Progressive Politics

On Thursday, the House passed a bill that would allow the president to wipe out any nonprofit organizations he opposes with the flick of a pen. He had bipartisan support.

There seems to be a large percentage of recent college graduates who are unemployed.

theconversation.com

If we Americans don’t find ways to recognize our shared values, and even our shared humanity, we won’t be able to defend those values when they are challenged.

With legislation almost certain to fail given bipartisan backing for Israel, administration’s decision to weigh in shows desire for party to maintain pro-Israel stance after election

Did the Democrats really lose because they were too “woke”, too obsessed with minorities, too radical? After defeat, there always comes the battle for the narrative about why the party lost. As the US left is rediscovering, the most influential voices tend to be those platformed by corporate media outlets whose siren cry is always to march rightwards. And yet even the New York Times concluded that one of the main problems was in fact Kamala Harris’s “Wall Street-approved economic pitch”, which her brother-in-law – chief legal officer at Uber – reportedly helped craft, and which “fell flat”.

The liberal order, always riddled with hypocrisies and illusions, is collapsing, partly because mainstream liberals cannot be trusted to defend liberalism: they are set to conclude that Trumpism must be defeated through imitation. But here’s a polling fact that cannot be ignored. In the past 50 years, the number of Americans who believe the Democrats “represent the working class” has plummeted, while the numbers who believe they “stand up for marginalised groups” has dramatically risen, now exceeding the former.

This is what happens if you lack a convincing economic vision to uplift the working class – in all its diversity – as a whole. Even if your commitment to minority rights is superficial and rhetorical, your rightwing opponents will tell Americans that your interest is reserved for “marginalised groups” rather than “the average Joe”. Or as one Republican attack ad put it: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”

This is a feature, not a bug, with the Democrats. Since the civil rights era, they have been a coalition including a chunk of corporate America, a shrinking labour movement and minorities. This cross-class alliance stopped them offering European-style social democracy, which would mean hiking taxes on their wealthy backers. In fact, under the Democratic administrations of John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson in the 60s, hefty tax cuts benefited big businesses and affluent Americans the most. While the tax burden of the average US family nearly doubled between the 1950s and the election of Ronald Reagan, corporate taxes as a share of gross federal receipts fell by a third.

This means that the big government spending projects of those eras, like the anti-poverty measures of the Great Society, were largely paid for by middle-income Americans. This encouraged a backlash against the beneficiaries of the programmes, demonised as the undeserving Black poor.

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin, whose party hasn’t lost a statewide race since his tenure began in 2011, announced on Tuesday that he’s running to lead the Democratic National Committee.

Martin has also served as a DNC vice chair since 2017.

Martin, whose early political career included an internship on the iconic 1990 campaign of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, is a strong fundraiser who inherited the DFL Party when it lost both legislative chambers in 2010 and carried $725,000 in debt.

The next DNC chair will become the face of the party as President Joe Biden leaves the stage, while charting Democrats’ path forward and reimagining its message after their electoral defeat earlier this month.

Democrats are currently split about how to win over voters in the future, with some saying the party needs to abandon some progressives messaging on social issues, while others say Vice President Kamala Harris’ more corporate-friendly and hawkish foreign policy campaign failed to turn out enough Democrats.

But the party’s problems seem to transcend ideological positioning. As Democrats have come to win over college-educated voters, Republicans, and especially Donald Trump, have won an increasing share of working class voters — including Hispanics who voted for Trump in greater numbers than any GOP presidential candidate since 2004.

Martin, who did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment, told the New York Times that Democrats have a “huge branding problem,” as the majority of Americans see the Republican Party as the party of the working class and the Democratic Party as one that represents elites.

The Times reported that Martin entered the DNC chair race with endorsements from 83 DNC members, which is more than any other candidate to date.

“If you’re looking for a creature of D.C., that’s not me,” Martin said in a video announcing his candidacy. “But I do know how the DNC works and how it isn’t working. I know how to listen to the voters, to those who feel cast aside by Democrats and to the people working hard within our party who have great ideas.”

Current DNC Chairman Jamie Harrison is not seeking a second term, and the election for DNC chair is expected to take place early next year.

Martin has a long resume in Democratic politics, including advising presidential campaigns in Minnesota and the successful 2008 effort to pass the Legacy Amendment, which has raised billions for clean water and the arts.

While he can boast the long statewide winning streak as DFL chair, Martin also managed the campaign of the last Democrat to lose a statewide race, Mike Hatch, who lost his cool in the final days of the 2006 campaign and was narrowly beaten by then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Martin was instrumental in establishing the constellation of outside groups — and the money to fund them — that have given the party’s candidates massive fundraising advantages in the past 15 years.

Martin has at times found himself at odds with left-wing Minnesota Democrats and Democratic Socialists for what he charged was their extreme messaging.

During the height of the defund the police movement in Minneapolis, Martin criticized the local Minneapolis DFL chair for calling the burning of Minneapolis’ Third Precinct a “genuine revolutionary movement” and an “act of pure righteousness.”

“(The Minneapolis DFL chair’s) disturbing remarks do not speak for our party. If you want to know where DFLers stand, look to the criminal justice reforms our party enacted last year and look to the fact we successfully continued the fight for reform this year. DFLers are not anti-law enforcement; we are pro-public safety,” Martin wrote in a Reformer column.

Shortly after the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America shared a statement of solidarity with Palestine, saying that it was “resolved to proclaim ‘From the River, to the Sea, Palestine will be free!’ today and until liberation.”

In a tweet, Martin said “‘From the river to the sea’ is a chant used by extremists to support the destruction of Israel. It is appalling to embrace this rhetoric in this statement, which also doesn’t even acknowledge the slaughter of Israeli & American civilians. This is disgusting.”

Minnesota Democrats currently hold all statewide offices, but the state wasn’t immune from the national red wave that swept across the country earlier this month. The DFL lost its trifecta after Republicans flipped three key Minnesota House seats, resulting in a tied 67-67 split between House Republicans and Democrats.

“Politics is not a sport. We can’t pat ourselves on the back and then head home to lick our wounds for the next four years, because when the Trump agenda fails Americans, as it most certainly will, they need to know that we have their back,” Martin said in his campaign video.

Such atrocity propaganda masquerading as journalism has been used to justify Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The survey asked voters about a series of controversial statements and stances by Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his nominee to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

One of a few examples I came across since the election. Little souls like this one coming out of the woodwork thinking latching on to Trumps hate gives their life some sense and validation. Six weeks before and a lot of them are already itching for violence and repression. Be prepared, organize and band together. We'll not be able to stick this out alone.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22690408

[gift article - link can be shared. Expires in 30 days]
By Jonathan Weisman
Nov. 19, 2024, 5:04 a.m. ET

Wasn't sure if we were allowed to use that word in post titles so I censored it just in case.

What could it be? What would it look like? How will it most likely come about?

"Mass deportations aren't just inhumane," one congresswoman said. "Trump has a recipe for economic disaster. Farmers, workers, and consumers... all pay the price."

Thom Hartmann

How is possible for people to vote against their own interests? Carole explained it 5 years ago: https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_facebook_s_role_in_brexit_and_the_threat_to_democracy

I think people are focusing in all the wrong areas on weather Kamala was too much this or too much that.

The problem is much bigger than that.

One veteran journalist called Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough's meeting with Donald Trump "a disgusting show of obeisance in advance."

“Russia is lowering the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a possible conventional attack,” said one expert

These increases are driven by a potent mix of rising insurance payouts coupled with rising costs of construction as people build increasingly expensive homes and other assets in harm’s way.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22678094

Rachel Shabi
Sat 16 Nov 2024 02.00 EST

In all of the lawsuits, the Republicans asked courts to block the counties from counting these provisional ballots.

The acclaimed novelist's essay on the Republicans' attempt to take us back to the 19th century – and where he finds hope.