Mike Boots - How the Progressive Party Saves the World... or Not

Choose a Side

Some say we need more than a two-party system. There is the Independent Party that has to choose between the Republican or Democrat Party if they want their vote to count toward the elected winner. The Independent Party, while being the largest party, does not have a particular set of policies other than not being Republican or Democrat. Also the Libertarian Party or the Green Party, they just don't have the funding or support to compete and are usually blamed for being a spoiler for either the Democrats or Republicans if they lose.

We all know we need more than one party. Unless we could strictly vote on the policies and character of a politician, a one-party system would end democracy. A single party in power, Democrats or Republicans, will set legislation in the direction of the highest bidder. Will mass have more and more power while it restricts the rights and freedoms of anyone who can't afford it? Even working-class Republicans assume they are on the side of the wealthy because they identify with hardworking, pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality. But money and power are just that, money and power. You think they would be on the side of a small business owner but that would be laughable big business and monopolies would rule, and the wealthiest people would own 100 percent of everything.

Luckily we still have a two-party system and recently we may have a couple more choices, kinda. It seems the Republican Party has been taken over by Trumpism as there are still non-Trump Republicans. In my opinion, they are tearing each other apart and destroying the Republican Party which I never supported. They have no policies; they are no longer the party of law and order or budget awareness. All they care about is lowering taxes and weakening regulations. And they concentrate on culture wars to spread hate and division. The goal of the new Republican Party in these next elections is to throw red meat to their base and try to restrict voting to opposing voters. They know if voting was easy they would either never win another election or would have to adopt policies that help the working class.

Now let's talk about Democrats. Today's Democrat is the Republican Party of the past. Totally taken over by corporatism. Fossil fuel, healthcare, and even the NRA are in on it. So, like Trumpism has taken over the Republican Party, Progressives are doing their best to move the Democratic Party back to the left. Democrats use the media, a corporate organization, to smear Progressives by repeating Republican talking points such as having a socialist agenda and impossible policies because they interfere with the Democrats' corporate agenda. So, like the right has become infiltrated with Trumpism, the left has a Progressive movement trying to pull Democrats back to what they used to stand for in the days of FDR. Progressives want the American worker to be compensated fairly.

They don't believe that billionaires should exist by exploiting workers and manipulating the system. This is the only way someone could accumulate this kind of wealth. It is from paying low wages, reducing benefits, and bribing legislators that makes this possible. When corporate donors donate to politicians they do it for a reason; it's a bribe to pass legislation that benefits them. The Progressive movement takes zero money from Super PACs or large corporate groups. Progressives are beholden to average Americans because that is who their donors are. Democrats and Republicans are beholden to their donors, the wealthy and large corporations or the 1 percent.

Democrats today have been moving more to the right since before Pres. Jimmy Carter and took a major move right with the election of Pres. Bill Clinton who moved toward a smaller government. These changes have been just as destructive to the middle-class worker and union building as they are beneficial to Wall Street, large corporations, and the military industrial complex. If not for continued support for social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a few scraps here and there that help the least fortunate of us, the Democratic Party would be no different from the Republican Party. Those scraps and social benefits are what keep most of this country voting Democrat. If you're a Democrat, what are you going to do, vote Republican where they want to end social programs so the wealthiest can get wealthier and you have the opportunity to work harder.

As for these Republicans, they are convinced that the more we help the less fortunate the more taxes they have to pay. In this universe, hardworking Americans are made to think they are paying for people who don't want to work. For example, Ronald Reagan's welfare queen comment puts a label on out-of-work black people expressing that they have no work ethic and would rather sit home and raise children on our hardworking American's dollar.

Let's admit the obvious so far! I'm a Progressive; I think you have figured that out by the title of this book. I love my country and want it to be better. I would like everyone to have healthcare, housing, and educationeverything the Progressive movement stands for that benefits every one of us, from the richest to the poorest of us. It is not communism or socialism or capitalism. It is more democratic where we, the tax-paying citizens, elect the right people to represent us, and that is what I try to get across in this book. It is not the government that is the problem, but the people we elect to run it.

Government is there to make all American citizens' lives better and safer and have our best interests in mind, rich or poor and not for corruption to manifest. Put mainstream media aside and listen to the candidates and what they say, what they stand for, and most importantly how they will fix things then make your own conclusion. Listening to mainstream media and making your decision on what they say is a mistake because they are not concerned with your best interest, only you are. Most of us Americans don't trust our government and for good reason, but you pick a side anyway. You say politicians are all the same but you pick a side anyway. You pick a side and then become a hypocrite. You forget, forgive, and forgo the corruptness of your own party as you condemn the same corruption from the other. You bypass facts that prove the wrongs of the party you choose as you accept crazy conspiracies told of the other. We agree on more than you realize. The war between us only helps the ones we should be at war with

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism

I believe that this chapter is one that will help bring many people back to reality. Capitalism, socialism, and communism are the three most misunderstood words when it comes to the American economy as well as freedoms we as Americans believe are our rights.

Corporate America pushes capitalism as you would think. They have one goal, make as much money as possible for their CEOs and stockholders at any cost. Unfortunately, the money comes from their workers, products, and deregulations.

Conservative friends of mine love capitalism and to say anything negative about it is anti-American. They think Capitalism is America. How could an economic system be a country? Maybe they just think that it was capitalism that made America what it is today. Maybe corporate America made us believe that any other type of economy is bad or even evil.

Growing up in school, I'm a Gen Xer; we were in a cold war with Russia, and we were made to feel that the war was against not Russia but communism. They were also known as the USSR (United of Soviet Socialist Republics), which encompassed fifteen republics, and Russia was the dominating country. So we have the words communist and socialist together in this war, as well as Nazi Germany calling themselves National Socialist. This was both a huge misrepresentation of what they really were. Again, these things are just economic systems not a system of the ruling government. These countries were ruled by fascist dictators which had little to do with either economy. Again our capitalist corporations want you to believe these economies to be evil because they infringe on their profits.