For Progressives-- Wins, Losses And The Road Forward

Start calling her Congresswoman Bush

Last night there were two gigantic progressive wins-- both in Missouri. After a decade of dogged and vicious Republican opposition in the state legislature and from the governors, the state's voters passed a Constitutional Amendment to give health care to nearly a quarter million of the state's poorest citizens (people earning less than $18,000 annually) through Obamacare Medicaid expansion, making Missouri the 38th state to adopt it. Thanks to massive popularity in St Louis, the amendment passed 52-48% statewide, with right-wing governor Mike Parson continuing to lie that the state can't afford it-- even after a credible study from the Institute for Public Health at Washington University, found that providing health care for more people would actually save the state money. Since the federal government will match 90% of the costs of the newly eligible-- down from 100% had Missouri decided to be part of the program from the beginning-- that state will save about half a billion dollars a year in federal income taxes because residents pay into the system that funds Medicaid expansion without getting the benefits of that expansion."

The other huge progressive win in Missouri was Cori Bush defeating corrupt Congressman Lacy Clay in their St. Louis congressional race:

Cori, a nurse, a Black Lives Matter activist and Berniecrat was great news on a night when other movement activists didn't around the country didn't fare as well. Clay raised $740,525 compared to Bush's $562,309 but a massive $150,000 I.E. on her behalf from Justice Democrats evened the playing field.

The biggest disappointment was that Blue Dog and "ex"-Republican Tom O'Halleran in Arizona managed to avoid being ousted by another Berniecrat and movement activist, Eva Putzova, who won the districts's biggest and bluest county, Coconino, but was dragged down by the more conservative counties that backed O'Halleran. With 94% of the votes counted, he won 34,095 (58.65%) to 24,037 (41.35%). This was Cori's second try against Clay-- and Eva's first try against O'Halleran. I expect she will try again.

In Michigan, Rashida Tlaib handily beat back a challenge from corporate shill Brenda Jones, with a 2-1 landslide. And in the southwest district, with all precincts now counted, voters have chosen the progressive state legislator, Jon Hoadley over garden variety Democrat Jen Richardson-- 52.3% to 47.7%. Hoadley is in a good position to beat Trump enabler Fred Upton in November.

In Washington state, progressives lost their congressional runs against right-of-center incumbents Rick Larsen and Derek Kilmer and in WA-10, conservative Marilyn Strickland seems to be beating progressive Beth Doglio for first place for the seat opening up after Denny Heck's retirement. It looks like they will square off in November-- with a sharp contrast between a progressive and a conservative.

This morning, Roots Action, led by Berniecrat Norman Solomon, announced that his group has launched a grassroots campaign aimed at "swing voters on the left," to persuade Bernie supporters and other progressives in swing states to "Vote Trump Out-- and Then Challenge Biden."

The Vote Trump Out swing-states initiative will include a highly-targeted social-media program and other digital outreach, utilizing messages from national and state progressive luminaries-- people who are widely respected on the left in ways that establishment Democrats are not. The campaign will urge progressives in the dozen battleground states to vote for Joe Biden rather than sit out the election or cast a third-party protest vote. Directed heavily toward young people, the effort will be entirely independent of-- and often in opposition to-- corporate Democratic leaders.

The RootsAction campaign has assembled a group of national endorsers who are likely to be persuasive to progressives on the fence about voting for Biden. They include: Ady Barkan, Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Noam Chomsky, Marjorie Cohn, RoseAnn DeMoro, Barbara Ehrenreich, Daniel Ellsberg, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jim Hightower, Rep. Ro Khanna, Jamie Margolin, Annabel Park, Linda Sarsour, Winnie Wong and James Zogby.

The #VoteTrumpOut campaign will assert that-- while President Trump is unfailingly immune to progressive persuasion or protest-- the fight for a full progressive agenda (ranging from major climate initiatives and anti-racism to universal healthcare, free public college and taxing the wealthy) would have the potential to win some victories with Biden in the White House.

The campaign’s mission statement declares: "We are not going to minimize our disagreements with Joe Biden. But we’re also clear-eyed about where things stand: supporting the Democratic nominee in swing states is the only way to defeat Trump... If Biden wins, we’ll be at his door on day one, demanding the kinds of structural reforms that advance racial, economic and environmental justice."

Renowned linguist, author and political activist Noam Chomsky contributed this comment to the initiative: "I live in the swing state of Arizona, and I’d vote for a lamp post to get Trump out." Chomsky is featured in a campaign-launch video [above].

"Our organization fought fiercely in the primaries for Bernie and against Biden," said RootsAction.org cofounders Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon. "But the general election is far less about Biden than it is about Trump-- the most dangerous president in modern U.S. history, who opposes virtually every policy and principle that progressives are fighting for."

   

2016 And Wasserman Schultz Is Still Head Of The DNC!

Roots Action came up with a great way to launch 2016-- removing Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chair of the DNC. A better idea, though not as feasible, would have been to travel back in time and warn Obama what would happen if he followed Rahm Emanuel's terrible advise and appointed her to the job. They reached almost 20,000 signatories in 2 days!

Washerman Schultz first came to my attention when, as a Florida state senator, she drew her own future congressional district-- making it as "Jewish" as she could-- in return for giving Republicans in the state legislature unfair and unwarranted redistricting advantages. The next time she popped up on my radar was in 2008 when she was suddenly declared "a rising star," which, in Congress invariably means someone with the stench of corruption coming from every pore of their body who coaxes money out of businessmen and special interests looking for special treatment and then shares some of the loot with colleagues less talented at that kind of graft and wheeling-and-dealing. She was made chair of the DCCC's "Red to Blue" program, a program she so tarnished and disgraced that they were forced to change the name after they fired her.

The task of Red to Blue was simple-- replacing a Republican congressmember with a Democratic congressmember... turning a seat "blue." Maybe no one explained it to her properly but her first announced goal was to undercut the 3 viable Democratic candidates in her own backyard, Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia and Raul Martinez, by endorsing her 3 Republican cronies in those seats, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the two Diaz-Balart brothers. At first she dug in her heals and doubled down but as pressure mounted she eventually backed down and was quietly given a job where she wouldn't be able to cause as much harm and embarrassment.

Eventually she tried jockeying for the DCCC chairmanship but Pelosi thought even a worthless sack of excrement like Steve Israel would do a better job and she gave him the job instead. Rahm Emanuel made sure Debbie got the DNC chair as a consolation prize, an utter disaster for the Democratic Party right from the start. And now, as Roots Action put it, "the head of one of the two big political parties in the United States is trying to choose its nominee by reducing input from voters." That would be Debbie, a member of the Wall Street-owned New Dems, and a bagman for right-wing Cuban interests, for the sugar industry and for the private prison industry

In addition to her recent attempt to deny the Bernie Sanders campaign access to its own voter files, Wasserman Schultz has tried in other ways to minimize competition for her candidate, Hillary Clinton. She has done this by scheduling very few primary debates, and scheduling them at times of low TV viewing.

The results, thus far, have been bad from the perspective of Wasserman Schultz's own party, including domination of the media's extensive election coverage by the other big party. Another result has been reduced exposure for the Democratic candidate polling strongest against Republican rivals, Bernie Sanders.

Wasserman Schultz has also agreed to debates that have been run by corporate and/or incompetent moderators who have failed to even raise many of the most important topics of concern to voters-- for example, climate change and the TPP.

That Wasserman Schultz agrees to such debates might be expected from her own performance in Congress, where she has served as a pro-militarist and corporatist tool of the high bidders.

There should be some exciting news on the Wasserman Schultz front in the next few days. Meanwhile, though, please sign their petition here.