Nathan Newman wrote:
>How do you clear neighborhoods of beggars? How about affordable housing,
>health care and better funding of drug treatment and mental health
centers--
>all of which Green supports.
-Right. And I'll bet you $100 he doesn't do anything substantial to -make those a reality. If and when he took office, we'd hear about -economic realities and the need to make tough choices, etc. etc., -just like his models, Clinton & Blair.
Yep- and I'll defend the tax and spending programs that occurred under Clinton as far better than the cuts being implemented under Bush.
As I keep saying, what evidence do you have against Mark Green. He's spent a career fighting for progressive causes. What makes you so convinced that he will suddenly reject a lifetime of commitments?
>The unions? They have been utterly complicit during the Rudy years -
>nary a peep about workfare or repression or any of it. They had
>indictments to defend against, contracts to negotiate.
Contracts to negotiate- what a terrible thing for unions to concentrate on, especially when decent wages are one of the best ways to pump money into low-income communities. It is your scorn for union contracts as a solution to low-income poverty that is a big part of your whole political position.
As we speak, 32BJ is having massive success organizing thousands of janitors in Northern New Jersey, "negotiating contracts" that are doubling salaries in most cases. Not only does that help those workers individually but it puts more money into their neighborhood businesses and helps employ other people. A high wage economy is one of the best ways to attack poverty and homelessness.
And again, ACORN and other groups that spent a lot of time organizing around workfare have endorsed Green. So that seems pretty good evidence of why Green is worth supporting.
Doug, have you ever supported a candidate who had a chance of winning office?
-- Nathan Newman