Progressives make gains in this primary season—conservative politics take a hit

 By SJ Otto

This primary season has provided progressives with some real good new. Progressive candidates have knocked out several conservative and/or centrist democrats. It is these little races, not the presidential race, that will lead the way to finally make some progress in one of the most conservative and backward countries in the world.

We can expect little or no real progress from Joe Biden, the Democrat that holds a good chance of replacing President Donald Trump, possibly one of the worst presidents in the last 100 years. He needs to win, but he won’t support any progressive causes. He has laughed at the idea of a national health care system to provides all people with health care. That is badly needed for many people who are going without health care.

U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, one of the most visible and vulnerable progressive Democrats in Congress, won a challenge from the more conservative Democrats Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones. All the members of the so called Squad have been targeted by the more conservative factions of the Democratic Party.

Just a little over a month ago Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, possibly the most visible of the Squad, won her primary re-election by a landslide. Her opponent was Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former journalist and former republican. AOC obtained 72.6 percent of the votes.

Other wins for new progressives include Neomi Martinez-Parra who won Senate District 35, defeating state Senator Sen. John Arthur Smith who has held the seat for 32 years, in New Mexico. Another progressive win was also in New Mexico. Carrie Hamblen, running for Senate District 38, also defeated another powerful state Senate voice, 20-year-state Senate veteran Mary Kay Papen, who is President Pro Tem.

Another primary win for progressives was in Missouri where Cori Bush defeated William Lacy Clay, who was elected in 2000, after entering politics in 2014 amid protests over the shooting of Michael Brown.

All these candidates have to win in the November election. Many are in traditional Democratic districts. Others are less sure to win, such as in Missouri—a state that has gone to the Republicans many years ago.

An article in The Hill provided names of other important races to progressives. For example:

 

“Those elections may be a preview of the rest of the primary season, when long-serving Democrats find themselves the targets of well-organized campaigns to oust them. On Tuesday, voters head to the polls in New York, where at least two veteran lawmakers — Reps. Eliot Engel (D) and Yvette Clarke (D) — face serious threats from progressive rivals…..

….At least four Pennsylvania Democratic state legislators lost their seats in last week's primary. Two of the winning challengers in the Philadelphia area scored endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In Pittsburgh, Emily Kinkead, a progressive making her first run for office, ousted state Rep. Adam Ravenstahl (D), the brother of the city's former mayor……

….The wins for progressive candidates come two years after the first round of Sanders-supporting candidates such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) came to prominence by ousting incumbents or establishment-backed rivals. Progressives claimed sweeping wins in Boston in 2019, when for the first time a majority of the City Council was made up of nonwhites and women….”

 

The article went on to explain the changes that have taken place in the country that have made it possible for these progressive wins:

 

“Surveys show the millennial generation is more liberal than preceding generations, and as it moves into early middle age, it is accounting for a larger slice of the electorate — especially in larger cities, which have disproportionate numbers of millennial voters.”

 

After decades of being clobbered by right-wing conservative Republicans and centrist Democrats who acted more like Republicans than the slightly progressive leaders the Party used to produce in the 1960s, we finally have a change to actually change this country. We may finally be able to turn back the disastrous changes that came, starting with President Ronald Reagan. We have been stuck in a rut, run by the far-far-far-far right—which as been moving continuously to the right—further and further. Commentators love to say that the baby boomer generation has gotten more conservative. Not all of us are more conservative. I am one of the many baby boomers who have been progressive and out-voted election after election, since the Reagan years. Finally after all theses years we may change this country into a more tolerable place for us to live in.

We haven’t had a seriously progressive Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt. Lyndon Johnson was the last actual liberal president and he was deeply anti-communist. His anti-communism wrecked his foreign policy and had a bad affect on local politics as well. For most of the last century there really hasn’t been a lot of difference between the two parties. Finally we have a chance to change that.

 

Lets flush the conservatives and centrists!