Salon: ‘We Need More Keith Ellisons in Congress’

Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison’s received conspicuous praise following his debate on targeting religious groups with Rep. Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York who advocates for increase surveillance of the Muslim community.

Salon's Editor at Large Joan Walsh wrote an article for Salon and MinnPost called “The Importance of Keith Ellison” in which she argued for the importance of having Muslims like Ellison in Congress. She wrote:

The fact is, we need more Keith Ellisons in Congress. Not just because he’s a great progressive voice, supporting the president but challenging him strongly on his questionable austerity politics, but also because he’s a patriotic American who’s also a Muslim. He’s crucial right now.

Deficit reduction

Ellison argued in a Sunday USA Today op-ed that the cure for the deficit is to stop doing so much deficit reduction.

The congressman’s column argues that austerity policy undermines job creation that he says will solve the deficit in the end.

The most urgent issue facing Americans is the jobs crisis — not the deficit. Investment in good jobs is the key to a better economy, not furloughs for teachers, nurses and firefighters or ending programs that help working families.

International Workers Day

May 1 was International Workers' Day, a celebration of the international labor movement. Ellison released the following statement:

We pride ourselves as Americans on our sense of fairness, our belief in hard work, and our respect for the needs of working families. These values compel us to fight for the right to bargain collectively for living wages, for benefits, and for a safe workplace.  The American labor movement arose in response to unsafe and abusive working conditions, and ultimately gave us the 40 hour work week.

As we saw recently in Bangladesh, companies like Wal-Mart can avoid responsibility for working conditions that cost lives. The prioritization of profits over workers’ welfare sparked the original labor movement. It may have the same effect in countries like Bangladesh. Until it does, more immediate action is needed to protect workers.

We stand with Rep. George Miller, the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in calling for Wal-Mart to join a worker safety agreement in order to avoid disasters like this. We urge them to sign binding commitments that its competitors will be inspired to follow. Corporate responsibility is an important part of building better lives for workers and establishing better wages for working people. Wal-Mart should lead the way.

People who work full time should be paid a livable wage. On International Workers’ Day, let’s live up to our legacy as Americans and restore our sense of fairness, our belief in hard work, and our respect for working people to the forefront of our economic discussion.