Tax reform gets a hearing in Western Mass.

The above is about a forum recently held in Western Mass concerning the budget and options to increase revenue.  I think many people have gotten up to date on the “Act to Invest in our Communities” which is basically a weaker version of the tax fairness proposals Nat, Jill, Scott, Rick, Mark, and the GRP promoted and argued for during the 2010 elections and before.  More on the legislation here.

There are a few points I want to make in regard to the strategy outlined in that article, and I know other have made these points before and perhaps more strongly.

As a student of politics I have given some attention and study to significance of “partisan-ness” and the role and function of political parties.  

I’ve written some specific musings here touching on the subject of political parties and social movements, but with the aftermath of 2010 elections and the GRP convention I have new impetus to elaborate on the concept of political parties in general and their history.  

In this post I want to explore some of the history of political parties in modern democracies, their function, purpose, means of existence, and how they relate to social and political change. My task is more descriptive than prescriptive, and I want to cover this topic broadly while maintaining relative brevity. Of course my biases and prejudices will show.  And I’ll miss the caveats, details, key examples, and the satisfactions of an analysis with multiple perspectives. If I had to boil the focus down to anything its the unique nature of political parties in the United States, and how this differs from other advanced democracies.  But where I overgeneralize or fail entirely please tell me.

Historical understanding is rare, and a grasp of political and social history rarer. I hope that this post will provide some insight into some of the background that informs my politics as well as open folks up to considering present political questions in the light of this history.

Properly speaking, factions and groupings of people organized to gain and keep political power have existed as long as humanity.  The political party as a modern institution can be traced to the maturation of the nation state and the beginnings of liberal democracy, first in the 1600s in England and later in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the US and France.

Republicans and Democrats have a some competition this year in gubernatorial races.  Not always in terms of policy ideas as I will make clear, but certainly in terms of alternative candidates.

From a quick count: 21 Libertarians, 13 Greens, 1 Peace and Freedom, 1 Moderate Party, 1 American Constitution, and 5 or so Independents (those are Independents included in polling).

I’ve looked through a few of these candidates’ websites in order to analyze some of the messaging and policy ideas these campaigns are producing.  I will leave Massachusetts be for now, as this is mainly about uncovering new information.  And to keep things digestible, I am specifically looking at Rhode Island, Maine, Illinois, and Florida.

I didn’t look through the Libertarians’ websites, I have some crude guesses and bad jokes to share, I’ll let someone else search for the good idea needle in the haystack (j/k, there are plenty of points of agreement between Libertarians and Greens).

First Rhode Island, because its so damn close.

Very few people exercise power in our society.  Its exercised by those with wealth, with prestige, with titles, with access to administrative and bureaucratic levers.  The semblance of democracy, each person having equal voice and votes, is made naught by the hierarchies entrenched in all other spheres of social and political life.

The rights, freedoms, and powers everyday people have today involved a history of collective confrontation, conflict, and struggle.  And just to say it, Massachusetts people and places have had great prominence in this country’s movements for independence, abolitionism, woman’s suffrage, civil reform, worker’s rights, environmentalism, and many more.

In the midst of this awful recession, its time for people to start exercising their power.  And when people unite for a common and just purpose, its difficult for them to fail.  I think the fist above can be seen to represent vibrant and diverse struggles for justice, democracy, and freedom, grounded in an understanding of ecology and the wider natural world our society inhabits.  A Green-Rainbow.

More below…

I want to respond to a few comments made by folks in the labor movement who do not agree with the position on casinos that has been disseminated in a recent petition that I have helped bring to people’s attention.  I will say at the outset that I am not the sole author of the petition and that the wording and choices were a collaborate effort.

A great American has passed.  A man who sought to tell America’s real history has now become a part of it.  

http://www.boston.com/news/loc…

While he had been retired for many years before I arrived, he was still a presence at Boston University.  My first year he gave a speech at the Morse Auditorium about the war, the Democrats, and the need for a movement.  During the question period I asked him what we could do in our schools, communities, workplaces, and places of worship to democratize our society.  He responded by talking about the anti-nuclear movement and its decentralized and vital character, how it was victorious without being commanded from above.

I hope that people read his work and contemplate his life, and are inspired to renew the struggles for justice.

VOTE for Jill Stein

The Fox affiliate in Springfield, Mass has taken notice of Jill’s entrance into the gubernatorial race.  Scroll down about half way to the middle of the page for it.

Here’s to the beginning of likely a wave of online polls where you can practice voting your values.

By now you have probably heard about the recent Supreme Court ruling that frees corporations to spend unlimited amounts on independent efforts to support political candidates.

An already tattered and ineffective campaign finance system just got worse.  People with any sense of the problem corporations pose to the existence of a basic democratic order are outraged.

Two efforts to amend the Constitution to limit corporate “rights” have already popped up, Free Speech for People and Move to Amend.  Both are extremely crucial starting points, but is it enough?