Feingold’s Next Fight: To Give
Democrats Some Backbone
Capital Times Editorial (8/25/11)
Anyone who thought former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold was quitting politics with his announcement that he would not run for office in 2012 missed the point of the Wisconsin Democrat’s decision. Feingold was not abandoning the fight for progressive values, he was signaling his determination to carry that fight forward as a citizen activist who promises to be a thorn in the side of the political elites of both parties.
Progressives would be wise to join his effort to give the Democrats something they are going to
need in this fall’s deliberations: a backbone.
That was abundantly clear Tuesday, as Feingold ramped up a campaign to get Democratic members of the new congressional supercommittee on deficit issues to commit to represent working families rather than corporations.
Feingold and members of the national activist group he formed after leaving the Senate last year, Progressives United, are petitioning Democratic supercommittee members to embrace the following priorities as they negotiate with Republican committee members:
1. Millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations pay their fair share of debt reduction.
2. No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits.
3. No giveaways to corporate interests.
4. Or no deal.
As Feingold explains it: “Numbers one through three are important policy priorities, but number four is equally important. If we don’t get our policy priorities, Democrats need to be ready to walk away from the deal. You can guarantee extremists on the other side will continue to push relentlessly to give even more to corporations and put even more of the burden on the middle class. We have to fight harder than they will.” …
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