By SJ Otto
The web site Politico.com has been covering the actions of a
new sub-Democratic Party organization called Justice
Democrats and their relations ship with the new rising star in the US House
of Representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a member of Democratic Socialist
of America (DSA) and she unseated incumbent Congressman, Democratic Caucus
Chair Joe Crowley. She is now the Representative for New York ’s 14 congressional district.
Justice Democrats
actually put up about 12 candidates they were trying to get elected in
Democratic primary battles. The other 11 didn’t win.
As the article explains progressive political activists
inside and outside of the Democratic Party wants to push the Democrats to the
left. As Activist Cenk Uygur explained to Politico:
“After the election, was I mad at
Donald Trump? I guess, kinda,” he said, who ended up leaving the group when a
series of previously deleted misogynistic blog posts were unearthed. “But
mainly I was mad at the Democratic Party for blowing it. How could you
lose to this guy?
I came to realize Democrats are
never going to learn,” he added, “and that the only way to make a difference is
to defeat the corrupt corporate Democrats. They get paid to lose. The corporate
donor pays them to be weak, and pays Republicans to be strong.”
I have to admit that I have felt about the same way about
the Democratic Party. The mainstream of the party complains that this group, Justice
Democrats, are destructive towards the party as a whole and especially the “so
called” moderate Democrats.
The author of this article, DAVID FREEDLANDER, wrote in a
headline kicker:
‘There Is Going to Be a War
Within the Party. We Are Going to Lean Into It.’
The Justice Democrats
helped get Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected. Who are they after next?
And in the article:
“I am talking about the radical
conservatives in the Democratic Party,” said Saikat Chakrabarti. “That’s who we
need to counter. It’s the same across any number of issues—pay-as-you-go, free
college, “Medicare for all.” These are all enormously popular in the party, but
they don’t pass because of the radical conservatives who are holding the party
hostage.”
Not long ago, this would have
been an outlier position even among American liberals. Today, it’s the
organizing principle of a newly empowered segment of the Democratic Party, one
with a foothold in the new Congress.
Another important quote from this article:
“Chakrabarti is chief of staff
to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the closest thing to a new celebrity Congress has
had in years—a 29-year-old former activist and bartender who, on the most
recent Martin Luther King Day, sat on the same New York stage as the rapper
Common, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler and MacArthur “genius
award” winner Ta-Nehisi Coates.”
And the article points out that much of these changes came
from just a few people, who were able to make major changes to the present
political atmosphere:
“Sen. Bernie Sanders’ cannonball
run in 2016 and united by their superprogressive politics and a millennial
disdain for the establishment.”
All of this is good news for DSA members (at least the true
leftists) and real socialists and progressives who are sick and tired of
corporate Democrats and their lack luster, meaningless campaigns with such
useless slogans as “we’re the party of jobs”—big deal. Who is going to be
against jobs?! No one is, of course.
Many Democrats are yelling “foul” at the idea of using
primaries to try and unseat career Democrats who have sat on their asses and
done nothing.
Right now many of us want medical care for all. The problem that
most moderate Democrats have, as well as their Republican counter-parts, is
that they want to preserve the jobs of all the insurance companies, while
providing some kind of healthcare for the poor and working poor. What we really
need is to get rid of the insurance companies and provide a government health
care system for all people in the country. It may be painful for the moderate
Democrats to swallow that, but they need to either get on board or get voted out
of office. We need a serious left-wing push, to knock out the conservative
politicians, their hacks and years of stupid ideas and beliefs. America needs
some socialism and the time to go after it is now.
To see the article in whole click
here.
Pix by FiveThirtyEight.
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