We are never going to get the so called "establishment"

[WCGreen]

out of national politics as long as the candidates have to rely on that same establishment for funding of their campaigns...

In order to be competitive with the GOP, the Washington Dem's feel they have to adopt some of the "centrist" positions that the right has taken in order not to "offend" the people who have money in this country...

Now think about it...

What most of us would embrace a progressive agenda... At least that is the impression I get from having been around this place for the past 4 or so years... A progressive agenda; national health care, a fair or "living" wage, a little bit of protection to help our manufacturing base maintain at least a competitive floor with foreign imports, workers safety, an environmental program that will ease our country off the teat of foreign oil, a system of national service, a more progressive and less competitive tax system, a shoring up of the Social Security System and other programs that help the middle and lower classes, is not in the interests of the people funding campaigns in either party....

Until we remove the moneyed interests in this country from the political process, we will never have anything approaching the country that we stand for...

It is just not going to happen...

So what do we do....

We get a majority in Congress and from day one tell our democratic representatives that they had better do something about the things we care about... And remind them that we voted them in, we can vote them out... Remind them that it is the people who live in the country beyond the beltway that they should be paying attention to and not the corporate interests that dictate more and more what the political agenda will be during any given election cycle... For starters, we have to push them to do more about putting some kind of real public control over the media in this country....

Add your ideas below...

We are probably going to win come November 7th... Let's not get complacent just because we take one or both houses of congress... Let's make sure that our party listens to us... Tell them we are not like the Christian Conservatives who can be bought off with symbolic actions such as the gay marriage statewide referendums ...

Tell them on November 8th that they won an election... Now do your job and take back our country for us...

[Stinky The Clown]

1. I agree completely

We need two simple things. The details of accomplishing them are surely NOT so simple, but the concepts are:

1) Safe, secure, verifiable voting systems (probably pen and paper, but I'll listen to other ideas).

2) Totally and completely 100% public campaign funding. Take a penny - go to jail. Give a penny - go to jail. We can work out all the free speech stuff. Where there's a will, there's a way. This would also outlaw any outside organization ads for or against a candidate. Keep it pure and simple - the candidates and the voters. PERIOD.

[Union Thug]

5. 100% Public Funding.. SPOT ON! n/t

[WCGreen]

7. We should work toward that...

Right away...

[Phrogman]

9. We should DEMAND that right away!

eom

[philly_bob]

11. Public funding -- and from corporate taxes, not payroll taxes /nt

[WCGreen]

13. Payroll Taxes should be more seperate than they are now

and fund only Social Security....

[Nite Owl]

2. If we win on Nov. 7th

it's just the beginning. It's a new day, a blank slate, whatever it can be called but it won't be different unless fundamental changes are made. That won't be done without leadership and leadership needs followship. The dems have to stick togehter and the leaders have to keep all the dems on board or all the people who voted for them will see nothing but the same old same old with a different name. I'm not expecting to see all kinds of new laws or even a lot of changes in the ones that have been passed that we detest because * will discover that veto pen faster than he can say not guilty. I do expect changes in monied interests writing laws and lots of investigations to expose what has been done and to hold them accountable. I want them to say no to another Alito or Roberts if a Supreme Court opening comes up. I want to see them pass laws even if they don't get signed. I want them to work for us and if it doesn't work for us to say no. By no means will our work be done after this election but we do have a chance if we don't let them become complacent.

[lvx35]

3. The thing is that the moneyed interests have a lot of power

that doesn't come from K-street, or any particular law enabling them. If rich people want to make good on a threat, they can pull a lot of strings to do it. So I think we have to make small steps here, one thing at a time. I think there are a lot of decent companies out there that recognize corruption isn't good for them, we should not stand between them and the Dems...But we should be patient and persistent in demanding progress be made.

[WCGreen]

6. Patient but persistant and vigilant....

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. K&R

:applause: :applause:

[frebrd]

8. K&R nm

[cleveramerican]

10. move forward not backward

don't waste a second on hearings into the shenanigans of this congress.

Pick two or three priorities and go after them hard. Go right to the public with a sensible solutions to a long-standing problems. Get the public on board and the congress will follow.Build momentum slowly.



the temptation is strong to try to do too much, don't fall into that trap.

[WCGreen]

12. I agree....

They will have to come oput shooting to capture the agenda from Bush...