Forty-three years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down. Assassinated. While standing up for the rights of workers to organize.  Sort of makes you wonder what we’ve accomplished in almost a half century, doesn’t it?

Today is your chance to stand with Dr. King.  This morning, I’ll speak with Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, who posted this on their website yesterday:

A broad nationwide progressive coalition will host over 1,000 events nationwide on Monday to protest attacks on unions and cuts in essential social programs, and to commemorate the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on this date in 1968.

The “We Are One” coalition includes the nation’s largest unions and progressive groups, including AFL-CIO, SEIU, NAACP, Moveon, and Democracy for America.

Dr. King’s legacy will be a powerful inspirational force. He was in Memphis helping sanitation workers fight for a union. The night before his assassination, he gave a moving, prophetic speech:

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop… And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

Dr. King’s vision of the promised land is the opposite of the Tea Party agenda. Since January, Tea Party Republican Governors led by Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio have used budget shortfalls to launch all-out assaults on public sector unions, including the hard-won right of collective bargaining itself. In Michigan, Rick Snyder wants to put anti-union corporations in charge of struggling cities and towns.

Other Republican governors like Chris Christie of New Jersey and Rick Scott of Florida have made deep cuts in essential social programs like schools and health care, while canceling job-creating infrastructure projects like tunnels and high-speed rail. Christie is demanding major union givebacks and refuses to negotiate.

Even Democratic governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York have made deep cuts instead of extending existing taxes on the state’s wealthiest citizens. Hundreds of protesters were locked out of the State Senate by capitol police when the hugely unpopular budget was passed.

Since January, progressive allies have organized large protests in Wisconsin and across the nation to defend unions, schools, senior citizens, and other targets of budget cuts.

In Wisconsin, progressive allies occupied the State Capitol for weeks, and held outdoor protests in the snow with as many as 150,000 participants – the largest protests ever held in Wisconsin.

On Feburary 26, progressive allies led by Moveon held Wisconsin solidarity rallies in all 50 state capitals, as well as New York, Los Angeles, and other major cities.

On March 15, progressive allies led by Moveon held “Defend the American Dream” rallies in 268 cities and towns.

April 4 is a watershed because the nation’s largest unions, including the AFL-CIO and SEIU, are joining with progressives to mobilize their members for local events in 1,000 cities and towns.

Speakers will include AFLCIO president Richard Trumka, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry, NAACP president Ben Jealous in Newark, and Rev. Jesse Jackson in Madison.

The size and scope of these progressive rallies has greatly surpassed recent Tea Party rallies, which received massive coverage in the national media. When the Tea Party organized its biggest rally in Madison Wisconsin, its small turnout was outnumbered 35:1. Their most recent rally in Washington DC on April 1 attracted under 200 participants.

Numerous polls show a massive swing in public opinion away from the Tea Party and in support of unions and job creation rather than budget cuts.

And progressive strategists are translating public support into political power. In Wisconsin, PCCC and DFA are spearheading recall campaigns against Senate Republicans. Last week, they collected enough signatures to force one recall, and plan several more this week. Local polls show strong support for these recalls, and progressives have raised over $1 million for local organizers and TV ads.

If the 2011 recalls are successful, Wisconsin progressives will work to replace Gov. Scott Walker with Democrat Russ Feingold in 2012, just as Californians replaced Gov. Gray Davis with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.

The progressive mobilizations in Wisconsin and beyond could play a decisive role in the 2012 elections. Battleground states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida gave Barack Obama his historic victory in 2008, but turned Republican in 2010. President Obama needs to win these states back in 2012, and a highly-energized progressive movement will make all the difference.

In hour two, we’ll see just how far we’ve regressed, as Nicole Belle of Crooks and Liars joins in for our regular Monday morning Fools on the Hill segment.  Here’s what Nicole has for us today:

Again, more and more, I am convinced that the Beltway pundits—whom I refer to as “bobbleheads” for the most part—live in a separate reality from the rest of us.  A reality where unemployment and real economic struggle does not touch them, where the tea party is more than a handful of angry low-information voters, and where American imperialism is a God-given right.

And it would be fine for them to remain in their insular little bubble, if they weren’t in the business of shaping the narrative for the rest of us.  This week, the House of Representatives made a rather outstanding end run around the Constitution, declaring that the bill they passed would become law, even if the Senate didn’t pass it or the President sign it.  Do you the media might be even a little bothered by the notion that our elected officials do not know the rule of law and ask them about it?  Silly liberal.

It’s much more important instead to check and make sure that Chuck Schumer really, really meant to insult Republicans by calling their proposed budget cuts “extreme”.  Nevermind the fact that the budget cuts are extreme…let’s worry about hurting the GOP’s widdle feelings.

Speaking of that budget, Paul Ryan (who famously makes all his staff read Atlas Shrugged and gives out the book as gifts regularly) appeared on Fox News Sunday saying that the budget that he has worked on will exceed even the $4 trillion in spending cuts that the catfood commission recommended.  But despite these even more draconian cuts, Ryan would not commit that his new budget included cutting welfare for oil and gas companies.

If that’s not infuriating enough, House Majority Leader (and the guy who really needs a copy of Schoolhouse Rock to learn how a bill becomes a law) Eric Cantor let slip the true Republican agenda speaking at the Hoover Institution:  that Social Security “cannot exist” in his America.

The pundits are no better.  Brit Hume was stunned that the anyone could be upset over something so minor and so trivial as Terry Jones burning their holy book.  Now make no mistake, there’s no way to justify the killing of the NATO workers, but at the same time, if Brit would just simply look at this from the perspective of these Afghans: We can invade, destroy, then abandon and re-occupy a country, sending 10,000 Afghanistan civilians to their death, millions of Afghans left homeless, evidence of the callousness of the American servicemembers in their treatment of regular citizens rounded up and imprisoned and tortured at Bagram and even posing with the bodies of other Afghans like hunting trophies. Is it any wonder that Afghans–already pushed to the limits of stress for having lived in a war zone for more than five years–feel murderous rage towards those who claim to want save them fand from themselves ?

And then finally, (and I apologize, because the entire video is 19 minutes long and I had a hard time finding a perfect 1-2 minute clip from it. My choice is from 3:23 – 4:45) Naomi Klein spoke to a TED conference for women and made a very interesting posit: Our cultural addiction to risk is making it difficult to have an honest discussion about climate changes and solutions.  It’s true, it does seem to be part of the American psyche that somehow, things will get fixed at the last minute. Our pop culture references the defusing of the bomb with seconds to spare in all mediums. Even the most apocalyptic among us holds on to the notion of the last minute saving from destruction.

But nature doesn’t work that way. There are no quick and easy solutions and the gamble we’re taking waiting for one is only making that potential loss that much bigger. Klein moves into the gender differences in risk assessment and tolerance which I do agree does play an issue.  Women are far more risk-averse and far more likely to think of sacrificing for the sake of the group.  In dealing with climate change and government, I think we’d all be in a much better place if we just fem out.