One of the way the modern conservative movement has undermined progressive goals like reducing income inequality and universal health care is by limiting democracy itself. For example, conservatives were successful in getting California to require a 2/3 vote — not a simple majority — to raise taxes, essentially letting small minorities prevent tax increases and force major cuts to public services.
Now, Illinois conservatives are pushing a similar effort in Illinois to attack public employee pensions. Illinois’s November ballot will include Amendment 49, which would require a three-fifths vote in order to increase pensions or other public retirement benefits.
“For decades politicians skipped payments, running up the pension debt. Now that the bill is due, they’re trying to blame teachers, police officers, caregivers and other public employees and retirees. Instead of putting in place an ironclad guarantee that politicians will pay their share going forward, they’re clamoring to change the constitution in a way that won’t do a thing to fix the funding problem,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, in an interview with The Southern Illinoisan.
It’s not surprising that anti-union forces are pushing for a California-style attack on public pensions in the state. Stable private pensions that allow workers to retire with dignity have been in decline (partly due to the collapse of unions in the private sector). Public pensions remain the last real backbone for retirement security for workers, and if the right succeeds in crushing them, society’s responsibility to reward workers for a lifetime of hard work will be greatly undermined.
Illinois’s voters should soundly reject Amendment 49 because it is both an attack on public workers and an attack on democracy.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
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We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
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