required and many people simply do not have the time, energy, or passion for politics.  So finding someone who lives and breathes politics is vital.  Once you find someone willing to take on this monumental task of running a political campaign, you need to raise money.  Election laws are set up to eliminate people who can’t raise a set amount of funds.  Speaking for myself, I think that blows, but there is a certain pragmatism to it; if you can’t convince a hundred people to donate fifty dollars, how do you expect to convince a thousand, or ten thousand?

That’s about all I can tell you here.  The rest is up to you.  If you would like more information, you could do a lot worse than to get in touch with the Vermont and Washington Progressives.

I’m a Kucinich supporter, and I am fed up with the corporatized Democratic Party (c’mon now…who isn’t really?). As such, I’m looking at other parties other than the big two (Repugs? The party of Reagan, Bush, Bush, Cheney, etc.? No way.). In the first of three postings of this series, I’ve asked if Leftists and Progressives need a new party. I then looked at the Green Party and found them not too far from where I stand. The third posting was a look at the Contstitution Party, which has some interesting ideas but had at least one deal breaker.