Crises expose the inequities and inadequacies of our systems - so they also create moments of incredible opportunity. Everything is up for questioning. All of it is on the table. As the 2008 financial crisis unfolded, tens of millions of Americans were hurting and making meaning of what was happening. To meet the pressing needs of people in crisis, advance overdue structural reforms, and open up people’s sense of what was possible, we began to organize loads of new people. Right now, we are in another moment of crisis With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, more people are open to organizing than at any time in our lives. The gross inequalities and inadequacies of our systems are being seen in a new light by tens of millions of people. I remember during the 2008 financial crisis, people who had lost homes, jobs, and pensions were suddenly ready for action they had never imagined. With more than 25 million now unemployed, there are a lot of people looking for support, meaning, and action. This is a moment that requires organizing. That’s why we have created this video - to meet people where they are, and help them make meaning in this new moment of crisis. Check it out - I think you’ll find it helpful. This video comes from the political education program we built and run in partnership with Harmony Goldberg and the Grassroots Policy Project. A big shoutout to Jenn Carrillo, Billie Kirkton, and Harmony for their work on this.
Trump and the GOP have trapped themselves in a course of action and a debate that have the potential to destroy them come November, if only Democrats understand and engage. Over and over, Republicans will call for Americans to risk their lives to “reopen” the economy, even if it kills thousands of people. This is a natural choice for Trump, because he hasn’t a drop of empathy in his body; he simply doesn’t care about other people’s health. For the usual reasons, money and power, the great majority of Republican officeholders and funders will back him to the hilt. Democrats will, of course, defend the health of our fellow citizens because that’s who we are. But (here’s the point of this column), it is also terrific politics and we should embrace every chance to engage in the health-versus-money debate. The surest way to win an election is to control the question that voters are answering by their vote. In 2008, for example, Obama convinced people that the question was “who is the candidate of change?” That’s how he defeated Clinton in the primaries; she could not represent change like Obama, obviously. And the same framing won the general. If in 2020 the question is, “which candidate/party is more likely to keep you healthy,” then the result will be a tsunami of Blue votes.
The failure of the White House to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic has given Andrew Cuomo an unlikely turn in the spotlight. Cuomo, for his part, has taken the opportunity and run with it: hosting daily news briefings and running comedy routines with his younger brother on CNN. But when the cameras are off, Cuomo—in true Machiavellian fashion—is using his newfound celebrity to grant himself sweeping new powers, silence his critics, and cut vital programs that working families are counting on during this pandemic. Cuomo has gifted himself “rolling budget adjustment” powers, which allows him to make cuts on a quarterly basis with little to no oversight. These would be on top of the billions in cuts he has already made to health care and public education. If that wasn’t enough, he also slipped into the budget a new ballot threshold for third parties to exact revenge on the Working Families Party for challenging him in 2018. And at a time when even Republican Governors are releasing people from jails and prisons to curb the spread of COVID-19, Cuomo has refused to grant clemencies to people in prison, and chose to increase the jail population by rolling back landmark civil rights protections for defendants.
COVID-19 has shuttered public schools across the nation, state governments are threatening to slash education budgets due to the economic collapse caused by the outbreak. But the charter school industry may benefit from its unique status to seek public funding from multiple sources and expand these schools into many more communities traumatized by the pandemic and financial fallout. As school districts reported huge problems with converting classroom learning into online instruction delivered to students’ homes, often due to lack of funding, charter operators rolled out new marketing campaigns to lure families to enroll in their schools. Teachers have urged their districts to stop charter school expansions and co-locations, which they believe worsen the trauma that children in their communities are experiencing due to the virus. But the Trump administration and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have shown no signs of easing up their campaigns to further privatize public schools. “This is an opportunity,” said DeVos in an interview with right-wing radio talk show host Glenn Beck, “to collectively look very seriously at the fact that K-12 education for too long has been very static and very stuck in one method of delivering and making instruction available.”
Thousands of workers across America begged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to investigate when their employers failed to take steps to protect them from COVID-19. They reported a lack of face masks, gloves, soap and hand sanitizer. They warned of having to share desks and stand right next to one another on production lines, despite the need for social distancing to slow the spread of the disease. They put their faith in OSHA and waited for the agency to come to their aid. But help never came. OSHA—the agency responsible for America’s workplace safety—left workers to fend for themselves during the biggest health crisis in recent history. There’s a reason for the agency’s dereliction of duty. The agency’s boss, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, is the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse. He’s a longtime corporate lawyer who’s never cared about workers’ welfare. Scalia—the son of the late right-wing Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia— made a fortune at a Beltway law firm helping greedy corporations cheat workers out of decent pay and skimp on safety. Workplace infections and deaths from the coronavirus can be prevented, if only Scalia would live up to his title as Labor Secretary and empower OSHA to do its job.
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