obama election
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008Well, the Democratic party won increased majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the presidency. After watching Obama turn a raucous crowd silent while he was here in Austin by saying “We’re for capitalism”, I don’t expect that the Democrats are going to all of a sudden embrace the principles of Parecon really really close. But I do expect that there’ll be room for some more good ideas that would have been non-starters before.
The obvious one is the Employee Free Choice Act, allowing unions to certify via card-check, rather than forcing them to run the gauntlet of employer intimidation before an election. Another one I think should be on the top of the list is ending the membership restrictions on Credit Unions. Here in Austin, credit unions are at the top of the list of democratically-controlled economic institutions, ahead of housing and food coops. And, while they’re not exactly participatory, you can’t build a better credit union while the current credit unions have to deal with ridiculous restrictions. And even the mega-consumer-coops are still an improvement over other ownership structures.
What else would be on your electoral activism wishlist?