David Sirota: The People Party Revolt Roiling Capitol Hill

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7233

The People Party Revolt Roiling Capitol Hill
by David Sirota | May 3 2007

Just after the 2006 elections, I wrote a series of widely-circulated posts on how the real divide that will be (and has been) defining politics is not the one between Republicans and Democrats, but between the Money Party and the People Party. On many issues, the Money Party is synonymous with the GOP, but it also includes a faction of corporate-backed Democrats. That's why though the Democrats do have a majority in Congress, the Money Party also is in the majority as well. The question, as I said after the election, would be whether the People Party minority in Congress (who still make up a majority of Democrats in Congress and, of course, a majority of people in the country) had the guts to use its power against the Money Party to really force changes. This week, we have two specific reasons to be hopeful that yes, the People Party is asserting itself and yes, the Washington Establishment has a serious revolt on its hands.

The first story piece of encouraging news comes on the issue of trade. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is right now being pressured by K Street to support President Bush's "free" trade agenda. As I reported from the International Economic Summit in Butte, Montana earlier this week, Corporate America is putting the full court press on both Rangel and his counterpart, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). Big Money wants these two to pass a spate of new trade deals that are anything but free - they include thousands of pages of strict protections for corporate profits (patents, copyrights and intellectual property protections) but no protections for humans (labor, human rights or environmental protections).

The progressive movement is working hard to pressure these two chairmen to hold the line for ordinary people. Yesterday in Washington, for instance, protests broke out against Bush's proposed trade pact with Colombia - a pact that would deliver economic rewards to a Colombian government that the Washington Post reports is colluding with paramilitary gangs to assassinate labor organizers. Meanwhile, in Montana, the Progressive States Network helped pass a bipartisan resolution through the State Senate demanding Baucus reject President Bush's request for "fast track" trade negotiating authority - the authority that lets him strip labor, human rights and environmental provision out of trade deals with no input from Congress.

snip//

This is the beginning, folks. These are the first bubbles in what is a boiling pot of populist frustration that has been brewing since the 2006 election. The public is hungry for real change - not just the change of parking spots and embossed name plates on Capitol Hill that the David Broders think is what politics should really be all about. And thankfully, the People Party in Congress is responding with serious pressure on its Money Party obstacles. If - and only if - the progressive movement has the discipline to focus on these kitchen table economic issues like trade and health care, we could very soon start to see some concrete accomplishments.

[Rydz777]

1. This is the true acid test

While this disastrous war rages on and consumes all the oxygen, Bush is pushing his "free trade" agenda under the radar. Baucus and Rangel are under pressure and in danger of caving. Our new Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is doing what he can to stop this anti-fair-trade, anti-American-jobs steamroller, but he needs help.