If We Are Ever Going To Win, This Win-Win Deal Must Be Done

Since corporate rule will be with us for another 4 years, let me try one last time to tell whoever might be listening exactly what needs to be done to bring down the beast.

First, well meaning progressives and libertarians need to purge the thought that just because they are right on so many important issues does not mean that America will one day wake up and see the light. Libertarians  and progressives, as disgusted as we may be with one another, have to form a temporary alliance of at least 4 years and maybe as much as 8 to make sure the two headed corporate beast is dead and unable to rise again. After that job is done then we can beat the hell out of one another if that is what we feel like doing.

This alliance has not and will not come together based on current commonalities on important issues like non-interventionism in foreign policy,  civil liberties, corporate welfare, military spending. As significant as these issues are, this intersection of interests has been around for the last hundred years and not once have we formed any alliance beyond a few votes in congress.

Why the persistent divide? Obviously, it's economic issues. We progressives think that in these economic circumstances what we need is increased spending on domestic programs, especially, education, green energy and infrastructure, universal single payer health care, basic research and development. Pay for this by raising taxes on the wealthy and making massive cuts in unnecessary and counterproductive spending on the military industrial catastrophe and its numerous corporate cousins.

Libertarians on the other hand want massive reductions in military, foreign and domestic budgets along with gutting of most regulations in all sectors of the economy all to pay for massive tax reductions for all Americans, especially those who are most productive, the rich.

We could yell and scream at each other for how stupid the other is and let the beast continue to run wild. We could each sit back and say to ourselves, truth is on our side and truth will prevail while corporate media continues to lie, lie, lie. We could smugly plant our proud posteriors in pedantic think tanks while the powers that be laugh all the way to the banks they already own. We could even make another blog to shout into the wind.

We could do all this and more and let the earth go to hell for not finally seeing the light which is in us, to us and through us.

Or we could take a different tact.

We could come to grips with political reality that we are, as always, politically marginalized. We do not have the numbers separately to take down this beast. The beast will only be taken down by a coalition and while we would love to convert those cultural conservatives, it ain't happening. We have to either stand together or die separately. There is a massive military stimulus on the way and it will put desperate Americans back to work, making both of us irrelevant unless we face this political reality by joining forces in an uncomfortable coalition.

But that coalition gets formed only when we can make our way to a creative compromise on economic issues. (For those who are so damned ethical that you could never compromise without compromising principles, see my post on the difference between principles and ideals.)

Here's the way to make the economic compromise that moves both agendas forward simultaneously while decapitating both beastly heads of America Inc.:

First, acknowledge neither of us can get all we want for Christmas but we could get a few very important things we need. We can get significant cuts in the amount of taxes the vast majority of Americans are currently paying while cutting the size, power and budget of the federal government. We can also get a massive investment by the public sector to build the peaceful green economy of high speed rail, wind, solar, geothermal and other clean and renewable energies, etc. We can put tens of millions of people back to work rebuilding America's roads, bridges, tunnels, levies, ports, canals, runways, power grid, schools, etc.

How? How can we reduce overall federal spending and taxes for most people while creating massive public sector investment in jobs building a new peaceful green economy? First the budget cuts: 500 to 700 billion in cuts from overseas military spending and foreign aid (yes most progressives understand  that much foreign aid is spent propping up dictators and murderous thugs), military contracts on weapons systems we dare not ever use, ridiculous homeland insecurity projects, endless and stupid drug wars, corporate welfare, etc.

Then we can knock another 100-200 billion off of domestic budgets for needless bureaucracies by consolidating major departments and putting these more powerful but less funded departments into the hands of some real progressives. For example, let's make Robert Kennedy Jr. the head of the new department of Energy and Natural Resources which combines the EPA, Interior, Energy, Agriculture and Transportation into one department. We might even be able to work out a deal with state and local governments and private businesses to sell off the Interstate Highway System and use the funds to build a truly high speed interstate rail system.

So far we have 600 to 900 billion in cuts. Next let's look at revenue. Let's really reform the tax code and significantly reduce the tax burden on at least 90% of the population while raising the tax burden on less than 3% of the population. Here are two big ideas, one my own, on how we reduce the IRS to a small number of auditors working for Treasury. We start with 3 income tax brackets of 10, 20 and 30 percent with greatly increased standard deductions, basic exemptions and child tax credits. We add to those brackets an annual consumption tax of 10% on spending above a million dollars.

Gradually we shift to a steeply progressive consumption tax with a significantly high exemption on spending (enough to cover all necessary spending on the basics and satisfy all the voluntarists among the Randians). In addition we legalize prostitution, pot and several other social vices and impose a serious sin tax on them. We also increase taxes on imports from lands where the government oppresses its people and destroys the environment. In other words, we normalize relations with Iran and Cuba and tax them the way we ought to tax the Chinese. We permanently reduce payroll taxes by  raising or eliminating the cap and slowly over a long time period raising the retirement age.

We could go on about several ways to reform how, what, who and how much we tax. The point is we could unburden Americans of great tax burdens while significantly raising revenues if we just get out of our very tight boxes long enough to think creatively. In doing so we could raise 100-300 billion in annual revenues.

That's a total of 700-1200 billion a year in savings and revenue increases without taking into account what we do with this savings which serves to grow the economy and multiply revenue gains.

Second, we take these revenues and savings and we split them in half. Use one half to pay down debt (that is  don't spend it all  or use it to pay down debt faster). Use the other half to fund block grants to the states based solely on each state's population. Let the states do what they want to with the grants as long as they publicly account for how every penny is allocated. This starts a contest to prove that Texas is smarter than California just as libertarians are smarter than progressives.

Of course those brave and brilliant libertarians out there will object by saying, "Well why don't we just not tax them rather than sending the money up before it comes back down?" I know we progressives are way too paranoid about wealthy people keeping their money.  Let's make a sub deal on this deal. We go up to come down for 3 years and then we phase out federal funding over the next five years through diminishing matching funds.

In other words, placate our progressive insecurities for a few years so you can have your infallible free market utopia for the next millennium since we all know that once rich people get to keep at least 90% over everything they earn, invest or inherit, working people will be fully employed in good paying and long lasting, high benefits jobs.

Third, and this is a little redundant, promise and deliver a real coalition government starting with a libertarian/ progressive or progressive/libertarian presidential ticket. No deal is going to be trusted if it's: "Join with me and do it my way since some of your way is already my way and you shouldn't mind getting 60% while I get 100% of what I want." Maybe it's a Sanders/Johnson ticket next time or Paul/Ellison. Either way trusted persons can be trusted to keep the covenant. Let a libertarian have Treasury. And let's not just audit or even abolish the Fed. Let's replace it by putting its powers back in the hands of the congress where the Constitution says it belongs.

Let's consolidate several domestic departments and reduce the total budgets of those departments by 20 to 30% over 4 years but reassure us loser leftists by putting real progressives in charge. That way you can watch us fall flat on our faces and the American people decide to devolve all of that authority back to the states and private sector.

For neither side is this deal ideal. However, it is a better deal than you can expect from either Obama 2 or Romney 1. I know you would get  a better deal with Johnson and the Judge or the Eye Doctor and Amash. Just like we are going to get a much better deal when Dennis and VP Bernie begin their rule with open hands.

For goodness sake, stop this fantasy or at least put the pause button on! You are not getting the deal you salivate for until we together first kill the beast. If we are ever going to wake the rest of America up, we must first set the alarm for ourselves.

If We Are Ever Going to Win, This Win-Win Deal MUST Be Done

Since corporate rule will be with us for another 4 years, let me try one last time to tell whoever might be listening exactly what needs to be done to bring down the beast.

First, well meaning progressives and libertarians need to purge the thought that just because they are right on so many important issues does not mean that America will one day wake up and see the light. Libertarians  and progressives, as disgusted as we may be with one another, have to form a temporary alliance of at least 4 years and maybe as much as 8 to make sure the two headed corporate beast is dead and unable to rise again. After that job is done then we can beat the hell out of one another if that is what we feel like doing.

This alliance has not and will not come together based on current commonalities on important issues like non-interventionism in foreign policy,  civil liberties, corporate welfare, military spending. As significant as these issues are, this intersection of interests has been around for the last hundred years and not once have we formed any alliance beyond a few votes in congress.

Why the persistent divide? Obviously, it's economic issues. We progressives think that in these economic circumstances what we need is increased spending on domestic programs, especially, education, green energy and infrastructure, universal single payer health care, basic research and development. Pay for this by raising taxes on the wealthy and making massive cuts in unnecessary and counterproductive spending on the military industrial catastrophe and its numerous corporate cousins.

Libertarians on the other hand want massive reductions in military, foreign and domestic budgets along with gutting of most regulations in all sectors of the economy all to pay for massive tax reductions for all Americans, especially those who are most productive, the rich.

We could yell and scream at each other for how stupid the other is and let the beast continue to run wild. We could each sit back and say to ourselves, truth is on our side and truth will prevail while corporate media continues to lie, lie, lie. We could smugly plant our proud posteriors in pedantic think tanks while the powers that be laugh all the way to the banks they already own. We could even make another blog to shout into the wind.

We could do all this and more and let the earth go to hell for not finally seeing the light which is in us, to us and through us.

Or we could take a different tact.

We could come to grips with political reality that we are, as always, politically marginalized. We do not have the numbers separately to take down this beast. The beast will only be taken down by a coalition and while we would love to convert those cultural conservatives, it ain't happening. We have to either stand together or die separately. There is a massive military stimulus on the way and it will put desperate Americans back to work, making both of us irrelevant unless we face this political reality by joining forces in an uncomfortable coalition.

But that coalition gets formed only when we can make our way to a creative compromise on economic issues. (For those who are so damned ethical that you could never compromise without compromising principles, see my post on the difference between principles and ideals.)

Here's the way to make the economic compromise that moves both agendas forward simultaneously while decapitating both beastly heads of America Inc.:

First, acknowledge neither of us can get all we want for Christmas but we could get a few very important things we need. We can get significant cuts in the amount of taxes the vast majority of Americans are currently paying while cutting the size, power and budget of the federal government. We can also get a massive investment by the public sector to build the peaceful green economy of high speed rail, wind, solar, geothermal and other clean and renewable energies, etc. We can put tens of millions of people back to work rebuilding America's roads, bridges, tunnels, levies, ports, canals, runways, power grid, schools, etc.

How? How can we reduce overall federal spending and taxes for most people while creating massive public sector investment in jobs building a new peaceful green economy? First the budget cuts: 500 to 700 billion in cuts from overseas military spending and foreign aid (yes most progressives understand  that much foreign aid is spent propping up dictators and murderous thugs), military contracts on weapons systems we dare not ever use, ridiculous homeland insecurity projects, endless and stupid drug wars, corporate welfare, etc.

Then we can knock another 100-200 billion off of domestic budgets for needless bureaucracies by consolidating major departments and putting these more powerful but less funded departments into the hands of some real progressives. For example, let's make Robert Kennedy Jr. the head of the new department of Energy and Natural Resources which combines the EPA, Interior, Energy, Agriculture and Transportation into one department. We might even be able to work out a deal with state and local governments and private businesses to sell off the Interstate Highway System and use the funds to build a truly high speed interstate rail system.

So far we have 600 to 900 billion in cuts. Next let's look at revenue. Let's really reform the tax code and significantly reduce the tax burden on at least 90% of the population while raising the tax burden on less than 3% of the population. Here are two big ideas, one my own, on how we reduce the IRS to a small number of auditors working for Treasury. We start with 3 income tax brackets of 10, 20 and 30 percent with greatly increased standard deductions, basic exemptions and child tax credits. We add to those brackets an annual consumption tax of 10% on spending above a million dollars. 

Gradually we shift to a steeply progressive consumption tax with a significantly high exemption on spending (enough to cover all necessary spending on the basics and satisfy all the voluntarists among the Randians). In addition we legalize prostitution, pot and several other social vices and impose a serious sin tax on them. We also increase taxes on imports from lands where the government oppresses its people and destroys the environment. In other words, we normalize relations with Iran and Cuba and tax them the way we ought to tax the Chinese. We permanently reduce payroll taxes by  raising or eliminating the cap and slowly over a long time period raising the retirement age. 

We could go on about several ways to reform how, what, who and how much we tax. The point is we could unburden Americans of great tax burdens while significantly raising revenues if we just get out of our very tight boxes long enough to think creatively. In doing so we could raise 100-300 billion in annual revenues.

That's a total of 700-1200 billion a year in savings and revenue increases without taking into account what we do with this savings which serves to grow the economy and multiply revenue gains.

Second, we take these revenues and savings and we split them in half. Use one half to pay down debt (that is  don't spend it all  or use it to pay down debt faster). Use the other half to fund block grants to the states based solely on each state's population. Let the states do what they want to with the grants as long as they publicly account for how every penny is allocated. This starts a contest to prove that Texas is smarter than California just as libertarians are smarter than progressives. 

Of course those brave and brilliant libertarians out there will object by saying, "Well why don't we just not tax them rather than sending the money up before it comes back down?" I know we progressives are way too paranoid about wealthy people keeping their money.  Let's make a sub deal on this deal. We go up to come down for 3 years and then we phase out federal funding over the next five years through diminishing matching funds. 

In other words, placate our progressive insecurities for a few years so you can have your infallible free market utopia for the next millennium since we all know that once rich people get to keep at least 90% of everything they earn, invest or inherit, working people will be fully employed in good paying and long lasting, high benefits jobs.

Third, and this is a little redundant, promise and deliver a real coalition government starting with a libertarian/ progressive or progressive/libertarian presidential ticket. No deal is going to be trusted if it's: "Join with me and do it my way since some of your way is already my way and you shouldn't mind getting 60% while I get 100% of what I want." Maybe it's a Sanders/Johnson ticket next time or Paul/Ellison. Either way trusted persons can be trusted to keep the covenant. Let a libertarian have Treasury. And let's not just audit or even abolish the Fed. Let's replace it by putting its powers back in the hands of the congress where the Constitution says it belongs. 

Let's consolidate several domestic departments and reduce the total budgets of those departments by 20 to 30% over 4 years but reassure us loser leftists by putting real progressives in charge. That way you can watch us fall flat on our faces and the American people decide to devolve all of that authority back to the states and private sector.

For neither side is this deal ideal. However, it is a better deal than you can expect from either Obama 2 or Romney 1. I know you would get  a better deal with Johnson and the Judge or the Eye Doctor and Amash. Just like we are going to get a much better deal when Dennis and VP Bernie begin their rule with open hands. 

For goodness sake, stop this fantasy or at least put the pause button on! You are not getting the deal you salivate for until your first kill the beast. If you are ever going to wake the rest of America up, you must first set the alarm for yourself. 

I'm through. Bye.

10 Assumptions Progressives Make Against Supporting Ron Paul

Originally posted to no avail and no response on Huffington Post:


1.) Ron Paul can be elected without a real coalition with progressives.

2.) Progressives in a coalition government would give Ron Paul complete control of all policy.

3.) The US will be composed of 60 consistent libertarians like Rand Paul if Ron Paul gets elected president.

4.) Progressives have no important policy in common with libertarians.

5.) Neither libertarians nor progressives are capable of principled compromises that can move both agendas forward simultaneously.

6.) The progressive agenda can move forward with plenty of funding while increasing the budget of the military industrial catastrophe.

7.) President Obama's re-election will mean that 60 Senators will cooperate with him on a truly progressive agenda.

8.) Ron Paul being nominated or dividing the Republican party convention somehow harms progressives' goals and benefits the Republican party.

9.) Progressives should never vote strategically to advance our agenda.

10.) Democratic party is a progressive political organization.

Tampa GOP Convention Forecaste

We are one step away from the worst possible outcome. All that remains is for Ron Paul to endorse Mitt Romney. I cannot imagine that happening but then 8 months ago I could not imagine Rand Paul giving Romney his first significant endorsement of the campaign.

The GOP convention will reveal that Ron Paul does not have enough delegates to win the nomination. Nor does he have enough to prevent Romney from winning on the first ballot. He will come in a respectable second in delegate count with less than 500 and more than 200 delegates. In the end the delegate count will reflect the popular vote count with Ron Paul winning more than 10% and less than 20% of each.

The overly optimistic of his crowd will point out how he nearly tripled the number of supporters he had in 2008.  This will be interpreted by the campaign as "We are winning the future." The Paul campaign will never consider, much less, admit the obvious: this amounts to irrefutable proof that the delegate strategy sans coalition promise was a complete failure.

Ron Paul will not endorse Romney explicitly but he will praise him for his leadership skills and understanding of how the economy works while not criticizing him directly for the warfare policy that has largely caused our financial woes. On the other hand he will gladly and righteously criticize President Obama for all manner of economic and foreign policy evil with ne' er an encouraging word on anything else.

His friends will interpret his prime time speech as the grand farewell of the last founding father. His foes will  restrain grinning in public with great praise for his ethics, steadfastness and advocacy of American freedom.

In the party platform there will be token regard for responsible use of American power abroad and restraint from irresponsible use of the same. On the economic side there will be a call for strict auditing of the federal reserve and condemnation of corporate welfare.

Some of his supporters will see through all this superficial patronizing but most of those in need of an attitude adjustment will be supporting Mr. Four Percent, Gary Johnson in his futile attempt to get into the debates. The few who quietly mumble their misgivings will be polite and maybe they might even be given a reason to hope.

That reason remains to be seen but because of his premature acclamation of the nominee, Rand Paul will be seen as loyal enough not resist should the commander in chief find necessary a preventive strike against a future nuclear foe.

There might just be a Vice President Paul after all, and should this "political stroke of genius" (as it would be dubbed from every quarter of the MSM) materialize, forgiveness will abound to the chief of sinners as the prodigal is seen as foreshadowing the 2020 vision victorious.

Who shall convert whom remains to be seen.

How I wish my purse and my religion would allow me to dare a wager!

Rand Paul

Rand Paul's endorsement of Mitt Romney is to me immoral and unprincipled but maybe I am wrong. maybe it is the only realistic option, at least in Rand Paul's eyes,  that he has for advancing his father's libertarian agenda. If it is, my blog has been totally ineffectual in its intent.

It remains to be seen whether the elder Paul will do the same. my guess is he will. I hope not. i pray not. It would seem so out of character for him to do such a thing.

I am in favor of a libertarian takeover of the Republican party. I am also in favor of a progressive takeover of the Democratic party. i do not see either happening within the next 2 presidential election cycles. Twelve years from now we might celebrate a progressives verses a libertarian presidential campaign.  It would be a good thing.

But is it possible? Can these tow ideologies overthrow the corporate tycoons who dominate the two parties? I the long run, maybe but not this year or 2016 or 2020. We don't have that long to wait. by then global corporate interests will have made all national elections fronts for keeping power. It seems they may have already done this and if so, that argues all the more for impatience.

Wisconsin's Lesson for Progressives

Progressives did their best in a state that only 2 years ago had arguably the most progressive US Senator. And we got out butts kicked. If we cannot win in a blue state why should we expect our agenda to go forward in 2013?

The supposed good news is Obama's exit poll numbers show that he defeats Romney by 7 points and got the support of 18% of Walker's voters. This means Obama 2 will be...wait for it...more of the same. The president is hardwired to split the difference and with the GOP moving ever closer to fascism, he will govern right of center again.

Progressives will not get 60 Senators. We will not get a public option. We will not get progressive tax reform. We will not get cuts in military spending. We will not see an end to the drug war.We will not see less drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan.

We will get more increases in insurance premiums. We will get lower rates and false promises of closed loopholes at the top. We will see more prisons filled, more addicts untreated and pot untaxed. We will create more terrorists.

Searching for a silver lining.... We might get a tad greener using Chinese technology. The same would happen under Romney.

Another black cloud.... The blue dogs will say,"We told you so and they will get there way when it comes to cabinet appointments and congressional committee chairs.

A huge opportunity has been lost. Let's get it right next time. We need a partner. Libertarians are far from ideal but better to make a deal with them than the same corporate squatters who have ignored us because they really don't want collective bargaining or any other opportunity for the working class to move out of desperation and into stability.

reponse

I do hope you take some time to read what I have written concerning how this campign could be won in a way that advances both libertarian and progressive agendas simultaneously.

I shall take your accusation of my complicity in corporate cronyism and equating the progressivism with tyranny for what it is worth.()

The campaign may have had a plan for winning but they never used it if they did. I blame progressives for not supporting Ron Paul despite his ideological imperfections and I blame sectarian libertarians who assume they have arrived at a perfect understanding of liberty (as meaning the state of being left alone with all involuntary associations being contrary to liberty).

Their insistence on the firm acceptance of all libertarian principles and precepts as an absolute prerequisite to political alliances and coalitions is contrary to the good sense of Dr. Paul as put forth in his transition plan.

Furthermore such stringent requirements which confuses ideals for principles and allows for no compromises has enslaved libertarians to limited political options for advancing their own agenda.

I set forth several specific policy prescriptions around 3 basic elements of a coalition covenant which would have put Ron Paul in real contention for winning the White House. The elements and policies of this coalition agreement require some amount of compromise in terms of timing and policy for both progressives and libertarians but no compromises in terms of principles for either.

Exclusion of such principled compromises for the sake of mutually advancing both progressive and libertarian principles and policies will continue to allow the corporatism, which is glad to wear libertarian, progressive and cultural conservative masks, to reign supreme in our political economy.

The post above was meant to provoke anger but also to engage you and other libertarians in a serious conversation about why an admirable and principled statesman like Ron Paul cannot be nominated.

His campaign was bent exclusively on winning delegates alone with an aim toward an eventual actuarial takeover of the GOP. This should be crystal clear by now and a reason for libertarians like yourself to be disappointed with his staff, if not the man himself.

Personally, I find little fault in Ron Paul on this since his transition plan gave his campaign the basis for running a winning campaign and he obviously did not want to run for president again in the first place. He has basically allowed his campaign team to experiment and learn from their mistakes even as they did indeed have some successes.

If you wait for enough Americans to wake up to every libertarian prescription before you can win, you have no winning strategy. There are plenty of progressives and moderates who are awake to corporate cronyism. We understand like you that we must reduce debt and tax burdens while investing in the infrastructure of a peaceful green economy. We realize that the federal government is enslaved to corporate interests. Why wait until we can fully embrace the libertarian creed before you decide the American people have awaken enough to cooperate with us.

Sectarian progressivism is just as counter-productive as its libertarian version. Until we both become more ecumenical, we'll get nothing done at all.

While I have no part in it, do not desire to and condemn it as moral futility, you would be foolish to imagine that progressives are not stockpiling every bit as much ammunition as libertarians are. Violence will serve neither or us now or in the collapse.

Finally, I do not think a collapse is inevitable (though certainly it is becoming increasingly probable). There is a way that these neo-cons and liberal corporatists can make a deal. They already have.... First,divide cultural conservatives, libertarians and progressives into two tribes and keep them blaming one another. Second, start, escalate, and expand wars to create a warfare state. And third, when unemployment settles down to 5 or 6 percent take credit for it. The economy could stabilize and debt get diminished or wiped out while slick murderous thugs reign over the entire globe and you and I go on debating.

Peace.