Sunday, February 29, 2004

The blue states, progressive lobbying and where we can move forward

I'm so envious of how easy it is for the money people to set up right-wing organizations. ALEC is a great organization for right-wingers. Funded largely by the businesses that make a fortune off of changed state laws, it pushes for public policies that raise profits by lowering wages and legal protections.

They have a good map of the 50 state legislatures here. And the map shows which states are run by Democrats. They are (reading east to west): Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, California and Hawaii.

16 out of 50. Not bad.

And those are the places where we can implement some cutting-edge policies that manufactures a middle class. That's what I'd like to do in Illinois, and conceivably, in other states as well. Anyone know other people making progress in other states so we can copy them? (Besides, of course, the money-people who are at least 20 years ahead of us).

You know, the labor unions are the natural go-to organization for this kind of stuff. They have resources and they are in every state. I should work with them more than I do. They are all over Springfield, and they've got clout. And they are usually doing good work -- certainly for their members.

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