The Roosevelt Rundown is an email series featuring the Roosevelt
Institute’s top 5 stories of the week. We’re skipping next week’s
rundown to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, but we’ll be back on
Friday, July 12.
1. New Rules, New
Politics
The American people increasingly
understand that the private sector has captured our economy,
democracy, and society—and that this reality has a profound, negative
impact on our daily lives. Some leading policymakers have responded to
this awakening, which has the potential to change politics as we know
it. For Boston
Review, Roosevelt President and CEO Felicia Wong
outlines how
a revolution in economics has led to this new kind of
politics. “[T]he paradigm shift at the heart of the
new economics has focused our attention on the profound imbalances of
today’s entrenched power. That some leading, mainstream politicians
see this for what it is gives some reason to hope,” says Wong.
2. Putting Power in the
Presidency
Wong’s “new rules, new politics”
argument was made evident during the Democratic
primary debates on
Wednesday and Thursday night. From combating corporate concentration
to pursuing inclusive environmental policy, many candidates are
shifting their agenda to meet the moment. For the blog, Roosevelt Vice
President of Policy and Strategy Nell Abernathy and Fellow Julie
Margetta Morgan explain how candidates can win our votes next year:
“The concentration of power in our economy and our
democracy are at the heart of America’s economic and social
challenges. Correctly identifying distorted power dynamics and
crafting policies to address them must be a requisite for anyone
seeking the presidency in 2020 and beyond.”
3. The Anti-Entrenchment
Agenda
The American
Prospect’s Paul Starr
focuses
squarely on entrenched power, elevating three specific solutions to the
problem. On rebalancing power in the market, Starr
cites New
Rules for the 21st
Century: “As a recent report of the Roosevelt
Institute argues, progressive taxation can serve both as ‘a deterrent
against extraction and wealth hoarding’ and as a means of limiting the
outsized political sway of the superrich. A revived antitrust policy
can reduce ‘firms’ ability to exploit competitors, consumers, and
workers’ as well as their ability to manipulate public policy.
Empowering workers can enable them to claim a fair share of the
economy’s gains and to offset corporate political
influence.”
4. Voices from the
Field
For the blog, Roosevelt Network
Forge Fellow Sadiya Khan discusses her journey to public service, which began
with her vision to reclaim public power by better connecting
government with the communities it is meant to serve. From starting a
feminist club to securing menstrual hygiene products for homeless
women, Khan brings a strong commitment to the most disadvantaged to
her work with the fellowship. “It may be obvious, but the point bears
repeating nonetheless: In social change work, I have come to
understand that there is no substitute for working with those who are
directly impacted,” she said.
5. With Great Power
Comes Green
Responsibility
Quoted in a Fast
Company piece
on Big Tech and the climate crisis, Roosevelt Fellow Mark Paul expands
on the framework of his recent decarbonization
report
(co-authored with Roosevelt Fellow JW Mason and Anders Fremstad of
Colorado State University). “I’d like to see [Big Tech] taking more of
a role in building out the green economy in particular,” Paul says.
“Right now there’s a number of investments that need to
be made to decarbonize the economy faster and drive down costs. So I
think the Big Tech firms have an important role to play in investing
much more than they’ve been doing to date.”
What We’re
Reading
On Monday, a group of wealthy
Americans, including Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and Abigail
Disney, published an
open letter
in support of a progressive wealth tax. “Some ideas like #wealthtax
are too important for America‘s future and should be part of all 2020
presidential candidates’ platforms,” tweeted Ian Simmons, co-founder of the Blue Haven
Initiative, who also signed on to the letter.
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