If Only Progressive Dems Were Truly Progressive
Lies, lies, and more lies
My niece is running for the school board. This is her first experience as a candidate for any position.
She called me to ask if I would sit in on a Zoom meeting with her that was being sponsored by an organization called Run For Something. This organization’s goal is stated as recruiting and training young progressives to run for office.
We’re continuing our broad and deep work with young diverse progressives running for state and local office — especially for school boards, local election administrator roles and positions that may affect abortion access — because it’s never mattered more. (link)
I joined in on the Zoom meeting and took notes.
Run For Something is looking for progressive candidates under the age of 40. They highly encourage women, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, and people of color to seek office.
And while they understand that some people are interested in independent, Green Party, or other third-party candidates, they are seeking to sponsor people who will run as progressive Democrats.
And there’s the catch. If an organization is truly interested in getting progressive candidates into office, they would be promoting values regardless of party affiliation.
I wrote about this issue here:
Progressive Democrats have accomplished next to nothing, because once in office they learn that if they don’t follow the DNC platform they will find themselves unsupported by their fellow Democrats.
In a 2013 interview, Bernie Sanders described situations in which fellow lawmakers would express sympathy for legislation he proposed, but were cowed by the promise of flak. “If there’s a tough vote in the House or the Senate — for example, legislation to break up the large banks — people might come up and say, ‘Bernie, that’s a pretty good idea, but I can’t vote for that,’” he explained. “Why not? Because when you go home, what do you think is going to happen? Wall Street dumps a few million dollars into your opponent’s campaign.” link
Both the Democrats and the Republicans serve the oligarchs who fund their elections. The corruption in politics will continue as long as PACs are running the show.
In my own state, which is solid Blue, it is still difficult for progressive Democrats to pass the legislation necessary to effect real change.
I recently contacted the head of the Working Families Party in my state, to see if they would help me in supporting the third-party presidential candidates (I am specifically interested in Dr. Cornel West).
I was told that the Working Families Party is involved in local and state elections, not elections at the federal government level.
They asked if I would support the local candidates that they are sponsoring. I told them that I already do support those candidates, and will continue to support them, although I wished the candidates would leave the Democratic Party and instead run as independents.
The progressive Democrats, sponsored by the Working Families Party were elected in 2022 and really made an effort to help the people. But in 2024, they find themselves running against conservative Democrats, who are backed by business interests and big money.
The Working Family Party does endorse federal candidates, even though their main work is at the local level. Before President Biden dropped out of the race, the WFP endorsed him. And now, the WFP released a statement supporting the next Democratic president.
I keep getting texts from the WFP asking me if I support Kamala Harris. For me, even considering Kamala Harris as deserving of an endorsement from a supposedly progressive organization is crazy.
Harris, who served as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and California attorney general from 2011 to 2017, describes herself as a “progressive prosecutor.” Harris’s prosecutorial record, however, is far from progressive.
Through her apologia for egregious prosecutorial misconduct, her refusal to allow DNA testing for a probably innocent death row inmate, her opposition to legislation requiring the attorney general’s office to independently investigate police shootings and more, she has made a significant contribution to the sordid history of injustice she decries. (link)
Joe Biden was elected in 2020, promising to work towards Medicare for All, and other progressive issues. But that didn’t happen:
A national physician group this week called for the complete termination of a Medicare privatization scheme that the Biden White House inherited from the Trump administration and later rebranded—while keeping intact its most dangerous components.
Now known as the Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) Model, the experiment inserts a for-profit entity between traditional Medicare beneficiaries and healthcare providers. The federal government pays the ACO REACH middlemen to cover patients' care while allowing them to pocket a significant chunk of the fee as profit.
The rebranded pilot program, which was launched without congressional approval and is set to run through at least 2026, officially began this month, and progressive healthcare advocates fear the experiment could be allowed to engulf traditional Medicare. (link)
Why does anyone continue to believe that the Democrats really want change?
Instead of supporting truly progressive candidates like Dr. Cornel West or Dr. Jill Stein or Claudia de la Cruz, all of whom have platforms that put the people first, organizations like Run For Something and the Working Families Party continue to support Democrats.
I have no doubt that the people who run with the sponsorship of organizations such as Run For Something and the Working Families Party are sincere in wanting to see real change in party politics. I do not want to demonize them.
But they are fighting a losing battle against the entrenched two-party system, that is in all but name, the same party.
Or as Noam Chomsky so clearly put it:
In the US there is basically one party—the business party. It has two factions called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies.
If we want real change, we need to support candidates who are not beholden to the duopoly.