It's the economy....

We are all familiar with the mantra of the first Clinton Campaign. "It's the economy, stupid." According to Wikipedia, it originated with James Carville.

This brings up a point that I think is very valid right now. The next presidential election may well hang on economic issues as much as it does on the war in Iraq. While spending $ Billions on the war, according to a report from UCLA, we are in clear danger of sliding into an economic recession. The central factor being the decline in home prices along with rising interest rates.

The forecast presents a gloomier outlook for jobs and the housing market. The nation's unemployment rate will rise to 5.2% by mid-2008, up from the current 4.6%.

And home values will fall 10% to 15% from their peaks, the forecast says, meaning that sliding prices have yet to hit bottom.

"The small recent minimal declines represent not the end, but rather the beginning of what will be a very painful decline," David Shulman, author of the forecast, said in the report, referring to home prices.

When I look at "progressive activism in recent years, there is little about the economy. The main focus seems to be a protest against globalization, a war with Wal-Mart (globalization run amok) and a general bias against corporate power.

I would challenge the GPCA to come up with an campaign that will challenge both the typical progressive agenda, filled with negativism rather than solutions, and the status quo of Demican / Republicrat politics. What would that look like?

The 10 Key Values of the GPCA include the ideal of Community-Based Economics, yet I almost never hear anyone step up and explain how that would work, what it might mean for the declining middle class in America.

If, as Carville indicated, it really is the economy, then it seems to me that electoral success will not happen unless we have sound set of policies that provide solutions to the economic problems of the American voter.

If you have the solution, let's hear it. What Green Party solution will avoid or mitigate the problems of the current mortgage crisis? What alternatives are there to increased movement of production work away from the US, be it manufacturing or agriculture? What does it say about our country when economists gauge the health of the economy by watching consumer spending rather than manufacturing production?