 |
 |
| April 25, 2011, Vol. 1 No. 8 |
|
|
|
From the Editors
As the month of April is coming to end, the Coffee Party national team and Coffee Partiers all across the country have been busy taking Coffee Break actions big and small to highlight the the need for:
- Campaign Finance reform;
- Wall Street reform;
- Tax Code reform.
Coffee Partiers sent over 37,000 letters to Congress as part of Coffee Break actions in April and provided over $7,000 in donations in support of current actions. Hundreds of people have participated in our Survivor: Trickle-down Economics web series, with each of the first four episodes being picked up to air on Free Speech TV, reaching millions of homes.
This is only the beginning of our clarion call for action on these issues.
We ask all of you to become Information Activists and share this newsletter with your friends!
--Lynda Park, Barb Bull, and Tim McDonough, Newsletter Co-editors
newsletter@coffeepartyusa.com
Be Part of Coffee Party 2.0
Become a Coffee Party Member by May 31
The Coffee Party 2.0 Transition Team is working hard to lay out the strategy and infrastructure for Coffee Party USA to become a "game changing" national organization and movement that can generate action for sustained impact.
Become part of this process by becoming a member. Only dues-paying members will have voting privileges. To participate in the new Board of Directors election, which will take place in June/July, you must be a member by May 31. To become a member, click HERE .
Can We Talk?
We are launching a new interactive call-in feature that allows co-founders Annabel Park and Eric Byler to discuss action plans and organizing tools with members, and prospective members of the Coffee Party. Unlike Blog Talk Radio, you won't have to worry about a live listening audience. These are private calls during which people from across the country will be asked to share what they see from their vantage point, and be invited to ask questions of Annabel, Eric, and other Coffee Party leaders.
We'll also share ideas for Coffee Party 2.0, get your feedback, and let you know how you can be more involved at the national level, and/or with local action plans.
The next two calls are:
Wednesday, April 27, at 2 PM to 3 PM eastern (11 AM to 12 noon pacific)
CLICK HERE to register
Sunday, May 1, 2 PM to 3 PM eastern (11 AM to 12 noon pacific)
CLICK HERE to register
|
|
|
Information Activism: How we will break the cycle of corruption
By Annabel Park & Eric Byler
 There are consequences when people are misled about the place of the President’s birth. Irresponsible news entertainment, and the confusion, hatred, and alienation it causes, have the effect of preserving the status quo.
So long as We the People are mesmerized by false controversies and manipulated by partisan bickering, we will be unable to confront the real challenges we face: our two unfunded wars, our millions of homes facing foreclosure, and our gridlocked Congress corrupted by money.
Endless streams of celebrity gossip and divisive political theater presented as "news" serve no one, except for a small, powerful collusion of interests that prefer to see Americans actively despise one another while ignoring what truly divides us: money and power.
Two Economies
There is only one America; but there are two American economies.
 Wall Street’s economy has already recovered from the financial collapse of 2008. Thanks to taxpayer-funded bailouts, Wall Street’s major players have been rewarded handsomely for causing the Great Recession, and are again enjoying record profits and record bonuses.
But Main Street’s economy has not recovered. Too many of us are unemployed or under-employed. Our quality of life has declined as our incomes have stagnated. One out of four children lives below the poverty line. And our parents and grandparents are being told they might not receive benefits from insurance programs they paid into all their lives.
We also have two political classes in America. There are the multi-national corporations and the wealthy few who can afford to hire K Street lobbyists and make large campaign contributions. And, there are everyday Americans who cannot.
Wall Street corporations and the wealthy few lobby Congress for policies that benefit them financially while the basic needs of We the People go unanswered, drowned out by money and power. Thus, we have a circular, self-reinforcing problem. Money is converted into political power. Political power is converted into policy. Policy is converted into more money. That money is converted into more political power. And so on, and so on.
Information Activism
If we look behind the curtain of manufactured culture wars and circus acts on cable news, what we see is plain, old-fashioned corruption trying to hide itself. Our job is to drag this corruption into the light. We must force our Congress to confront abuses of power, rather than facilitating them.
How will we do this?
- By becoming producers of content, rather than just consumers.
- By becoming spreaders of information, rather than just recipients.
- By flexing our muscles as voters, as consumers, and as active citizens.
The good news is we've already begun. Although few of us can reach millions of people like cable news channels and broadcasting networks can, our interlocking spheres of influence — powered by social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube — are growing every day. More and more of us are learning to use these tools and others like them. We are realizing our power, and we accepting the civic duty that comes with it.
 Look at the progress we’ve made in recent months. A year ago, America’s Tax Day narrative was limited to, “We are angry about paying taxes and we are angry about the outcome of the 2008 election.” This year, in addition to these voices, we are hearing from ordinary citizens, experts, and elected officials advocating for tax code reform to reduce our deficit, for the closing of tax loopholes, and for reducing tax expenditures — taxpayer-funded giveaways to the wealthy and to corporations engineered by that same circular problem: money=power=policy=money=power=policy=money.
Thanks to the democratization of media, We the People have the power to break this corrupt cycle. We will do this by becoming Information Activists — by rivaling corporate media with people-powered media, by replacing alienation, confusion, and division with accurate information and sustained civic engagement, and by claiming our rightful place in the process of self-governance.
|
|
|
It’s a Jungle Out There: Income Inequality, Taxation, and Economic Justice
By Michael Stafford
Michael Stafford is former Republican Party officer from Delaware. His writing has been featured on national and local blogs such as FrumForum and TommyWonk. He is the author of a forthcoming book An Upward Calling on the need for public policy, and politics, to advance the common good.
 For the past three decades, the super-rich, a group we can define as the top 1% of wage earners in the United States, have reaped a disproportionate share of the economic benefits in this nation while paying a declining percentage of their income in taxes. They have been the primary beneficiaries of the tremendous economic expansion that has occurred over this period and today, at a time of fiscal and economic crisis, as the core federal programs underpinning the social contract come under threat, those who have gained the most from the boom, would leave the rest of us to bear the burden of the bust.
Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie — these names conjure images of America’s “Gilded Age,” a time of oligarchic capitalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries prior to the Great Depression and Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Amazingly, today, America has a greater disparity in income and wealth distribution than it had during the early 20th Century. For example, in 1915, the top 1% in America earned roughly 15 to 18% of the nation’s income. Today, they account for a quarter of it.[1]
At the same time, massive productivity increases since 1980 did not lead to wage increases for American workers. Indeed, Americans “in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall” over the past decade. “For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous — 12 percent in the last quarter-century alone.”[2] The conclusion is inescapable: the lion’s share of the wealth generated during the boom years was captured by a remarkably small segment of our society.
 This “Great Divergence” has also coincided with a marked increase in the influence wielded by large corporations in Washington, D.C. In particular, corporations now spend billions of dollars every year lobbying elected officials and influencing political campaigns. This is something new in our politics and its growth correlates, almost precisely, to the beginning of the “Great Divergence” in the 1970’s. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United will only serve to accelerate this process.
As a result, we now stand on the cusp of a new Gilded Age, one marked by growing inequalities in wealth, income, and opportunity, in which business and government are increasingly dominated and controlled by an oligarchic class. Actually, on second thought, “Gilded Age” isn’t an apt description. The Rockefeller’s and Vanderbilt’s, after all, had a well developed sense of noblesse oblige that is totally alien to many of our oligarchs today. Indeed, our super-rich often don’t even seem to possess a sense of enlightened self-interest. For these reasons, rather then a new Gilded Age, our present situation is perhaps better described as a descent into Hobbes’ Jungle, an economic version of the war of all, against all.
And like any Jungle, this one cries out for a Leviathan. Here, that can only be the federal government. While it is true, to paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI, that the State can never love you, it can, consistent with the principle of subsidiarity, be a vehicle for public policies that promote social and economic justice. It can accomplish this, in part, through its tax and regulatory policies.
At a time when Congress is considering major cuts to critical entitlement programs, such as Medicare, in the name of fiscal austerity, it is necessary and appropriate that we have an open and honest discussion about the distribution of the burdens created by fiscal retrenching. It is also time to have an open and honest discussion about our collective refusal to pay for the services we expect government to provide. In the end, the federal budget deficit isn't going to be eliminated through budget cuts alone, nor will the best interests of our society be served by the elimination of the social safety net.
It’s time to look at expenditures and revenues. Simply put- the super-rich, and the large corporations they control, can pay a little more.
As such, it’s time to seriously consider raising the personal income tax rates on the top 1% (or, at the very least, on the top decile of the top 1%) and, perhaps, returning them to the levels of the mid to early 1990’s as well as increasing the corporate tax rates. While not a total solution, such measures would ensure a more equitable distribution of burdens and benefits within our economic system. It would be a first, tentative step, in the right direction.
At the same time, although we readily recognize the detrimental effects of too much regulation on the creative and dynamic forces of the market, we have now seen, in the financial crisis, the perils of the other extreme- too little regulation. It's incumbent on us to strike a better balance.
This is not a call to “soak the rich” or an appeal to class warfare. It is a reminder that economic and political systems must serve the common good and that they do not exist to further the interests of an entrenched oligarchic class at the expense of the rest of us. Realistically, standing alone, increasing taxes on the wealthy or corporations will not solve the budgetary problems facing the federal government — programmatic cuts are coming too. However, it is critical that the looming burdens and sacrifices be distributed fairly. Simply put, it is legitimate to expect that those that reaped the lion’s share of the benefits of our economic expansion will share, at least as much, in the pain caused by the impact of economic crash.
And looking a bit further down the road, we must address the systemic causes that have led to the “Great Divergence,” and redress the political balance between the power of the super-rich, and the middle & working classes, if we want our economy, and our democracy, to thrive.
NOTE: Michael Stafford will be a guest on our May 5th Blog Talk Radio Show, along with fellow Republican Shaun Kenney.
A longer version of this article can be found here. To comment on this article, please join us on Facebook.
|
|
|
Meet a National Team Member
Kerry Helmer, Facebook Outreach Director
I've never really been into joining groups. So to find myself participating on the Coffee Party Facebook page was an interesting experience. I remember reading an article about the Coffee Party in February 2010, then “liking” the Facebook page. First I started reading the discussions and was really impressed with what some of the contributors were saying. I couldn't help but join in and soon I was meeting some amazing people who shared my concerns.
The concept of civility really struck a chord with me. I was so fed up with seeing inflammatory, misleading headlines, issues taken out of context seemingly just for shock value. It seemed that no one was able to talk about an issue without making blanket statements about how bad the other side was. Coming from a customer service management background, I knew there was a way to get your point across in a civil, factual and effective manner. It does take more effort, but you usually end up with a more receptive audience and better results. On the Coffee Party Facebook page, we have been working hard to direct people to have fact-based discussion of issues and take action.
I also appreciate the Coffee Party's aspiration to be transpartisian. People, not parties, have caused the problems, and as citizens we have let it happen by being complacent. It's time to get informed, get active, and turn things around to make the system work for all of us.
Coffee Party Regional Coordinators
Contact us. We will help you organize locally.
Northeast
States: CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV
northeast@coffeepartyusa.com
Southeast
States: AR, AL, GA, FL, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN
southeast@coffeepartyusa.com
Midwest
States: IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, OH, WI
midwest@coffeepartyusa.com
Southwest
States: AZ, CO, NM, OK, TX
southwest@coffeepartyusa.com
West
States: AK, CA, HI, ID, MT, ND, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY
west@coffeepartyusa.com
|
|
|
|
|
BRIEFCASE BRIGADES:
America's Youth Want to Know - Where Are the Jobs?
Five Million young people are out of work and looking for jobs. But Congress keeps cutting the budget in the name of future generations. Did they ask youth? Young people need jobs now. They need investment in education that won't put them in debt for the rest of their lives and job training that can lead to a decent living. And they need to be taken seriously, which is why the Coffee Party is supporting the launch of the Briefcase Brigades, an effort to capture the imagination of a generation--and Congress--to invest in the Millennial generation again. The Briefcase Brigades National Day of Action is April 27. Click here to find or organize a Briefcase Brigade visit to your local congressional office.
Click here to read the article in the Huffington Post and watch the Youtube video.
Spy infiltrates Tax Day event at Bank of America
A lone counter-protester mounted a miraculously successful infiltration of a "Tax Day Make Them Pay" event in Columbia, MD, on April 18 targeting Bank of America. Organizers of the event expressed outrage that local newspapers who reported on the event spent the majority of their time interviewing William Rice of Washington, DC, even though he was the only person at a protest of nearly 300 people who supported the tax practices of Bank of America.
Rice described himself as a Corporate-Person American, who supports the corporate agenda as a matter of principle. "Banks shouldn't have to pay taxes because they don't use public services," Rice said. "Little banks don't go to public schools, they go to strip malls and set up branches."
Click here for more information.
|
|
|
|
|
Report from the Coffee Party 2.0 Transition Team
Since the report in the previous issue of the newsletter, the Transition Team has continued to work diligently on all the tasks it has been charged with: design a process to select a permanent Board of Directors; create internal committees and processes to manage ongoing business; hire management and administrative personnel to perform member services duties; provide process for organizer training; and construct methods to communicate effectively with, and integrate the input of, Coffee Party members at various levels within the movement.
The Board Formation working group, chaired by Lynda Park, has begun meeting regularly and have a full set of intermediate goals and deadlines in order for a permanent board to be selected by the July 1, 2011 target date. The working group plans to submit a board formation proposal to the Transition Team in early May.
Other working groups have also been formed to carry out the charge of the Transition Team. Among them are Strategic Messaging and Communications, Organizational Design and Structure, Integrated Strategy and Planning, Communication Infrastructure, and Pathways to Participation. These teams have either just started or will start to meet soon to lay out their purpose and agenda. Look for news of their actions in upcoming issues.
Walt Roberts and his team at Changing the Game have been very helpful in their roles as consultants for the Transition Team. They have given the Team methods to structure their meetings so that they proceed smoothly and efficiently and have provided means of clarifying the already existing vision within the Coffee Party movement. They promise to be a valuable source of expertise in dealing with the issues Coffee Party USA in general and the Transition Team in particular are facing.
During a meeting, Walt Roberts remarked that the Transition Team's work may seem a bit like trying to build a ship while it is already at sea. That sounds difficult, but the Transition Team has so far demonstrated that it is up to this challenging task.
The minutes of the Transition Team meeting can be found on the Coffee Party USA website.
Steady growth in membership and support is beginning to provide financial stability for the organization, and we thank all of our members. We are looking forward to working closely with other Coffee Party volunteers to create a new 21st Century movement with a solid organizational structure.
Contact us at: 2.0team@coffeepartyusa.com or (301) 259-1869.
--The Coffee Party 2.0 Transition Team
|
|
|
|
|
NYC Decides to “Get Our Democracy Back!”
Christopher Kibler, Big Apple Coffee Party
 The Big Apple Coffee Party has been busy! A Manhattan-based New York City chapter of Coffee Party USA, our group will be celebrating our one year anniversary in May. Originally organized towards a commitment to diversity, civil discourse, and action independent from the traditional political parties, corporations and lobbying networks, the Big Apple Coffee Party (BACP) has grown in size, scope and sophistication since its inception.
Our group’s first event was called “Should Corporations Decide Our Elections – A Coffee Party Forum on Corporate Personhood.” Held last October 2010 at All Soul’s Unitarian Church in New York City, we invited Thom Hartman, Lawrence Lessig and Zephyr Teachout for a panel discussion of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and corporate personhood, moderated by Laura Flanders of GritTV. The result was astounding. Over 400 people packed the church that Friday night – an impressive feat in its own right – but the crowd’s passion toward the presentations on the history and scope of corporate personhood was undeniable. For our small group of about fifteen activists, the success of the event far exceeded our wildest expectations. We were off and running!
Our next events were designed to help grow the Coffee Party movement. Last December we held a social event at a local bar we called “Let’s Get Our Democracy Back,” which focused on bringing people together to talk about issues in our community, but was specifically geared towards the underlying issue of money in politics. This event not only resulted in an expansion of our own group, but happily spawned another Coffee Party group which we still work with.
In January, in conjunction with Coffee Party USA’s efforts, we organized an event where people could step up to a microphone for three minutes to celebrate our right to free speech, which was live-streamed over the internet and recorded. Finally, in March several of our members attended the Left Forum, a weekend-long progressive conference which drew over 4,000 participants. Members not only had the opportunity to attend panel presentations on a myriad of topics from education to political organizing to economics, but we were able to staff a table at the Forum which allowed us to reach out to many other politically active people.
It doesn’t really make the national media, but New York City is starting to wake up and protest! The BACP has taken part in virtually all of the events in the past few months, like the NYC City Hall rally in solidarity with Wisconsin workers and the rally in support of Planned Parenthood. We have co-sponsored an Iraq War protest in Times Square and an anti-war march and rally in Union Square. We have also worked with the NYC chapter of US Uncut, protesting in front of several Bank of America branches to help highlight the fact that BOA did not pay any federal taxes last year.
The Big Apple Coffee Party believes that eliminating the influence of money in our political system is the single most important reform that we can make to get America back on track. We will continue to work on fostering understanding of the influence of big money on the laws of this Country and working on initiatives to help combat corporate personhood. Our legislative committee has been working on resolutions for the New York City Council that would help eliminate corporate encroachment in local politics and we have been working with groups focused on campaign finance reform proposals. On April 18, we held a tax day protest at the biggest Post Office in NYC to help call out America’s worst corporate tax dodgers.
Come check us out at http://www.bigapplecoffeeparty.org/, which has videos from our corporate personhood forum and free speech events. The Big Apple Coffee Party meets on alternate Thursdays in Manhattan. For more information call 212-252-2619 or e-mail bigapplecoffeeparty@gmail.com.
|
|
|
|
Putting Citizens Back in Control of Congress –
The Fair Elections Now Act
Frank Kirkwood, Coffee Party Pittsburgh
Have you ever thought that you (or someone you know) would make a good member of Congress? Let’s see if you meet the qualifications. Are you at least 25 years old? Do you live in the state you want to represent? Have you been a citizen for at least 7 years? Can you get your hands on a million dollars?
That last qualifications isn’t actually in the Constitution, but that’s about how much money you will need, just to have a fighting chance against an incumbent. As this study shows, of the candidates who have spent less than $700,000, only about 1 in a 100 have been able to beat an incumbent.
So, where are you going to get that million? That’s the same as 1,000 contributions of $1,000 each. Maybe you have saved some money that you might contribute. But, would it be a responsible use of your family funds to spend $1,000 on anyone’s campaign, even their own? Maybe you have some friends who could pitch in. Or maybe there are friends of friends who you could convince that you would be a good member of Congress. But how many could afford to give you a thousand bucks? Probably, not many.
Unfortunately, if you are going to raise that kind of money you are going to have to deal with a different kind of giver: people who want something in return for their cash. They aren’t making a contribution so much as they are making a payment. They probably don’t live in your state. Maybe they’ve never even been there. They make up less than 1% of the population, but they supply 80% of the campaign money.
If you are realistic, you will have to recognize that you need their money to get elected and you’ll need it again to get re-elected. So you take their money knowing that they are going to expect you to take care of their interests, even when what they want you to do is in conflict with what is best for your constituents.
Is it any wonder that Congress so often makes decisions that we, the people, are unhappy with? Is it any wonder that so many people think our democracy is broken?
 But, it can be fixed, and passage of the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 750/H.R. 1404), recently introduced in Congress, will be a big part of the solution. This bill provides candidates for Congress (those who choose to participate) with public financing to run their campaigns.
To qualify for public funds, candidates need to raise money in small donations (no more than $100) from a set number of citizens in their home state. Money from PACs, Super PACs, unions, and corporations are prohibited. Once they qualify for public funding, candidates will receive a lump sum, sufficient to run a competitive campaign in the primary and, if successful, in the general election.
They would also be able to raise a limited amount of additional small contributions that would be matched by public funds on a 5 to 1 basis. Participating candidates would have to agree to take and spend no money except from the public funding system. The law also provides for free and discounted broadcast time for candidates.
This law is based on the long-running, successful public funding programs in Arizona, Maine, and other states and municipalities. It has been written to withstand all expected court challenges, including the recent challenges to the Arizona law.
Visit www.CitizenFundedElections.org for links to more information about this bill. Check to see if your representatives are already co-sponsors. Talk to your Coffee Party friends about engaging your representatives and other candidates about becoming part of the solution and helping to pass the Fair Elections Now Act.
|
|
|
|
|
