What's Left, of 2006

The annual year in review in policy from the Drum Major Institute is out, and I thought I'd share a few nuggets. Now, I'm not an impartial observer; I'm a board member with knowledge aforethought. But still, ther's great stuff here, especially in a year dominated by the win-loss column and the myriad macaca moments of the campaign trail.

Under Worst of Public Policy comes the entry "Trifecta of Dirty Tricks" - at least its author has seen the end of his national political careeer:

What do you call a bill that combines a cut in the Estate Tax with a modest increase in the minimum wage with anti-labor loopholes with an extension of pro-business tax breaks? If you’re outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, you’d call it your pet project. If you are the rest of America, you’d call it an all-out insult. In one of the biggest acts of political cynicism to show its face in 2006, Frist pledged support for a much needed increase in the minimum wage... as long as it came with a substantial tax break for the wealthiest one-tenth of one percent of Americans that will cost the government $1 trillion and other changes that would actually result in a pay cut for some workers. Lucky for current and aspiring middle-class Americans, who need both a minimum wage increase and the paved highways and cops and teachers paid for with revenue from the Estate Tax, the Trifecta Bill was taken off the table in August. This one merits the title “Worst of,” three times over.

Even better is the review of hte work of the Family Research Council, the $10 million think tank of the hate-based, er, values voter initiative. Three red-hot books funded by these guys:

• Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows About Homosexuality by Timothy J. Dailey and Peter Sprigg / This book argues, among other things, that coming out will lead to an early death. Its purpose is to dispel the myth that “homosexuality is harmless.”

• Women Who Make the World Worse by Kate O’Beirne / O’Beirne’s first book accuses leading feminists of fracturing families, driven by the notion that men are the enemy.

• “How U.S. Official Promotes Marriage To Help Poor Kids” by Laura Meckler / Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Meckler endorses the government’s decision to spend more than $5 million in taxpayer funds to promote healthy marriage initiatives.

And the review also as a nice section on netroots' storming of the political gates in '06, including an episode overlooked in this wild mid-term year:

On March 25, 2006, 500,000 people protested for immigrant rights in Los Angeles. One in four of all middle and high school students in the city participated, an extraordinary turnout, and it wasn’t by coincidence. MySpace.com, an online social network where people — mostly teens — post profiles and link to friends, was a critical hub. Protest organizers were able to communicate to students who had otherwise never participated in social activism. Teenagers learned how their friends—immigrants and the children of immigrants—were impacted firsthand by this debate. Thanks to MySpace, politics became personal, and the result was thousands of people in the street forcing a shift in the thinking of the hundreds on Capitol Hill deciding their fate.

Comments

[Elana]

Thanks for the shoutout Tom!!