Blue America chat: the one and only John Waltz

You know what I love for Blue America? When we find a perfect candidate and he or she is running against a perfect villain. Michigan’s 6th district offers us just that combination this cycle and I want to introduce you to Democrat John Waltz, a movement progressive, who’s taking on cartoonish plutocrat, Fred Upton, the Whirlpool heir who has always treated the district as though it were a feudal fiefdom. Upton, by inheritance one of the richest members of the House, was appointed to the SuperCommittee by his crony John Boehner because Republicans know he will never agree to anything sensible that can in any way help dig the middle class out of the economic mess the modern day Robber Barons, in their unparalleled greed, have created for the rest of us. Today the man we hope will finally retire Upton from political life, John Waltz, will be joining us for a live blog session at Crooks and Liars at 2pm, ET (11am, PT).

A 34 year old Iraq War vet, John is a completely dedicated champion for a commonsense progressive agenda, born and raised in Kalamazoo, the heart of the 6th district. It’s a district Bush won in 2000 and 2004 with, respectively 52 and 53%. In 2008 Obama took the district 54-45%. When I started talking to John about this race this summer, he told me he feels Upton is alienating his constituents with his conspicuous, if defensive, move towards the Tea Party. “I fully expect him to propose privatizing Social Security, gutting Medicare, gutting the VA budget, working to get rid of the EPA, all to protect tax cuts for the 1,400 millionaires who didn’t pay a dime in income taxes last year… and to do so again and again while normal people shoulder the load.” John Conyers, Michigan’s most progressive political leader, was out of the box endorsing Waltz.

Although Waltz has a lot to say on every major issue facing America today– and all of it is spot on– his campaign is all about getting the economy working again for ordinary American families. Talking to him this week, I didn’t gather he was from the Tim Geithner/Rahm Emanuel/Harold Ford end of the Democratic Party.

The last ten years we have been transformed into a nation that has been brainwashed into thinking that they will one day be millionaires and that only their needs matter. The shame we bear as a nation is that we were unified by the tragedy on 9/11. It was short lived though and the last ten years will be remembered in history as the decade our economy was systematically looted by Wall Street, which was enabled by politicians in DC.

Instead of focusing on getting folks back to work and getting our economy back on its feet we have been lulled by the constant cries that we need to fix our deficit. The only deficit we need to fix is the chasm between the rich and the rest of us. While the middle class (what is left) and the poor are clawing away at just paying the essential bills, keeping a roof over our heads, and sending our kids to school, millionaires are basking in the glory of a government that coddles their every need. This is not the America I know, you know, or the one I thought I was fighting for when I joined the military.

Priority one should be getting folks back to work and when regular folks like you and I can get a fair shake then we can start considering the deficit. History is largely ignored, but in order to get out of the Great Depression our nation incurred a huge deficit. In the end though we built a more unified nation and a strong middle class who had jobs that paid livable wages and among the other accomplishments we had an infrastructure system that was rivaled across the world.

Instead of mourning about the condition we find our nation in, it is time to take bold action to make sure the next decade is not wasted like the last one. We should be focused on investing in our nation and getting our economy rolling again. We should be investing heavily in clean energy, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and investing in our future generations by increasing education NOT cutting it.

This is why I am answering the call to serve again because our nation needs bold leaders who will not be led by the nose by any lobbyist or even their party. We need folks that will represent us who have gone through the same struggles we have gone through. One question I would like to ask Upton is how can you care for the poor when you haven’t ever been broke in life, how can you care for the homeless when you have never known what need is, and how can you care about education when you have been provided the best schools without lifting a finger.

In my life I have been homeless, broke, hungry, and still live check to check to this day while trying how to figure out how to pay for my children’s education when I still have student loans of my own to pay. This is why I am running: I am a working class progressive who will fight for everyone not just the top two percent of this nation.

We have enough– more than enough– genetically-lucky millionaires like Fred Upton in Congress. Let’s make sure we have some Representatives who understand what a hard day’s work on the edge is all about. Please consider contributing what you can to John’s campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page.