TAKE BACK THE SENATE!
By Robert Reich
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtbzVIWAEYM
Amid all the focus on the presidential race it’s also important to keep in mind Democrats have a fighting chance to take back the Senate in November. There are at least 12 races in play. Win five, and Democrats are in control regardless of the outcome of the presidential election.
Many of the Democrats on the ballot this year are progressives
who have been fighting to raise the minimum wage, expand Social Security,
provide paid sick leave and paid parental leave. Many are women and people of
color who will make the Senate look more like the rest of America.
Win five of these races and we’d have a chance for a Supreme
Court that would prioritize the rights and needs of average Americans rather
than big corporations and overturn Citizens United!
Win five of these races and we’d put Senate oversight of the
government back into the hands of people who care that government actually
works.
We’d strengthen the ranks of progressives like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Sherrod Brown, and others – who we are counting on in the fight to get big money out of politics, reduce income and wealth inequality, confront devastating climate change, and push a progressive foreign policy.
A Democratic Senate would also give us a line of defense, a
countervailing power in budget showdowns, foreign policy lock downs, and
threatened government shutdowns.
If Hillary Clinton becomes president, a Democratic Senate will
help push her positive agenda, and hold her accountable if she veers away from
it. If Donald Trump becomes president – well, let’s just say we’ll need a
Democratic Senate more than ever.
So please remember what’s at stake. And Vote on November 8th!
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in
the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written
fourteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The
Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving
Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect
magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR
ALL.