ACA, IT and Dismantlng the New Deal

I've been a requirements person on complex medical IT systems. I did apply to the folks running the ACA program, but they didn't hire me. I'm kind of glad because if they had I'd be the designated "firee". The hurdles that ACA faced were so many and large that what is happening to the workers trying to make it work is both familiar, and painful, to me to watch. It has all the issues I'm so familiar with on Joint projects involving multiple developers and unclear/unrealistic requirements. I don't doubt that someone needs to be fired, but I suspect they won't fire him or her, but instead will fire the designated "firee". It's the sort of job I regularly get hired for, and I've learned how to manage. Had I worked on the ACA implementation it either would have succeeded or I'd have specific notes on why it doesn't work.

Integration

The Front End suffered from what is known as "changing requirements". The Republicans refused to cooperate with the creation of ACA. The Republicans tried to destroy it. The Supreme Court allowed the States to opt out of cooperating with it's creation, and the same states that opted out of cooperation also opted out of the Medicaid extensions that would have made it work better for the customers, us. And this all was in flux and still is in flux. It's difficult to deliver the right software if one doesn't have the requirements for what that software is supposed to deliver until just before the delivery deadline. In fact, impossible.

Unfortunately, while I've worked as a requirements manager requirements are written by politicians, bureaucrats and officials, and if the requirements are contradictory, the software created will be sketchy. Infighting, changing rules and requirements, insufficient funds, etc... all contribute to problems with schedule, delivery and cost. Those are a triangle that no amount of hope and will can change. It takes money, time, and breaking down a problem into it's pieces and tackling the pieces. That they got what they did up on the first day was about exactly what I expected. One can ask or a Cadillac but if one only has resources for a toy wagon, won't get one.

The backend of the ACA requires cooperation between private insurance companies and the Federal Government. It had to be rebuilt because originally the Federal Government was going to refer people from a national website to State Websites. Where the State websites are healthy, the system is working well. The Federal government did something right. The Federal Government created a standardized form, called the 834, which is supposed to be filled out online and sent to the insurers. This was a good way to standardize the requirements across the board.

But to ensure that piece works they needed to do integration testing. They had virtually no time for integration testing so the integration testing they are doing is with live data, online, and that is a mess. It is a predictable mess, and the engineers are right to point that out. But not having "enough time" or resources is never an excuse when problems arise, so someone's head will roll. A scapegoat is needed. I volunteered but didn't get the job. As a Requirements manager that was always my role or that of the project manager. In this case the requirements were unstable and always changing, the project managers were dealing with shortages of time and resources, and that always adds to the cost and dysfunction of the result. But probably some Project managers will lose their jobs. The iron triangle of program management is time, resources and scope. And the faster you slap something together the lower the quality.

I'm sure all this will eventually come together. Government IT projects take a lot of time because they are complex, require sustainment, and most business project management types are only concerned with delivering the minimum possible on the contract, getting the biggest return from government disbursements, and so all the risks are always with the program office, unless a private company under-bid on it's deliverables and can't deliver -- and even then the contractor seems to manage to get paid for the shoddy things it delivers.

Here one solution would be to require the insurance companies to electronically verify the 834 form and if there are problems request corrections either from the Government or the insured. [For more see: Glitches, but as with all private contractors I've ever met, there are some bean counters who are only concerned with what they can get away with. They are perfectly capable to ask for extra money to fix a problem they were originally required to deliver differently on. Any excuse will do. The Republicans are such privateers they prefer to sink programs that they can't loot. Kind of like some of the contractor managers I've met.

Every identified problem can be fixed. It will add to the costs over what would have happened had the plan been realistically costed, funded, scheduled and executed, but that is what always happens with governing efforts. They are messy because people don't cooperate, because with new things, stuff gets missed, and because folks listen to marketeers more than engineers. It was going to take as long as it is taking to roll out ACA. Some of the problems they are facing are inevitable. When I worked on the Theater Medical Information Program (TMIP) we had many features where doctors and other stakeholders told us what they wanted (or we had to guess) and we delivered different from what they wanted and had to fix it. Good requirements requires a lot of up front work, and hurry up and get it done projects rarely budget money or time to that, and so FUBAR is built in.

When I first worked on the TMIP program, the users were so unhappy, I drew a tank shooting at us in my notebook based on comments from one stakeholder who was making such withering comments that I was wondering if I was working on a shelfware project and she was going to bring in a tank and blow us up. By the last few months I was there the Program was working so well she was praising it and my Manager was considering finally staffing my job with enough personnel to keep up with all the work. I did my job by relying on the engineers and project managers. If you can get the requirements right up front you can get any job done right. ACA has requirements that depend on the States, and when the States decide to cooperate the people will get what they want. In Government the people are the stakeholders, and as people see what they are getting they'll tell program management what they want. Sometimes managers forget that. Certainly at that project we had our share of folks who didn't get the message that it wasn't about what we wanted or padding profit margins, but delivering medicine to injured and hurting people.

In one project there were some things we couldn't get done on time despite having gotten the requirements, because we couldn't get the requirements approved in time for them to be built when they needed to be built. That is how obstruction works. It threatened whether the software could be used. I left before I found out the denouement, but I believe fortunately the contractor got away with the late delivery and I've heard the problem got fixed after I left. Obstruction is sneaky and can undermine anyone's efforts. I can only imagine what it's like having an entire faction of people obstructing one's efforts.

But that doesn't excuse the Republicans.

ACA was a heritage foundation idea. Most of us Democrats wanted a single payer system to extend what we've already done with medicare and medicaid to everyone. As we can see from the sabotage of the Republicans, they've been actively dismantling things done for rural and city places, such as rural hospitals! That their own base depends on. They refused the "medicaid expansion" that would have brought medical coverage to the poor and restored medicaid coverage that the Republicans had been cutting all along. But this represents a wholesale attack on the poor and middle class, including 47% of their own base in rural areas. It is time for us Progressives to step up to the plate and get our Democratic Politicians to support a New Deal for folks, or to back real progressives and get them out of office. We need to point out that their own supporters are being betrayed with bait and switch arguments that gin up racism and fear in order to get folks to vote against their own interest.

Further reading:

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/30/247898470/glitches-in-digital-insurance-forms-threaten-aca-rollout

Fibromyalgia and Alpha radiation

Fibromyalgia is defined in a google search as:

"Fibromyalgia is a common syndrome in which a person has long-term, body-wide pain and tenderness in the joints, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues. Fibromyalgia has also been linked to fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, depression, and anxiety."[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001463/]

An article titled "AAssociation of fibromyalgia symptoms with beta radiation levels." by a fellow named Bobby shows his connection of materials from several sources and the association of beta radiation with Fibromyalgia symptoms. [http://optimalprediction.com/wp/association-of-fibromyalgia-symptoms-with-beta-radiation-levels/]

Source: http://optimalprediction.com/files/fibroradiation.jpg

Anyway, after reading this article, and all the other ones about fibromyalgia, I don't see a clear message yet. I read up on the main alpha emitters and they include:

Alpha Emitter	Atomic Number
americium-241	95
plutonium-236	94
uranium-238	92
thorium-232	90
radium-226	88
radon-222	86
polonium-210	84

Source:http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/alpha.html#emitters

So whatever is causing fibromyalgia, if it's a alpha emitter, it's pretty nasty stuff.

The author notes:

"Symptom severity positively associated with beta radiation and statistically significant: Mental focus impairment, memory impairment, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal problems, sleeping problems"

So if these symptoms correlate to the radiation or the chemical substance causing that radiation, the effects appear to be in the above list. The author then notes:

"Symptom severity positively associated with beta radiation and not statistically significant: Pain, fatigue"

And

"Symptom severity negatively associated with beta radiation and not statistically significant: Stiffness"

This result corresponds to recent research on environmental triggers for fibromyalgia, and other diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivity

Considering that war zones and the use of depleted uranium are a major source for complaints of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. How much is beta radiation and how much other kinds of poisoning? (chemical).

Search for Causes

And note these measures were taken before the Fukushima disaster, so I wonder what radiation was being measured, and from what source? Could it be radon from folks basements. Or is something else going on?

I've observed it is hard to find information on these subjects and it appears much of it is classified. But what we can see is that these conditions are most likely the result of chemical assaults (directly in the case of toxic chemicals or dissolved metals, and indirectly in the case of insults like radiation) on the chemistry of the cell itself. This article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3155329/ notes:

"The scant experimental evidence gathered so far in controlled clinical/laboratory studies on MCS patients still poorly support the whole body of medical hypotheses. In particular, available clinical data prove, though only indirectly, that functional or/and genetic defects of endogenous enzymes detoxifying hydrogen-/lipid-peroxides or stable toxic products of lipid peroxidation, may cause chronic oxidative stress and consequent metabolic and immunologic alterations characteristic for the patients with environmental SRI. Our group has recently demonstrated [17] relevant alterations vs. healthy controls of erythrocyte catalase, glutathione peroxidase (Gpx), glutathione transferase (GST) activities, and of decreased levels of glutathione and polyunsaturated fatty acids, in association with specific alteration patterns of pro-inflammatory cytokines, significantly correlated with clinical manifestations in a representative group of MCS Italian patients, has registered some progress towards the identification of reliable markers of disease onset and progression. These and other possible validated markers may also be useful for a correct and evidence-based evaluation of treatment outcomes and follow-up, to-date unfortunately still unaccomplished."

The jargon basically is telling us that they have a poor evidentiary understanding of what is going on, but there are indications that the causes of many of these diseases are to be found int chemical insults that oxidize (basically burn) important chemical pathways and create inflammation as a result. The article further notes:

"Relevant studies, thoroughly reviewed by Thomas et al., [43] have linked these conditions to exceptionally severe and prolonged intoxicating events, most notably multiple vaccinations, exposure to depleted uranium and powerful chemical toxicants present in war theatres. Other conditions connected to this polymorphic disorder are the post-traumatic stress disorder [44] and the burn-out syndrome [21], displaying similar impairment of the immunologic and neuro-endocrine patterns, and overlapping symptoms."

When you get a list like this it usually means the scientists aren't sure what is going on themselves, but we can see the reference to depleted Uranium there. The same agents that cause cancers and mutations also cause damage to cells in less specific ways that lead to symptoms like fibromyalgia, and syndromes like "Gulf War Syndrome." So it's not surprising that the author of the main subject found one cause to be alpha emitters. I imagine that there are also contributing effects from other forms of radiation and drugs. The article goes on to describe the direct relationship to mercury fillings and similarly. Oddly there are doctors who recommend using Cesium for treating fibromyalgia. Oh Maya. I don't think that is a good idea:

"Decreased appetite, nausea, and diarrhea were reported in a man who ingested about 34 mg Cs/kg (as cesium chloride) after morning and evening meals for 36 days; this man also experienced apparent neurological changes within 15 minutes of dosing (Neulieb 1984). Prolonged QT syndrome and associated cardiac arrhythmias have been described in patients who have ingested cesium chloride as a component of homeopathic remedies (Bangh et al. 2001; Harik et al. 2002; Saliba et al. 2001). [source: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp157-c3.pdf]

So the conclusion is that there may be a link between Fibromyalgia and alpha radiation exposure, to depleted uranium exposure, to mercury exposure and beyond that I still don't feel satisfied that I know squat. I sure hope our scientists and doctors are further along than what I've seen published so far.

Commissions - Institutionalized Democratic participation versus Robin Hood

We've developed a cludgy legal system, where lawyers and judges have been trying for years to "control juries". This pits them at odds with the concept of an empowered, informed jury. The justification for every increasing jury control is that "wild juries" have been known to free locals, over-ride the legislature, and "nullify" decisions -- when given half a chance. This works to protect "Robin Hood" type high status criminals in a neighborhood against frustrated prosecutors and Sheriffs, but it also, traditionally has been a protection for ordinary citizens against corrupt prosecutors and police who treat their neighborhoods as occupied territory to loot and steal from with impunity. In my review of Racketeering, Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) and their history, one thing that popped out at me was that legal concepts such as "Racketeering" shift in meaning in US Legal politics. Racketeering law (and it's predecessors) was initially applied selectively; aggressively against Unions and tradesmen, and not at all among higher status business felons (Lawyers, Wall Street, Big Business). As a result, mostly minority communities such as those where Italians, Irish or Jews lived, often resisted these laws. From the point of view of reformers and elites these people were all racketeers; tradesmen, union organizers, union members. From the point of view of folks trying to survive in cities and rural areas, these people were often heroes. From the point of view of folks living in cities and rural areas, the officials going after them were corrupt oppressors. This is where you get Robin Hood style legends applied to local real gangsters:

Classic Robin Hood stories

I've heard the same Robin Hood story told about Jessie James, and Al Capone (Heard story, no evidence). Al Capone is credited with starting a soup kitchen. The point is that when the government is corrupt and people are excluded from participating in their government; two things happen. One is that the people form their own informal governments, including elevating gangs to power (Robin Hood effect). And the other is that when the authorities have no social pressures to limit their looting and corruption and become oppressors some of the criminals become heroes. Example Story:

"A Missouri widow claimed that Jesse James and his gang boarded with her one evening. While she served them dinner, not knowing who he and his gang were, she lamented the fact that the government was going to foreclose on her house, due to unpaid taxes. James generously gave her the money she needed to pay her taxes. What a kindly soul he was."

"However, legend goes on to say that James and his gang waited for the tax collector to leave the woman’s house and then, robbed him- thereby obtaining their money again!"[From Brighthubeducation.com]

Similar Stories are found all over the world where government is often corrupt and mistreats people.

Policing the Police: Citizen Commissions

The principle here is that no one person should ever be prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner, in the same person and we need to change the manifold locations where we have that currently.

The issue is that the people either participate in government or government acts like a looting army. Juries were created to put a check on corrupt judges. "Commissions" have a more problematical history due to their tradition of being agents of established authority.

Rather than join with the outlaws activists have found that participating in government works better than forming "Robin Hood Bands" or trying to outwit corrupt taxmen and other executives. Commissions traditionally are created with high status lawyers forming their members, and the only way the government seems to think it can establish balance is to appoint partisans from both dominant party and it's nearest competitor. This often leaves out reformers, citizens, labor, etc.... A commission is often formed of "experts" who never-the-less deliver less than expert results. Commissions often are accused of (and many guilty of) being official white-wash on institutional malfeasance, and the old boy network created by appointing insiders, relatives and country club members from the same club as the prosecutors, judges and executives belong to, is so obvious that people often lose their trust in their legitimacy. They simply don't do their jobs a good portion of the job, or when they do, they do it for the "wrong" stakeholders.

The way to reform this is through citizens commissions drafted by lot from among the jury pool, and staffed with the folks who usually run commissions plus people hired by the commissioners themselves. The commission chair can be a judge or expert, but the commissioners should explicitly have explicit power within the scope of their commission. And when their commission expires a new one will be convened. This certainly would work better than the current arrangement.

Citizen commissions are vital for policing any institution where "old boy" habits develop; police, fire, legal professionals, judges, executive agencies. And they can have the further benefit of serving as juries when there are disputes within executive organizations that otherwise would be handled by the hierarchy. To get at genuine justice, the "judge" and Jury must both be impartial. And to get at that doesn't mean that people can't know the subject, they simply can't have a vested interest in the outcome one way or another or corrupt associations.

We need to empower juries not control them. A jury trial or any other commissioned citizen exercise should be a discovery walk through a body of knowledge where the Jurors play the "ingenue" and can look at issues freshly to render a verdict. We need citizen commissions to balance the institutional prejudices and vested interests inherent in appointed or elected judges and other executives. We also need to clearly separate the judging role from the executive role for all decision making except the highest level of abstraction. This is a matter of good process, good government, and executing integral principles to establish or restore, and enforce integrity.

Annual Thanksgiving message 2013

I've had a personal tradition of an annual End of Year Message in the tradition of dickens. But this year is odd. This year I am thankful that I'm still alive, though I wish a few dear friends who aren't around to share this were still around. Some of them left too soon; Though, they are alive in my heart and this thanks is given thinking of them. My late wife, my wonderful late relatives, but I'm thankful others of my relatives and friends are still around. I'm incredibly thankful for these friends, especially; Herman Taube, the healing warrior who has been my friend along with his whole family; Nessie Godin, the lovely lady whose wisdom and experience I value even when I can't talk to her directly. My "Suegra" or mother in law, who I love in a different way from my wife, but who is so wonderful too. I could name them all, Mom, Dad, and sisters and brothers, cousins and distant relatives -- all of whom are precious in their own special unique ways. And most of them have their own families and have invited me in from time to time.

But I never give thanks without thinking of Dickens, who tried to shame people, or Swift, who tried to shock people into changing. Neither exactly succeeded. Too many folks are too self-obsessed, sociopathic or even malaevolent to get either a swiftian message or a Dickensian message. I used to try the Dickensian messages on my libertarian "frenemies" and they'd just get offended. They and the entire Republican Party agree with the pre-Three Ghost Scrooge, and thanks to them we have cuts in unemployment, food stamps and other charitable programs kicking in just in time for Christmas. I can thank the Dems that things aren't worse. If I suggest Swiftian remedies to my Republican friends, such as turning the unemployed and hungry into Soylent Green, some of them agree until I point out that was the sort of thing the Nazis did, then they get mad at me for embarrassing them -- or worse, say "so?" Never mind that they are still fine with the projects of getting rid of Obamacare, cutting food stamps, and giving all that money to their buddies at the country club. Some people are grateful for what they have, and some people are aggrieved that they don't have everything someone else has. Some of us are grateful for the giants on whose shoulders we stand. Some folks think they are Ozymandias and they "did it all themselves."

There is a lot to be thankful for. Fukushima could have been worse (maybe) Andy Gunderson gives his own thanks that things could have been a lot worse in this recent (depressing) Youtube video that explains why it could have been much better, and is a lot worse than they are telling us: http://fairewinds.org/podcast/giving-thanks. It could be worse, though I'm not sure. It can always get worse because human depravity and delusional subjectivity are easily manipulated and can lead otherwise good people to do despicable things. My friends have first hand experience with that. I'd prefer to spare their and my descendents the same thing.

Are Corporations people or governments?

Several challenges to the Affordable Care act are reaching the Supreme Court. If I didn't think the court were corrupt I'd be confident the court would decide them sagely. But the Supreme Court is hopelessly partisan and hopelessly corrupt so I have no confidence that the corrupt members of the gang of five will do the right thing. Even so the case, to me is about corporations as government not corporations as "persons" and if corporate government is tyrannical (for private, separate advantage of the governors [see "definitions" post]), then it is because corporations are not only businesses but they are local governments to their employees and property, and it is their governing power that is being argued at the Supreme Court, not their mere "artificial" personhood. If an employer can deny employees medical benefits based on their own religious beliefs, then they are doing so as "masters" or government, not as mere business-persons. Businesses serve the commons and operate in markets. They have no business imposing their beliefs on anyone, much less their employees. Or denying them medical benefits based on those beliefs. But that is my argument, and by my argument corporations should obey "separation of church and state" in administration of their business. Maybe a religious corporation can apply their religious beliefs as a religion.

And the idea that corporations should have complete impunity to impose tyranny on their employees ought to be repugnant to everyone. The CEO's want to be "King" and we let them get away with it.

To Keep it simple, stupid, that is it for this post.

Further reading:

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/06/corrupt-court.html

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-corrupt-decision-blind-to-corrupt.html

Snowy Mountains and the deserts

It's always snowed in the mountains.

I remember as a kid watching the clouds pass overhead in the desert.

The storms would kick up dust, but no rain.

.

I remember that dust, one time,

like a tornado chasing my father's car home.

Oh, yes no rain reaches the desert floors,

but in the mountain it rains, and it snows!

.

Up in the mountains it would rain, (or snow)

and when that rain fell

or the snow melted in spring,

long silent rivers would grow.

.

They call those rivers Arroyos,

in the language of Spain

and when there is no rain,

they seem curvy roads leading down to a plain.

.

But those plains, those salt flats

are long dead seas,

and when it rains they fill to the knees.

And long sleeping frogs, fish and bugs,

wake up to feast,

their sleepy thirst finally slaked.

.

The water doesn't last long,

and much of it is salty,

but while there is water,

the desert is healthy.

.

What had been dry and brown, alive with sounds,

bursting with colors and green all around.

The blue sky above, and life everywhere,

where shortly before all had seemed so bare.

.

I remember desert storms as a good thing.

Christopher H. Holte

Lincoln the Marxist!!!

Lincoln the Marxist

I'm still reading about the circumstances around Lincoln's 1861 State of the Union Speech. But the text itself shows that:

a; "class" distinctions were mostly an invention of the wealthy, and
b; Lincoln didn't truck with permanent class distinctions.
c; The issue of capital and labor is directly tied to that of slavery.

In December of 1861 near the beginning of the Civil War Lincoln gave a State of Union speech which included this often excerpted portion. I imagine real Marxists (I'm not one) like it even more than me:

From Infoplease: http://www.infoplease.com/t/hople ist/state-of-the-union/73.html

"It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions, but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government."

People like to think that class warfare started with the Marxists and reached it's culmination with the Bolshevik Revolution. But the reality is that property, including capital, and labor have been at odds with each other for most of human history. The reason why slavery was an important issue was because it represented the ownership of people and their labor as property. Ending slavery was important, not only to slaves, but to working people in general. And fighting the efforts of capital to not only exert economic power but to rule policy through politics and law are directly connected. And Lincoln in this speech explains why.

"It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life.

(Read more: State of the Union Address: Abraham Lincoln (December 3, 1861) | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/state-of-the-union/73.html#ixzz2l7wRUNPa

This is how our masters would prefer us to be. If we are slaves they don't have to pay us. If they can find willing slaves (like Robots) they can fix us in the position of slaves, or even worse, freeze us out of the parts of the economy they control. And we have to reject that premise in order to fight the policies.

"Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer...."

Unless their freedom is taken away from them. More importantly people have a natural right to own the means to pursue happiness, to have a property in the commons necessary for commoners such as us to survive. Thus the arguments of those who would make capital king are bankrupt and groundless.

"Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless."

If we are enslaved it is tyranny and usurpation, not a natural or humane logic. Lincoln is here stating a fundamental, a natural, an inalienable right.

"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

But of course capital has fought back with the argument that capital is the "job creators" and that people will not work unless capital pays them.

"Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them.

Thus one can see that the slave owners were fundamentally, capitalists.

The Vision of America

But the vision of America is of a vast middle class of people who are both capitalists and laborers, who own their own capital goods (tools, buildings, offices, etc...) and are not either slaves nor mere hired hands:

A large majority belong to neither class--neither work for others nor have others working for them. In most of the Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families--wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.

And that class is nurtured by government that doesn't favor capital over labor and that doesn't penalize labor with evil policies, mandated minimum wages, and by giving capital ownership over the commons.

"Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which if surrendered will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of liberty shall be lost.

And so Abraham Lincoln shows the basis of the Progressive movement. We aren't Marxists. We don't see a laboring class that will suddenly "rise up" and seize the "means of production" as some abstract concept. We see ourselves as both capitalists and laborers, working class and capable of doing better. We see the American Dream as the right to not be fixed in place by oppression of any sort.

(Read more: State of the Union Address: Abraham Lincoln (December 3, 1861) | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/state-of-the-union/73.html#ixzz2l7wRUNPa