Now What?

 What Next?

Democrats won. Now what? Last week, the Democrats defeated the Republicans in a landslide, and the party now controls both the House and the Senate in Washington. In my state of Wisconsin, Democrats also took control of the state legislature. All that is pretty exciting, but the Democratic Party must now decide what to do with the power that the voters have given it.

Focus on Impeachment of Bad Actors?

It will be tempting to seek for revenge or for justice. It will be tempting to use Congress’s subpoena power to investigate and punish the spectacular corruption and malfeasance of the current administration’s officials, but if the Democrats focus mainly on that, they will waste the opportunity that the voters have given them. Instead, the party should focus on passing legislation that helps the millions of working Americans who put them in office.

Democrats Won Because Trump Forgot Who His Supporters Were

The Democrats must recognize that they were not elected because American voters had fallen in love with the Democratic Party. The Democrats won because the voters felt betrayed by Mr. Trump.  He had forgotten who his supporters were, and he adopted policies that hurt them in obvious and undeniable ways. 

He couldn’t spin his way out of soybeans sitting in grain elevators because they could not be exported. He couldn’t spin his way out of trucking companies that were going bankrupt because of the price of diesel fuel. He couldn’t spin his way out of the fact that construction workers in Florida were afraid to go to work or that Hispanic voters in the Rio Grand Valley in Texas who had voted for him felt betrayed. Elon Musk’s millions could not buy the election in Texas because the voters knew that they wanted a change. They didn’t necessarily want Democrats, but they wanted to get rid of the Republicans, and the Democrats were the only alternative.

Democrats Must Remember Who Elected Them

Democrats must not fall into the trap of forgetting who elected them. The party must focus on doing things to help those voters. There are plenty of possibilities. The party can listen to Gina Hinojosa when she says that ICE should focus on controlling our southern border while stopping the persecution of people who have lived and worked here for many years. Democrats can provide relief from student debt, and they can reestablish the subsidies for health insurance to make it more affordable. Democrats can work to end the war in Iran that has driven up the cost of diesel fuel. Democrats can help communities that are resisting data centers. Democrats can fix Social Security in a way that does not reduce payments.

Democrats will have to choose carefully. Many of the Democrats who were just elected come from conservative districts, and the voters there will need to be persuaded that they did not make a mistake in electing Democrats. In addition, the Democrats will need Republican help to override Pres. Trump’s vetoes. He will surely veto anything that the Democrats propose, and they do not have enough seats in Congress to override his vetoes. Only bills with bipartisan support will be able to pass over Trump’s vetoes.

So, the next couple of years are going to be difficult. There will be lots of horse-trading in Congress. Democrats must remember that the goal is to build a party that the voters trust to act in their interest.

The Futility of Talking About "an Exodus From Zionism"

 An Exodus From Zionism?

A recent article in The Guardian by Naomi Klein was entitled “We Need an Exodus from Zionism.” I am not quite sure what the phrase “exodus from Zionism” means, but it expresses the discomfort that many Jews feel over the actions of Israel’s government in Gaza and the actions of settlers in the West Bank. I share that discomfort. I believe that Israel is doing things that are completely unacceptable, but talking about an exodus from Zionism will not help.

The idea that we need an exodus from Zionism also has nothing to do with the debate over whether the United States should continue to support Israel militarily. That is a legitimate debate, and American citizens must decide what is in the best interest of our country or in the best interest of world peace. Questioning our connection to the State of Israel is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.

Zionism Has Already Achieved Its Goal

An exodus from Zionism would in any case be meaningless because Zionism has already achieved its goal. Zionism as a movement and an ideology had as its goal the establishment of a Jewish state in what was first the Turkish province of Palestine and later the British Mandate. The state of Israel exists today, and therefore the Zionist Movement achieved its goal. As a movement and an ideology, Zionism has no further purpose. Abandoning Zionism would be an empty gesture.

Most Israelis Are Descendants of Refugees

There is another way to interpret Klein's demand for an exodus from Zionism. Perhaps, she means that we Jews should stop supporting the State of Israel because it should not exist. In this view, the Zionist movement was always illegitimate, and the State of Israel is nothing but a European colonial enterprise. The Jews in Israel are like the French in Algeria or the British in Kenya, and they should go back where they came from.

The problem with this idea is that it is false.  Unlike the French or British colonial settlers, almost all Israelis are the children or grandchildren of refugees. More than half of them are not even descendants of Europeans. They are the children or grandchildren of refugees from Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. They have no other homeland to return to. So, they will not be going anywhere.

Israel Exists

The State of Israel exists, and its people have no other homeland. An “exodus from Zionism” will not change that reality. Israel, like every country, has a history of violence. No country that I know of came into being in a morally pure way. We Americans should be especially aware of that because our country came into being through the extermination of the people who were here before us. Nevertheless, the United States is now our homeland, and we have no other. Naomi Klein is Canadian, and her country has a similar history. Yet, she does not claim that the U.S. or Canada should not exist.

So, talking about an “exodus from Zionism” is pointless. Zionism has already achieved its goal. Israel exists and will continue to exist. Its people have nowhere else to go. Individual Jews in the diaspora must decide for themselves what to do and what to feel about Israel. I cannot support the actions of the government of Israel or the war in Gaza. I think that what the extremist settlers in the West Bank are doing is terrorism. It is unacceptable. On the other hand, I do support liberal and progressive movements within Israel. Others may take different positions. Talking about an exodus from Zionism achieves nothing.

America Last?

 

Our president was elected on a promise to Make America Great Again, but he lied. Almost everything he has done has weakened our country. Let’s look at some of the things that he has done.

Foreign Policy

In foreign policy, making America great again has taken a form he has called “America First,” but that has turned out to mean “American Alone.” Mr. Trump foolishly thinks that we are strong because we stand alone. He does not understand that allies make us stronger and that preserving our alliances makes us stronger not weaker. So, he is willing to sacrifice alliances built over many years for small, domestic political advantages. The latest expression of his view is his executive order suspending sanctions on Russia in order to allow us to import Russian diesel fuel in the hope that the price of diesel fuel will come down before next month’s election.

This action flies directly in the face of the policies and interests of our NATO allies in Europe. They are supporting Ukraine against Russia because they see Russia’s expansionism as a threat to all of them. They see Putin as today’s Hitler, and they remember Munich. So, they ask themselves, “If Putin can take all or part of Ukraine, what is to prevent him from focusing next on Romania or Poland? 

Trump doesn’t care about any of that. He is willing to throw away NATO and the support of our European allies for a possible electoral advantage in November. He is willing to give up our position as “leader of the free world” and thereby to weaken the United States in the hope that a few Republicans may be elected to Congress next month. How will Europeans ever trust NATO or the United States again?

Trump also appears to be willing to dump our Arab allies in the Middle East. The current war with Iran has shown that the United States cannot or will not defend our Arab allies against attacks by Iran or its proxies like the Houthis. There can be no doubt that our position in the Middle East will be permanently weakened. Trump's foolish support of Netanyahu in Israel's upcoming election can never make up for the doubt in the minds of our Arab allies.

Immigration

In running for office, Trump promised to crack down on illegal immigration, and he has done so with a vengeance. Tens of thousands of immigrants have been arrested and imprisoned or deported. It was always obvious that the mass deportation of immigrants would damage our economy, especially in sectors like construction or agriculture that depend on immigrant workers. Today, crops are rotting in the fields because the workers who used to harvest the crops have disappeared, and an article in the New York Times tells us that the cleanup from Hurricane Isaias in Florida may well be delayed because workers are afraid to show up for work.

As if that were not enough, we learn in a recent article that the deportation of immigrant workers will reduce the income of the Social Security System on which millions of Americans depend in their retirement.

In order to satisfy the racists who elected him, Trump has damaged America's economy and made the people who voted for him more insecure and impoverished.

Taxes

Trump’s signature economic policy is the huge tax cuts that he passed in both his first and second administrations to please the billionaires who funded his campaigns. Those taxes have widened the government’s deficit and forced the government to borrow more money to pay its bills. To cover its debts, the government has had to resort to “printing” money, and the result has predictably been rapid inflation. The costs of basic consumer goods like housing, food and gasoline have risen dramatically, and millions of working Americans are suffering.

At the same time, Trump has raised tariffs on many imported goods. A tariff is a consumption tax, and it falls heavily on working Americans because they spend most of their incomes to buy the things that they need to live. Rich people are less affected by the tariffs because they spend a smaller proportion of the incomes on consumption. Indeed, it appears that the main purpose of the tariffs has been to shift the tax burden from the rich to the middle class.

Moreover, American farmers are suffering because other countries are responding to the tariffs by refusing to buy American agricultural products. Corn and soybeans exports have suffered, and farmers cannot pay back the money that they borrowed to finance the growing of those crops.

Thus, to reduce taxes for rich folks, he has been willing to cause immense damage to most Americans.

 America last indeed.

The Cultural Contributions of Immigrants Make Me Proud to be American

 Carmen.Maquia and Ballet Hispanico of New York

Last week, my wife and I went to see the ballet Carmen.Maquia performed by Ballet Hispanico of New York at the Appleton PAC. The performance was wonderful and full of very powerful dancing.  Bravo!  

Ballet Hispanico de New York is a highly regarded dance company that has been producing extraordinary performances since 1970. The company has roots in Cuba, but it is not a folkloric company. It does not focus on Cuban or other Latin American folk dancing, and it does not dress its dancers in folkloric costumes. The company is “Hispanic” only in the sense that its members and its leadership are Hispanic people and as such, they have a “Hispanic artistic sensibility” that underlies the company’s work.

Hispanic Artistic Sensibility

A Hispanic sensibility is different from a Cuban, Mexican, Argentinian or other Latin American sensibility. Each of those countries has its own culture and its own sensibility, and they are very different from one another. Hispanic sensibility is different from all of them, and it comes from the unique experience and culture of Latin American immigrants in the United States. A Hispanic sensibility has emerged in the United States out of the interaction between the cultures that Latin Americans have brought with them and the culture of the United States to which the immigrants must adapt.

Immigrant Sensibility Has Enriched Our Culture

Other immigrant groups have developed similar types of artistic sensibilities. There is a distinct Jewish-American sensibility and a distinct Italian-American sensibility. The movie The Deer Hunter takes place in a Russian-American community with its own distinctive culture. The interaction that produced these various immigrant cultures has produced many beautiful works of art, literature, theater and music. They are all American, but they express different aspects of our rich and complex culture.

Think for example of the movie Brooklyn starring Saoirse Ronan, which portrays the experience of an Irish immigrant woman in New York. Or think of the movie Funny Girl about a Jewish immigrant.  There are the novels of William Saroyan, which describe the experience of Armenian immigrants. We also have the musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein both of whom came from immigrant Jewish families.

Black Artistic Sensibility Has Played a Special Role

Then, there is the enormous contribution of Black Americans to American music. Black Americans are a special case because the racism and segregation of American society have allowed a unique Black American culture to evolve even among Black people who have been here for many generations. They have been marginalized and excluded, and so, they have developed a unique sensibility that has been central to the character and development of American music. Our culture has been immeasurably enriched by the musical creativity of Black Americans,

Hispanic Ballet and the Tradition of Immigrant Contributions to Our Culture

The work of the Hispanic Ballet Company falls into the rich tradition of immigrant and Black contributions to American culture. The company's work draws on the special experience of Hispanic immigrants to the United States, and it enriches our culture through the expression of a unique point of view. The beauty and power of Carmen.Maquia moved me deeply. It deepened my experience and offered me one more way to share in the unique power and diversity of American culture. We can be proud of it.

Replace the Property Tax With a Wealth Tax

 What Did the Property Tax Originally Do?

Why do we have a property tax, and why does it seem to have become unjust? We began collecting a property tax because our local governments needed money to fund projects of local benefit, but what were we taxing in those days? We were not taxing houses in the suburbs. That is certain. In the eighteenth century, there were no suburbs, and only a few people lived in towns. So, what were we taxing? The answer is that we were taxing wealth.

Land Used to be the Main Form of Wealth

In the eighteenth century, land was the most important form of wealth, and it was the most important productive resource. Capital as we know it today barely existed. There were no large industrial companies, and the modern corporation had not yet been invented. Most wealthy people were wealthy because they owned land, and most wealth was produced by working the land. In the British colonies, wealth came from products like tobacco, rice, indigo and sugar cane. A little later, wealth came from cotton. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were wealthy landowners.

Land was not the only form of wealth . International trade produced wealth in forms like the tea that was dumped in Boston Harbor, and infamously, there were slaves. However, in the eighteenth century, these forms of wealth were significant in only a few places. In most communities, they were insignificant. In most places, property in land was the main form of wealth.

Governments Protect Property Rights

For centuries, one of the primary responsibilities of government has been to protect property rights. Laws specify the rights of property owners and those of inheritance. Courts enforce the terms of contracts. Police and fire departments protect physical property. Local governments build roads, bridges and canals that promote trade that benefits primarily the owners of property. In past centuries, “property” meant primarily land, and so, it made sense that land should be taxed to pay for the costs of local government.

There Are Many Kinds of Property Today

Today, the protection of property is still a primary responsibility of government, but today property takes many forms. People own bonds and shares of stock. They own copyrights. Some people own companies the value of which does not come primarily from land. For example, a doctor may own the building where his/her office resides, but that building is not a large part of the value of the doctor's practice. An automobile repair business may own the building where the shop resides, but the value of the business comes also from the expensive tools that the business owns as well as the reputation of its owner. Stock traders may work from their homes, but their wealth consists primarily of stocks. Property today takes many forms.

We Should Tax All Types of Property

In addition, today we have millions of landowners who are not wealthy. They own only the small plots on which their homes sit, and today, they bear an unfair share of the cost of local government because the “property” tax is levied only on land and buildings and not on the many other forms of wealth that also benefit from the work of local governments. Today, it still makes sense for the wealthy to pay a large share of the cost of local government, but today “landowner” is not a synonym for “wealthy,” and “land” is not a synonym for “wealth.” We should update our tax structure to reflect the reality of today’s society. We should replace the property tax with a wealth tax.

Wake Up!

Cross-Cutting Conflicts Mask Class Divisions

A few weeks ago, an article appeared on line to talk about why baby boomers are hoarding their wealth instead of sharing it. I think that the article is mostly nonsense, but it is a symptom of something really important, which is the tendency of American progressives to split into cross-cutting groups along lines that prevent progressives from focusing on fundamental class conflicts. 

Young vs. Old

One of those lines is generational. The split is between the aging baby boomers and younger generations like gen-X or the millennials. On the one hand, we have articles that accuse old people of hoarding the wealth that they gained because they were born and grew up at a time when our expanding economy provided exceptional opportunities. We read that the fifties were a golden age in which a family could live well on one income, and we read that today’s young people face much higher barriers to the accumulation of wealth than the boomers did. On the other side of the divide, we see articles saying that old people should not have to pay property taxes on their homes because – it is said – the old people have already paid their dues. Both versions set up a conflict between the young and the old.

Men vs. Women

Then, there is the gender divide in which men are accused of oppressing women through the dominance of a patriarchy. Again, there is truth in this. Most positions of authority in the United States are held by men, but this argument obscures the fact that most men do not hold such positions. Most men are workers who are oppressed, but many of us do not see that. As a result, instead of rising together, men and women fight with each other.

White vs. Black

We also have a divide based on race. Again, it is real. People of color are and have been oppressed in our country since its founding. Policies like “red-lining” are or at least were real. Seniority policies promoted by unions have worked against people of color who became “the last hired and the first fired.” The difference in wealth between white people and people of color in our country is real, but who are the real oppressors? Remember that in the Civil War, poor white southerners died by the thousands to protect the plantation system that oppressed them.

Oligarchy

These political divisions come together in the phrase that says that political leaders in the United States are “pale, male and stale.” There is truth in this, too, but the phrase lacks an important adjective, and that adjective is “rich.” Our country is an oligarchy, and the oligarchs are rich people who use their money to control our electoral system and the representatives we elect. Some of the oligarchs are young, and some are old; some are men and a few are women; most are white, but a few are black. The oligarchy’s control is not perfect, but the oligarchs are working on that.

The oppression of young people, women or racial minorities is not the oligarchs' goal although, they can live with oppression. Their goal is to protect and increase their wealth. However, the oligarchs are happy to have the rest of us fighting among ourselves - men against women, black against white, young against old – because as long as we are doing that, the oligarchs can pick our pockets at their leisure, and they can run the country for their benefit. We need to wake up.

We Need to Wake Up

The oligarchs' current instrument for keeping us fighting among ourselves is the MAGA movement. The MAGA movement is in essence an immense diversionary tactic. It promotes the divisions that mask the oligarchy and blames women and minorities for the problems of working Americans. It also promotes a conflict between immigrants and native-born Americans.  MAGA focuses attention on cultural issues too. It works to make sure that voters focus on anything rather than the oligarchs.

The MAGA movement does these things while in the background, its leaders reduce income taxes and increase tariffs, which are consumption taxes, to shift the tax burden onto ordinary, working Americans. It eliminates environmental regulations that reduce the profits of corporations. MAGA's leaders hope that if they can keep the rest of us fighting among ourselves, they can continue to pick our pockets at leisure. We need to stop being suckered into fighting with each other and focus our attention on our real enemies. Wake up!

Hispanics as Americans

 Who Can Be an American?

This month we are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, and the celebration can teach us something about what it means to be American. Anyone can become an American because we Americans invented the idea of citizenship as a voluntary commitment.  We believe in the idea that anyone who accepts the responsibilities and duties of citizenship can be an American citizen, and we have no other definition of what it means to be American. Most other countries are different. If I moved to France, I could become a French citizen, but that would not make me a Frenchman; if I moved to Mexico, I might become a Mexican citizen, but that would not make me a Mexican; but the United States is different, a person who moves here can really become an American. American society is very open.

Our Openness Has Made Us Strong

Our openness to has made us strong. We have attracted people from all over the world, and they have built our society and our economy. The army that fought in World War II was made up in large part of children and grandchildren of immigrants. We had no shortage of people who could speak the languages of our enemies: German, Italian and Japanese.

Our definition of citizenship has made it possible for millions of people to become Americans without giving up elements of their ethnic heritages that they cherished. The Irish immigrants, who were scorned when they arrived, constructed an entire alternative school system to allow them to maintain their Catholic religious heritage in a largely Protestant country. It is not an accident that Notre Dame’s football team is known as the “fighting Irish.” The school system that the Irish created later helped millions of Italian and Polish immigrants to adjust to American life and to become Americans.

So, Let Us Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

So, it will be with the Hispanic heritage. Hispanic immigrants and their children will work to maintain parts of their heritage even as they integrate into American life. The children of Mexican immigrants will remember the Virgin of Guadalupe and their mothers' guisados even as they gradually lose the ability to speak Spanish, and their food will enrich our culture. Indeed, Mexican food has already become a part of American culture just as pizza and egg rolls did at an earlier time.

That is what we can learn from Hispanic Heritage Month. The maintenance of the Hispanic heritage does not make Hispanic immigrants less American in any way. The Hispanic immigrants are following the well-worn path that other immigrant groups followed before them, and the fact that they are able to do that will make us strong, and it will enrich our culture. So, let us join in the celebration of Hispanic Heritage secure in the knowledge that such celebrations are the secret of our success as a country.