Category: Politics

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Vote no on the Senate version of HB 1828

  By Labor, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Sometimes there are no good choices. No one wants the city of Philadelphia to adopt Plan C, the plan to balance the budget by drastically cutting services. And there is a risk that if the State House votes down the Senate version of HB 1828 we will wind up with it. But that is far from certain. There is time for further negotiation between the House and the Senate. Labor has some influence over some Republican state senators. And now that organized labor has recognized how bad 1828 it could put its whole force behind a clean bill that allows Philadelphia to raise the sales tax and reduce pension spending. And there is a long way to go before we can rule out City Council passing other, possibly better, taxes that replace sales tax revenues if 1828 is never passed. What is certain, however, is that 1828 violates a principle… Continue reading

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Where is the movement? Notes on the PA HCAN campaign.

  By Health Care, Pennsylvania, Politics, US

Pretty much every day for the last few weeks, I talk to  a health care activist last week who is freaking out about the ups and downs in Congressional consideration of health care. “Relax” I said. “There are always ups and downs whenever Congress is considering any important legislation. There is always  a great deal of tension and division and dispute—some of it is real and some of it is posturing. We are going to win, because we are building a real movement for historic reform.” “But where is that movement?” he said. It’s a good question. And I have to say that, despite my spending twenty five years as a political scientist who sometimes taught and wrote about political and social movements, I don’t think I ever understood what a political movement was until this moment. I understand what one is now because at this moment I’m kind of… Continue reading

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Escaping gravity: some reflections on organizing

  By A political memoir, Political Organizing

To see a world in a grain of sand…And eternity in an hour. Blake Caress the details. Nabokov Organizing is hard, often frustrating work. It takes an enormous amount of energy to get people to fit their personal vision into a collective effort and even more to help them focus on what matters as opposed to what doesn’t. In doing this work you have to deal with every sort of personal quirk and idiosyncrasy found in a, hopefully, large group of people. Of course, as an organizer you are also part of an broad effort to make life better for people. And if you are organizing in a democratic fashion, your goal is to empower people, to lift them and their ideals up, and give them a vision of a better world that they themselves have created. Doing that kind of work is inspiring. But sometimes the disconnect between our… Continue reading

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Why Red, Yellow, and Blue Dogs are all going to support Health Care Reform.

  By Health Care, US

Everyone who favors health care reform, including me, is worried about the Blue Dog Democrats. As the state director of Health Care For America Now in PA, I’m concerned about the five blue dog Democrats in Pennsylvania and our staff, volunteers and I are working as hard as we can to keep all of them on the straight and narrow. We have a long week ahead of us dealing with the Blue Dogs. But I think we are going to win, for two reasons. One is the enormous pressure we are going to bring on Blue Dogs, from our coalition partners and the activists we identified. I’m building and talking and writing about that pressure fifteen hours a day, so I won’t say that much about it here. Instead I want to consider a second reason: given the political logic of the moment, while a lot of the Blue Dogs… Continue reading

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The question remains, which side are you on?

  By Health Care, Politics, US

We are reaching a critical moment in the effort to reform health care in America this year, a moment in which we will find out who is serious about addressing the health care crisis we have we have in this country and who is not. Everyone knows problem: health insurance for the middle class is becoming more and more uncertain for two reasons. The first is that that the costs of health insurance are rising far faster than wages. Health insurance premiums have doubled over the last 9 years, going up three times faster than wages. As costs rise, health care becomes unaffordable for individuals and businesses drop health care coverage for their employees, The second reason is that insurance companies deny people coverage and care. In the fine print of insurance policies are provisions that limit lifetime benefits that enable insurance companies to decide that a treatment we need… Continue reading

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The Republican Gang of Six and the PA State Budget

  By Federal Budget, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Budget

In Pennsylvania today, we face an budget crisis of huge proportions. In the face of drastically reduced revenues due to the recession, the state faces a enormous deficit. And there are only two ways to deal with it. The Republicans in the State Senate have proposed massive reductions in state spending that would had devastating effects on education and health care, particularly for children. The Democrats, lead by Governor Rendell, have proposed temporarily raising the state income tax, which is one of the lowest in the country. The state budget crisis is all about the Republicans in Pennsylvania being captured by the extreme anti-tax, anti-government ideology that has dominated the Republican party in the South and West for years but is relatively new here. These ain’t your grandfather’s Republicans. And, frankly, when Republicans control the Senate by ten seats, I’m not sure there is all that much we can do… Continue reading

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The digital divide and equality of opportunity

  By Media Justice, Philadelphia

OK, here is the funny thing—or rather two funny things—about my writing on this topic. The first is that I’m one of the most net connected people I know. I use a computer for work or fun probably eight to ten hours a day and always have email, and IM windows open on my computer. And when I’m not on my computer, my phone is connected to a broadband connection through which I email, text, and IM. The second is that one of my closest friends is organizing around media related issues and has a particular concern with overcoming the digital divide. And yet, until today, when I read some responses to a very good op-ed in the Daily News by Hannah Sassaman and Todd Wolfson about the possibility of securing federal money to create a public broadband network in Philadelphia–a network that would help overcome the digital divide in… Continue reading

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It’s Past Time for Reparations

  By White Supremacy and Structural Racism

It’s long past time for the United States to create a program of reparations for Black Americans, not just for slavery but the second, third, and fourth iterations of systemic racism in the United States–the segregation in North and South after the Civil War, the terrorism against Black people perpetuated by the lynchings and chain gangs of Jim Crow, the  attack on Black communities through urban renewal and red-lining, and the mass incarceration carried out as a result of the  war on drugs. Each of these policies were created by the white supremacy and systemic racism that was created in the 17th century by  rich white people who sought to use create and heighten racial division to undermine opposition to them. Each of these policies have had  not only an immediate and devastating impact on the Black people in one generation but have had been repeated in different ways in… Continue reading

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Table games part of PA budget Deal: Could this provide a path to fixing casinos in Philly?

  By Casinos, Philadelphia

A Terry Maddona tweet says: Reliable sources in Harrisburg suggest that table games will be approved for Pa casinos as part of eventual budget deal. I’ve argued for a long time that, if we are going to have gambling, we made a mistake by starting with slots. Table games have an appeal to members of the the professional–mangerial calss who can better afford to blow their money. I’d prefer not to finance our government with gambling. But the residents of the city live with a high end casino–preferably one where you had to wear a Tux and drink your martinis shaken not stirred—much more easily than a slots parlor. I would think that a high end casino in the Strawbridge building would have relatively more appeal to tourists and well-off suburbanite than a slots parlor, which would appeal as well to the poor and working class in the city. Continue reading

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At the very least, move the casino parking off the river

  By Casinos, Philadelphia, Transportation

There are a lot of people in this city who are not giving up the fight against casinos. I’m one of them. But our political officials have given up. After kneeling by our side during the 2007 election (you can’t call what they did standing), City Council members and our Mayor have thrown in the towel. Badgered by a Governor intent on securing the most dubious part of his legacy, and a state legislature that wants to suck every possible dollar out of our fellow citizens—and hampered by the need for legislative approval for the tax increases we need to survive the recession—Mayor Nutter and City Council have given up the fight. We’ll fight on without them. But here is one thing I just don’t understand. If they won’t fight to keep the casinos out of Center City and the Delaware Waterfront, why won’t they at the very least fight… Continue reading