infrastructure
Beyond indignation and toward progressive policy-making, state-by-state
U.S. Sen. Al "Landslide" Franken kicked off a national meeting of progressive leaders in Duluth earlier this month with an opening declaration that "moral indignation is great!’’
Then he added, a little sheepishly and with his trademark perfect timing: “It’s just not very attractive. It's a lesson I've learned.”
His confession, about how his own indignation made his election closer than it should have been, drew knowing laughter from the crowd of about 200 think-tank directors, advocacy groups organizers, and Duluth citizens at a meeting sponsored by the A.H. Zeppa Foundation and directed by the Commonweal Institute, based in California.
And the Progressive Roundtable conference that followed was suffused with the theme that if there is to be a progressive renaissance, it needs to be animated by a spirit of constructive and practical problem-solving, piece-by-piece, and state-by-state.
Tags: values, Progressive Roundtable, Networking, MN, infrastructure, Duluth, Al Franken
Give Stimulus Package an Extra Kick
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the Stimulus Package, takes a couple of steps in the right direction. The best part of the package is the money that it provides for improvements in infrastructure.
That's good, because our roads, bridges, power grids, and water systems are in bad shape. The American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave the nation's overall infrastructure a grade of D, and we can't maintain the world's biggest economy with failing roads, bridges, and water systems. Still, the plan’s spending for infrastructure is just a tiny part of what the country needs.
Maintaining our infrastructure is something that government must do. So doing something that’s already the government’s responsibility hardly qualifies as a stimulus.
The time lag for infrastructure improvements and creation of new green jobs is not the only problem.
A bigger problem is that the package perpetuates the myth that government can create wealth.
The Floods of Heaven: The Costs of Bipartisan Deregulation
America is crumbling, and bipartisan deregulation is to blame. Free-market mantras and corporate welfare have destabilized the dollar, bankrupted suburban America, and drained every sign of government activity from the landscape.
We’ve Got to Rebuild America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
Early this summer most of America saw images of houses washing down the swollen Mississippi, logjammed against a bridge. In the following weeks we heard about the humans, libraries and even pets left homeless, but outside Iowa, few people heard about the problem of those houses, or indeed about that bridge itself. Iowans alone were left to contemplate their opportunities: When insurance failed, would FEMA provide? Would charity?
Conservative Movement
Information About the Right
This is Commonweal Institute's collection of articles, reports and resources for studying the right-wing ideological movement.
We hope that you can take the time to become informed on these issues, and inform others.
We also have a Progressive Infrastructure Information page with articles, reports and resources focusing on development of Progressive infrastructure organizations and a Progressive Philosophy and Values page, with articles, reports and resources focusing on Progressive philosophy and values.
Contents:
Privatization
The political initiative at the moment lies with the conservatives, who, generally speaking, advocate shifting a variety of civic functions away from government to the private sector, or at least reducing government involvement in these functions. The list includes some of the most important issues of the day: education, prisons, social security, and land use. Listen to some of the more committed privatizers, and you begin to wonder whether they think there should even be a government.
