The left’s agenda could go viral.
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich and MoveOn.org Civic Action launched a series of web videos in an interactive online campaign to test out ideas from the liberal agenda, starting with videos promoting a $15 minimum “living wage” and other laws to help working families.
The slickly produced and fast-paced videos feature Mr. Reich explaining the liberal proposals, as he rapidly draws cartoonish illustrations on a white board.
The video campaign is titled “The Big Picture: 10 Ideas to Save the Economy.”
Based on feedback on social media, MoveOn and its allies will select the most popular liberal ideas to push in a nationwide campaign during the 2016 elections, according to the group.
MoveOn members will vote for their favorite ideas by sharing videos via email, Facebook and Twitter.
“Progressives have visionary policy ideas — but we don’t have anything like the right-wing media echo chamber to build support with them,” Mr. Reich said in announcing the video campaign. “That’s why I’ve spent months teaming up with MoveOn members on a groundbreaking new project that will combine easy-to-understand videos and the best economic ideas out there to build support for a bold, progressive agenda.”
Upcoming videos, including segments on strengthening unions and raising the estate tax, will be rolled out through early June, said MoveOn.
In the first video, Mr. Reich explains the benefits of raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour.
“A basic moral principal that the majority of Americans, whether Democrats, Republicans or independents, agree on is that no one who works full time should be in poverty nor should there family,” he said. “Yet over time we’ve seen significant growth in the working poor, these are people working full-time, sometime even 60 or more hours each week, but at such low wages that they remain impoverished.”
He makes the point by drawing a sad face on his sketch of a “working poor” person.
He says that if the minimum wage from 1968 had kept pace with inflation, it would be over $10 per hour today. And if it kept up with the increase in worker productivity, it would be over $21, he says.
He argues that increasing the minimum wage to $15 would put more money in the pockets of consumers, who would buy more goods and services, creating higher demand that would result in more jobs.
“It’s a virtuous cycle,” Mr. Reich says in the video.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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