Probably the biggest win for progressives yet
Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 1:34pm
AOC's win in 2018 was a surprise. As was Bowman's win this year.
But the establishment saw Cori Bush coming from a mile away and they still couldn't stop her.
In an upset that will rock the House Democratic Caucus, Ferguson activist Cori Bush on Tuesday unseated Rep. Lacy Clay, whose family has represented the St. Louis-area congressional district for more than 50 years...
Bush’s win follows the upset of veteran Rep. Eliot Engel at the hands of Jamaal Bowman in New York, and longtime Rep. Daniel Lipinski in Illinois, who fell to Marie Newman...
Clay, however, is not old (he just turned 64, a decade younger than Engel), white, or lazy. Clay did not remotely take Bush for granted, launching a full-scale negative campaign to try to take her down, and has been focused on her as a threat since her loss to him in 2018.
“Support Black women” establisment Dems are awfully silent about Cori Bush’s win.
I’m looking at certain Black accounts in particular.
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) August 5, 2020
In 2018 Progressives knocked off exactly one incumbent.
So far this year we've knocked off three long-time corrupt incumbents.
That may not sound like much, but remember that incumbents usually win 95+ percent of the time, decade after decade.
The squad will likely double in size, if not more. Soon we'll have the power to block bad legislation, like how the Freedom Caucus blocks good legislation.
Comments
I haven't been that impressed with "the squad" so far
they seem to be more of a "social justice" group than socialist. I especially don't like the open borders part, that's my job and income they are so cavalierly dealing with.
I've no idea who she ran against, and more power to her for knocking him or her out of their seat, but I'm more looking for results than anything else. Will she make life better for me, my family, my neighbors, my precinct, and the people who live in my town?
I have no idea about you personally but...
I do know that all of these Progressives strongly endorse Medicare for all. And that matters a lot to me.
This tweet says quite a bit
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/i4dl97/makes_you_think_do...
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
That’s what’s behind right-wing populism in eastern Germany, too
A big part of the AfD vote in Germany’s eastern states used to go either to the Left Party (formerly the PDS, the Party of Democratic Socialism, successor to the Soviet-style communist Socialist Unity Party), or to Kohl and Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
Folks here were sold on reunification as bringing them Economic Miracle 2.0 — they got Rust Belt 2.0 instead.
When in recent years people saw all the mainstream parties including the Left increasingly joining together to prioritize minorities, and poorer EU members, and then all the world’s poor outside the EU, a lot of them said, “Hey, what about us? This is supposedly a democracy, you’re supposedly our elected representatives, you still work for us, right? What’s with this letter-of-the-law, balanced-budget austerity stuff for us who’ve been here and struggled here for generations, but unlimited generosity for anyone who just got here, legality optional? You’ve forgotten all about us.”
Celebrate!
Cori Bush's victory is sweet.
So is the Medicaid Expansion that passed in Missouri!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NYCVG
For some definition of "soon"
Two or three seats at a time? So how many years?
Aspirations are lovely things, but let's not get carried away.
So many more chairs to fill…
Meanwhile: get well, Grijalva!
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
That was 3 incumbents
It's a lot easier to win open seats.
Microsoft's "embrace, extend, extinguish" policy
comes to mind with respect to these three victories and the history of the democratic party.
A win is a win--but please let's not pop the corks on the champagne just yet.
Skepticism informed by the historical record is not cynicism or iconoclasm. The historical record is that individual, isolated victories of this sort are ultimately not enough.
From the article you linked:
There's a reason for the skepticism and reservation: it's not due to any sick desire to revel in cynicism or wallow in misery. These victories don't necessarily indicate any major sweeping change, and they certainly aren't anything comparable to the progressive movement (with its good and bad) a century ago or the civil rights movement half a century ago.
Should these wins be considered victories for progressives? The jury's out, as far as I'm concerned.
There's a lesson to take from the anti-Trump dementia infecting the democratic party, and the China-fetishism from some on this site: just because one party/entity is bad does not make their replacement good.
The Squad 2.0