An Open Letter to BoldProgressives Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor

Dear Adam, Stephanie and PCCC,

Thank you, thank you, thank you Bold Progressives. The only real current potential to wrest back control of our dysfunctional system of governance from the trolls, is the campaign you now wage. If you fail, the Koch's ride herd and slay what's left of the republicans and the KochMachine buys the Chamber of Congress. Or somebody with more money and worse ideas will follow them. That's how it's rigged. You better get it right!

Your primary focus on a strong progressive offense is exactly right. And that Offense must deal with the systemic functions that empower the trolls. We must flip some switches; un-fix the fix that's in, to fix what's not fixed! That's not an easy fix.

I too have been working on a message set for that agenda for 2014/16 setting the goals that return the levers of democracy to the middle class. The goal is a progressive agenda that rallies the all troops, put in terms that play equally well to independents and true libertarians to grow the new center. It is nonaligned common sense efficacy in democracy built on the assumption "the future is ours to embrace and this is how we'll do it." 

In fact, PCCC's agenda 2013 message accomplishments make up half the twelve steps I have identified to build a progressive future of empowered middle class and workers with upward mobility and decentralized power in every sense of the word. We must present the picture of that empowered future for all to see it clearly.

The Twelve Steps lay the path to empowering the people. We need candidates dedicated to a well articulated and conceived set of goals.

We need candidates that know what they stand for, and that must not be left to 'perception' alone. It is easy to talk the talk. To walk the walk, folks need to see the path. People are angry at our political dysfunction and all the hate speech messaging that permeates our media. The place to start is to accurately identify the problem. Corrupting dark money in politics starts at secret meetings in the Arizona desert held by the Koch brothers, and screws us nationally in Washington four years later. They do this so they can make a killing on fossil fuels... and hate. Their money is multiplied, their candidate elected, their agendas enacted.

Our politics are dysfunctional. That is both their intended result and their best trolling tool. We are being run by the trolls. Think about it, that's the Koch agenda, as articulated best by Mitch McConnell and Jim DeMint.

To date, the trolls are winning. Hobbled government doesn't fix much, when the fate of human habitation hangs in the balance. But our "problems" are some people's goals and wealth generators. They've bought our regulators, our courts are complicit, and Dark Money dominates our politics. It's past time for an intervention. 

Twelve Step Programs Fix Dysfunctions. We have Dysfunction. The Twelve Step Program outlined here is aimed at de-politicizing constitutional rights, reestablishing truly representative democracy. Only then will we get leaders who will chart our course into a rich middle class future. PCCC has made a strong start toward these goals, and Elizabeth Warren certainly embodies them. How to make that into an umbrella agenda that can captivate a nation...that's the holy grail. 

In fact, PCCC's agenda 2013 accomplishments make up half the steps. The rest you just haven't gotten to yet. I hope you read this and consider adopting this idea and goal set. I don't have a following. If I did, I would drive it on several different levels; 
1. A Uniter of Progressive Coalitions for marches and demonstrations, (traditional and expanded coalitions) 
2. An agenda for September 2014 "Progressive Dinner" short-stay Occupations (ad busters/twitter) and 
3. A "Contract for America' style 2014/16 agenda for the progressive caucus. (take The People's Pledge)

Dark Money Trolls own our political process. When Money is Speech, Bribery is Legal. For now, we have lost our democracy to higher bidders. 

We need to take it back with Twelve Steps to End Political Dysfunction and stop the stupid hobbling of our government by Dark money.  I invite you to check out www.stopthestupidnow.com and see the idea. You can initiate this, I cannot. 

MIC CHECK:
Picture the multilevel application of this cohesive goal set, not semi-related individual ideas, but a comprehensive Twelve Step Program. Picture the ENTIRE PROGRESSIVE COALITION speaking together, marching together, with breakout groups supporting small "Progressive Dinner" Occupations, speaking truths to power, all over America. It is a logical and doable outcome, when we finally unite around the right message in the right way. 

This is my attempt to do that. But only YOU can make something like this go from my imagination to the steps of power, with the full force of the pissed-off American middle class. You have my help and these Twelve Steps.

DYSFUNCTION:
We are at crisis moments in climate change, middle class livelihood, voters', workers', women's, civil rights. Government is hobbled by corrupting Dark Money in politics. We have GBT - Government By Troll. They are all drunk on their destructive power. They need an intervention. We have one...errr... Twelve!

UNCTION:
A TWELVE STEP PROGRAM to END POLITICAL DYSFUNCTION and Restore the Great American Middle Class... the greatest engine of economic ingenuity, growth and wealth the world has ever known. Let's get back to what we do right...DEMOCRACY and Wealth Creation through Innovation!

Best,
Mike

unc·tion  [uhngk-shuhn]
noun1.an act of anointing, especially as a medical treatment or religious rite.
2.an unguent or ointment; salve.
3.something soothing or comforting.
4.an excessive, affected, sometimes cloying earnestness or fervor in manner, especially in speaking.
5.Religion .a.the oil used in religious rites, as in anointing the sick or dying.
b.the shedding of a divine or spiritual influence upon a person.
c.the influence shed.
d.extreme unction.