Strong People Can Vote Against Trump Without Forcing Themselves To Wear Blinders About Who Joe Biden Is

Slimeball by Nancy Ohanian

In the early days of DWT, Paul Lakasiak occasionally graced this blog with guest posts. They were always among my favorite contributions. Paul was back yesterday with a response to a post-- Is The Tent So Big That The Party Has Become Meaningless As Anything MoreThan A Vehicle To Save The Country From Trump?. "The answer to your question is 'yes'," he wrote in the comment section. "And the Democratic Party is getting worse, not better."

Watching the convention over the first three days, I was actually working up some enthusiasm for helping the Dems win big in November. Then I saw the news that Pelosi had endorsed Joey With the Good Hair over reliable, principled progressive (and INCUMBENT) Ed Markey. And now I'm outraged.

I'll still crawl through broken glass laced with tetanus laden rusty tacks and fire ants to vote against Donald Trump in November. But don't ask me to tell anyone that things will get better with Democrats like Nancy Pelosi in charge of the House -- because all I can say is that, under Biden, things won't be as bad as under Trump.

And I suspect that this viewpoint will be shared extensively among real progressives. They know that the democratic party is completely corrupt-- and that Pelosi is thoroughly worthless. And we're most likely to see repeat of 2010 in another two years, as Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer betray the American people in favor of their corporate sponsors.

Biden's acceptance speech Thursday night was excellent. Whoever wrote it with him deserves a lot of praise. Biden delivered it very, very well too. I'm a big admirer of John Pavlovitz and share his thoughts here at DWT frequently. I've never disagreed with him-- until his post yesterday: Joe Biden Is Not The Lesser of Two Evils. Obviously, anyone could agree with his observation that "The only people still defending [Trump] are brainwashed Evangelicals, looney conspiracy theorists, and abject racists. The raking light of history is recording all of it, whether these people like it or not. The human rights violations and the assaults on our Constitution and the attacks on our institutions and the rampant criminality cannot be denied or explained away or buried in fake Fox News headlines." It's his next line, though, that merits some debate: "Joe Biden is not the lesser of two evils, because he is not evil by any measure."

For someone like myself, who doesn't vote for evil, whether it is lesser or not, that's an important assertion, and one I entirely disagree with. Politically-speaking, Biden is profoundly evil. Unlike Paul Lukasiac, let alone John Pavlovitz, I'm not even going to vote for him. On a relative basis of evil, he pales next to Trump. Trump's evil isn't normal political evil... Trump's evil comes from the bowels of hell and I pray that selfless and courageous Secret Service agents spend time meditating on a Satwant Singh and Beant Singh solution to what plagues our country and is bringing it to its knees.




I respect people who look at Trump and Biden and conclude that Trump is so much worse that they will... "crawl through broken glass laced with tetanus laden rusty tacks and fire ants to vote" against Trump in November. I haven interest in trying to persuade anyone to not vote against Trump and do what I can to remind everyone I know-- and readers of this blog-- that Satan has a servant in the White House.

But that doesn't change how I see the Joe Biden I've gotten to know since the mid-1970s, when he only had one issue he ran on as a newly-minted Democrat: racism. His campaign was based on dog-whistles vowing to protect white suburban voters from the horrors of integration. And once he got to the Senate, he was in a constant battle for the position of that body's worst Democrat, consciously-- no, literally, consciously-- fighting to present himself as a conservative. Like I said, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from voting against Trump and I spent the last year talking about Biden's shortcomings. That said, this kind of drivel is not something I'm buying into, no matter the source:

He is a profoundly decent man: a man of faith, a man of compassion; a man who is willing to listen to different viewpoints, capable of evolving, and able to admit his mistakes. He is a man who loves deeply, mourns greatly, and gives fully. He is a man with actual meaningful, healthy relationships with other human beings. He is a humble man who sees others as more important than himself.

Biden is a corrupt conservative and he will head a corrupt conservative administration. Mainstream Republicans love him and they will love him more. He may even achieve their biggest goal-- and his own-- wrecking Social Security with some kind of bogus Grand Compromise he's been working on for his whole miserable career. Is he still better than Trump. Of course. One would be hard-pressed to see Trump as anything less than demonic. Biden is, admittedly, a "flawed human," as Pavlovitz put it. The Democratic Party is also very flawed, very, very, very flawed. There are no Republicans in Congress worth re-electing, not even one. The Democrats have many decent members of Congress-- certainly not a majority-- most congressional Democrats should be defeated-- but there are dozens and dozens of good ones too. Something to build on. The GOP? Needs to start over from scratch.

Pavlovitz is no dummy and only an imbecile would dismiss his thoughts. "It’s one thing to be a good-hearted but flawed human being who sometimes says something stupid or occasionally has an error in judgment or simply gets it wrong," he wrote. "Most of us fall under that category. We’re not any kind of evil, we’re just imperfect , emotional people, and so we fail and fall-- sometimes slightly and sometimes spectacularly. That’s who Joe Biden is. He is one of us. He is human. We need more human these days." How can anyone disagree with that? Especially when he offers the contrast: "It’s something else entirely to be an inherently malevolent creature: to be incapable of empathy, defiantly unwilling to admit mistakes; to wake up every day intending to do harm and feeling no remorse for it. If the word evil can apply to anyone, it’s the current President. He lacks a single noble impulse. Even his supporters know that."

Pavlovitz says he "would much rather be led by a well-intentioned human who sometimes misses the mark, than a purposefully cruel sociopath who has no concern for other people’s pain. False equivalencies are irresponsible here. These are fundamentally different people in every important way one can measure such things."

He should vote for Biden. He's going to. Most voters are going to. Nearly everyone I know and respect is going to. All my relatives-- except one seriously deranged one-- are voting for Biden. All my friends are voting for Biden. I am fairly certain that even my partners at Blue America are voting for Biden. I hope that on November 4th, I'll be thanking God for having defeated Satan the day before. And when Biden starts being Biden, I'll be interested to see how long it takes Pavlovitz to rethink his thoughts on relativity. For example, is Austerity evil? Not as evil as Trumpism, but... well, maybe I'm wrong and that nearly 50 years of Bidenism is suddenly going to change. But I doubt it.

One man pulls us toward unity, the other stokes division. 
One man speaks to our collective better angels, the other to the worst of who we are.
One man is burdened to inspire, the other compelled to engender fear.
One man is continually turned outward and the other is fully self-absorbed.
One man expresses his love for America, the other vilifies over half of it.

Stop telling me the choice isn’t clear.

I’m not voting for Joe Biden begrudgingly.

I’m not holding my nose or halfheartedly standing behind his campaign, and I’m not supporting him simply because he’s opposing Donald Trump.
I'm voting for Joe Biden because I know that he won’t deny the existence of a pandemic.
He won’t blame viruses on Republicans.
He won’t silence medical experts.
He won’t reject Science.
He won’t allow tens of thousands of Americans to die in order to protect his ego.
He won’t tweet demeaning nicknames for his opponents.
He won’t validate nonsensical conspiracies.
He won’t shout over female reporters.
He won’t shut down social media apps when teenagers hurt his feelings.
He won’t dismantle the Postal Service in order to deny Americans their essential liberties.
He won’t make fun of people with disabilities.
He won’t call racists fine people.
And on and on and on.

Republicans for Biden feel a lot like Pavlovitz. Below, on the Bulwark podcast-- a #NeverTrump outlet for conservatives-- two staunch conservative Republicans, Charlie Sykes and Tim Miller, had a discussion of the Democratic Convention. Tim Miller, a former RNC spokesman and Jeb Bush Communications Director, said "I wanted to share one thing that we discussed after the show was over. Both of us we were caught off guard by how emotionally attached we were last night to this candidacy. We had sort of expected to feel this reluctant, begrudging support for the Democratic nominee, to have been left in a tough spot between one normal bad choice and one existentially bad one. But that isn’t what happened. Joe Biden has me energized. And frankly, that he has both Charlie and I reflecting on whether maybe in the past we were just…in the wrong…"


In his wrap-up of the Democratic Convention for Politico yesterday, Ryan Lizza wrote that "Much of the week was spent by Democrats balancing praising Biden for his empathy and character and attacking Trump for-- well, just about everything. What was missing from the big speeches-- with the notable exception of Bernie Sanders-- was a clear articulation of the specific policies Biden would pursue to combat the pandemic and recession. Biden filled in those gaps clearly. He discussed, with some specificity, infrastructure, education, health care, climate change, and tax policy. He gave a detailed list of actions he would take to stop the spread of Covid-19. Overall this was a nimble speech that responded to the dramatically changed circumstances of the last few months, when Biden transformed from being the leader of a faction within his party to the leader of the most diverse electoral coalition in modern politics. In that span, the pre-existing crises he knew he would face as president-- climate change, the diminished standing of America in the world-- were shoved aside by three additional and equally urgent crises."

This morning, a trusted progressive leader in Congress suggested that if I could try to "take it easy on Joe until after the election that would be great-- have to beat the Nazis before we can worry about USSR (to torture an imperfect analogy)." I get it... and believe it or not, I have been "taking it easy" on Joe... relatively speaking.

Bloomberg Buys His First Congressional Endorsement-- A Blue Dog, Of Course

Team Bloomberg

Once Bloomberg, the billionaire self-funder and least liked of all the Democratic candidates running for president, put out feelers that he would pay-- and pay big-- for congressional endorsements, we asked who the first asshole would be. Democrats polled say they find Bloomberg relatively untrustworthy, dishonest, unable to deal with their hopes and aspirations, bad on issues and unable to beat Trump. But he is spending and spending and spending and even hiring lobbyists to bribe Democratic congressmen into endorsing him. So it should have come as no surprise which corrupt Blue Dog bit first.

Yesterday, the Associated Press' Sydney Kashiwagi reported that Rose "has endorsed Michael Bloomberg for president, winning the former New York City mayor his first endorsement from a sitting member of Congress." Kashiwagi didn't mention how much Bloomberg paid Rose.

"The city Mike Bloomberg inherited in 2002 was reeling from the worst terrorist attack in American history and facing economic recession. There were real fears nothing would ever feel or be the same again. Mike Bloomberg took the reins, brought New York City back to life and put us on track to lead in the 21st century,” Rose said.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s even keeled and visionary leadership is what we need to reduce the chaos, partisanship and hyper-vitriol that has overtaken Washington. Rather than submit to another stage of politics as usual, we must be bold and unifying in taking on the huge challenges we face as a nation,” Rose continued. “We need to root out corruption so we can put the economy back on the side of working people, fix our crumbling infrastructure, lower prescription drug costs and end the opioid epidemic. Mike Bloomberg has taken on tough fights and gotten results, which is why I believe he is the best candidate for my district, my city, and for our country.

The billionaire has presented himself as a centrist candidate, but has faced some criticism for positions he held during his time as mayor, such as the NYPD’s stop and frisk program and the push to ban large-sized sugary drinks. Bloomberg attempted to address the stop and frisk concerns during a campaign speech in Brooklyn last year.

“I was wrong,” Bloomberg said before the Christian Cultural Center, a predominantly black megachurch. “And I am sorry.”

The former mayor paid a visit to the Island in early December to attend the Iron Hills Civic Association’s annual holiday dinner at the Richmond County Country Club.

“If we work together, we can solve problems and make progress,” Bloomberg told the room of more than 200 people. “We’ve done that here in New York City, and we desperately need to do it across the country.”

Rose’s endorsement comes as the race for his congressional seat is heating up.

Rose is currently running unopposed in the June primary, but faces two Republican challengers-- Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and Brooklyn prosecutor Joseph Caldarera.

Let week Democratic Socialist Richard-Olivier Marius dropped out of the primary. And even before Bloomberg's contribution, which we won't see until the spring, Rose had raised $2,130,499, compared to the GOP establishment's Malliotakis, who has brought in $756,964. Saladino raised just $55,143 and isn't considered a serious candidate, just another right-wing vanity candidate. There has been some talk about Mafia-thug and Trump amigo Michael Grimm, who has been released from prison, running as well. But he's been quiet for a few months.

I don't know off hand if there is even one Blue Dog who hasn't earned an "F" from ProgressivePunch, but if there is-- it sure isn't Max Rose. He has continued to let his constituents down by consistently voting with conservatives. In fact, his miserable voting record is 12.62% more conservative than the Staten Island and Brooklyn residents of his district. His most recent vile roll call vote was to cross the aisle with 7 other of the worst Democrats in the House to oppose the War Powers Resolution. It passed last Thursday 224 to 194 without Rose. There were even 3 Republicans who voted for it. It really is tragic that there is no one primarying Rose this cycle. Hopefully... 2022.

And, by the way, at the same time Bloomberg and his bought-and-paid for pack of lobbyists were rolling out the Rose endorsement, Bernie got a real good one that he obviously didn't have to pay for:





And so did former Bernie DNC delegate Jill Carter, a state senator and candidate for Congress for Baltimore's open seat (MD-07). Ben Jealous' endorsement is a very big deal-- and would be in any congressional race. I'd take either one of these over Max Rose or any other Blue Dog-- any day of the week. Please take a look as Ben explains why he endorsed Jill:

What Happened Last Night? Alexandria's Earthquake-- And The DCCC Stinks Up The Room Again

NY-14 voters knew exactly what they were voting for

On Wednesday mornings after elections, I like giving a recap of the important things that happened, at least important to progressives. I was all set to start with the way Jason Crow and he's sleazeball allies-- we're looking at you, Steny-- stole the CO-06 election from Levi Tillemann. We'll get to that soon. First we should just say a few words about the biggest political upset since Señor Trumpanzee was declared the winner of the 2016 election. Or, in congressional terms, since Eric Cantor went down to some crackpot teabagger. 28 year old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did exactly what she told me she would do several months ago... she defeated the #4 member of the House Democratic leadership, and most corrupt Democrat in Congress, Joe Crowley. She did it by working and working and working and working smart and working hard. Crowley, who's taken more bribes from Wall Street than any other House Democrat-- $7,148,700-- spent-- as of June 6th-- $3,354,370 to her $300,709. And outside independent spending... minimal. as you can see below, the Sierra Club spending $10 on Crowley and Blue America spending $11,000 on Alexandria. (Thanks all the small donors who chipped in here.)

Anyway, Alexandria beat him 15,897 (57.5%) to 11,761 (42.5%)-- a big win, especially considering EMILY's List absolutely refused to endorse her. Everyone is Congress who got involved, including big women's champion Kirsten Gillibrand, endorsed him and only Ro Khanna backed her (although it was a dual endorsement). No one from the establishment took her seriously. Now they have to learn how to pronounce her name. Randy Bryce was delighted and speaking for fellow grassroots progressives said, "Tonight was yet another example of the Beltway getting it wrong-- regular, working people are on a mission. We’re on a mission to stand for our values and win the monumental battles at hand. Alexandria proved people wrong and I’m excited to serve with her and unite in defying the odds." This is a great day for for NY-14, a great day for progressives, a great day for Alexandria's team (including the Justice Democrats), a great day for the Democratic Party, a great day for America, a miserable day for Mark Pocan.

Also in New York, the DCCC lost another one. Up in the Syracuse area (NY-24), all the local Democrats were firmly behind Dana Balter when suddenly, the DCCC-- ignoring the local Democratic Party, as they always do-- parachuted their own candidate into the race, Juanita Perez Williams. The locals were furious. The final score:

The DCCC should fight Republicans-- and first learn how to-- and stop fighting their own party's grassroots and progressives. Syracuse voters slapped them hard across the snout, just the way voters in Omaha, Nebraska and Lexington, Kentucky did recently.

Yesterday's big DCCC win was NRA ally and right-wing Blue Dog Anthony Brindisi in NY-22 (Utica, Rome, Oneida, Cortland, Binghamton), who ran unopposed and will now face Claudia Tenney in the DCCC's favorite kind of race-- forcing voters to pick between the lesser of two evils.



As long as we're on bad news, let's move on to Colorado, where one of the DCCC's worst candidates of the cycle, payday lender attorney Jason Crow, or one of his allies, sent out the robocall above. Sounds like Bernie, right? It isn't. Our Revolution endorsed Levi Tillemann, against the reactionary corporate shill Crow and Bernie didn't get involved. But every Democrat in the suburban Denver district got that illegal call yesterday. Notice there is no "paid for by" at the end of the ad. This is sickening and exactly what you can expect from Crow if he beats Mike Coffman, a moderate Republican incumbent who might be the lesser evil of these two. I know I'd never vote for Crow. He beat Tillemann 49,101 (66.1%) to 25,237 (33.9%) in a district that Bernie won in 2016.

Socially progressive Jared Polis, a Boulder-based congressman, had a big win in a 4-person race for governor. Will he be the first openly LGBT man ever elected to a governorship?

• Jared Polis- 264,464 (44.7%)
• Cary Kennedy- 145,908 (24.7%)
• Mike Johnston- 137,617 (23.3%)
• Donna Lynne- 43,010 (7.3%)

He'll face conservative Trumpist Walker Stapleton in November. The other gubernatorial race we were watching was in Maryland, where Berniecrat Ben Jealous came out on top in an 9-person Democratic race.

The only other race we were watching was the Oklahoma City congressional contest which goes to an August 28 primary runoff between garden variety Democrat Kendra Horn and progressive Tom Guild.

And there was one Republican race we were paying attention to-- NY-11 (Staten Island and part of southern Brooklyn). Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm lost his come-back attempt to mainstream Republican incumbent Dan Donovan 12,774 (63.9%) to 7,219 (36.1%). We'll probably never hear from Grimm again, unless he's arrested for... judging by his past, it could be anything. Donovan will face wretched Blue Dog Max Rose in November, another lesser of two evils contest.

What Ben Jealous Understands

As you know, Blue America's priority is taking back the House and helping to fill it with genuine progressives. This is our main ActBlue page and it's filled with stalwart progressives running for the House, like Randy Bryce (WI), Doug Applegate (CA), Jenny Marshall (NC), Dan Canon (IN), David Gill (IL), etc. But we also help raise funds for Senate candidates, for incumbents, for candidates in districts Trump won, for state legislative candidates... and for candidates for governor. So far we've only endorsed 3 gubernatorial candidates; Tom Wakely in Texas, Daniel Biss in Illinois and Ben Jealous in Maryland. All three are fully-vetted progressives and all three have tough up-hill battles against much better-funded establishment insiders.

But one of them, Ben Jealous, just got a powerful endorsement from the most trusted and popular political leader in the country, Bernie Sanders. Please give it a read and if you agree and want to help elect Ben, consider tapping the brand new Blue America ActBlue gubernatorial thermometer on the right. Ben, like Tom and Dan, is running a grassroots campaign and talking to small dollar contributors, so... if you feel like contributing $10 or $20 isn't manful-- just forget that. These are the candidates who put campaigns together not based on PACs from special interests or from wealthy donors, but from lots of small contributors, like us. Bernie:

These are, to say the least, unusual and unprecedented times for our country. We have a president who is unfit to hold his office, and whose policies are the most anti-working class in the modern history of America.

One of the ways we can most effectively oppose Trump’s right-wing extremism is with strong progressive leadership at the local and state level.

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous is one of the great progressive leaders in the United States of America. He endorsed our campaign when it was difficult. He joined our political revolution at the very moment the political and financial establishment in this country was fighting back hardest against us.

Now he’s running for governor of Maryland and it’s our turn to be there for him.

...Ben has always been a very powerful ally of our movement, and he needs our support. Please help him.

Ben Jealous knows a truth that we don’t see too much of on the television. And that is that there is an enormous amount of pain in this country. He understands that there are millions and millions of people right now who are hurting.

Ben understands that people are not making it on $10 an hour and that we’re going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage-- $15 an hour.

Ben understands that in the year 2017, it is unacceptable that women are making 80 cents on the dollar and that we need pay equity.

Ben understands that in a highly competitive global economy, we need the best educated workforce in the world and that it is insane that people cannot afford to go to college or are leaving school deeply in debt.

Ben understands, and this has been his life’s work as one of the great leaders of the American civil rights movement, that there is something profoundly wrong when the United States has more people in jail than any other country on earth, and that disproportionately those prisoners are black, Latino and Native American. He has spent decades fighting for real criminal justice reform.

Ben understands, unlike President Trump, that climate change is not a hoax, and as governor of a state that is uniquely threatened by rising sea levels, he is going to work with many of us to transform our energy system to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

And Ben understands that in the richest country in the history of the world, it is long past time that we join the rest of the industrialized world in ensuring that health care is a right for every single man, woman, and child. That is why he is a strong advocate of a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.

Lastly, let me say this: I am asking you to donate to Ben’s campaign because we want to elect him governor of Maryland. But I am also asking you to donate to his campaign because our participation and Ben’s victory will send a very powerful message to candidates all across the country.

And that message is that when you stand up and authentically fight for the working class in this country, when you fight for people of all backgrounds, they will stand up and fight with you. That is how we elect progressives to Congress, to governors' mansions, and to state legislatures across the country.

Ben Jealous has always been with us-- please join me and be there for him today. He needs us.

Electing a leader like Ben Jealous would be a tremendous victory not just for our political revolution, but it would demonstrate that our values are on the march everywhere in this nation. That’s why your donation means so much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Maryland's Increasingly Messy Democratic Party Politics-- Delaney, Trone And... "The Stud Of The Statehouse"

Bernie with Ben Jealous-- the best news in this post about Maryland politics

Maryland Congressman John Delaney is barely a Democrat. Or, to be fair, he's the archetype member of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. A conservative multimillionaire serving the interests of the very rich, he's passionately anti-progressive and that's very much reflected in his atrocious voting record. ProgressivePunch rates him an "F" and this cycle Delaney's crucial vote score is an abysmal 45.83, not just the lowest of any Maryland Democrat, but way down at the bottom of the barrel among all House Democrats, tied, for example, with right-wing Blue Dogs Lou Correa and Cheri Bustos. The Five Thirty Eight new project that measures congressmembers' adherence to the Trump agenda shows him voting with Trump 19.4% of the time. (Hillary beat Trump in Delaney's district 55.3-40.2%.) Delaney is expected to announce that he's running for governor of Maryland later this month. The good news is that he'll be gone from Congress-- and likely to lose the gubernatorial bid.

First off, Marylanders are pretty happy with their Republican governor, Larry Hogan, who has one of the highest approval ratings of any governor in America. But before Delaney can even deal with Hogan, he has to face a crowded primary field, a field that includes former NAACP head Ben Jealous, who is rallying progressives and who was just endorsed by Bernie Sanders and by Our Revolution. Others in-- or likely to get into-- the race include Prince George's County Exec Rushern Baker, Baltimore Count Exec Kevin Kamenetz, former state Attorney General Douglas Gansler, tech entrepreneur Alec Rosss, attorney Jim Shea and state Senator Richard Madaleno.

As for Delaney's seat, Andrew Duck, an Iraq War vet and anti-Choice political "centrist" who ran for this seat in 2006, 2008 and 2010, Aruna Miller and state House Majority Leader (and stud of the statehouse) Bill Frick have already pulled papers and are soliciting campaign contributions. Although he hasn't officially declared yet, state Senator Roger Manno, is also running for Delaney seat. But the funniest candidate planning to run is another worthless right-of-center Democrat, multimillionaire beer distributor David Trone who recently made a fool of himself running for the MD-08 seat. Trone has the distinction of having spent more of his own money than any other candidate running for a House seat-- $13,414,225-- in history... only to lose the primary to progressive champion Jamie Raskin. Trone's millions bought him 27.1% of the primary vote, 35,400 votes or around $380 per vote. Maybe Trone thinks the more conservative 6th district will be a better match for his rich people agenda, but he also seems to think if he just spends a little more money... Yep he's already been bragging to the media that he's willing to spend a million and a half more of his fortune in MD-06-- $15 million-- than he wasted in MD-08. Trone has a long history of arrests and criminal behavior involved with building his beer and wine empire and I can't think of a better way the the Democrats to further tarnish their brand than by embracing someone like David Trone as a congressional candidate. On the other hand, Trone has written many hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks to the Democratic Party and has regularly contributed large sums to sleazy-- and influential-- Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen. He could be a role model for the Orange County lottery winner, who is currently working hard to buy endorsements from easily-bribed Democratic elected officials.

Still, the idea of getting Delaney out of Congress, will be worth every cent of David Trone's $15,000,000 in wasted self-funding. As for Ben Jealous... well, this is what Our Revolution president Nina Turner had to say in herr endorsement statement this morning:

Maryland deserves a leader who understands that social, racial, economic, and environmental justice are essential to building a better future for the next generation. It is imperative that we elect a bold, progressive governor who will fight on behalf of middle and working class families. Ben Jealous has spent his career fighting on behalf of communities who don’t have a seat at a table by working to strengthen voting rights and raise the minimum wage, advocating for an end to mass incarceration and the death penalty, and fighting to ensure health care as a human right. Ben has proven that he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work for the people of Maryland.

Ben Jealous has been a dedicated civil rights leader since college, where he served local NAACP chapters in New York and Mississippi. After writing for and directing a variety of historically black newspapers, he went on to become the president and CEO of the NAACP from 2008 to 2012 where he was credited for reviving the organization by developing strong coalitions, implementing extensive voter mobilization efforts, and working tirelessly as a human rights advocate. In 2014, he became a senior partner at Kapor Capital, a firm that works to fuel progressive change through the tech industry. Jealous was one of the founding Our Revolution Board Members and an active surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Now is the time to elect unapologetic progressive voices across the country. Our Revolution is proud to support Ben Jealous in his run for governor.

Why South Carolina Democrats Ought To Make History By Rejecting Hillary Clinton Today

Any time I've mentioned that Hillary Clinton is a conservative and the wrong person for the Democratic Party nomination-- using her policy record, her history of campaigning for Nixon, Goldwater and Rockefeller and her time as president of her college's Young Republicans-- low-info Hillary backers (Trumpf isn't the only one dependent on the poorly educated) come screaming onto my twitter feed either to say I'm making it up or that it is ancient history and she was just a child. President of the Wellesley College Young Republicans? Just a child; I don't think so. "And we all change" or "evolve" is another over-used, somewhat worn, trope. OK, this interview was done when Hillary was nearly 50 years old, so... not a child, right?



Get it through your head. It's who and what she is and has always been and will always be. Yes, she's progressive on women's issues. Thank God. But that's really it. The only other issues she's "progressive" on have been the result on being pushed and pushed and pushed and until the issue became safe and fit neatly and into her opportunistic political calculus with no attendant political costs. You want to help nominate her for president? Embrace the real Hillary and be honest with yourself. After all, a primary vote for Hillary may well mean you are electing Donald Trump president of the United States.

This week, as Democrats in South Carolina prepared for their moment in the sun, Ben Jealous, a Bernie Sanders surrogate sent out an e-mail very widely. He reminded recipients-- especially in South Carolina-- that he "spent five years leading the NAACP-- through the election of our first Black president, through the worst assault on voting rights in two generations, and through the Zimmerman acquittal and the movement that grew after it. Long before that, as a teenager, I cut my teeth community organizing in Harlem and Mississippi. From the country's biggest city to its biggest civil rights association, I've seen this political game at every level." And then he made the case for why Bernie is the logical choice for primary voters today in South Carolina.

What I haven't exactly seen before is a presidential candidate like Senator Bernie Sanders--and that's why I endorsed him earlier this month... Bernie’s got a level of integrity you rarely see in politicians today. He's got a boldness of vision that's shaken the Democratic Party this year. And he's got a moral clarity and authenticity that I think are the reasons he's been drawing such huge crowds wherever his campaign goes.

I'll tell you that Bernie's got something else too-- a legislative history and agenda to match his fiery rhetoric. Bernie's universal health care plan would improve the lives of millions of people, particularly Black and Latino Americans who are still disproportionately uninsured today. His plan to make college more affordable is going to make the middle class obtainable for entire communities of people who have been systematically left out. And his people-over-profits approach to international trade would make sure we're creating jobs in communities whose industries have disappeared, instead of giving more jobs away.

Despite what you've been hearing on the 24-hour news cycle, Bernie can definitely win this nomination; the delegate math proves it. The Democratic Party's superdelegates will not vote until July. That means the only thing that counts right now are the delegates earned at the polls, where Clinton and Sanders are only one vote apart.

Moreover, the most important question for us is not just who can win the primary itself, but who can beat Donald Trump at the polls in November. For weeks now, every poll has been clear: Sanders is the only candidate who would defeat Trump handily in a head-to-head match this fall. But the millions of us behind Bernie's "political revolution" have to get us there first.



... When I first began campaigning for Bernie Sanders, I recalled the words of the late, great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said that "a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." That means someone who is visionary and not constrained by what leaders of the status quo tell us is possible.

I've seen Bernie in action, and I know he's the type of leader we can trust to fight for the future of all our nation's children as if they were his very own. I've also heard the stories of his time as a student activist in Chicago, fighting housing segregation and leading the local CORE chapter—the stories he's too humble to harp about in public but that paint the picture of a man who's carried a lifelong commitment to justice.

For decades, Bernie's been a consistent, principled, and courageous fighter against the evils that Dr. King referred to as the giant triplets of racism, militarism, and greed. I know that's the reason that legends like Harry Belafonte have proudly endorsed Bernie as well.

...This photo's been going around since this weekend, after the Chicago Tribune found it in their archives. It's Bernie Sanders being arrested in 1963 during a civil rights demonstration on the south side of Chicago. Coincidentally, Bernie mentioned this incident at a dinner I attended recently, and he said immediately after this picture was taken, he was thrown into a police van.

1963... 1963... 1963... oh, yeah, the same year Hillary was forming the political values that still guide her today... as a Goldwater Girl. The evolved Goldwater Girl-- depending on who's in the audience-- sometimes says she's a "moderate" and sometimes makes the absurd claim that she's a "progressive." In reality, she's just out for herself-- and her record shows she always has been. In fact, her record, unlike Bernie's, shows pitifully little accomplishment, despite the millions of dollars in TV and radio ads that say otherwise. When she says she "likes to get things done," what is she talking about? Welfare "reform" that shredded African-American communities, Bush's catastrophic invasion of Iraq? The horrific Patriot Act? Helping the GOP put off marriage equality for a decade? That's her record. It's not a progressive record; it should give you a clue about what's coming if she's ever president. She wrote and passed exactly 3 bills that became law while she was in the U.S. Senate, S.3145 to rename a portion of New York's Route 20A, located in Orchard Park, as the "Timothy J. Russert Highway," S.3613 to rename a post office in Averill Park, New York, as the "Major George Quamo Post Office Building," and S.1241, a bill to set up and fund the Kate Mullany National Historic Site Act in Troy, New York. That's the record. That's it for her 7 wasted years in the U.S. Senate.

And going forward? What can we expect? Another mediocre presidency dedicated to preserving the status quo? And before that, an exceedingly ugly scorched earth campaign if we're misfortunately enough to wind up with her as the nominee. Expect a battle fought on two premises-- it's time for a woman and the lesser-of-two-evils. Ben Smith :

In reality, nobody is that excited about Hillary Clinton, and young voters, women and men-- the foot soldiers of any Democratic Party movement-- aren’t coming around. She lost a resounding 82% of voters under 30 in Nevada. Her campaign now rests on the hope that voters of color like her well enough, if nowhere near as much as they like Obama. And that means that when she faces a Republican, she will have to destroy him-- something the people who will be doing the destroying acknowledged when I asked them earlier this month.

“The slogan is ‘Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid,’” said Paul Begala, who is an adviser to the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA.

...“This is headed to a more contrastive kind of election,” said David Axelrod, the architect of Obama’s 2008 campaign. “People want to know you’re going to lead with a positive vision, but within the context of that, you can set up a contrast. Every campaign has to do that, she may have to do it more intensely.”

...Democrats are now left to hope that the Republican Party will make a campaign of fear easy by nominating a candidate campaigning on bigotry. Donald Trump has already hinted that he plans to attack Clinton as nastily as possible, on subjects including her husband’s infidelity.

“It will be her versus a fucking asshole in almost any scenario,” mused one prominent Obama loyalist. “It’s going to be a lot of fear, but she’s going to have a lot of room to run, and she’s not going to have to destroy the other person, because the other person is going to be so eminently destroyable.”

Begala, who will be manning the wrecking ball in the summer and fall, said that if Rubio, seen as the hardest of the Republican targets, is the nominee, one issue presents itself clearly: “He will be the first major party in American history who believes that a woman should be forced by law to bring a rapist’s baby to term,” he said.

In any event, he said, the broad theme of those attacks will be that “the Republican Party has gone insane.”

So don’t expect 2016 to be a fond political memory.

Many African-American voters, in South Carolina and beyond, are savvy enough to know exactly what to expect from the Establishment that is represented by every one of the wretched Republicans... and by Hillary Clinton. Please watch this clip from the season premiere of black-ish. This is reality, brothers and sisters, and putting another horribly flawed, Wall Street-owned Clinton into the White House and more corrupt, conservative, Republican-lite Democrats into Congress, isn't going to help any of us break out of it-- not now, not ever.



There is an alternative to a reactionary Trumpf and a conservative Clinton. This is not a quote from Herr Trumpf: "I feel like my political beliefs are rooted in the conservatism that I was raised with... I'm very proud that I was a Goldwater Girl." Let's hope South Carolina voters see the wisdom of it today and act on it in the voting booths.