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Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
Sat May 23, 2015, 12:27 PM May 2015

An amplification of Bernie's 12 Steps from his website

This discussion thread is pinned.

1. Rebuilding Our Crumbling Infrastructure
We need a major investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools. It has been estimated that the cost of the Bush-Cheney Iraq War, a war we should never have waged, will total $3 trillion by the time the last veteran receives needed care. A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could create 13 million decent paying jobs and make this country more efficient and productive. We need to invest in infrastructure, not more war.

2. Reversing Climate Change
The United States must lead the world in reversing climate change and make certain that this planet is habitable for our children and grandchildren. We must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies. Millions of homes and buildings need to be weatherized, our transportation system needs to be energy efficient and we need to greatly accelerate the progress we are already seeing in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other forms of sustainable energy. Transforming our energy system will not only protect the environment, it will create good paying jobs.

3. Creating Worker Co-ops
We need to develop new economic models to increase job creation and productivity. Instead of giving huge tax breaks to corporations which ship our jobs to China and other low-wage countries, we need to provide assistance to workers who want to purchase their own businesses by establishing worker-owned cooperatives. Study after study shows that when workers have an ownership stake in the businesses they work for, productivity goes up, absenteeism goes down and employees are much more satisfied with their jobs.

4. Growing the Trade Union Movement
Union workers who are able to collectively bargain for higher wages and benefits earn substantially more than non-union workers. Today, corporate opposition to union organizing makes it extremely difficult for workers to join a union. We need legislation which makes it clear that when a majority of workers sign cards in support of a union, they can form a union.

5. Raising the Minimum Wage
The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. No one in this country who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty.
6. Pay Equity for Women Workers
Women workers today earn 78 percent of what their male counterparts make. We need pay equity in our country — equal pay for equal work.

7. Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers
Since 2001 we have lost more than 60,000 factories in this country, and more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs. We must end our disastrous trade policies (NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, etc.) which enable corporate America to shut down plants in this country and move to China and other low-wage countries. We need to end the race to the bottom and develop trade policies which demand that American corporations create jobs here, and not abroad.

8. Making College Affordable for All
In today's highly competitive global economy, millions of Americans are unable to afford the higher education they need in order to get good-paying jobs. Further, with both parents now often at work, most working-class families can't locate the high-quality and affordable child care they need for their kids. Quality education in America, from child care to higher education, must be affordable for all. Without a high-quality and affordable educational system, we will be unable to compete globally and our standard of living will continue to decline.

9. Taking on Wall Street
The function of banking is to facilitate the flow of capital into productive and job-creating activities. Financial institutions cannot be an island unto themselves, standing as huge profit centers outside of the real economy. Today, six huge Wall Street financial institutions have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product - over $9.8 trillion. These institutions underwrite more than half the mortgages in this country and more than two-thirds of the credit cards. The greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of major Wall Street firms plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. They are too powerful to be reformed. They must be broken up.

10. Health Care as a Right for All
The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and recognize that health care is a right of all, and not a privilege. Despite the fact that more than 40 million Americans have no health insurance, we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation. We need to establish a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.

11. Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans
Millions of seniors live in poverty and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country. We must strengthen the social safety net, not weaken it. Instead of cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs, we should be expanding these programs.

12. Real Tax Reform
At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, we need a progressive tax system in this country which is based on ability to pay. It is not acceptable that major profitable corporations have paid nothing in federal income taxes, and that corporate CEOs in this country often enjoy an effective tax rate which is lower than their secretaries. It is absurd that we lose over $100 billion a year in revenue because corporations and the wealthy stash their cash in offshore tax havens around the world. The time is long overdue for real tax reform.

35 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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An amplification of Bernie's 12 Steps from his website (Original Post) Jackpine Radical May 2015 OP
Go Bernie Go - Our Next US President cantbeserious May 2015 #1
I've been waiting my whole life for this 99th_Monkey May 2015 #2
I've waited my whole life for this too, and I won't settle for less. Autumn May 2015 #4
+1 daleanime May 2015 #6
Me too Rosa Luxemburg Jun 2015 #30
K&R! marym625 May 2015 #3
K&R..... daleanime May 2015 #5
Stole it. Half-Century Man May 2015 #7
That's what it's here for. (nt) Jackpine Radical May 2015 #8
Because they won't cover him : We must be the MSM now. Half-Century Man May 2015 #9
That's why this stuff is important. Jackpine Radical May 2015 #13
K&R abelenkpe May 2015 #10
can we get Bernie to pry Wall Street off K-12 public education before they kill it? yurbud May 2015 #11
Great list. It reads like: Populist_Prole May 2015 #12
Bernie for President! Really! Enthusiast May 2015 #14
K and effing R Scuba May 2015 #15
He needs to keep the Climate way in the forefront. glinda May 2015 #16
It all seems so common sense... SoapBox May 2015 #17
I would change around the order of those 12 points, add these 11 quotes merrily May 2015 #18
Each one should be made into an OP ALL IN CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!! nt Bonobo Jun 2015 #19
Yes, but it ought to be a Facebook post or something-- Jackpine Radical Jun 2015 #20
I meant in GD like a certain spate of 10 spam-ish threads ON HILLARY!!! nt Bonobo Jun 2015 #21
Sure, no reason not to plaster GD with a few of them, and it doesn't take much effort Jackpine Radical Jun 2015 #22
#9 How? Do we raise money, buy the property away from them? They hold jtuck004 Jun 2015 #23
Thank you for your contentious contribution Jackpine Radical Jun 2015 #24
What a sad little answer. i really was just asking a question to see what jtuck004 Jun 2015 #25
This thread is not for debating the points in the OP. Jackpine Radical Jun 2015 #26
There won't be a next time. I'll vote for Bernie. You, well, <G> n/t jtuck004 Jun 2015 #27
Post removed Post removed Jun 2015 #28
I assume he's talking about Admiral Loinpresser Jun 2015 #31
You could distribute Rosa Luxemburg Jun 2015 #29
K & R and RIP L0oniX Jun 2015 #32
. Wilms Sep 2015 #33
K&R smirkymonkey Oct 2015 #34
Posting the link to, We, the citizens, have to change the game. Autumn Nov 2015 #35
 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
2. I've been waiting my whole life for this
Sat May 23, 2015, 01:01 PM
May 2015

being able to support a candidate for POTUS who is promoting worker-owned businesses.

I studied worker-ownership in grad school in the 80s, and have always been mystified
as to why there aren't more worker-owned businesses in the USA. Worker ownership
effectively anchors both jobs and capital into the local economy, and plows most profits
back into the local economy as well. It's a win/win/win for local communities.

Half-Century Man

(5,279 posts)
7. Stole it.
Sat May 23, 2015, 02:44 PM
May 2015

I will copy to my notes in phone, so I have a quick reference guide when "Speaking Sanders" to the masses.

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
13. That's why this stuff is important.
Sat May 23, 2015, 04:33 PM
May 2015

We build our own grassroots organizations, train everyone we can on Bernie's positions, maybe develop a standard response book for common objections or questions concerning each of the points as necessary (e.g. "If we increase min. wage, won't people lose jobs?), & get that stuff around among the untold thousands who are pouring in to volunteer. We can build a solid and informed base very quickly & get this thing snowballing through social media, etc.

For those who Facebook, why not start posting Bernie's steps, etc?

Populist_Prole

(5,364 posts)
12. Great list. It reads like:
Sat May 23, 2015, 03:34 PM
May 2015

To republicans/conservatives/neocons/teabaggers: A manifesto that would make them vacillate between shitting a brick or having a heart attack

To team player DLC types/Third-Wayers/Centrists: A list too far reaching and unsettling to the PTB, which would make the list's author "unelectable"

To us hoi-polloi: The first time we can get fired up and get behind a something other than a "not quite as bad as the republicans" candidate to run this country.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
18. I would change around the order of those 12 points, add these 11 quotes
Wed May 27, 2015, 05:54 AM
May 2015

and call it a campaign pamphlet that I would be proud to pass out in Boston, even to Boston's Republicans.

http://mic.com/articles/117510/11-powerful-quotes-from-bernie-sanders-show-why-he-s-a-progressive-icon

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
20. Yes, but it ought to be a Facebook post or something--
Wed Jun 3, 2015, 10:49 AM
Jun 2015

No point in endlessly recirculating the playlist among the choir.

See my thread on receptive priming for further amplification. Each point ought to be the subject of its own little e-poster with attention-getting graphics.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/128011228

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
22. Sure, no reason not to plaster GD with a few of them, and it doesn't take much effort
Wed Jun 3, 2015, 11:40 AM
Jun 2015

to do that once we have the graphics, but I don't think it will accomplish much toward getting Bernie elected.

I spend a lot of time--too much--in GD myelf, doing things like this.

But wouldn't we be better off if we could just put more effort into sensitizing the social networks to Bernie's issues?

 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
23. #9 How? Do we raise money, buy the property away from them? They hold
Thu Jun 4, 2015, 09:05 PM
Jun 2015

title to a significant part of the ground we walk on.

Are we going to take it? Pull a Venezuela?

I want to know how...

 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
25. What a sad little answer. i really was just asking a question to see what
Thu Jun 4, 2015, 09:21 PM
Jun 2015

thought had been put to it.

Don't waste your time with me any longer. Got it?

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
26. This thread is not for debating the points in the OP.
Thu Jun 4, 2015, 09:37 PM
Jun 2015

Here's the fucking link to Bernie's bill:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/tbtfleg?inline=file

Next time try Google instead of intruding in inappropriate places.

Response to Jackpine Radical (Reply #26)

Admiral Loinpresser

(3,859 posts)
31. I assume he's talking about
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 09:51 PM
Jun 2015

breaking up big banks by straight-forward antitrust litigation filed by the Department of Justice. The same way AT & T was broken up in the 1980s. The precedents for it are there and it seems quite doable.

Rosa Luxemburg

(28,627 posts)
29. You could distribute
Sat Jun 6, 2015, 01:36 PM
Jun 2015

If you sent this list to the people in the Republican neighborhood near here most of them would agree with every one of these points.

Autumn

(44,762 posts)
35. Posting the link to, We, the citizens, have to change the game.
Sun Nov 8, 2015, 12:47 PM
Nov 2015
One thing the Establishment (does that word date me? ) hasn't had to deal with in recent years is a mobilized and energized public.
In fact, I would argue that they have done their best to disengage us from activism.

Absent citizen involvement and action, a candidacy like Bernie's will go nowhere, and if that citizen participation wavers after the election, everything reverts to "normal." Unfortunately, "normal" is an ecological, cultural and physical death trip.

Can we make things go differently this time? I don't know. But I know I have to do my little part to help, and the people I know who are into Bernie are into him in a big way, seeming ready to put some major effort into it.

There's too much riding on the outcome this time to do less.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/128012413

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