Book: Take this Job and Ship It - Senator Byron Dorgan(D) Out Today

[RamboLiberal]

Byron Dorgan, the junior senator from North Dakota, may well have laid out in his new book, Take This Job and Ship It, the first rough roadmap for Democrats to find their way back into the hearts and heads of the anxious working and middle classes of America, our natural constituency at which Republicans have been nibbling away for the past decade or so.

Dorgan's main thesis, as the subtitle indicates, is that corporate greed and the egregious effects of outsourcing are destroying this country. Through tracing the consequences of our free trade policy on middle America, the senator is able to crack open the door to related discussions on global human rights and child slavery, corporate tax evasion, national security, energy independence and planetary environmental problems. This exploration of ever-expanding cause and effect allows him to sketch the outlines of an emerging muscular liberal populism for the Democratic Party, shorn of populism's historical nativist rhetoric and permitting Americans to see themselves both as citizens of a great country and responsible residents of the world.

The book opens with a mind-numbing list of personal stories and specific closures of once-great American companies - the makers of Etch-a-Sketch, Hula Hoops, Fruit of the Loom, Fig Newtons, Levis ... the list goes on and on. A particularly poignant anecdote relates how the workers at Huffy Bikes spent their last days on the job peeling the trademark American flag off the handlebars and substituting stickers of the globe in its place.

From there, Dorgan spreads out to take on - passionately - the multi-national corporations leading the charge to relocation. He outlines for laypeople in as straightforward way as possible some of the arcane tax maneuvers and loopholes used to reap corporate tax benefits; he calls companies to account for the "exported misery" they're visiting on other countries, where child slave labor and inhuman working conditions prevail; he rails against the practice of corporations that renounce their American corporate citizenship to avoid taxation; he deplores the trend of industry insiders being moved to agencies that nominally regulate the very same industries. Big Pharma in particular draws a cannon-load of fire as the subject of a whole chapter illustrating every aspect of what's wrong with multi-nationals today. Wal-Mart too earns the dishonor of a chapter of its own (which opens with Dorgan quoting Norman Mailer's mayoral campaign slogan: No more bullshit!).

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/7/161930/8532

Dorgan talked about his book on first 10 minutes of Thom Hartmann's show today.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

1. He was on Lou Dobbs yesterday and Dobbs loved it...

Something like 49,000 manufacturing plants have been closed in the US since * was in control. Over 2 million factory jobs gone. He also points out that US companies that outsource get tax breaks and incentives - he has tried three times to get rid of these breaks, but to no avail. Corps have too big of a strangle hold on congress.

Wonder if he calculated in the new manufacturing jobs * creating. I mean the ones where you manufacture a hamburger. :)

[madrchsod]

2. he was on dianne reem show this morning

i guess i`ve have never noticed him..

[msongs]

3. I like him but does he outline the role HE has played in all this?

whatever his voting record may be? Having only seen him on tv as a talking head i always found him to be refreshing in attitude and reasonable in political views.

msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[SaveElmer]

4. Dorgan is DLC...no one is allowed to like this book...

Step away from the book!!

[snowbear]

6. SaveElmer: Your avatar is DLC too.. But who G.A.F.?

I know I don't...

[SaveElmer]

7. I should have added..

A :sarcasm: to my post...

[snowbear]

9. Ok, kewl..

I hope his book is a best-seller too!

[snowbear]

5. Rock on Senator Dorgan... GREAT JOB !!!

Hope it's a BEST seller!!

[area51]

8. offshoring.

I'm glad to see another person talking about this. Offshoring (along w/inshoring) is a lot worse than the right-wing media is portraying it. Look how thin the jobs sections in the newspaper are now, and the numbers of repeated ads in internet job boards. It's very difficult to get a job in this economy.

k&r.

[bobbolink]

10. Dorgan's long suit has been pointing out ridiculous waste

He's been very good at that. I recorded a few very memorable speeches of his on C-Span.

He's a disappointment in other areas, but it's so very good that he's speaking out on this, and getting it into the media!

ANd, his timing with a book is fine, indeed. :thumbsup: