This Is What A Progressive Looks Like

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 Second Congressional District in California.
 

Solomon is one of a handful of Democrats who unequivocally supports Occupy Wall Street, stating, "We need democracy, not “corporatocracy.”

In a recent article, he made clear that his campaign is "very much in sync" with the Occupy movement.  The issues that have been at the core of his campaign and that he has emphasized for years "are part of the OWS focus - Wall Street's undemocratic power, the widening disparities between the rich and the rest of us, the need to eject corporate money from politics."

Solomon has just released his "Economic Agenda for Main Street" which pretty much mirrors a wish list for progressives:  (1) create new green jobs; (2) invest in our workers and communities;  (3)  stand up for workers, not Wall Street; (4) protect Social Security and Medicare; and (5) quality health care for all.

Here are the details:

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

We Need Both: Angry Protesters and Progressive Candidates

I have previously argued that we must elect more progressives to Congress, people like Elizabeth Warren and Norman Solomon.  Of course, as David Atkins argues, this is a necessary but not sufficient condition "for creating real change in this country."

In order for change to take place, good Democrats do need to be in power. But only an angry and motivated populace angry with both Parties and strongly intent on holding Democrats accountable will scare and motivate Democrats enough to do what they were elected to do.

Occupy Wall Street seems to have galvanized that anger.  Protests are catching on all over the country.  Not surprisingly, attention is paid to some of the outliers (like the guy who wants Andrew Jackson removed from the $20 bill) and the burgeoning movement has been criticized for failing to articulate concrete goals.

But as Betsy Reed wrote in The Nation:

[S]ometimes, you also need a spark. “Occupy Wall Street,” as an idea and an action, is a stroke of brilliance. It’s not poll-tested or focus-grouped, but it expresses perfectly the outrage that is the appropriate response to the maddening political situation we find ourselves in today. It succeeds as symbolic politics: taking back the square is just what we need to do.

And when protesters do provide a clear and coherent message, like Jesse LaGreca does below, it ends up on the cutting room floor because it doesn't fit the media narrative (especially the Fox News narrative).



Chris Bowers has started a resource page for information about Occupy solidarity events around the country.   And Act Blue (click the badge on the right side of this blog) is the place to go to support progressive candidates for Congress.

Solomon's Principled Stand On Campaign Finance

As Democrats begin to panic over President Obama's re-election prospects, it is important that we don't limit ourselves to ensuring the Republicans don't capture the presidency.  What has become clear since 2008, is that we need to elect more progressives in Congress no matter who is president.  And 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, paraphrasing Paul Wellstone's famous comment about representing the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, says that he will represent the progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus.  Please share this post widely.  Click on the Solomon tag below to read more about Norman's campaign, and click here to join or contribute as long as you are not a corporate PAC.

Solomon Will Not Accept Corporate PAC Money

Originally published at solomonforcongress.com

Congressional candidate Norman Solomon announced today (Sept. 6) that he will not accept any corporate PAC money in his campaign for the open seat in California's new North Coast district, which extends from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.

Solomon, a progressive Democrat who is campaigning this week in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, said that lofty rhetoric about the need for campaign finance reform must be matched by action. "Huge corporations seeking to fatten their profit margins are using Political Action Committees to pressure and sway members of Congress," he said. "I don't want their money. I want to be accountable to voters, not Wall Street."

Taking the unusual step of pledging not to accept a single campaign contribution from a corporate PAC, Solomon declared: "We're not supposed to have government of, by and for the large corporations -- or Wall Street. Many of the biggest companies are posting record profits while many millions of Americans are out of work. Home foreclosures are sky-high, schools are losing teachers, retirement security is in jeopardy. This is completely unacceptable."

Solomon, who was elected as an Obama delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, is an outspoken foe of what he calls "undue deference to Wall Street" in Washington.
"Political rhetoric about 'shared sacrifice' rings hollow when the vast majority of us are being sacrificed to the financial benefit of big banks and large corporations," Solomon said. He charged that "Congress has acted in the financial interests of the rich instead of the public."

Solomon said that his campaign for Congress in the new coastal district is leading the race in several key ways -- including "the most volunteers, the first door-to-door canvassing, the most house parties and the largest number of individual contributors." He added: "We don't rely on big donors. Our campaign's momentum is propelled by wide and deep grassroots support."

How It's Supposed To Be Done

"Compromise is one thing, but capitulation is another — especially when core principles of decency and fairness are at stake."   Norman Solomon

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, paraphrasing Paul Wellstone's famous comment about representing the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, says that he will represent the progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus.

In a previous piece, Solomon talked convincingly about "building coalitions to fight for a wide-ranging progressive agenda — including guaranteed health care, full employment, workers' rights, green sustainability, full funding for public education, fundamental changes in federal spending priorities, and an end to perennial war."

In his new article about the economy, below, Solomon provides a refreshingly stark contrast to the "bipartisan dealmakers in Washington [who] are slashing the safety net that's essential for vast numbers of Americans."  He explains ways to reduce the deficit without gutting social programs or undermining Medicare and Social Security, while rightly arguing that the top priority in Washington must be job creation.  But, as Solomon says, this "won't happen by continuing to give tax cuts to the wealthy while imposing benefit cuts on the rest of us." 

Here is yet another demonstration of what a powerful, progressive voice he would bring to Washington; a voice that is so badly needed.  (Click on the Fair and Unbalanced "Solomon" tag for more evidence.)  Please share this and his other posts widely, and click here to join, contribute to, or learn more about Norman Solomon's campaign.
-- Lovechilde

Democrats Must Push Back

By Norman Solomon, originally published as an op-ed in the Marin Independent Journal

The negative trends  in the Nation's Capital are mostly due to extreme GOP ideologues in Congress. But they've been enabled by too many Democrats who keep giving ground while Republican leaders refuse to give an inch.

And, Uh, What About FISCAL Stimulus?

By Norman Solomon, originally published at Daily Kos, July 13, 2011.

Norman Solomon will represent the
progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus

I'm glad that Ben Bernanke said today that the Federal Reserve may take some stimulus measures. Late, but at least he's talking about it.

Along Pennsylvania Avenue, though, the silence is disconcerting -- while unemployment festers, worsening and doing daily damage to lives across the country.

Writing as a candidate in a San Francisco Bay Guardian piece last week, I emphasized that the power of Wall Street to limit legislative possibilities must be challenged.

As a member of Congress, I want to work on building coalitions to fight for a wide-ranging progressive agenda — including guaranteed health care, full employment, workers' rights, green sustainability, full funding for public education, fundamental changes in federal spending priorities, and an end to perennial war.

The business of legislators should not be business -- it should be democratic representation of the public interest. And that has to include taking seriously the quest for full employment. To accept vast numbers of jobless people is to accept the unacceptable.

[Norman Solomon is running for Congress in Marin-Sonoma County, California.  He has agreed to let Fair and Unbalanced cross-post his writings which, as you can see, demonstrate what a powerful, progressive voice he would bring to Washington; a voice that is so badly needed.  Please share these posts widely, and click here to contribute to his campaign]

Politics As The Art Of The Imperative

Norman Solomon

I recently wrote about channeling our frustration with the President and the Democrats into supporting progressive organizations like Rebuild the Dream and ensuring the election of more progressives to Congress. 

You won't find a better progressive candidate than Norman Solomon who is running for the Marin-Sonoma County seat vacated by another true progressive, Lynn Woolsey.  Solomon, paraphrasing Paul Wellstone's famous comment about representing the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, says that he will represent the progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus.

In a recent article in the Bay Guardian, Solomon contrasts his grassroots campaign with the Astroturf campaign being run by his corporate-funded Democrat opponents.

What Solomon has in mind is "building coalitions to fight for a wide-ranging progressive agenda — including guaranteed health care, full employment, workers' rights, green sustainability, full funding for public education, fundamental changes in federal spending priorities, and an end to perennial war."

Once elected he will "insist that we need to bring our troops and tax dollars home — and that caving in to Wall Street and polluters and enemies of civil liberties is unacceptable."  As he has previously written, Solomon believes that California's two nuclear power plants should be shut down and he will "fight for serious public investment in renewable energy, conservation, and a nuclear-free future."

Solomon argues that "the narrow definition of politics as 'the art of the possible' has led to disaster. What we need is the art of the imperative."

Already, more than 750 people have made donations to Solomon's campaign (which topped $100,000 weeks ago), and nearly 300 have signed up as volunteers. Please join at www.SolomonForCongress.com.

[Related posts: Shutting Down California's Nukes; The Search For War]

The Search For War

By Norman Solomon, originally published at Huffington Post, May 26, 2011.

[Norman Solomon has been a true progressive voice on politics and the media.  He has written books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2005), and for many years penned a nationally syndicated "Media Beat" column. He has also been a North Bay political activist, most recently as a leader of the region’s Green New Deal commission and the national Healthcare Not Warfare campaign.  Now he is running for Rep. Lynn Woolsey's Marin-Sonoma County seat in Congress.  Solomon, paraphrasing Paul Wellstone's famous comment about representing the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, says that he will represent the progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus.  He has already been endorsed by Blue America, and you can donate to his campaign by clicking the Blue America badge on the right panel of this blog.  You can also learn more about Norman and his campaign here.]

In times of war, U.S. presidents have often talked about yearning for peace. But the last decade has brought a gradual shift in the rhetorical zeitgeist while a tacit assumption has taken hold -- war must go on, one way or another.

"I am continuing and I am increasing the search for every possible path to peace," Lyndon Johnson said while escalating the Vietnam War. In early 1991, the first President Bush offered the public this convolution: "Even as planes of the multinational forces attack Iraq, I prefer to think of peace, not war." More than a decade later, George W. Bush told a joint session of Congress: "We seek peace. We strive for peace."

While absurdly hypocritical, such claims mouthed the idea that the USA need not be at war 24/7/365.

But these days, peace gets less oratorical juice. In this era, after all, the amorphous foe known as "terror" will never surrender.

There's an intractable enemy for you; beatable but never quite defeatable. Terrorists are bound to keep popping up somewhere.

A permanent war psychology has dug a groove alongside the permanent war economy. And so, we hear appreciably less about Washington's ostensible quest for peace.

Shutting Down California Nukes

Norman Solomon has been a true progressive voice on politics and the media.  He has written books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2005), and for many years penned a nationally syndicated "Media Beat" column. He has also been a North Bay political activist, most recently as a leader of the region’s Green New Deal commission and the national Healthcare Not Warfare campaign.  Now he is running for Rep. Lynn Woolsey's Marin-Sonoma County seat in Congress.  Solomon, paraphrasing Paul Wellstone's famous comment about representing the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, says that he will represent the progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus.  He has already been endorsed by Blue America, and you can donate to his campaign by clicking the Blue America badge on the right panel of the blog.  You can also learn more about Norman and his campaign here.  Below is his latest article on the importance of closing nuclear power plants in California, which he has allowed me to cross-post here.  As Howie Klein points out, this piece will not endear him to the utility companies that are funding the so-called liberals running against him for the nomination.

It's Time To Close California's Nuclear Power Plants

by Norman Solomon, originally published on Huffington Post, April 28, 2011 

The facts all point to this "inconvenient truth" -- the time has come to shut down California's two nuclear power plants as part of a swift transition to an energy policy focused on clean and green renewable sources and conservation.

The Diablo Canyon plant near San Luis Obispo and the San Onofre plant on the southern California coast are vulnerable to meltdowns from earthquakes and threaten both residents and the environment.

Reactor safety is just one of the concerns. Each nuclear power plant creates radioactive waste that will remain deadly for thousands of years. This is not the kind of legacy that we should leave for future generations.