Norman Solomon Is The Real Deal

As I have previously written, you won't find a better progressive candidate for Congress than Norman Solomon, who is running for a seat from the newly drawn North Coast, California district.

Solomon unequivocally supports the Occupy Wall Street movement, and says, "We need democracy, not “corporatocracy.”

In a recent article published in the Marin Independent Journal, Solomon finds it "appalling that the national government continues to dodge the dire need for massive federal jobs programs."  As a candidate for Congress, he is "committed to the goal of full employment" and is "determined to fight for it."

Trickle-down job creation is a failure. Many of the nation's largest corporations keep sitting on vast quantities of cash — with Wall Street's giants often posting record profits — while failing to hire Americans who are desperate for work.  The idea that big business needs even bigger tax breaks to get the country working again is grimly laughable.

Solomon suggests that to "see clear, beyond the current morass," we should look to the Great Depression, when "the federal government was ready,willing and able to take responsibility."

The New Deal — made possible by strong social movements, a willing Congress and a visionary in President Franklin D. Roosevelt — swept aside the nonsense of rigid ideologies. When business couldn't put the country back to work, the government

Once again, as Solomon says, "our country is crying out for such rededication of public resources for the common good," with a virtually endless list of of "unrealized potential," including "potholes, roads and bridges in need of repair; distressed lands, marshes, rivers and shores in need of eco-restoration; public schools in need of retrofitting, classroom supplies and more teachers; millions of roofs awaiting solar panels."

We need, in short, a new New Deal — creating many millions of good jobs while implementing what we've learned about the imperatives of green sustainability.
Most Americans grew to love the New Deal. Why? Because it worked. And it put the country back to work.
Then, as now, the deficit hawks circled, squawked and demanded that such "big government" spending be slashed. When they succeeded midway through the 1930s, the country went into a double-dip depression.
Today's deficit hawks are dragging our country away from the imperative of robust federal spending to create a wide range of good green jobs for Americans. Now, while Wall Street prospers, Main Street suffers —and so do countless American families, reeling from the grim effects of chronic unemployment.

That is why, as Solomon says, "we need a new New Deal."  And that is why we need progressives like Norman Solomon in Congress.

I wrote in a prior post that Solomon refuses to take corporate PAC money.  Still, due to the strength of his progressive, grassroots efforts, his campaign surpassed $220,000 in fundraising last month.  As Solomon puts it, however, "especially because we've ruled out donations from corporate fat cats and plutocrats, our need for grassroots fundraising is continuous."  As long as you're not a corporate PAC, you can make a donation by clicking here.