"Words that make actions speak louder."
The conservative Blue Dog House Democrats, who borrowed heavily from Republican and Tea Party themes in an effort to save their jobs, floundered badly Tuesday. Meanwhile, Progressive Caucus members in contested races had much better success at getting re-elected in spite of some strong right-wing assaults. Of the 54 seats occupied by members of the […]
Tom Perriello always knew it would be hard to hold his seat in Congress. The progressive Democrat from Albemarle County, Va. represents a district designed to nullify liberal votes with a wide swath of conservative countryside. He was elected in 2008, riding President Obama’s coattails to victory by just 727 votes. He does not represent […]
Perspective’s hard to come by in the heat of the moment, but it’s already clear that this week’s election is profoundly important. The forces of small-“d” democracy are up against a cabal of ultra-powerful financiers who, in an unending quest for greater wealth and power, have drawn upon the ugliest impulses and most corrupt political […]
No matter what happens on Tuesday, progressives will not have unfettered control of Washington, just as we have not the last two years, the last decade, the decade before that, or the decade before that. We will have to fight for more change. The question is: who will we have to fight? The last two […]
The current debate over foreclosure fraud has been a revelation, even for those of us who have become familiar with the power of moneyed interests to influence the national dialog. Despite overwhelming evidence of widespread lawbreaking and deception, there’s still a popular point of view that says that fraudulent foreclosures are “just a technicality” and […]
The electorate is bitter and angry. It’s no wonder. Foreclosures rise while Wall Street bankers, whose recklessness caused this grave recession, grab million dollar bonuses. Unemployment is stuck at 9.5 percent, but corporations continue to ship jobs overseas. The level of acrimony showed itself Monday in Lexington, Ky., when a group of men supporting Republican […]
The New York Times should be embarrassed. This morning, the paper of record published an outrageous hit-piece on Raj Date, one of the most effective consumer advocates in the nation. The article completely misconstrues Date’s work on financial reform, ignores his years of work pushing for stronger consumer protection, and falsely portrays Date as some […]
It’s been pretty well-documented that the ultimate fate of Wall Street reform will depend on a series of highly technical proceedings at federal regulatory agencies. If regulators adopt tough new rules, the financial overhaul could succeed well beyond the expectations of optimistic reformers. But there is a very real danger that banks will be able […]
Tea Party members hate Wall Street bailouts, trade deals like NAFTA, job outsourcing, giant corporations buying laws, government spending, and elites telling the rest of us what to do. But there is no question that their candidates – many of them wealthy corporatists themselves – are funded by big corporations (even foreign oil companies) and […]
GOP candidates are making a point of running against “bailouts” this year. Yet even as they rail about rescuing big banks, they’re working on a plan that would slip those same banks an estimated $90 billion in taxpayer money … and that’s just in the first ten years. “Fiscal conservatism,” anyone? It was always hypocritical […]