We have seen the lessons of History. We know what happens when
unchecked corruption poisons our government and our business. We know
what needs to be done to save America for the average Americans, and for
the aspiring Americans. We know what worked in the past to make America the envy of the world, the gold standard of prosperity, with small towns and big cities alike thrumming to the tune of progress for all. If we truly wanted to make America great, we
need only to look to the past failures and successes of the American experiment to
know in which way to move forward. Though it may be cut in our schools and derided in our culture, we must look back to History.
In the years following the Civil War, Americans kept taxes low and government weak. The result was a series of horrible economic shocks, one after the other: 1873, 1893, 1896, 1907, and even more. Banking panics, recessions, and stock market crashes, all running parallel with the likes of Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, etc. More and more money going to the top, less money and jobs and less opportunity for those in the middle, quickly squeezed in with those on the bottom. And then, finally, the dam breaks entirely when the few left in the middle class borrow everything to afford the life they are told they need to have, and the global economy crashes in 1929. Only four years earlier, the President claims "the chief business of the American people is business," and unbridled business not only crashes the economy, but makes desperate and angry people the world over put strongmen and fascists into power, leading to World War II.
In the years following World War II, taxes were sky-high on the richest Americans, regulation of businesses and banks was strong, and wages were high. The government, knowing they had to keep the engine of America going when it stopped needing tanks and bombs to fight the fascists. As a result, government took the money from the rich and spent it to improve life for all: social spending for things like the Polio vaccine, the Man on the Moon, and the Interstate System provided jobs, money, health, and pride for all Americans. You could have almost called it Democratic Socialism.
Minnesota's caucus
results prove that Minnesota often knows what is best for America before
the majority of other states: we saw the damage a modern Republican
government can wreak with Pawlenty, and when every other state went red
in 2010, Minnesota went blue and enjoyed a prosperity only dreamed of by
its Republican neighbors. Wisconsin, Kansas, Louisiana, and more
including New Jersey and Iowa have felt the damage caused to an economy
ruled by corporatists masquerading as "conservatives." Minnesota, the star
of the north, stands as a beacon lighting the way to a better tomorrow, because it understands what happened yesterday.
History is on our side, facts are on our side,
and the people are on our side: the DFL platform is a winning platform
that has been proven to win in Minnesota and can be proven to win in
America at large. Walter Mondale, a DFLer defined, was sold out by a political process that placed more weight on soundbites than the truth, and the past 30 years have proved that Mondale in 84 was right then, and he is still right now. If we do not take every chance to seize upon our
successes and make it known to the greater country, we could very well
be condemning our larger, united body to hard times coming again once
more. Do not let 2016 become another repeat of 1877, or 1932, or even
2007. Get the message out that a progressive movement, a nationwide DFL
movement, is what is needed to beat back the tide of anger, frustration,
and ultimately crisis.
