Why Progressive House Members Should #UseYourPower #ForceTheVote

Well, first and for most, it is their "job" to represent "the people". Right? That's why we choose to elect them, right?
They campaigned on pushing for a Healthcare for all type system. Is it not reasonable to hold them to their campaign promises? They told us if we elected them to office they would fight for us, right?

I apologize if I'm mistaken, but we didn't elect them to start a new career. Right? We elected them to go fight for us in congress, advocating for the kinds of "progressive" legislation they advocated on the campaign trails, like healthcare for all, green new deal, federal jobs programs, living wages, debt relief and many others.

They've explained they understand the "issues and shown us how "rigged" the system is, and if we elected them to congress, they would fight for us.

But, heck and dern, some of us have actually looked at their voting records, and well, quite frankly for some "progressive" members voting just 5.6% of the time against the party, is not, well, showing the same kind of "progressive" piss and vinegar they had in the highly polished social media videos they release while campaigning.

I can understand leaping from slinging drinks, an income bracket near the bottom twenty percent, and skyrocketing up the income ladder to the top 8% income bracket is quite exciting. I fondly remember doing my taxes one time, and realizing, I had made 6 figures that year. I was like Holy f-k batman, I made 6 figures in 1 year, and my consulting practice was profitable. I partied for a week.

But here's the thing. And let me repeat, because it's worth repeating.

We didn't elect y'all to congress start a new career and play nice with the "establishment".

We elected you to congress to fight for us, you know, to cause a ruckus. Shine a light on the corruption and incompetence. Heck, anyone can make speeches about how bad "the other guys" are, but I tell ya this, and this is important too, that woman's record as Speaker of the House over the last two decades has been nothing short of horrendous, as far as "the people" that elected you to congress are concerned.

And it is WE THE PEOPLE that should matter to you. BECAUSE, If you don't represent us, who the heck is going to re-elect you? Not to mention who is going to be causing a lot of ruckus for you?

It's just that simple. #UseYourPower #ForceTheVote

#Agitate #Activate #Organize #Mobilize
Bernie's tax plan is how "we pay for it"
EOVfqdgUYAAYzly.jpg

Drinks

Share
up
16 users have voted.

Comments

thanatokephaloides's picture

I tell ya this, and this is important too, that woman's record as Speaker of the House over the last two decades has been nothing short of horrendous, as far as "the people" that elected you to congress are concerned.

The problem here, of course, is that the people who elected Nancy Pelosi to Congress like her just the way she is. That's because her San Francisco-area district contains almost no working-class people at all, as none such can afford to live in San Francisco. They live in adjacent districts "represented" by Pelosi's colleagues, who have been cowed by their Speaker into not standing up to her.

Bad

up
12 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

thanatokephaloides's picture

For those of us outside the "too much money" income classes, this would be a net savings from the ripoff that private health insurance has been all these years......

up
11 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Dawn's Meta's picture

@thanatokephaloides one of the years we had to actually use our health insurance, 2002 I believe.

This was with supposedly good health insurance.

Premiums for two: up to $1500 per month.

Out of pocket, in network deductible and 20% of a procedure once the deductible was met: $15,000.

We paid $25,000 out of our own pocket to achieve any insurance support.

This did not include doctors out of network or not taking insurance at all.

Expats are excluded from taking Medicare out of the US. The only country in the world that doesn't allow portable health insurance. Heck a German citizen taking care of mom in the US is supported by German health insurance. And if needed there is a German hospital in Florida.

One of the benefits of France is that after three months in country (with proof of international health insurance, reasonable premiums) declaring permanent residency, entitles the resident to complete access and a Carte Vitale plus top up insurance. Everything is handled electronically. We never see a bill. We didn't switch until the third year, but it is worth it.

Did the US offer us our worklife investment back? Nope. Did we get any acknowledgement we had contributed to the Medicare system? Nope. What that bit of lifelong savings could do to improve our comfort here, would be amazing.

We talked with the rep of AARO (Association of Americans Residing Overseas - 9 million) and before we could verbalize how we were being treated by the US, she said, "you are a traitor for living outside of the US. Right?" Yup. We had more trouble extracting than embedding here in France.

up
9 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

It's all over for effective opposition.

You can't changed a rigged system while playing by its rules.

up
9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@AverageJoe42

I just watched her on Rising and she said all the things I have heard people saying before on why they want to go to congress. Sure she and AOC and the squid talk a big game, but I have heard that since I started paying attention. After Obama I don't believe a darn word they say if they are running as a democrat. Nope. Next.

up
9 users have voted.
RantingRooster's picture

@snoopydawg just did another interview on the Hill's Rising, and said "all tools on the table" about #ForeTheVote. But I agree, we'll see what happens.
[video:https://youtu.be/agqzfN3tvBE]

up
5 users have voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

@RantingRooster Nina recently told Brie that she "wasn't there, yet" on #ForceTheVote. Sounds like a typical politician "calibrating the message." Given all the recent waffling by "progressives," I won't believe Nina until I hear an unambiguous commitment - no more weasel words.

up
5 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

bernie sanders' medicare for all and pramila jayapal's Medicare for all?

i'd assumed it was on the latter that dore, et.al. wanted AOC and omar to pressure pelosi to #ForceTheVote.

up
3 users have voted.
RantingRooster's picture

@wendy davis According to this from the Physicians for a National Health Program, it seems they are companion bills.

Based on our analysis, we find the Medicare For All Act of 2019 to be a significant step forward in the fight for single payer. Taken together with Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All Act (H.R. 1384), it would transform the U.S. health care system, making health care a human right.

Where the "Medicare For All Act of 2019" was Bernie's plan.

up
4 users have voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

soooo much more to read and analyze if one cares to and has the wherewithal. i'd gotten at least somewhat familiar with jayapal's version, but from what i've been able to glean, IF it ever passes into law, the implementation will take two years after some president signs it.

i do like the additions and upgrades that the physicians have added, though.

p.s. on edit: the link to 'possibilities to finance it' (or close) is broken, and bern's bill has 14 cosponsors, where jayapal's has 118. bad sign?

up
2 users have voted.
RantingRooster's picture

@wendy davis It was linked to Bernie's site. I've noticed Bernie has scrubbed some info from his web site, at least I can't find the article about over 400,000 preventable medical errors that was on his site.

Sad

up
1 user has voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Cassiodorus's picture

campaign on the idea that they were going to give us anything?

I can't say I caught a lot of it. There were two big noise machines dominating the media (while the rest of us were staying at home) in 2020: 1) Trump, and 2) "Omigod Trump's a DICTATOR! He's a FASCIST!" Nobody seems to have noticed how ineffectual and lazy Trump really was. The rest of it I don't know. I covered some local Oregon elections here at c99%; most of the important action was done by May, and the good guys usually lost.

Meanwhile the two signature pieces of legislation for this year were 1) the CARES Act and 2) the piece of garbage Trump signed yesterday. Oh and we had an election in which Congress was practically unchanged in its makeup (pending, perhaps, the special election coming up in Georgia).

So for the next four years we can expect to hear an occasional complaint that gee everyone's starving and homeless and you can't see a doctor not merely because you can't afford it but also because the doctors are all busy. And the Biden administration will, through the personage of Bruce Reed if through nobody else, tell everyone: you have nowhere else to go. And everyone will promptly shut up and go back to their lunches of cold despair.

Still no People's Party?

up
5 users have voted.

The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.

wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus

hesitated in signing it was that he said it was too full of needless pork. '$2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package'.

he should have balked, but nobody who objected will seriously want to know what's in 'the piece of garbage he signed yesterday, will they?

et tu, krystal ball?

@krystalball 16h

Trump signs the bill making clear that his entire “strategy” was to generate maximum chaos with zero actual improvement in outcome. Disgusting to toy with people’s lives like this.

up
3 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

@wendy davis endless repetition of the reasons for why George Carlin got to be the way he was, when he was alive.

up
5 users have voted.

The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.

wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus

who ever lived! and dag-bleeping-nabbit; i've mislaid loads of my links re: what's in $2.3 trillion 2021 5593 page Consolidated Appropriations Act?

no, we're not in the club. they disregard us whenever possible.

up
3 users have voted.