The Root Cause Of The Pelosi-AOC Fight Is Simple-- And Never Mentioned By Corporate Media: CORRUPTION AS A Way Of LIFE IN CONGRESS

The Beltway media has no idea how to explain the rift inside the Democratic congressional caucus because the largely uneducated "reporters" don't understand even the most basic dynamics and classifications. For example, Heather Caygle, Sarah Ferris and John Bresnahan gave it a try-- and utterly failed-- yesterday at Politico: Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez clash drags on, threatening Democratic unity.

They don't seem to be able to connect the dots and see what the intra-party struggle is all about. Among the members cited in the report are Lacy Clay (D-MO) who is in Congress for the corruption opportunities, Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL), also corrupt, Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA), also corrupt, Anthony Brown (New Dem-MD), also corrupt. Only Kilmer is described as a New Dem-- in fact as "chairman of the New Democrats"-- but without a description of what a New Dem is.

The New Dems are basically a new version of the Blue Dogs but without the overt racism and homophobia. It is a corporately-funded, pro-Wall Street group of right-of-center Democrats who have figured out how to take tainted corporate cash without taking it directly from the lobbyists and corporate PACs. The New Dems are the heart and soul of legalistic corruption inside the Democratic congressional conference.

Now, recall way back when AOC first got into Congress. She immediately identified this type of corruption as the reason for Congress being unable to pass legislation protecting working families from corporate predators. But instead of signing onto the gravy train, she declared war on it. If you know anything about the New Dems (and Blue Dogs), you know that THIS was seen by them as a declaration of war-- and a declaration of war against the war business is conducted in American politics-- on BOTH sides of the aisle:

"I don't think people who are taking money from pharmaceutical companies should be drafting health care legislation. I don't think people who are taking money from Oil and Gas companies should be drafting climate legislation."

Just days after AOC was sworn in, the dynamic-- progressive reformer vs corruption-- was already notable, albeit not by the Beltway media. For politics junkies, I noted in January, yesterday started with a pre-dawn Rachael Bade/Heather Caygle click magnetic piece at Politico, Exasperated Democrats try to rein in Ocasio-Cortez. I noted that their piece really amounted to petrified servants of the status quo within the conference continuing their desperate efforts to force Congress' most popular member-- AOC-- to OBEY! I even wrote that Beltway status quo publications like Politico will continue to back the effort. "The effort," wrote Caygle in January, "described by nearly 20 lawmakers and aides, is part carrot, part stick: Some lawmakers with ties to Ocasio-Cortez are hoping to coax her into using her star power to unite Democrats and turn her fire on Republicans. Others simultaneously warn Ocasio-Cortez is destined for a lonely, ineffectual career in Congress if she continues to treat her own party as the enemy."

They identified AOC as a disruptor and insisted she use her secret powers to disrupt only Republicans not themselves. The concept of disrupting a corrupt system is too abstract for most of them. Corrupt, conservative incumbent Democrats were immediately annoyed by her implicit threat to back primary opponents against members in their ranks she deems too corrupt and too conservative. But their frustration went beyond that: Democratic leaders were upset that she railed against Pelosi's entirely anti-progressive PAY-GO scam on Twitter the first week of the new Congress. Corrupt, conservative incumbent Democrat and jealous seat-warmers were peeved that there’s a grassroots movement to try to win her a top committee post they felt she didn’t deserve because she wouldn't bother using to extort legalistic bribes for the party-- the New York seat on the House Ways and Means Committee (which was open because AOC defeat Joe "the next Speaker of the House" Crowley," a corrupt sack of shit, Pelosi ally and New Dem-emeritis.

Caygle wrote that AOC had "barely been in Congress a week and is better known than almost any other House member other than Nancy Pelosi and John Lewis. A media throng follows her every move, and she can command a national audience practically at will. None of that came playing by the usual rules: Indeed, Ocasio-Cortez’s willingness to take on her party establishment with unconventional guerrilla tactics is what got her here. It’s earned her icon status on the progressive left, it’s where the 29-year-old freshman derives her power-- and, by every indication, it’s how she thinks she can pull the Democratic Party in her direction. The Freedom Caucus didn’t win many popularity contests in Congress the past four years, but it’s hard to dispute the hard-liners’ success dragging the GOP to the right." She's been dragging the Democrats to the left... and the New Dems and Blue Dogs don't like it, not one bit.

One of the most rot-gut, corrupt pigs in Congress, Blue Dog/New Dem Kurt Schrader of Oregon mansplained that "She’s new here, feeling her way around... She doesn’t understand how the place works yet." Today, he's desperately fighting off a strong primary challenge from the progressive mayor of Milwaukie, Mark Gamba, an admirer of AOC.

Caygle noticed that even back then some of the (corrupt) House Democrats were scared shitless. They’ve noticed that Ocasio-Cortez had hired two former organizers from the anti-establishment group Justice Democrats to run her office. One of them, her new chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, told supporters during a November conference call that "we gotta primary folks." Fast forward to... yesterday:

And who think it's a coincidence that Trump took Pelosi's side-- the only person in Congress who is keeping him from being impeached-- against AOC? Scott Wong got into how the New Dems and other corrupt conservative Pelosi allies went into full-fledged attack-mode against AOC and the Justice Democrats yesterday:

Justice Democrats is backing primary challengers to eight-term Rep. Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), a Hispanic Caucus member, and 10-term Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The insurgent group also made noise this year about challenging Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), a CBC member seen as the heir apparent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). [Worth noting here that the candidate opposing Cuellar is a Latina and the candidate opposing Clay is African-American. The differences aren't about race. Cuellar and Clay are corrupt; they opponents are reformers.]

And CBC leaders are fretting that Justice Democrats may target other black lawmakers in the coming weeks and months, including Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and Anthony Brown (New Dem-MD). Brown said the group has been making calls in his district, actively trying to recruit a challenger to run against him-- something that Justice Democrats denies.

“It just seems strange that the social Democrats seem to be targeting members of the Congressional Black Caucus, individuals who have stood and fought to make sure that African Americans are included and part of this process,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY), a senior CBC member, told The Hill.

“I don’t know what that agenda is, but if they want to come after members of the Black Caucus, it’s two ways,” warned Meeks, the Queens Democratic Party boss who clashed with Justice Democrats in a local district attorney race last month.[Meeks' primary opponent, Shaniyat Chowdhury is also a person of color and hasn't been shy about talking to southeast Queens voters about Meeks' jaw-dropping corruption.]

...Some Democrats are hoping that Ocasio-Cortez, the rabble-rousing freshman with 4.7 million Twitter followers, gets a primary challenge herself in 2020.

Justice Democrats stormed onto the scene last year when one of their little-known handpicked candidates, Ocasio-Cortez, who is Hispanic, unseated then-Rep. Joseph Crowley, the powerful Democratic caucus chairman, in a New York primary.

In a statement, Justice Democrats’ executive director, Alexandra Rojas, defended the group’s strategy, noting that it has endorsed several candidates of color.

One of them is Cori Bush, a registered nurse and Black Lives Matter activist who is taking on Clay for the second time.

“We are supporting a black woman who is a community organizer who has taken on police brutality in the St. Louis area,” Rojas said. “Seventy percent of congressional districts in America have no competitive general election; primaries are often the only places where voters can have a real say.

“Barack Obama first ran for Congress in a primary challenge to Rep. Bobby Rush, a CBC member,” Rojas added. “This is a democracy and voters deserve choices.”

Justice Democrats also pointed out that they endorsed Ayanna Pressley, an African American woman, in her successful primary challenge last year against Democratic Rep. Mike Capuano in a Massachusetts district where minorities make up the majority.

This cycle, Justice Democrats is also supporting Bronx educator Jamaal Bowman, who is black, as he takes on House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (New Dem-NY), who is Jewish, and Jessica Cisneros, a 26-year-old Hispanic woman who is running against her former boss, Cuellar.

The CBC’s allegations are “absurd and more about protecting incumbency over democracy,” a Justice Democrats source said.

Pelosi hasn't-- while the progressive movement has continued to evolve

In the last cycle, Justice Democrats backed American Civil Liberties Union activist Chardo Richardson over Rep. Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL), who made history as the first Vietnamese American woman elected to Congress. The group in 2018 also endorsed Bush, who eventually lost to Clay by nearly 20 points in the primary. This week, the group said they will back Bush once again as she gives it another shot in Missouri.

In an interview in the Capitol, Clay said it was absolutely clear that Justice Democrats are targeting lawmakers of color like himself. He and his father, Bill Clay, have represented the district for the past 50 years, and Lacy Clay called the group’s actions “insulting” to the intelligence of Missouri voters.

“They are going after the wrong target. Instead of fighting Republicans and defeating Trump and holding on to our majority, they find it convenient to go after their own, which is to me a bunch of B.S.,” Clay told The Hill.

...A senior House Democratic aide called it “ironic and funny” that Ocasio-Cortez is accusing Pelosi of attacking women of color, when Justice Democrats is targeting minority lawmakers.

“She’s only a woman of color when it’s convenient. None of the things she’s fought for aligned with communities of color and her group is funded only by elitist white liberals; she’s a puppet,” the top Democratic aide told The Hill in a phone call.

The aide then texted an image of a Goomba puppet from the Super Mario Bros. video game.

“I can’t tell you how pissed off people are” about the Justice Democrats, the aide added. “All these CBC members feel like they are under siege. But it’s offensive that these elitist white liberals feel like they can undermine the foundation of our party,” African American voters.

...Rep. Donald McEachin (New Dem-VA), a CBC member, said it was upsetting that Justice Democrats appeared to be taking aim at so many black lawmakers, especially since they have some of the most progressive voting records in the caucus.

“I think challenging other Democrats in the primary when we’re trying to hold on to the majority is wrong unless the person is so far out of bounds, so far away from Democratic orthodoxy, but that’s not what’s going on here,” McEachin told The Hill.

“It’s disturbing to see challenges to that many CBC members.”

So which trolls are circulating this lovely meme online this week? Is it Trump and/or Russian trolls? Or do the New Dems, Cheri Bustos/DCCC and/or the Pelosi office have their own troll army now too?

TONS Of Current Democratic Incumbents Were First Elected By Primarying Corrupt Conservative Democrats-- But Cheri Bustos Wants That To Stop

Henry Cuellar has earned a primary

By now, you probably read that the DCCC incumbent protection racket has made one of their old dirty tricks official policy in the hope of discouraging successful primaries against otherwise unaccountable Democratic incumbents. Some Democrats get their seats the easy way-- Lacy Clay, for example. In 2000, Clay Sr. announced his retirement after 32 years in Congress on the day filing closed. Somehow Clay Jr. knew to be waiting with all his papers filled in and ready to file. Most voters didn't even know they weren't voting for the father when they voted for the son! Four years later, the a similar route was how right-wing fake-Dem, Dan Lipinski (of Tennessee) came to represent a Chicagoland district. In 2004, his father actually did run for reelection in the primary-- and immediately after announced his retirement. Lipinski, Sr. was also the Democratic committeeman for Chicago's 23rd Ward, at the time virtually the entire Chicago portion of the congressional district, and he had no trouble persuading the state party to select junior to replace him on the general election ballot in the safe blue district. Again, the voters didn't even know they were voting for the son, not the dad. And IL-03 is still stuck with him.

Marie Newman nearly beat him last cycle but he was rescued at the last minute by a gusher of Republican sewer money courtesy of Nancy Jacobsen's and Mark Penn's No Labels/Problem Solvers web of super-PACs which smeared Marie and frightened low-info voters into thinking she was a monster.

There are all kinds of ways, current members of Congress won their seats. Take Albio Sires. He had been a Democrat but switched parties and ran against a Democratic incumbent (Frank Guarini) as a Republican in 1985. He lost-- 71% to 26%-- and left the GOP a decade later, re-registering as an independent in 1994 and finally as a Democrat in 1998. Ironically he eventually beat a Guarini cousin, a Republican, for the congressional seat.

I don't know how many current members won their seats by primarying an incumbent. But the short answer is-- thank God-- PLENTY. The establishment always discourages primaries against incumbents, no matter how right-wing or how corrupt the incumbent is. Pelosi and Hoyer go insane when any incumbent gets challenged and they contribute lots of money, raise more money, threaten unions and donors and do everything they can to help the incumbent, even if the challenger is awesome-- say Donna Edwards-- and the incumbent is the biggest crooked conservative in the caucus-- say Al Wynn. Pelosi and Hoyer were in the district many times campaigning for the wretched Wynn, who Edwards eventually beat, freeing him up to follow his true dream and become a crooked lobbyist instead of a crooked congressman.

The most recent nightmare for the establishment was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a waitress, slaughtering "the next Speaker of the House," Joe Crowley last year. (Crowley was originally "elected" in a way very much like Lipinksi and Clay were, except by a retiring party boss, not by an actual father.) Also in 2018, another difficult to discipline upstart, Ayanna Pressley, challenged long-time incumbent Mike Capuano in Boston and beat him. It happens. Ro Khanna successfully primaried Mike Honda. Eric Swalwell beat Pelosi-crony Pete Stark in 2012.

When Yvette Clarke ran against another uber-corrupt member, Major Owens, he decided to retire rather than face a sure defeat, whining that her challenge was "a stab in the back." Current Harlem congress man Adriano Espaillat ran again the corrupt Charlie Rangel in 2012 and 2014, nearly beating him. Finally, Rangel announced he'd retire and let Espaillat have the seat, which is a seat-for-life without voters having the opportunity to use a primary to remove someone who no longer fits the district.

Nydia Velázquez was first elected by winning a primary, against my old congressman, nine-term incumbent Stephen Solarz. One of Pelosi's heirs-apparent, Hakeem Jeffries, entered a primary in 2012 against Edolphus Towns, scaring the 30-year incumbent into retirement. In Chicago 1992 saw Bobby Rush defeat Democrat Charles Hayes and in 2016 Dwight Evans beat prison-bound Chakka Fattah in a Philadelphia primary.

Remember Pelosi foe Seth Moulton? I bet deep down she hopes he is beaten in a primary next year, which is how he got into office in the first place, beating Pelosi-pal John Tierney in 2014 (after almost jumping in against him in 2012 as an independent). Another really right-wing dirt-bag incumbent-- this one whining about liberals trying to take him out-- is Texas Blue Dog Henry Cuellar who was first elected in 2004 by primarying progressive Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, doing some vote rigging and managing to win the deep blue seat by 58 votes in a shady recount. He's target numero uno for Blue America and several other progressive groups that help Democrats beat fake-Democrats. The thermometer on the right will take you to the Blue America "Primary a Blue Dog" page.

This new move by bone-headed DCCC chair Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL) was, well... bone-headed. She should apologize to the grassroots of the party and to the dozens of good, solid members who are in Congress now-- like Matt Cartwright-- because they successfully challenged corrupt conservatives. Bustos, by the way is a protégée of Rahm Emanuel's.

It's Long Past Time For Congress-- And Queens-- To Be Rid Of Serial Corruptionist Gregory Meeks

In June, Blue America endorsed a bartender, rugby player, former legislative aide and Democratic Socialist, Shaniyat Chowdhury, for Congress. He's running in the deep blue (PVI is D+37) southeast Queens district (NY-05) that includes Jamaica, the Rockaways, Cambra Heights, Laurelton, Rosedale, Ozone Park, St Albans, Kew Gardens (+ a sliver of western Nassau County including Valley Stream and Elmont). Ethnically, it's a very diverse district, about 48% African-America, 20% Hispanic, 13% Asian, and 11% white. The incumbent is one of the most corrupt members of Congress, New Dem Gregory Meeks, more than just garden variety corrupt-- a real criminal.

The meme up top was produced by the highly respected nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in 2011 when they named Meeks one of the most-corrupt members of Congress, just after the FBI had opened an investigation into fishy loans Meeks had gotten from a friend. Before that he had been fined $63,000 by the FEC for using campaign funds for personal expenses, basically the same charges that are likely to send Duncan Hunter to prison. Meeks always seems to use the race card when he gets into any trouble and manages to slip away with minimal damage to himself.

He's always claiming poverty but has a lifestyle of the rich and famous-- or at least always did til the NY Times and NY Post began writing his spending habits up as news, especially after it became obvious he was using taxpayer funds for fancy vacations and excessive luxuries. For over a decade the papers have been writing about his shady spending. In 2015, for example, Post reporters Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein noted that he "raked in thousands of travel miles last year, crisscrossing the globe in luxury trips to at least 16 countries-- including some funded by taxpayers, including trips to Morocco, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Panama, Israel, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Colombia...

“Congressman Meeks racks up more travel than most other members of Congress,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group. “Not only is he one of the most frequent foreign travelers, but he also has been at political fund-raisers from Las Vegas to the Virgin Islands. It’s a wonder he has any time to do work in his Queens district or Washington.”

Meeks has logged more travel since 2001 than any other Congress member from New York, according to a tally on the Web site LegiStorm.

...Meeks came under fire for shady travel in 2013 when he and nine other federal lawmakers and 32 staff members accepted an all-expenses-paid trip to Azerbaijan. The sponsor was the Council of Turkic-American Associations, but the junket to Baku, where participants received rugs and other expensive gifts, was secretly funded by the country’s oil company, according to a classified report by the Office of Congressional Ethics recently obtained by the Washington Post.

But he wasn't spending all his time globe-trotting. After whining how he lives "paycheck to paycheck" like so many of his constituents, he bought a mansion for $830,000 which seemed excessive for someone on a salary of $174,000; his wife's salary was $79,000. In his official congressional financial disclosures he claimed to have no checking or savings account worth more than $5,000, or any investment account worth more than $1,000."

Last week, the NY Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt and Dave Goldiner dug around a little into the feud Meeks has been stoking with AOC, The Squad and the Justice Democrats, basically because he's freaking out about the primary challenge from Chowdhury, who hasn't been-- at least not yet-- been endorsed by AOC, The Squad, the Justice Dems or anyone else aside from locals and Blue America. "Queens Democratic boss and 11-term congressman Greg Meeks took a thinly-veiled jab at fellow Big Apple Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday," wrote Sommerfeldt and Goldiner, "urging her to back off her racially-tinged feud with party leaders or face a fight for her political life."

"Racially tinged?" Like every other Black Democrat in Congress, Meeks is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) which, like every other groups has some good members-- like Barbara Lee (AC), Joe Neguse (CO), John Lewis (GA), Alma Adams (NC), Karen Bass (CA), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Gwen Moore (WI) and Ilhan Omar (MN)-- and some bad members-- Meeks coming right to mind, but also David Scott (Blue Dog-GA), Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL) and Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA). The CBC has been having an institutional meltdown at the prospect of primaries and blaming it on The Squad. Meeks has been leading the charge, causing Ayanna Pressley to address Netroots Nation with a statement including "we don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don't want to be a black voice." Meeks seems to have taken it personally, probably because he's still feeling guilty for endorsing Hillary Clinton against Obama in 2008. More recently Meeks has been backing a series of white conservative candidates against progressive people of color, Tiffany Cabán, opposing for example, in favor of Melinda Katz in a still too-close-to-call race for Queens DA. In 2018 he loudly backed Michael Capuano, a white man, against Ayanna Pressley, a black woman. Meeks: "At a time when Donald Trump continues to spew hateful rhetoric and policies, we need a leader like Rep. Capuano in Congress. Civil rights are under attack, and we need to fight back. Rep. Capuano has built his career on standing up for those who have been left behind, from healthcare, to transportation, to housing. We in the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee have a strong, committed partner in Mike and unanimously support his campaign for Congress." With Meeks it's part of a pattern.

And now he's whining, dishonestly, that Justice Democrats, AOC and the Squad are targeting members of the CBC, never mentioning that their candidates are also black. He also never mentions that he's being challenged by Shaniyat, although that has a lot to do with why he's melting down over primaries.

In an interview with Sommerfeldt and Goldiner, he was flipping out over the Justice Democrats "openly backing insurgent candidates trying to unseat members of the Congressional Black Caucus."

He also said the CBC can play the same game.

“Primaries go two ways," Meeks said when asked whether his wing of the party would consider challenging progressive members next year, including Ocasio-Cortez. “If someone picks a fight with somebody else, you fight back. That’s what my parents told me.”

Meeks stressed there weren’t any current plans to challenge Ocasio-Cortez, but left the door open: "If you get in the ring, expect that people are going to start throwing punches.”

The Justice Democrats, a progressive political action committee that is closely aligned with Ocasio-Cortez and propelled her to victory in 2018, has already backed primary challenges against CBC members, including 10-term Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO).

The group, which is pushing to get corporate cash out of politics, has also made noise about possibly challenging Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn), both CBC members. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) is another New York lawmaker who’s being targeted by the group.

Engel is white and his opponent, school principal Jamaal Bowman, happens to be black and, at one time, might have expected a helping hand, instead of slings and arrows, from the CBC. Lacy Clay's opponent, Cori Bush, is black (and Clay is nearly as notoriously corrupt as Meeks). Jeffries has no primary opponent and Clarke has three, all of whom are black and none of whom have been endorsed by Justice Dems, AOC or The Squad. This is all Meeks playing his game.

Meeks said the Justice Democrats and left-leaning lawmakers may be shooting the party in the foot.

“I would hope that these individuals would realize who the opposition is here,” Meeks said, referring to Republicans. “The focus should be to keep the majority, grow the majority and win the presidency.”

The escalating tensions come amid increasingly nasty clashes between party progressives and centrists, boiling over this week with Ocasio-Cortez accusing Pelosi in an interview of being “outright disrespectful” for privately scolding her and other “newly elected women of color" for picking Twitter fights with fellow Dems.

Meeks called Ocasio-Cortez’s Pelosi comments “intolerable."

“We’re all on the same team,” Meeks said. “You don’t go after the speaker like that.”

A Democratic leadership source, who only spoke on condition of anonymity, was harsher.

“Justice Democrats in general are trust fund kids who are funding this with their parents’ money,” the source said, blasting the progressive group as “elitist” for criticizing black lawmakers from poor districts who take corporate donations. “It’s offensive for CBC members when these elites are looking down on them when they don’t have the financial ability to say, ‘I don’t want that money.’”

Asked for an example, the source pointed to Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff and Justice Democrats co-founder Saikat Chakrabarti, a millionaire Harvard graduate who worked on Wall Street before turning to left-wing politics.

A spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment Friday, but the Justice Democrats took aim at the party establishment on her behalf.

“Senior members of the Democratic Party can make whatever false claims they want, but it’s clear that their bottom line is: no primary challenges," Justice Democrats board members Alexandra Rojas, Demond Drummer and Nasim Thompson said in a joint statement.

“Let’s make one thing clear," the trio added. "No incumbent is entitled to their seat. That’s why we have elections...Primaries are good for our party.”

The leadership source said the Justice Democrats and Ocasio-Cortez are getting some of their own medicine.

“They have attacked, attacked, attacked and attacked. For the first time, they were attacked back and now they claim to be the victim,” the source said, referencing the pushback from Meeks and Pelosi. “Ocasio-Cortez kind of operates like Trump. She’s hellbent on sowing discord and spreading chaos, but if you look at it, it always traces back to one person: her.”

Trump, of course, has weighed in on Pelosi's side against the reformers. Big surprise! If you'd like to help Shaniyat Chowdhury replace Meeks... see that thermometer above? Just click on that and contribute what you can in the box next to his name.

A Country With Two Pro-War Parties Passes An Obscene War Budget-- Biggest Ever

Tuesday evening Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus was one of 43 Democrats with the guts to vote against the bloated $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act. She was one of the champions of the bicameral amendment that would have cut the budget by 10 percent-- reinvesting the $74 billion into communities across the country-- but the amendment, which garnered 93 votes, failed.

"We are simply spending far too much on the Pentagon," she told her Seattle constituents, "and have been for far too long-- while at the same time, cutting the budgets of the State Department, EPA, Department of Education and Department of Housing. This is completely upside down. Instead of investing in going to war all around the world, we should be investing in strengthening communities all around this country. We are in the midst of a global pandemic with more than 3.8 million Americans falling ill to COVID-19 and 141,000 losing their lives-- more American lives lost than during World War I or the Vietnam War, and in just a short five months. More than 48 million Americans have filed for unemployment. At least 27 million people have lost health care during the pandemic, joining the 87 million who were already uninsured or underinsured. And this is all happening as the Administration refuses to acknowledge the scale of the crisis, and continues to cut funding for education, housing, transportation, infrastructure and public health. We must redefine and reimagine what it means to be strong. Being strong is not funding a bloated Pentagon budget that is larger than the military budgets of the next 11 countries combined. Being strong means an end to endless wars. It means investing in diplomacy, international development and coalition building. It means guaranteeing health care for everyone in this country. It means investing in our communities-- putting more resources towards public health, affordable housing, universal child care, renewable energy, public transit, infrastructure, public education and giving educators a raise. I was proud to champion an effort to cut the Pentagon’s budget by 10 percent because there are so many ways we could invest that $74 billion, which is greater than the budgets of the CDC, EPA, Department of Housing, and National Parks Services combined. But what we should not do is give it away to corrupt defense contractors who relentlessly lobby for and profit off of our country’s excessive military budget. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what this legislation would do. I won’t support it."

The amendment failed in the House 93-324, all the Republicans and the Democratic Party's immensely dominant Military Industrial Complex wing-- led by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer-- firmly behind the Pentagon waste and bloat... and the immense bribes that flow to members of Congress who back it. It was no surprise to see most of the members of the most disappointing freshmen class in history-- your Joe Cunninghams, Anthony Brindisis, Jared Goldens, Mikie Sherrills, David Trones, Max Roses, Kendra Horns, Harley Roudas, Cindy Axnes, Abigail Spanbergers, Gil Cisneroses-- join with the corrupt Democrats like Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Cedric Richmond (New Dem-LA), Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Senate wannabe-IL), Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem-FL), Val Demings (New Dem-FL), Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL), Eliot Engel (New Dem-NY) and the GOP to vote down the amendment.

The only freshmen with the courage and conviction to back the amendment were AOC D-NY), Andy Levin (D-MI), Katie Porter (D-CA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Chuy García (D-IL), Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), Lori Trahan (D-MA) and Joe Neguse (D-CO). And only one of them-- Katie Porter-- was among the freshmen dubbed a "majority maker" by the corrupted Pelosi-Hoyer-DCCC fraction of the Democratic Party. Many people were shocked to see establishment conservatives Richie Neal (MA), Lacy Clay (MO), Stephen Lynch (MA), and Emanuel Cleaver (MO) vote with progressives for the 10% reduction... but each has a primary coming up in the next few weeks, and it was a cheap ploy to make.

When it came to approving the Pentagon budget itself-- without the 10% reduction-- 43 Democrats, 81 Republicans and independent Justin Amash voted no. Watching which Dems who voted for the amendment then voted for the budget anyway, tells you a lot about those members and their motivations, among them... Richie Neal, Lacy Clay, Stephen Lynch and Emanuel Cleaver. Oh, that's a familiar little list!

Liam O'Mara, progressive Democrat running for a congressional seat held by Trump puppet Ken Calvert in Riverside County, wasn't surprised that Calvert voted against the 10% cut and for the bloated Pentagon budget. "As usual," he told me after the vote, "Crooked Ken Calvert is all too happy to put the needs of his donors in the defense industry above the needs of the American people. That anyone tolerates this level of corruption in a so-called 'Representative' is unfortunate. Calvert couldn't care less that people are losing their income, losing their homes, losing their healthcare, or even that we have veterans sleeping outdoors-- all he cares about is shoveling taxpayer dollars into Lockheed Martin's waiting cash-bag."

Arizona progressive Eva Putzova favored the amendment and told me that her opponent, Blue Dog "Tom O'Halleran tweeted about his vote to pass the NDAA, saying he did so to 'strengthen our national defense' and 'protect the A-10 Warthog & the KC-135.' Meanwhile,  he takes thousands from the top five profiteers of the War in Yemen-- Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and General Electric. He profits by protecting the military industrial complex, all while staying quiet on bold legislation to solve the many crises within our borders, including COVID-19. I will do what he chooses not to-- put people first. I will fight to end all wars of choice and cut the bloated Pentagon budget to reinvest in our communities.

The next day, the Senate took up the same amendment, which had been written by Bernie. It failed-- dismally, 77-23, every single Republican voting against it-- as well as Kamala Harris, probably to please the Biden VP search team, and all the conservative fake Dems like Joe Manchin (WV), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Mark Warner (VA), Michael Bennet (CO), Tom Carper (DE), Doug Jones (AL), Jackie Rosen (NV), Tammy Duckworth (IL)... all the usual suspects + Sherrod Brown (who, no doubt will eventually apologize to his progressive supporters).

Replacing Blue Dog Kurt Schrader With A Proven Progressive Champion, Dave McTeague

Tim Canova, the intrepid Democrat challenging entrenched incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a deep blue district in South Florida, wrote that "primary challenges like mine are often the only effective way to force accountability on entrenched incumbents. Here at home, for instance, Florida’s 23rd Congressional District is seen as a safe Democratic seat. My opponent has been reelected over and over, and has never faced a primary challenger, ever! And with no primary challenger in a safely Democratic seat, there is no genuine discussion, much less debate, within our district as to the serious issues facing all of us, and the overall direction of our country."

Progressive activist and labor scholar Amy Dean sees Tim's campaign as a potential game changer: “If his insurgent campaign catches on, it could represent a serious problem for the Democratic Party establishment. It could signal an increasing willingness by grass-roots activists to use primary challenges to place champions for working people in office rather than accept lesser-evil candidates simply because they are incumbents.”

And Tim's campaign isn't the only race where Blue America is backing a proven progressive against an arrogant and out-of-touch incumbent. Alex Law is challenging the entire corrupt South Jersey political machine that has bolstered Chris Christie's administration by taking on boss George Norcross' conservative little brother Donald Norcross, whose first vote in Congress was to back the Keystone XL Pipeline. Missouri state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, one of the heroes of Ferguson, is taking on William Lacy Clay, the kind of typical old school Democrat who has lost touch with his constituents while living the high life with his lobbyist buddies in DC.

And this week, we welcomed a new challenger on board, Oregon former state legislator Dave McTeague, who is going after a character every bit as destructive and reactionary as Debbie Wasserman Schultz or Lacy Clay-- head Blue Dog, Kurt Schrader, a Republican in every way but the "D" next to his name.

Inspired by Bernie Sander's principled campaign and his issues and incensed by Schrader's anti-environmental votes and his backing for the TPP and other job-killing corporate trade policies, McTeague decided it jump back into electoral politics, fully aware of the onerousness of the task of taking on an entrenched incumbent in a primary. But Oregon is one of the highest turn-out states in America-- 63% compared to 52.8% in New York, 51.7% in Arizona, 54.8% in California, 48.45 in Texas and 49.5% in Arkansas-- and the 5th district's voters are well-educated, environmentally-conscious and generally much more progressive than their Blue Dog congressman, who has an "F" rating from ProgressivePunch and a tense relationship with organized labor and with the environmental community. The League of Conservative Voters rates him as the most environmentally-unfriendly Democrat in Oregon's congressional delegation and he has been a big backer of clear-cut logging. The NRA, on the other hand, loves him and supports him-- because Schrader loves them and supports them.

When McTeague jumped into the race at the end of last month-- after attending a Schrader townhall where concerns about the TPP were cavalierly dismissed-- he told residents of the northern Willamette Valley, Salem, and coastal counties from Tillamook to Lincoln that he had joined Bernie's "political revolution to address growing income inequality and the decline of the middle class." He explained his reasons for running in a guest post here at DWT a few days ago:

These days a lot of voters, Democratic voters too, don’t feel represented by the Washington Establishment and want real change. This is evident in the success of Sen. Sanders’s insurgent presidential campaign, which I strongly support. The incumbent is the Co-Chair of the conservative Blue Dog Caucus. I would be a member of the Progressive Caucus.


I don’t have any illusions about this effort. Running against an entrenched incumbent is like taking on the Death Star in Star Wars especially one with access to a million or more dollars of PAC money. 
So why would I do this? Because a lot of Democratic and independent voters want real fundamental change, a political revolution, and they’re not willing to settle for politics as usual. Those Democrats and independents deserve to have a choice just as they have a choice for real change in the Presidential Primary.


My candidacy’s purpose is to provide Democratic primary voters a progressive alternative to the establishment incumbent. I will not accept any funding from any corporate Political Action Committees. I agree with Senator Bernie Sanders we have to overturn our current corrupt campaign finance system to make real fundamental changes.

This community has been fundamental in helping Tim Canova get his campaign off the ground. Let's do the same for Dave McTeague by contributing here at the Blue America ActBlue page.

Donna Edwards And The CBC

Although the Congressional Black Caucus's 501 (c)(4) has some CBC members on it, the board is primarily a gaggle of sleazy Beltway corporate lobbyists and consultants, not quite as bad as the notorious CBC PAC board, but not on the side of the angels by any stretch of any imagination. Conservative Democrat Angela Rye is on both boards. Wednesday morning the Bernie-hating Rye (of Impact Strategies), blasted "white progressives" on her Twitter account for pointing out that the CBC is a virtual vacuum cleaner for bribes from many of the worst corporate interests in Washington. According to investigative reporter lee Fang, she was responding to Black Lives Matter calling the CBC out for too cozy a relationship with Big Tobacco, although not even Rye could actually think someone is going to equate Black Lives Matter with the "white progressives" she hates with such a passion.

By February, political activists in the black community-- like Black Lives Matter-- were already denouncing the CBC for selling out to the Establishment by tacitly backing Chris Van Hollen's Maryland Senate race against CBC member Donna Edwards. The hate-filled Rye doesn't just hate Bernie and white progressives, she harbors an intense antipathy towards Donna Edwards and has worked with the corrupt Al Wynn to undermine Edwards at every opportunity. Needless to say corporate shills like Rye weren't comfortable reading this from Color of Change:

A Washington, DC Political Action Committee (PAC) that claims to speak for Black people but is really a mouthpiece for corporate power recently made two very big announcements that could impact important upcoming elections. Two weeks ago, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, with it's lobbyist-dominated Board of Directors, made a high-profile endorsement of Hilary Clinton and quietly decided not to endorse, fellow CBC member, Rep. Donna Edwards' historic bid to become only the second Black woman to be elected to the Senate.


The lobbyists sitting on the CBC PAC’s board represent the worst of the worst-- companies that are notorious in the mistreatment and exploitation of Black people. The depth of corporate influence over the CBC PAC is so troubling because its endorsements carry the name of the Congressional Black Caucus, trading off a name that is wrapped in the moral authority of the civil rights movement. For hours, media incorrectly reported that the Congressional Black Caucus and not the CBC PAC endorsed Secretary Hillary Clinton for President. Meanwhile, the CBC PAC's corporate board members and donors who represent private prisons, big tobacco and the anti-worker National Restaurant Association were nowhere to be seen. This is wrong and the CBC must act to stop it now.


...The day following the endorsement in the Presidential race, Politico reported that the CBC PAC would not be endorsing Rep. Donna Edwards, a progressive hero, CBC member, and one of two Black women candidates in a competitive primary vying to become only the second Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. According to reports, the decision was largely driven by CBC PAC board member, Al Wynn, the Congressman-turned-lobbyist who lost his seat to Edwards in 2008. Black voters ousted Wynn for his corporate ties back in 2008 but thanks to the corporate board of the CBC PAC, he is still speaking for Black people. If corporate lobbyists on the CBC PAC's board can decide to withhold support from someone like Rep. Edwards, why are they being allowed to operate under the banner of the Congressional Black Caucus?


Bought & Bossed


Although the Koch Brothers are absent, the lobbyists sitting on the CBC PAC’s board represent the worst of the worst-- companies that are notorious in the mistreatment and exploitation of Black people. As The Intercept reported:

Members of the CBC PAC board include Daron Watts, a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive opioid OxyContin; Mike Mckay and Chaka Burgess, both lobbyists for Navient, the student loan giant that was spun off of Sallie Mae; former Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., a lobbyist who represents a range of clients, including work last year on behalf of Lorillard Tobacco, the maker of Newport cigarettes; and William A. Kirk, who lobbies for a cigar industry trade group on a range of tobacco regulations.


And a significant percentage of the $7,000 raised this cycle by the CBC PAC from individuals was donated by white lobbyists, including Vic Fazio, who represents Philip Morris and served for years as a lobbyist to Corrections Corporation of America, and David Adams, a former Clinton aide who now lobbies for Wal-Mart, the largest gun distributor in America.

Ironically, both Democrat Presidential candidates have shunned contributions from private prison lobbyists, while the CBC PAC remains silent about its relationship with them. The CBC PAC has taken thousands of dollars from Akin Gump, the lobbying firm that has made millions of dollars lobbying to protect their private prison client, Corrections Corporation of America over the last several years. Black caucus members should be leading, not following the disastrous trend towards more corporate control over government.


In addition, the CBC PAC has taken in even larger amounts directly from the Political Action Committees of harmful companies and industries. Anti-worker groups like the National Restaurant Association have given thousands to CBC PAC while they have worked to keep worker wages and benefits at a minimum. Other corporate donors include pay day loans company Cash America, Big Tobacco front group PURO PAC, and the telecommunications companies that worked to bring an end to an open and free internet.


As if it wasn’t bad enough to use the brand of the CBC as a front for corporate lobbyists, the CBC PAC board members used the event of their Presidential endorsement to deride young Black voters who may favor a different candidate. On a stage bought and paid for by some of the biggest corporations in America, Rep. G.K. Butterfield painted a picture of naïve and uninformed voters claiming “many of them are inexperienced and have not gone through a presidential election cycle before." Young Black voters were a decisive factor in securing victory for President Obama in both of his elections but the CBC PAC would rather criticize young people than their own corporate benefactors.


We saw this type of targeted corporate influence during the net neutrality debate, with big telecom lobbyists lining up to cut checks to Black leaders willing to destroy the open Internet. In fact many of the Black elected officials who opposed net neutrality also sit on the board of the PAC alongside bad corporations. This form of “civil rights washing”-- of wrapping dangerous policies in a cloak of support from Black gatekeepers-- cannot be trusted or lifted up as the voice of Black people.


... This isn’t about Hillary or Bernie, although they both have improved their stances on racial justice issues under pressure from the Black community and our allies, they still have room to grow. This is about changing the CBC PAC to stop it from representing itself as the voice of Black communities when it is dominated by some of the worst corporations for Black people.

Rachel Bade's Politico piece about Donna meeting with CBC members last week only scratches the surface of the tension between principled and dedicated legislators like Edwards who are in it to serve their constituents, and the careerist hacks who have very different priorities.

Only four of the 46 CBC members-- Reps. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Lacy Clay of Missouri, Robin Kelly of Illinois and Hank Johnson of Georgia-- are backing Edwards over Van Hollen, an unusually small number for a group known for standing by fellow African-American lawmakers. Meanwhile, Van Hollen has been making hay over his growing number of endorsements from black political leaders in Maryland, including some in Edwards’ district, though he has yet to be endorsed by a CBC member.

Edwards, who won her House seat by defeating Al Wynn, a popular member of the CBC, in a Democratic primary in 2008, has had a strained relationship with many black lawmakers from the start. But with she and Van Hollen running nearly neck-and-neck in a primary that many expected Van Hollen to win easily, Edwards has been reaching out over the past two weeks to members of the CBC to ask why they’re not backing her bid to be only the second black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She’s also pressed her case with lawmakers at the Democratic Club restaurant, where members often eat.

Sources close to the CBC and lawmakers familiar with the conversations said some of Edwards’ CBC colleagues responded to her in frank terms. Members of the CBC have long considered her abrasive and said she’s not an easy colleague to work with.

“She has not developed good relationships with the members of the CBC, quite frankly,” said a source familiar with the CBC. “A lot of people find her difficult.”

Yes, people who want to get something done for the downtrodden and disadvantaged and who refuse to be bought by the "generous" corporate lobbyists who are as much the mainstay of the CBC as they are they mainstay of the New Dems and Blue Dogs, are always considered "difficult" by the Beltway elites who just want to see the pay-off rolling in smoothly. There is no greater sin in that world than successfully challenging a corrupt member who brought goodies to the table the way Al Wynn did-- and, now one of Washington's slimiest lobbyists-- still does. The corrupt conservatives who dominate the CBC have never forgiven Donna for ending his congressional career-- and for challenging him on a package of issues that could be used against most of them.

Angela Rye

True that only 4 CBC members endorsed Donna, but we found over a dozen who had contributed to her campaign, including stalwart progressives Barbara Lee (CA), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ) and Yvette Clarke (NY). But so did Jim Clyburn (SC), CBC Chair G.K. Butterfield (NC), Marcia Fudge (OH), Joyce Beatty (OH), Sanford Bishop (GA), Corrine Brown (FL), Hank Johnson (GA), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX), Bennie Thompson (MS), Cedric Richmond (LA), Robin Kelly (IL), Eleanor Norton Holmes (DC), Danny Davis (IL), Lacy Clay (MO) and Gwen Moore (WI). Gwen's endorsement flew in the face of the bullshit Rye, Wynn and the other corruptionist are spreading about her on Van Hollen's behalf. "I am proud to endorse my friend and colleague Donna Edwards for the United States Senate in Maryland. Over the years, I’ve worked closely with Donna to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, tackle income inequality, and stand up to the special interests that try to dismantle the middle class and hurt our most vulnerable. I know when Donna steps into the halls of the United States Senate, she’ll continue the fight to make sure women receive equal pay for equal work and that we protect the victims of domestic abuse, not the aggressors."

Edwards’ defenders, however, say her fellow CBC members should be rallying around a black woman who stands a decent chance of reaching the Senate, where only one Democrat-- New Jersey’s Cory Booker-- is African-American. They say her fellow House members are punishing her for failing to schmooze with CBC members on a regular basis-- and because Van Hollen is known to be close to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

“Donna is about taking care of the business of governing-- and she is not particularly focused on backslapping and hobnobbing with everyone,” said Johnson. “Some members socialize, are very warm toward each other, play together, drink together and sit together on the floor-- and that’s fine. There are others who, for whatever reason, have a different trajectory, and I respect Donna for just being the person and representative that she is.”

Tuesday's the day. Van Hollen's bullying and avalanche of establishment money have worked to bolster his polling. If you know anyone in Maryland, please urge them to get out and vote for Donna Tuesday. The whole country needs her in the Senate. No one needs another cardboard cutout like Chris Van Hollen in the Senate or anywhere else.

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."