New, improved PROGRESSIVE!!!

[DemocracyMouse]

I STILL think the Democrats are awesome... But they, like all groups, have their sacred cows and I made a mistake in a recent post about being critical of one if them. Sorry mates! You'll live! I was just trying to be historically honest. It's good fer the noggin' as Pop Eye might have said.

And I still believe the Democrats are getting awesomer. A dawning of consciousness is occuring. Young and old alike in the party are realizing that maybe our traditional (and achievable) new deal, anti-war, pro-education platform is back with a vengeance.

By LEADING WITH GUSTO, not by hedging bets and pussy-footing around, we win. That's what the French economist Thomas Pickety is inferring when he wrote in a 174 page paper (with charts!) that Democrats will win more votes this November by confidently stressing the need to reverse the flow of money and power up to the 1%. Even Warren Buffett has admitted that he is taxed at a lower rate than his secretaries.

I also think that Democrats have been moving to a more progressive platform since Bush Jr. screwed up the Middle East (and produced thousands of dead US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of others deaths, displacement, refugees, etc.), and royally trounced our economy (with some help). History has proven what a disaster conservative positions on a lot of things have been: rolling back bank regulations like the Glass-Steagel Act, screwing the environment, extreme incarceration policies, the persecution of African Americans and LGTBQ Americans, the nightmarish plunge into the Middle East after a phony case for Weapons of Mass Destruction.

What is clear to many, including Picketty, is that a younger group of Democrats are HUNGRY for change and are REALLY UPSET about their dreams of a better life being dashed due to deep structural changes in the system which are pushing all the wealth up to the top tiers of society. Many of us are doing multiple jobs just to survive and eating up our savings. I think the older Democrats who grew up in boom times are starting to "get" the younger, economically disadvantaged Democrats.

The point is this:

We will win a lot more VOTES if the older and younger Democrats can find common ground and work together. I've seen local Dem meetings explode in membership and I've seen the die-hards Dems welcome the new blood – but with a touch of anxiety instead of joy. The establishment needs to start moving in more concert with this new, internet-savvy generation like the Parkland students, the Occupy generation, and Black Lives Matter.

I think, frankly, we're almost there.

NOTE: This commentary is about compassionate congealing of intergenerational resolve and self-improvement (which wins elections). It's NOT about the last election.

PS Emma for President!
(I know, I know she's still learning the ropes... and that's OK!)