Want Medicare for All? Vote Progressive.  Want to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? (Yes, we’re still in Iraq.) Vote Progressive.  Want to end the big oil subsidies?  Vote Progressive. Want to encourage the development of clean energy? Vote Progressive.  Want our kids to have access to quality, public education? Vote progressive?  Want fair labor laws?  Vote Progressive.  Want gender and race equality?  Vote Progressive.  Want respect for teachers?  Vote Progressive.  And on and on and on we could go.

Honestly.  If you wonder why we had to settle for shitty health care “reform” instead of single payer Medicare for All, it’s because the Democrats in charge are not Progressive.  As for those  progressives in DC, we don’t have enough of them.  If you want to take this country back to a more sane place,  fill Congress with Progressives for a change!

One place to start is in Illinois 13th Congressional district with Dr. David Gill.  A Blue America PAC endorsee, Gill won the primary two weeks ago, and is poised to win the whole thing!  Check him out – on his website, and tomorrow afternoon, 2pm ET, in a live chat at Crooks and Liars.

Another solution to our problem is protest. Get off your ass and take to the streets.  Occupy Wall Street has been regrouping over the winter, and is planning on a big American spring.  This morning I spoke with Robert Hill, a regular listener of the show, who told us about “Spring Training” happening every week in New York.  Visit NYCGA.net and get the whole schedule.  One example of the type of action they’re learning is the flash mob.  Check out this video of a training exercise recorded last Friday…

And finally, you need to stay informed. Crooks and Liars‘ Nicole Belle joins us every Monday morning for a segment we call Fools on the Hill, in which we recap what happened on those insufferable Sunday morning talking heads shows…

Welcome to Republicanland! That’s the world in which the Beltway Media lives that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the rest of us.

For example, George Will thinks that there’s no evidence that Bush v Gore harmed the Supreme Court’s prestige in any way. Riiiiiggghhhhttt. That’s why 75 percent of people polled think that the Supreme Court factor in politics in their decisions, rather than the merits of the case.

And Haley Barbour tells Chris Wallace that the Affordable Care Act is really unnecessary because 35 states already have risk pools. Bottom line: if the Supreme Court strikes down the individual mandate, all their zeal for “repeal and replace” Obamacare will replace it with nothing. Nada. Zip. Leaving millions of Americans out of luck.

And Paul Ryan—who the right holds up as some economic genius—tells George Stephanopoulos that the idea of releasing oil from our strategic reserves to lower prices is no more than ‘pixie dust’—but tar sands…that’s a winner idea. Just because the Keystone pipeline won’t create as many jobs as they claim nor is it likely to lower prices is as stupid as the fact that it’s an export for another country. Unless it’s part of the Republican plan to annex Canada.

Rick Santorum is fighting a losing battle in his fight for the Republican nomination got frustrated with guest host Savannah Guthrie’s repeated questions as to when he’ll drop out by saying that GOP is trying to shove Mitt Romney down voters’ throat. That may be true, but it’s also true that voters are not that taken with the crazy talk of uber-conservative Santorum either.

And because I like to leave the segment back in reality, I want to bring up a great spokesman of the left, who just doesn’t get enough airtime: Van Jones. While the privileged white men bring up black-on-black crime and dance around the real issues of this case, Jones cuts through all the crap with a simple statement: As a black parent, I don’t know how to protect my sons.