Agenda 2020: American Poor

Hoping to gain activists and energise a large voting bloc, nine 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls – including one nobody has ever heard of – tackled the problems of the poor and voter-suppression of black and brown people, among other topics, at a candidate forum here June 17.

The eight-hour-long session, minus a dinner break, marked the opening of the New Poor People's Campaign's headline three-day D.C. conclave, which saw more than 1,000 participants brainstorming on how to bring the problems of the poor and near-poor to the top of the US political agenda, and keep them there.

And there are more poor and near-poor than people realise, campaign co-chairs Revs. William Barber and Liz Theoharis repeatedly told the nine: Former Vice President Joe Biden, Silicon Valley businessman Andrew Yang, New Age author and activist Marianne Williamson of California, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Miramar, Fla. Mayor Wayne Messam – the unknown – and Sens. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., in that order.

Barber, Theoharis, and questioners pointed out that calculations show 140 million people, some 43 per cent of the US, live below, at, or slightly above the US poverty line. And contrary to both media imagery and right-wing propaganda, a plurality (66 million) are white. "We invited Republicans, Democrats, and even the president because we have extreme poverty" to discuss, Barber said. But 14 of 23 Democratic hopefuls were no-shows. So was GOP President Donald Trump. Speakers also pointed out that half the country does not have enough savings to cover a $400 emergency. Harris, the closer, echoed that point when she linked poverty and infrastructure.

Repeating a comparison she's used before, Harris asked: "Do you know how much it costs to get all four tires for your car?" Tires are busted, ripped, and torn "from all the potholes" because the US is filled with decaying and dangerous roads. Repairing them can provide well-paying infrastructure jobs for the poor and near-poor, she said. And it would prevent those $400 tire emergencies too, she added.

Harris's comment echoed a theme of the questions. The US has the wealth to address the problems of the poor and the near-poor, speakers said. It just "doesn't have the moral capacity to turn to your neighbour and say 'It's time to change,'" Barber said.

Thus, the session and the questioners challenged the hopefuls on their spending priorities, with Theoharis constantly hammering home the theme that 53 cents of every discretionary federal spending dollar go to the military – and that it's time to cut that. The NPPC's new Moral Budget makes that same point, in detail. The candidates, except Sanders and Warren, sidestepped that demand. "We need to tell the Pentagon 'Stop demanding more, more, more," she added

Barber also said the candidates must campaign in the South, which has the largest share of the US poor, and that, unlike in 2016, they devote one of the upcoming party-sponsored debates to poverty and racism. Reid added immigration, telling Swalwell that Democrats "are tiptoeing around" Trump-stoked "fears of a black and brown wave."

Sanders responded by previewing a campaign speech he'll give on poverty and racism next week in Mississippi. And Harris said she'd, by executive order, abolish Trump's detention camps for migrants and asylum seekers. "We have babies sitting in cages because of the policies of this administration," she said.

All the hopefuls agreed a debate should focus on poverty, racism, militarism and the interactions between those issues. But only Swalwell promised to take that debate demand to the Democratic National Committee "or anybody else" who makes such decisions on debate agendas. Swalwell was also the only hopeful to discuss workers' rights, but even then, he had to be asked, by McDonald's worker Bobby Fields. Sanders said turning the nation's priorities upside down, to emphasise aiding the poor and near-poor, would be part of "waging a political revolution, not only in this election," but for years to come. "You are the answer," he urged the crowd. "We will never have any change unless we stand up and say to the wealthy campaign contributors, the corporate interests, the billionaire class and the 1%…that the country belongs not to you, but to all of us."

"Millions will have to come together to tell those that have the power now that this power structure will no longer continue," he declared. "If we don't do that, all the speeches and legislation in the world won't do."

Nevertheless, Sanders and all the others said that includes restoring the strength of the Voting Rights Act. But the senator went farther, repeating his proposal to let everyone aged 18 and above vote, including people now in jail for felonies. The US Constitution does not bar felons from voting, but many state laws and constitutions do – a legacy of Jim Crow.

"The future of this country rests with defeating Donald Trump and the best way to do that is to register millions of young people, working people and people of color and get them involved in the political process. Will my campaign be involved in that? You can bet your last dollar on it," Sanders stated.

Biden, like the others, also advocated repealing the Trump-GOP tax cut for corporations and the rich, raising $2 trillion over a decade, He would then close unspecified tax loopholes, adding another $1.6 trillion. That could be used to reduce income inequality and pay for domestic programs, Biden said.

Elizabeth Warren was blunter about McConnell. If he executes more blockades, as he does now and as he did during Democratic President Barack Obama's 8-year White House tenure, she'd demand senators abolish the legislative filibuster. That's the Senate minority's last remaining tool to stop legislation.

McConnell has already ended filibusters to grease the skids for right-wing judicial and Trump administration nominees, though none of the contenders mentioned that. "Who is the government going to work for?" Warren asked. "The rich and the powerful? Or a government that works for everyone else – and I'm in this fight for everyone else."

As an example, she advocated a small wealth tax: Two cents on the dollar for every dollar earned over $50 million. It would hit the top 75,000 rich in the US – including Trump, though Warren didn't say so – and would raise enough money to fund universal pre-K education, eliminate student loan debt for 95 per cent of college grads, and extend child care, she said.

But how do you achieve all this, Reid asked, in the face of Trump, McConnell and the GOP? Like Sanders, Warren's answer was a mass movement – and exposing the GOP's divide-and-conquer tactics. "So long as" African-Americans and white workers are pitted, by the GOP and the elite "against each other, they don't notice who's picking their pockets," she commented.

As for the mass movement, "I've got more time" to campaign than other White House hopefuls "because I'm not spending my time behind closed doors with corporate lobbyists," seeking campaign contributions, she said – a subtle dig at Biden. "I'm building a grass-roots organisation."

Besides, Warren added, "There's more of us than there are of them."

(Courtesy: People's World The views expressed are strictly personal)