Tag Archives: The Movement

3/31 Sanders to Appear on The View Tomorrow; To Briahna With Love; Evening OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

So how much grief will Whoopi give Bernie this time.

This op-ed in LAT deserves some attention. Kudos to a birdie for retweeting this piece.
Black voters pragmatically support Biden to beat Trump — but we deserve Sanders’ big agenda

Just as in the civil rights movement, black people are the moral vanguard, clarifying our national purpose at a key moment and breaking a paralysis of consensus. The South Carolina message was clear: The racist must go. We must beat Trump, and we’ll beat him with Biden.

Biden was the loyal sideman to the first black president, Barack Obama, who gave rise to massive white resentment that Trump successfully harnessed in 2016. That alone was more than enough reason for many black voters to give Biden the go-ahead in South Carolina. What has happened next, Biden’s much-analyzed momentum, is the domino effect of black voters’ certainty.

This may all work out just fine as far as ending Trump’s reign, a goal that the coronavirus pandemic only makes more urgent. And yet the black certainty that will have saved us in the short term is a problem in the long term.

Black folk are too certain. We vote pragmatically. We vote not for the candidate who will do us the most good but for the one who will do us the least damage. We choose politicians who won’t create solutions for our many legitimate crises but who will put the brakes on the worst offenses that already exist. (Trump certainly qualifies as such an offense.) We don’t vote ideology because we usually can’t: United States history has been so hostile to black interests and racial equality that there usually aren’t mainstream candidates who truly represent the way we think, what we believe. Politically, black people have to be on the defensive — voting for what someone isn’t, not for what he or she is.

Voting defensively is not always a waste; in 2020, it has never felt more crucial. But the desperation fueling black defensiveness is obscuring something important. In 2020 we could be choosing ideologically at long last. Bernie Sanders mainstream candidacy, and its socialist-friendly agenda, addresses much of what black people prioritize, from ending mass incarceration to tackling homelessness. His campaign has proved that electoral politics can represent a deeply held belief system: ideology.

Sanders’ unwavering progressivism is also supposed to be his fatal flaw: He’s not practical or realistic. But where has realism gotten us? I think of Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham jail in 1963, which he wrote to white liberals — his putative civil rights allies — who were counseling patience and incremental change in the face of fierce Southern resistance. King was having none of it. For him, dramatic change was practical , demanding it was the only choice if segregation were to be defeated. Call that unrealistic and revolutionary, but it was utterly necessary.

In the decades since King’s death, many black people have lost touch with the necessity of idealism and imagination. They have forgotten that those are the only things that ever worked for us.

After South Carolina, the black vote — secured by the Voting Rights Act, one decidedly revolutionary thing King forced into law — was tracked from state to state, almost fetishized. The scrutiny was all about the horserace and how black folks might get Democrats across the finish line in November. Beyond the Obama connection, no one talked about Biden as a supporter of black voters’ interests.

No one mentioned the former senator’s troubling record on school busing (not even Kamala Harris, who famously took him to task on the debate stage last year, but who endorses him now) or how he cleared the way for Clarence Thomas’ retrograde hijacking of Thurgood Marshall’s seat on the Supreme Court, or how he embraced the Clintonian approach of talking empathetically about race and equality but tacking right in order to compete effectively with the white majority Republican Party. That strategy worked, but with black people as the biggest losers.

As for Sanders, the tenets of racial equality are baked into his agenda. He has weathered criticism from black people that, like most white progressives, he emphasizes economic problems over racial ones. But his ideology is worth our consideration. Another complaint is that he isn’t a Democrat, but that’s the point — in order to maintain his agenda, he can’t be. I heard a black man in a grocery store line loudly decrying Sanders’ socialism; I couldn’t help responding that government policies for and about the common good —socialism — have been the only thing that’s come close to helping black people on the scale we deserve to be helped.

I am not officially endorsing Sanders, a position that is almost moot. I am saying that black voters have the rare opportunity to consider the change his candidacy has offered and how that change could finally make the Democratic Party accountable to them, its most reliable and potent bloc.

But Democrats won’t be held accountable — again — because the overwhelming fear of a Trumpian future, intensified by the way COVID-19 painfully lays bare our crisis of national leadership, is making pragmatists of us all.

For black voters, pragmatism is familiar, a default position. But it should never be mistaken for all of who we are, or what we

Just as in the civil rights movement, black people are the moral vanguard, clarifying our national purpose at a key moment and breaking a paralysis of consensus. The South Carolina message was clear: The racist must go. We must beat Trump, and we’ll beat him with Biden.

Biden was the loyal sideman to the first black president, Barack Obama, who gave rise to massive white resentment that Trump successfully harnessed in 2016. That alone was more than enough reason for many black voters to give Biden the go-ahead in South Carolina. What has happened next, Biden’s much-analyzed momentum, is the domino effect of black voters’ certainty.

This may all work out just fine as far as ending Trump’s reign, a goal that the coronavirus pandemic only makes more urgent. And yet the black certainty that will have saved us in the short term is a problem in the long term.

Black folk are too certain. We vote pragmatically. We vote not for the candidate who will do us the most good but for the one who will do us the least damage. We choose politicians who won’t create solutions for our many legitimate crises but who will put the brakes on the worst offenses that already exist. (Trump certainly qualifies as such an offense.) We don’t vote ideology because we usually can’t: United States history has been so hostile to black interests and racial equality that there usually aren’t mainstream candidates who truly represent the way we think, what we believe. Politically, black people have to be on the defensive — voting for what someone isn’t, not for what he or she is.

Voting defensively is not always a waste; in 2020, it has never felt more crucial. But the desperation fueling black defensiveness is obscuring something important. In 2020 we could be choosing ideologically at long last. Bernie Sanders mainstream candidacy, and its socialist-friendly agenda, addresses much of what black people prioritize, from ending mass incarceration to tackling homelessness. His campaign has proved that electoral politics can represent a deeply held belief system: ideology.

Sanders’ unwavering progressivism is also supposed to be his fatal flaw: He’s not practical or realistic. But where has realism gotten us? I think of Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham jail in 1963, which he wrote to white liberals — his putative civil rights allies — who were counseling patience and incremental change in the face of fierce Southern resistance. King was having none of it. For him, dramatic change was practical, demanding it was the only choice if segregation were to be defeated. Call that unrealistic and revolutionary, but it was utterly necessary.

In the decades since King’s death, many black people have lost touch with the necessity of idealism and imagination. They have forgotten that those are the only things that ever worked for us.

After South Carolina, the black vote — secured by the Voting Rights Act, one decidedly revolutionary thing King forced into law — was tracked from state to state, almost fetishized. The scrutiny was all about the horserace and how black folks might get Democrats across the finish line in November. Beyond the Obama connection, no one talked about Biden as a supporter of black voters’ interests.

No one mentioned the former senator’s troubling record on school busing (not even Kamala Harris, who famously took him to task on the debate stage last year, but who endorses him now) or how he cleared the way for Clarence Thomas’ retrograde hijacking of Thurgood Marshall’s seat on the Supreme Court, or how he embraced the Clintonian approach of talking empathetically about race and equality but tacking right in order to compete effectively with the white majority Republican Party. That strategy worked, but with black people as the biggest losers.

As for Sanders, the tenets of racial equality are baked into his agenda. He has weathered criticism from black people that, like most white progressives, he emphasizes economic problems over racial ones. But his ideology is worth our consideration. Another complaint is that he isn’t a Democrat, but that’s the point — in order to maintain his agenda, he can’t be. I heard a black man in a grocery store line loudly decrying Sanders’ socialism; I couldn’t help responding that government policies for and about the common good —socialism — have been the only thing that’s come close to helping black people on the scale we deserve to be helped.

I am not officially endorsing Sanders, a position that is almost moot. I am saying that black voters have the rare opportunity to consider the change his candidacy has offered and how that change could finally make the Democratic Party accountable to them, its most reliable and potent bloc.

But Democrats won’t be held accountable — again — because the overwhelming fear of a Trumpian future, intensified by the way COVID-19 painfully lays bare our crisis of national leadership, is making pragmatists of us all.

For black voters, pragmatism is familiar, a default position. But it should never be mistaken for all of who we are, or what we want.

Shall we lighten up a bit with some music, art and other tweets, news, et Brie has been catching all kinds of hell on twitter.

We need to lighten up.

Good! See you in the comments!

3/27 AOC Blasts the Coronvirus Bill as ” Shameful”; Der Herr Invokes DPA for Ventilator Production; Bernie Live Tonight; TGIF & Late Afternoon/Evening OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

AOC worked up a Bernie Sanders’ righteous rant in the House today, while debating the Senate bill:

About the bill going to Trump’s office:

More than 150 million households would receive checks under the legislation, which will send payments of $1,200 to many individual Americans plus $500 for children. People with incomes above $99,000 are not eligible, and the total benefit is phased out for people earning between $75,000 and $99,000.

The bill includes almost $400 billion to help small businesses retain their payrolls and $250 billion to boost unemployment insurance, offering $600 per week for four months for laid-off workers, on top of whatever benefits their states may provide.

and

The bill includes almost $400 billion to help small businesses retain their payrolls and $250 billion to boost unemployment insurance, offering $600 per week for four months for laid-off workers, on top of whatever benefits their states may provide.

Melissa Kearney, an economics professor at the University of Maryland and director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, said that the benefits in the bill — on top of savings people may already have — could be sufficient to tide laid-off workers through for up to three months.

“I’m quite pleased to see that this was passed so quickly and does include direct payments to households and expansion of unemployment insurance and loans to small businesses,” Kearney said.

The dealmaker’s dealmaker: Mnuchin steps in as Trump’s negotiator, but president’s doubts linger with economy in crisis

The legislation also contains hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency federal aid for large corporations suffering due to the coronavirus outbreak, a provision that sparked days of intense partisan conflict and a frenzied push from lobbyists and corporations eager to secure a chunk of the funding.

The final legislation will provide $25 billion in grants and $25 billion in loans to passenger airlines; $17 billion in loans to industries deemed critical to “national security” — a provision aimed at helping Boeing — and $425 billion in loans and loan guarantees for other large firms, a fund for which cities and states can also apply.

Trump touted the legislation in an interview Thursday night with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

“The workers are going to get $3,000 for a family of four. They’re going to get all sorts of things that they, frankly, in many cases, they wouldn’t have even gotten if they had the job, if they didn’t have to go through this hell. And it’s — it’s a wonderful thing,” Trump said.

The president went on to say “A lot of this money is going to save Boeing. It’s going to save the airline industry. And, you know, that means not only does it mean what it says, it also means tremendous jobs. We can’t let Boeing go. You know, Boeing had a problem, big one to start off with, and on top of it, this happened. And we’ll save Boeing and we’ll save the airlines and we’ll save other companies.”

The conditions on the large pool of funding became a major sticking point through congressional negotiations. Democrats won some concessions but not others. In the final bill, businesses receiving the loan cannot cut their employment levels by more than 10 percent until Sept. 30. They have some restrictions on executive compensation above $425,000 annually and cannot issue stock buybacks, a limitation supported by Trump.

Included are measures ensuring swift disclosure of funding recipients, as well as an oversight board to probe the Treasury’s decisions. The president, vice president, members of Congress and members of the cabinet are also prohibited from benefiting from the aid — a measure that also applies to their spouses and children. The direct grant funding for the airlines also has strict limitations and is required to go directly to workers or their benefits.

During debate ahead of the vote, with tensions running high, there was an uproar at one point as Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), tried to speak over her allotted time, wearing pink latex
gloves and gesturing in animation as she asked for more time to thank medical professionals at the frontline of the crisis.

“I rise before you donning these latex gloves not for personal attention, not for personal attention, but to encourage you to take this disease seriously,” Stevens shouted as she was gaveled out of order. “I rise for every American who is scared right now.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), from the epicenter of the health crisis in Queens, rose to denounce the bill and the choice lawmakers are being forced to make faced with legislation that she said creates a corporate bailout while also provided needed funds to hospitals and front-line workers.

“Our community’s reality is this country’s future if we don’t do anything. Hospital workers don’t have the necessary equipment,” she said, calling it “shameful, and the option that we have is either to let them suffer with nothing or allow this greed.”

Trump has also invoked Defense Production Authorization in order to speed the production of ventilators.

Bernie is hosting another coronavirus/healthcare panel discussion online tonight at 7ET:

TGIF…bar will open soon. More tweets, videos, and jibber jabber in the comments. See you there!

Nobody Will Do This For Us: What We Can Stand On Going Forward!

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Here is where we stand: Almost nothing has changed! Today marks the start of the next step in our revolution! I will flat out say it: a corrupt and fraud laden process beat us, but not by much! Bernie wants that roll call vote to remind people our ideas win! They win big! Remember that. This campaign made history! Nobody can take that from us. Corruption and an establishment willing to do anything to preserve it’s grip on our democracy is why Bernie is not running for POTUS. We didn’t lose fair and we did not lose square either. Remember … Continue reading →

Bernie Sanders, Labor, Ideology and the Future of US Politics

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

By Bob Master, New Labor Forum, Truth-out.org (snip) Despite its enormous promise, the movement has displayed critical limitations. Although Sanders worked hard to enrich his campaign’s analysis and message on issues of concern to people of color, the primacy he gave to questions of class, economic inequality and corporate power evidently prevented many African-Americas and Latinos from seeing themselves in his campaign. This is confounding given that African-Americans were especially hard hit by the ravages of the neoliberal, trickle-down economics Sanders attacks. Black family wealth, already only a fraction of their white counterparts, was halved after Wall Street melted down … Continue reading →