Let's Take Back the Democratic Party

by Glen Wallace

The recent election of Trump should be a clarion call and rallying cry not just to revive the Democratic Party but to bring it back to its original progressive values.  Too many progressive commentators act as apologists for the non progressive actions of Democratic Party members in and out of office.  A prime example is the time period soon after Obama took office when the Democrats had the brass ring of the Presidency and both houses of Congress but dropped the progressive ball of opportunity.  Instead of using that opportunity to enact a single payer program like Medicare for everyone, they enact a healthcare program, Obamacare, that, Thom Hartmann rightly pointed out, is nearly identical to the program proposed by President Nixon and enacted by then Governor Romney.  Let's call it like it is -- Obamacare is a Republican Party designed gift to health insurance companies and Big Pharma.  And don't try to tell me that during that 'brass ring' period any serious effort was made to institute a single payer program.  I remember that period when the Democrats could have 'run the tables' and I don't recall any speeches before congress or interviews on the Networks where members of congress and the President championed a single payer program.  That's because no effort was made -- no effort was made because the Democratic Party has been taken over by neoliberals  that value regressive laissez faire economic values over the progressive socialist values that the Democratic Party is supposed to be founded on.

Before the 2018 elections, coming up in two short years, we progressives need to make some decisions.  First, we need to boldly attempt to gain Democratic nominations for both local and national offices.  Second, we need to run for those nominations under a boldly socialist progressive platform that meets and even surpasses the progressive platform that nearly got Sanders the Democratic nominations for President.  Third, we need to decide, if, like in the 2016 Presidential Democratic nomination race, the neoliberal candidate still wins the nominations, will it be warranted for the progressive socialist candidate to turn around and run as a third party candidate.  The 2018 race will be coming before we know it and we shouldn't be delaying in at least thinking over what race will we be running for, what our platform will be and what to do if we don't get the nomination.

I'm already thinking about running for U.S. Congress in the District where I live and plan to be living in 2018.  I voted for the Democrat, Angie Craig, in the 2016 election, even though I consider her a neoliberal.  I think she has too close ties to the medical device industry being a former executive for a medical device manufacturer.  I'm not sure I'd have much better luck pitching my idea to her than the winner of the 2016 election, right wing regressive former talk radio host Jason Lewis, of the Government taking over the manufacture and distribution of drugs and medical devices in cases of price gouging such is the case with the Epipen.  Actually, I think the Government should take over the research, manufacture and distribution of medical devices and pharmaceuticals in any case where a need exists and the market is not meeting the need.  Such a plan is very socialist, some would say communist, but I say so be it, and I think the electorate would support the idea -- health is very important to the people.  Health is a value that transcends party politics and the electorate knows political labels are useless when facing a health crisis.  Even so, I don't see much hope for the government owning the means of production for medicine and medical devices so long as either Republicans or neoliberal Democrats are in charge of this country.    

Trump can't succeed in business even while trying, so how can we expect him to succeed as President?

By Glen Wallace

How can we expect Trump to solve America's wide ranging problems when he is so quick to say "I can't" when it comes to solving his own business problems?  After all, he is supposed to be a business specialist, and it turns out he is not so great even at that.  He has said "I can't" four times oven when asked if he can keep his failing business enterprises out of bankruptcy.  And contrary to his own claims, four bankruptcies is far in excess of a typical or average number of bankruptcies filed, if one is ever filed, by an entrepreneur like Trump.  And contrary to his claims that only large banks had to eat the losses from those bankruptcies, that is false as well.  Most, if not all of those bankruptcies involved bonds that the bondholders had to take a haircut on.  Very often, corporate bonds are held by a variety of ordinary citizens, including senior citizens that rely on the payments from those bonds for a very limited fixed income.

If he had to tell the truth under penalty of perjury and was asked "can you ever give a straight truthful statement about your weaknesses and failings when you're not under oath?" Trump would have to answer "I can't".  While still under oath, if he were asked if he were President, could he honestly put a plaque on his desk like President Truman did, that says "The Buck Stops Here", Trump would have to answer "I can't, because I 'm too much of a weasel, I like to weasel out of taking personal responsibility for what I say or do."

 Instead of trying to find ways to manufacture his shirts in the U.S., Trump just throws out more excuses for why he can't.  Did he even bother asking New Balance how they can manage to still manufacture shoes in the U.S.?  Did he try to figure out that if they can make shoes here, and Faribault Woolen Mills can make blankets here, and Red Wing can make boots here, then why can't I follow their successful models to make my shirts here?  I highly doubt it.  How can we expect him to explore ways to help the American worker as President when it doesn't seem like he is willing to lift a finger as a business man to avoid offshoring the jobs that make his shirts to foreign shores?  Trump couldn't be bothered by the unwashed masses other than finding the right buttons to push and strings to pull that get their emotions turned in his favor.

Bring back cellophane to save the environment

Whatever happened to the widespread use of cellophane for wrapping and for bagging products.   If cellophane had been used where plastic now is used in the past, then maybe we wouldn't have such a big problem with garbage on land and in the sea.   Maybe cellophane could also be made to construct more items that are now composed of plastic.  Keep in mind that cellophane is entirely biodegradable since it is made of the same substance that primarily provides the structural integrity of plants and trees -- cellulose.  I have to wonder if there is a conspiracy involving the oil industry to suppress the potential of cellophane to make a number of our products instead of plastic.  With a number of localities banning plastic grocery bags, I would like to start seeing the stores in those areas and other areas start replacing those plastic bags with cellophane ones.  Originally, when cellophane became widely used and popular, one of the primary uses was in the form of bags used to contain produce and other items at the grocery store instead of the brown paper opaque wrapping that had been used before.  Looking online, there are a number of vendors that still sell cellophane bags, so it is still being manufactured for that use.  Well, it looks like we should ramp up that production along with finding new and innovative other uses for this biodegradable versatile product. 

Trump's Disastrous Deportation Plan

A mass deportation of all the undocumented immigrants, as Trump has vowed to do if elected President, would likely be a humanitarian disaster.  Already, an estimated half of all undocumented aliens detained by ICE are housed in private prisons.  Additionally hundreds of those detainees were wrongly detained even though they were legal US citizens.  In one case, a US citizen named Hector Veloz was detained by ICE for over a year, all the while Veloz did everything he could, including presenting his birth certificate to the immigration courts.  Additionally, widespread reports of abuses of those detainees, regardless of their legal status, has also been reported.  If Trumps plans were implemented, I believe we would be seeing a modern day Trail of Tears for the undocumented and wrongfully deported US citizens.  But Trump's plan would be a huge windfall for the private prisons, who would no doubt milk such a deportation for all its worth -- including delaying the deportation process and hold inmates longer than necessary in order to keep our public dollars flowing that are tied to those inmates remaining in those private prisons.

The estimated total number of  illegal aliens that would be deported under Trump's plan is 11 million, coincidentally, 11 million is the estimated total number of human victims of Hitler's Holocaust.  Remember, to handle that volume people, the Nazis had to use freight trains to haul such a vast number of individuals.  But, unlike the Holocaust, we still would require a system of due process to determine  for each one of those 11 million whether or not they were indeed here illegally.  One wonders if the initial number of individuals rounded up might be much greater than 11 million.  That is, perhaps everyone with dark skin, speaking with a Latino accent would be rounded up as a suspected illegal alien to be sorted out at a later date.

Until all those individuals can be processed and their cases reviewed and heard before a magistrate, they would of course have to be held somewhere.  Since our prisons are already overcrowded, some sort of makeshift detention, or concentration camps would have to be set up across the country -- complete with barbed wire, armed guard towers, dogs and spotlights.  And, as it is currently, it is not as though our courts and judges and public defense lawyers have all sorts of time on their hands with everyone looking for something to do.  So, in order to process all those millions, many detainees would likely have to wait years if not decades to have their case heard.  A detainee could be a full U.S.Citizen, but not be able to see anyone for years to simply hear their case.  They would be trapped in one of the camps, knowing they are innocent but not be able to prove that to anyone who could get them out.  There is often no way of knowing right away who is here illegally and who isn't.  Those here illegally, perhaps by illegal means, are able to obtain many of the same documents that would appear on its face to prove citizenship, as legal citizens have.  It is not as though the undocumented aliens have a sign on their forehead flashing 'illegal alien' that ICE agents can use to sort them from those here legally.  As a result, some sort of manual judicial sorting process involving one on one meetings with lawyers and judges needs to be performed for each and every detainee in order to determine citizen status.        

Of further concern, given Trump's notorious thin skin, if he might utilize those deportee detention camps as de facto political prison camps.  Maybe Trump will wield his power to make his critics suffer from an administrative 'oops' that result in them being suspected of being here illegally and have to be sent to a camp for further processing.  Such a victim may cry that they suspect they are a political prisoner to the clerk processing them in the camp.  The clerk might then respond that the inmate will have their case heard before a judge in approximately 5 years if everything goes smoothly.  Meanwhile, here is your uniform, your number and a map to your tent.

I find it rather ironic that some of Trump's most fervent supporters are Internet and Radio conspiracy theory celebrities like Alex Jones that have warned us for years that we can't trust the federal government because they are bent on imprisoning us in mass Fema camps.  Who does Jones and company think will carry out Trump's deportation plan?  The Federal Government will, of course.  Why do they suddenly think the government can be trusted to fairly, and justly carry out such an enormous mass arrest, detention and processing of human beings?  But regardless of anyone's general trust or mistrust of the government,  there clearly is no means to fairly and justly carry out Trump's deportation plan.  And the history of ICE even under the normal circumstances of a relatively small number of deportations, has shown itself to be unreliable and prone to miscarriage of justice and abuse in the detention and processing of detainees.  The detention and processing of millions can only lead to a nightmare scenario as bad or worse than any warning ever painted by even the most imaginative conspiracy theorist.