Congress Needs New Leadership-- Replacing Steny Hoyer With Progressive Democrat McKayla Wilkes Would Be A Great Start

There are still 8 crackpot Republican governors who deserve to be removed from office for jeopardizing the lives of their states' citizens. None of these jerks will follow the Surgeon General and White House guidelines asking governors to impose stay-at-home orders. Other than swing state Iowa, this is the deranged Trumpist heartland

• Arkansas-- Asa Hutchinson
• Iowa-- Kim Reynolds
• Nebraska-- Pete Ricketts
• North Dakota-- Doug Burgum
• Oklahoma-- Kevin Stitt
• South Dakota-- Kristi Noem
• Utah-- Gary Herbert
• Wyoming-- Mark Gordon

Leadership matters-- and while Trump was celebrating the Dow Jones' bull trap yesterday, the NY Times revealed a government study Trump has suppressed which show projections that find stay-at-home orders, school closures and social distancing greatly reduce infections of the coronavirus, but lifting those restrictions after just 30 days will lead to a dramatic infection spike this summer and death tolls that would rival doing nothing. The risk they show of easing shelter-in-place orders currently in effect in most of the country undercut recent statements by President Trump that the United States could be ready to reopen 'very, very soon.'"

I wish I could say all the bad leadership comes from Republicans and all the Democrats represent the good leadership. But I can't. That's why that new McKayla Wilkes video is up top. If you haven't watched it yet, please watch it now. McKayla is running for a southern Maryland congressional seat occupied by Steny Hoyer and the video is very compelling, very powerful. McKayla is running on a largely Bernie platform-- from the Green New Deal to Medicare for All and free state colleges.

This morning, former Florida Congressman Alan Grayson reminded me that "One of the things that the Left used to be good at was setting the agenda-- from 1930 until around 1975. From then on, it was tax cuts for the rich, 'deregulation,' anti-abortion zealotry, whatever the NRA wanted, benefits cuts, military spending increases, and more tax cuts for the rich. What Bernie Sanders has tried to do, very patiently, is to try to take back the agenda from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, and replace it with a new utilitarian agenda: the greatest good for the greatest number. He gives regular pols something to talk about. That a very influential position to have." And Bernie has influenced a large number of young men and women with values like his own-- AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib as well as candidates like Shan Chowdhury (NY), Audrey Denney (CA), Harper Morgan (OH), Tomas Ramos (NY), Shahid Buttar and, of course, McKayla.

Hoyer represents K Street, not the people living in Prince George's, Charles, St. Mary's and Calvert counties. Here he is, one of the most powerful member of Congress but without having ever addressed the housing crisis in his own district-- nor anywhere else. He has no plan and no interest and it isn't even mentioned on his website. McKayla, on the other hand, is campaigning loudly and clearly on affordable housing, promoting the national Housing Guarantee which includes a national cap on rent increases; federal loans and grants to municipalities and counties for the construction of twelve million new units of publicly- or communally-owned social housing over the next decade; renewing the nation’s commitment to public housing as a critical source of housing for our lowest-income communities reversing decades of disinvestment and privatization and fully funding the backlog of maintenance and repair needs; providing assistance to vulnerable communities and communities impacted by housing discrimination and unjust federal policies such as "redlining."

McKayla is also a proponent of providing meaningful foreclosure relief for homeowners impacted by predatory financing practices, unforeseen personal circumstances and environmental or economic disaster; providing federal rewards for localities that lift zoning restrictions in areas zoned exclusively for single-family housing; promoting Community Land Trusts, limited-equity co-operatives and other alternative, community-based ownership models as vehicles for developing affordable housing.

Yesterday, she told me she has been going even further, advocating measure to seriously tackle homelessness-- like instituting a Renters Bill of Rights to protect all renters from unfair eviction and sharp price increases. She would like to introduce a federal Right to Shelter, whereby the state is legally required to provide shelter for all, regardless of cost. She also supports increasing the accessibility of Universal Housing Vouchers by simplifying eligibility requirements, eliminating red tape and increasing funding for outreach and case support services ." So how about Steny? Crickets. He supports what the lobbyists tell him/pay him to support-- always has, always will.

Please consider hitting the 2020 Blue America congressional thermometer above and contributing what you can to McKayla's campaign. She's needs to get that video out widely and whatever you can afford will be completely appreciated.