Part Three
Beyond Outrage: What You Need to Do
Someone recently approached me at the cheese counter of a local supermarket, asking, “What can I do?” At first I thought the person was seeking advice about a choice of cheese. But I soon realized the question was larger than that. It was: What can I do about what’s happening to America—an economic game increasingly rigged in favor of those at the top and against ordinary Americans, and a government that no longer seems to work for average people but is increasingly responsive to big money? In this part of the book I want to try to answer that question.
HOW TO MAKE A MOVEMENT
I don’t know where the Occupier movement is heading, but I do know there’s great energy at America’s grass roots for progressive change—more energy now than I’ve seen in decades. The question is how to harness that energy and turn it into a sustainable and powerful progressive movement to take back our economy and our democracy from the regressive forces that have been gaining ground.
People who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 tended to fall into one of two camps once he became president: trusters, who believed he was a good man with the right values and that as president did everything he could to put those values into effect; and cynics, who became disillusioned with his bailout of Wall Street, his flimsy plan to tame the Street, his willingness to jettison the “public option” in his health-care plan, and his negotiating strategy that always seems to begin by giving away the store.
In my view, both positions are wrong. No president—even one as talented and well motivated as Obama—can get a thing done in Washington unless the public is actively behind him. As FDR said in the reelection campaign of 1936 when a lady insisted that if she were to vote for him, he must commit to a long list of objectives, “Ma’am, I want to do those things, but you must make me.”
If you believe Obama and the Democrats didn’t push hard enough in Obama’s first four years to get done the things you believe in, you and others have got to push harder. I’m writing these words during the 2012 campaign, and don’t know if Obama will be reelected, or which party will control the House or the Senate. Even if Obama is reelected and the Democrats gain control of both chambers, you’ll need to become more active to give Obama and the Democrats the political support they need to do what must be done in Obama’s second term. If he’s not reelected, or if the Democrats lose control over both chambers, you’ll need to become even more active—not only to stop the regressives from moving America backward but also to lay the groundwork for the next elections and beyond. You also need to organize against the regressives. Don’t be fooled by the lies they’re telling, and don’t let others be fooled. The more you know and understand, the more powerful you will be at mobilizing others.
You can’t accomplish much on your own. You have to join with others and pull in many more. Legislators don’t pay much attention to complaints or demands from individual constituents (unless those constituents come armed with lots of campaign contributions), but they pay attention when those complaints or demands come from hundreds of constituents. The media likewise overlook press conferences organized by small groups, small demonstrations, and modest shows of political clout. But thousands of people gathered together can create news. And when tens of thousands turn out to vote for candidates who will support a progressive agenda, the media begin to see the makings of a political movement.
To achieve strength of numbers, you need to understand one of the basic rules of leadership: leadership doesn’t necessitate formal authority. You don’t need a fancy title in order to be a leader. I’ve known senators and cabinet officers and even presidents who never exercised much leadership; I’ve also met CEOs of large companies and the heads of vast foundations who failed to lead. Yet I’ve also known or met people with no formal authority who were extraordinary leaders—who mobilized, energized, and organized large numbers of people and thereby changed the direction of history. One of my favorites, Dolores Huerta, co-founded (with Cesar Chavez) the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. In 1966, Huerta negotiated a contract between the farmworkers and the Schenley Wine Company; it was the first time farmworkers effectively negotiated a contract to improve their pay and working conditions. Or think of other great leaders who had no formal authority but changed the world—Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela.
Leaders get people to actively work on what needs to be done. To do this, leaders need to help people overcome the four “work-avoidance mechanisms” that most of the rest of us carry around in our heads. Those mechanisms are denial that a problem exists, the desire to escape responsibility even when we recognize the problem, the tendency to scapegoat others for causing it, and—worst of all—cynicism about the possibility of ever remedying the problem. In order to mobilize, energize, and organize others to reverse the regressive drift of America and reclaim our economy and our democracy, you will need to convince many people of the truth that America is in imminent danger of becoming a plutocracy, even if they’d rather deny that reality. You’ll need to show them that they can’t escape from that truth: it’s impossible for any of us or our families to have full and prosperous lives at the same time much of the rest of our population is becoming poorer and more economically insecure. You’ll have to dissuade them from blaming immigrants, the poor, government workers, union workers, or even the rich for what is occurring, because such scapegoating merely divides us from one another and makes it more difficult to reverse this trend. And you must fight their cynicism and enable them to understand the situation is reversible: we have done it before and will do so again.
To exercise true leadership, you also need to get out of your ideological bubble. If most of the people you talk with agree with you, you’re wasting your time. You need to engage with people who may disagree or who haven’t thought hard about the issues. Reach across to independents, even to Republicans and self-styled Tea Partiers. Find people who are willing to listen to the facts and are open to arguments and ideas, regardless of the label they apply to themselves. We need them.
Occasionally, I come across demonstrators who are holding signs on street corners where I live, in Berkeley, California. Sometimes the signs ask drivers to honk if they agree that America should cut its defense budget or raise taxes on the rich or that climate change must be reversed. As you can imagine, those street corners can become fairly noisy. I appreciate the effort these demonstrators are making, but I wish they’d do it in places where fewer drivers would honk, and engage those who disagree with them in discussion rather than merely hold up signs. It’s too easy in modern America to preach to the converted, because it’s increasingly easy to surround ourselves only with people who share our views.
Discussion isn’t enough. You also need to express yourself in ways that enable those who may initially disagree with you to understand. Appeal to the moral values you and they share. Avoid violence. Violence can put you on the front page, but it will not capture the hearts and minds of those you need to convince. You’ll be most convincing when you combine moral clarity with undeniable facts and common sense.
Look for organizing opportunities—teachable moments that illustrate why a policy currently in place is wrongheaded or why another approach is needed. For example, on the first Friday of every month the Labor Department reports the rate of unemployment, how many new jobs have been created, and what’s happened to wages in the previous month. It should also be a day to look at corporate profits, CEO pay, and how many jobs American corporations have created abroad. That would help foster discussion and debate (and mobilizations and demonstrations if the trends continue to worsen) about what’s happening to the real economy and what needs to be done to make it work for everyone instead of a very few. Tax days (April 15 when most taxes are due, as well as June 15, September 15, and January 15, when small businesses and contract workers have to pay estimated taxes) are occasions to point out that if the rich don’t pay
their fair share, the rest of us suffer from deteriorating public services or we have to make up the shortfall by paying more taxes. Be on the lookout for reports showing how much money is going into super PACs, what large corporations are spending to influence elected officials, which elected and appointed officials are taking jobs in lobbying firms or on Wall Street—and make sure to share them widely.
Don’t think you can be much of an activist by merely sitting behind your computer. I come across many good people who spend many hours online, disseminating petitions or raising money for causes they believe in. I admire them for it, but they need to bear in mind that the sheer convenience of online political activism reduces its political potency. Elected representatives who receive virtual petitions know how little work they require relative to the exhausting tasks of knocking on doors to get signatures or getting out the vote. All too often, virtual organizations and movements are fleeting. Their “members” feel no loyalty or connection to one another. Direct contacts, on the other hand, are more enduring. When people join together in person—when they sacrifice evenings to meet up—they can build the trust and energy required for the long haul. Those who say they don’t have time to meet aren’t being truthful; if they have time to watch hours of television or play on their laptops, they can make the time to join with others for the future of their communities and their nation.
Get out of your issue cocoon. Too often, progressives become obsessed with one particular issue that becomes “their” fight, to the exclusion of everything else. Don’t get me wrong. It’s fine to fight for more efficient fuels or against climate change, or both; good to be concerned about human rights abuses or to push for gay rights or reproductive rights; worthwhile to mobilize around the needs of children, a single-payer health-care system, or cuts in military spending. But don’t be so mesmerized by any single issue—and don’t allow others to become so single-minded about their own fights—that we fail to join together on the bigger stuff that’s making it harder for the voices of average Americans to be heard on all of these issues and others: the growing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top; the increasing clout of global corporations and Wall Street; and the corruption of our democracy.
Don’t focus solely on Washington. Elections for president and Congress are obviously important, but in many respects the people elected to state and local offices have more day-to-day impact, making important decisions that affect the lives of countless people. Nor should you focus entirely on elections. Participate in corporate campaigns. Consumer boycotts of companies responsible for the largest political contributions, media attention to companies that award their top executives the fattest compensation packages while laying off the most workers, and pressure on their key investors can be important aspects of a broad-based campaign to end the rigged corporate game.
Perhaps the hardest thing of all is to be patient. I don’t mean that you should be content or be willing to postpone what must be done. But you need to understand that altering the structure of power and widening opportunity require years of hard work, as those who toiled for the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, or have been working for the rights of the disabled and gays, would tell you. It took thirty years of continuous fulmination for women to get the right to vote; fifty years of agitation before employers were required to bargain with unionized workers. Those who benefit from the prevailing allocation of power and wealth don’t give up their privileged positions without a fight, and they usually have more resources at their disposal than the insurgents. Take satisfaction from small victories, but don’t be discouraged or fall into cynicism, and don’t let others do so, either. And don’t allow yourself or others to burn out. I’ve known many activists who take a kind of masochistic delight in working themselves to exhaustion. Eventually, their health suffers or their emotional resilience disappears. They reach a breaking point and cannot go on. These people don’t know how to pace themselves for the marathon run of a political movement.
Finally, instead of waiting for candidates to emerge with agendas and policy positions, take an active role in creating those agendas and get candidates to run on them. Tell incumbents you and others will work your hearts out to get them reelected on the condition they campaign on that agenda. Then, if and when they’re elected, keep up the heat and the support.
Too many of us think political activism begins a few months before Election Day and ends when winners are announced. I can’t tell you how many political campaigns I’ve been involved with (even my own, briefly, for governor of Massachusetts) that demanded so much time and energy that there was none left once the results came in. That’s a big mistake. The day after Election Day is the real beginning. That’s when a loud and determined progressive movement needs to put pressure on newly elected officials and keep the pressure on. They must know that you and others like you will continue to mobilize support for a progressive agenda, reward them for pushing it, and hold them accountable in the next election cycle if they don’t; that you will even go so far as to run candidates against them in their next primary—candidates who will run on that agenda.
The following are samples of what I mean. The first is an offer to people who hold public office, or who might want to hold office, to get behind them if they’ll work toward a progressive agenda. It’s meant not as a “litmus test”—not a strict or nonnegotiable set of demands—but as a practical guide to what we should expect our elected officials to do as a condition of receiving our support and benefiting from our hard work to get them elected. The second is a prototype of a different kind—a “corporate pledge of allegiance” around which progressives might organize to make large companies more accountable.
AN OFFER TO EARN AND RETAIN OUR SUPPORT
We are prepared to work our hearts out for you to be elected and remain in office as long as you commit to the following agenda:
RAISE THE TAX RATE ON THE RICH TO WHAT IT WAS BEFORE 1981
The top 1 percent has an almost unprecedented share of the nation’s wealth and income yet the lowest tax rate in thirty years. Meanwhile, America faces colossal budget deficits that have already meant devastating cuts in education, infrastructure, and the safety nets we depend on.
The rich must pay at the same rate they did in the 1950s and 1960s. Income in excess of $1 million should be taxed at 70 percent. There should be more tax brackets at the top and higher rates in each of those top brackets. Absurdly, the top bracket is now set at $388,350 with a tax rate of 35 percent; the second-highest bracket, at 33 percent, starts at $178,650 for individuals. But the big money is way higher. And all sources of income, including capital gains, should be treated the same. It’s scandalous that the four hundred richest Americans should pay an average of 17 percent tax on their incomes, a rate lower than that paid by many in the middle class. That’s because so much of the income of the super-rich is considered capital gains, now taxed at only 15 percent. Close this loophole. (Don’t penalize true entrepreneurs, though. If owners have held their assets for at least twenty years, keep their capital gains low.)
A 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires is a start, as is letting the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts expire for taxpayers making over $250,000 a year, which would return the capital gains rate to 20 percent and the top rate on income and dividends to 39.6 percent. But that’s just a start. It still falls short of what’s needed to tame the nation’s projected budget deficit and do everything else America must do. Sixty years ago Americans earning over $1 million in today’s dollars paid 55.2 percent of it in income taxes, after taking all deductions and credits. If they were taxed at that rate now, they’d pay at least $80 billion more annually, which would reduce the budget deficit by about $1 trillion over the next ten years.
PUT A 2 PERCENT SURTAX ON THE WEALTH OF THE RICHEST ONE-HALF OF 1 PERCENT
The richest one-half of 1 percent of Americans, each with over $7.2 million of assets, own 28 percent of the nation’s total wealth. Given this almost unprecedented
concentration, and considering what the nation needs to do to rebuild our schools and infrastructure, as well as tame the budget deficit, a surtax is warranted. It would generate another $70 billion a year, and $750 billion over the decade.
PUT A ONE-HALF OF 1 PERCENT TAX ON ALL FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
This would bring in more than $250 billion over ten years while slowing speculators and reducing the wild gyrations of financial markets.
The three changes above would add up to $2 trillion over ten years—a significant slice off the long-term budget deficit. Every one of these tax changes can be accomplished if Americans understand what’s really at stake. If the rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes, the rest of us will have to bear more of a burden. That burden will come in the form of either higher taxes on us or less money for the things we depend on—including health care, education, infrastructure, and national defense.
CUT THE MILITARY BUDGET MORE THAN SCHEDULED
Without a new budget agreement, nearly $500 billion of automatic across-the-board cuts will be made in the defense budget over the next decade. But this isn’t nearly enough. In the next five years, the Pentagon will still spend more than $2.7 trillion, closer to $3 trillion when adjusted for inflation.
Hundreds of billions more can be saved without jeopardizing the nation’s security by ending weapons systems designed for an age of conventional warfare. For example, the F-35 fleet of stealth fighters, whose performance has been awful—the costliest Pentagon procurement project in history—should be jettisoned. Real arms control could save billions more. The number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons, ballistic missile submarines, and intercontinental ballistic missiles should be cut. The Navy and Air Force budgets should be reduced. Most of the action is with the Army, Marines, and Special Forces. Billions more can be saved by eliminating programs no one can justify and few can understand.
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