Screwed the Undeclared War Against the Middle Class (34 page)

In the years since then, the Republican Party has been seized by Ayn Rand utopians, Pat Robertson fundamentalists, and the largest and dirtiest of America's corporate elite. They've trashed the values of Lincoln and Eisenhower, rejected Jesus' words in Matthew 25,
³
and turned our commons into a dumping ground
while using our nation's Treasury as an ATM for themselves and their cronies.

Even conservative Republicans like former
Wall Street Journal
editor and Reagan administration assistant Treasury secretary Paul C. Roberts are concerned that the current crop of so-called Republicans are on the verge of destroying the last vestiges of American civil society, wiping out our middle class, and permanently turning our nation into the land of the observed and the home of the worried-about-the-terror-alert.

So, those of us "on the left " must ask of our Republican friends: please take your party back from these fanatics before it's too late for America to ever again be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

My old friend Paul Rogat Loeb has written many books of great value, and one of my favorites is his
Soul of a Citizen,
in which he reminds us of the importance of doing the sometimes dull, boring, difficult daily work if we really are to save this great nation.

"A few years ago, on Martin Luther King Day," Paul writes,

I was interviewed on CNN along with Rosa Parks. "Rosa Parks was the woman who wouldn't go to the back of the bus," said the host. "That set in motion the yearlong bus boycott in Montgomery. It earned Rosa Parks the title of 'mother of the civil rights movement.'"

The host's description—the standard rendition of the story—stripped the boycott of its context. Before refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person, Parks had spent 12 years helping to lead the local NAACP chapter. The summer before, she had attended a 10-day training session at the Highlander Center, Tennessee's labor and civil rights organizing school, where she'd met older activists and discussed the Supreme Court decision banning "separate but equal" schools.

Parks had become familiar with previous challenges to segregation: another Montgomery bus boycott, 50 years earlier; a bus boycott in Baton Rouge two years before Parks was arrested; and an NAACP dilemma the previous spring, when a young Montgomery woman had also refused to move to the back of the bus. The NAACP had considered a legal challenge but decided the unmarried, pregnant woman would be a poor symbol for a campaign.

In short, Parks didn't make a spur-of-the-moment decision. She was part of a movement for change at a time when success was far from certain. This in no way diminishes her historical importance, but it reminds us that this powerful act might never have taken place without the humble, frustrating work that preceded it.
⁴

In his books and speeches, Loeb reminds us over and over again that activism isn't just showing up for a peace rally and marching down the street once, or making an annual phone call to your member of Congress. It's about participating—in a deep, visceral, and meaningful way—in the ongoing process of awakening America and transforming our political landscape.

The most fundamental tool of activism is communication. The American Revolution wouldn't have been possible were it not for two simple forms of communication: letters to the editors and pamphlets (what we would call "op-ed pieces"). As a result of such communications, in just a few short years—largely from the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to the Declaration of Independence in 1776—American public opinion swung from being opposed to a revolutionary war to being sufficiently in favor of it that the general populace would hide and support soldiers fighting a largely insurgent war against the British army.

Letters to the editor are still powerful devices to influence public opinion; and a little-known but significant dimension of
them is that while they're not read by a majority of newspaper readers, they
are
read by most politicians. A letter to the editor of your local newspaper about a particular issue—especially if it mentions a politician by name—will have far more impact on that politician and his or her views than calls, faxes, letters, or e-mails to the politician's office.

The Internet offers other ways to get involved. Message boards, online forums, blog responses, and the like have become so effective that several of the cons' think tanks actually pay people to participate in online discussion areas to promote their ideas or candidates. (My own online message board has had postings from several of these hired guns over the past three years—with a flurry of them just before the 2004 election.)

While I don't know of any progressive foundations or think tanks that are paying people to post ideas and messages in favor of progressive candidates on the cons' boards, it's certainly important work. If you have the time and can stand the association with the often-bigoted crowds that populate the message boards of the cons' Web sites and talk-show hosts, your voice may help awaken a few people.

The second tool used by the colonists of 1773 to awaken and galvanize the nation was pamphlets. Usually single sheets of paper with a large headline and a short message, they pointed out the ills of British occupation and called for action. The quotes earlier in this book from "Rusticus"—one of America's early pamphleteers—are classic examples of this technique. The pamphlets would be nailed to public buildings and trees in public places overnight, slipped under people's doors, and passed from person to person.

The modern equivalent of Revolutionary-era pamphleteering in print is writing op-eds and producing "zines," but it mainly occurs now on the Internet—creating individual Web sites, starting your own blog, forwarding e-mails, and the like. Another variation is to call talk-radio shows—particularly ones run by cons—and put forward your views. Using the electronic media
that was unavailable to the Founders is a powerful way to speed up the process of awakening America to the war on the middle class and what we can do about it.

Contacting your elected representatives is vital work. The Founders of this nation and the Framers of the Constitution were very clear that we don't elect
leaders
in America—we elect
representatives.
For example, from time to time I've had as guests on my radio program politicians who've taken positions on issues with which I disagree. The bottom line for me, though, is that if they are truly representing the desires and the interests of their state or district, I can't condemn them for taking those positions. That, after all, is what they're elected to do. (On the other hand, many make that claim when it's patently false, such as those who supported the so-called bankruptcy reform legislation in 2005, which benefited only people wealthy enough to have an Asset Protection Trust to shelter their money from bankruptcy or the banking industry.)

Given that our senators and members of the House of Representatives (and more-local politicians, all the way down to school board members) are elected to
represent
our will rather than
lead
us, it's important that we let them know how we feel, what our vision is, and what story we want them acting out. The best way to do this is to show up at public events where they're present and speak out. And if your elected officials aren't showing up much in public, create a venue for them.

Rep. Bernie Sanders (Independent, VT)—who's been a weekly guest on my program for more than two years—has often suggested to listeners that if there is an issue about which they're passionate, they should get together at least fifty or a hundred people who'll commit to showing up, book a hall or a school auditorium, and invite their senator or congressperson to come for
a Town Hall meeting. Politicians who consistently refuse to meet with their own constituents should be voted out of office.

Politicians I know tell me that the communications from their constituents that are most compelling are those that are handwritten or clearly unique typewritten letters. When writing to a politician, keep it short, clear, and to the point. Open with your specific concern and close with a call to action. Don't make it more than a single page. A single paragraph is even better.

If writing about multiple issues, write multiple letters as some politicians—particularly at the national level—file letters according to topic. (One senatorial staffer told me that they stack and weigh letters on an issue, pro and con; whichever stack weighs more tells that senator how his constituents feel. If true, maybe we should be writing our letters on coated paper stock as it's much heavier than normal paper!)

Next on the list are faxes and phone calls. You can easily google the phone number of your elected representatives; and the main switchboard on Capitol Hill—which will connect you to the office of any member of the House, the Senate, or the White House—is (202) 225-3121. Several organizations also pay for toll-free numbers that connect to this number. As with letters, keep faxes and phone calls short, polite, and to the point. Odds are the result of your call will simply be a single check mark on a list that reads something like "ANWAR Drilling—For or Against," so don't try to convert or enlighten the staffer or intern who's answering the phone. (That's best done with your letter to the editor.)

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate will always give higher priority to people from their own district, so when calling your own representative or senators, be sure to give your name and ZIP code (and address, if you want to get their mailings).

Some members are on powerful committees that influence the entire nation, so if you're calling a member who doesn't directly
represent you, you may want to mention that his or her activities on that particular committee do, in fact, affect all Americans, so on this particular issue you feel that the politician
does
represent you and should hear your voice, too.

Even if your workplace isn't unionized, it's still possible to involve yourself with the union movement. The two largest umbrella organizations in the union movement are the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. You can get on Change to Win's e-mailing list by entering your information on its Web site at
www.changetowin.org
.

The AFL-CIO has gone a step further and created a union-affiliated organization for people who aren't represented by a union but want to support the union movement and participate in its work and goals. It's called Working America, and you can join at
www.workingamerica.com
.

One of the most important keys to rebuilding America's middle class, though, is to strengthen and re-empower its union movement through legislative changes. Our laws define the rules of the game of business, and they define the relationship between employer and employee. They make possible unionization
and
union busting. In the absence of laws protecting workers' rights, the power of capital will always crush the power of workers.

Thus, it's vital to elect union-friendly politicians to public office.

In 1947, after Republicans took the House and the Senate in the election of 1946, they proposed and passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which took a big bite out of the pro-labor Wagner Act of 1935. Taft-Hartley let states opt out of big provisions of the Wagner Act, producing so-called right-to-work states and reintroducing cheap labor to the American South, the first states to take advantage of it. Harry Truman vetoed Taft-Hartley, but the Republicans had enough votes to override his veto; and its presence in part made it
possible for Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush to so effectively declare war on working people.

One litmus test for politicians—a question you may want to ask—is if they support the repeal of Taft-Hartley. If so, they understand the big picture and support America's having a strong middle class. If not, they're either uninformed or in the pocket of the corporate elite.

On October 29, 1941, during the height of Britain's war with Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill spoke to the boys at Harrow School, which he'd attended as a child. The boys were terrified by the bombing raids. Each day, it seemed, they read in the papers about another European country's falling to a madman. Churchill, who was battling alcohol, ADHD, and episodic depression along with Hitler, decided to give them a dose of his own internal self-talk, the way he had always successfully pushed himself through the many adversities he had faced in his life.

His words are a good reminder to us as we face the blitzlike destruction wrought on America by nearly three decades of insane con economic, trade, and foreign policies that have left our factories rusting, our neighborhoods devastated, and our people in fear of illness or job loss. "Never give in," Churchill said in a grave voice, his fist in the air, a finger pointed skyward. "Never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."