Some small victories and several close losses

Yesterday was primary election day in Illinois. It was a day of "Oh! So close!"

In a stunning upset, Chicago’s Democratic machine suffered a big defeat on Tuesday night, as Cook County’s Assessor Joseph Berrios was defeated in a Democratic primary by insurgent Fritz Kaegi. As of this writing, Kaegi had 45 percent of the vote to Berrios’s 34 percent. A third candidate, Andrea Raila, had 21 percent. Berrios has conceded.
The Chicago Tribune marked the victory as a watershed moment for the activists who had backed Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid in 2016.
...
Several other downballot races also featured strong performance by upstart candidates. Daniel J. Burke, who has been in the state house since 1990, was defeated in his Democratic primary by Aaron Ortiz. Ortiz is an educator and high school counselor at a public school in the Chicago area, and ran on establishing tuition-free undergraduate college, legalizing marijuana, single payer health care, and ending cash bail. In the 4th House District, Delia Ramirez won her primary by a large margin. Brandon Johnson, a Chicago teachers-union organizer, edged out machine-aligned Richard Boykin in a startling upset.

All four candidates were backed by United Working Families, a coalition group formed to challenge the corporate dominance of politics, and linked with the Working Families Party.

That sounds great, but the biggest profile election had an unhappy ending.

Lipinski survived a progressive primary challenge from Marie Newman on Tuesday for his Chicago-area House seat. His close win (51% to 49%) came despite an intense effort by pro-abortion rights and women's groups -- including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY's List -- to purge the party of the anti-abortion lawmaker in a reliably Democratic district. He will face Arthur Jones, the Holocaust denier, in the general election.

So close!
Lipinski won by just 1,600 votes.
He'll easily beat a right-wing kook, which won't prove anything, but the DCCC will claim that it means the Dems must be like Republicans.

Meanwhile, another vote was happening in Washington D.C.

The Senate voted 55-44 Tuesday afternoon against taking up a resolution to end U.S. military support for a Saudi-led coalition that has killed thousands of civilians in Yemen ― which means the controversial policy will continue, but so will the growing Capitol Hill debate about it.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced the bill to end the American role in the war three weeks ago, and it attracted high-profile co-sponsors like Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

But Senate leaders, notably top Senate Foreign Relations Committee figures Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), said the proposal was too hasty and should return to committee, and the Trump administration invested heavily in convincing lawmakers it would unwisely damage the American partnership with the Saudis. Menendez and nine other Democrats ― Sens. Chris Coons (Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.V.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Doug Jones (Ala.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) ― ultimately aligned with all but five Republicans to kill the bill.
...Earlier Tuesday, Sanders said it would be cowardly and irresponsible for lawmakers to oppose putting his bill to a vote.

What do you know? The same DINOs that vote with Republicans on things like deregulating Wall Street.
Sanders was right again. They are cowards.

Finally, one piece of interesting news about the DNC.

But the red ink for current DNC Chair Tom Perez keeps getting deeper. The DNC is $6 million in debt and according to FEC records, just took out another $2 million loan to keep daily office activities operational.
..The RNC is also destroying the DNC on small donations.

dnc.png
The DNC is still toxic.

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people don't like DINO policies

Swing districts often have a roughly equal balance of Democrats and Republicans, leading political strategists to advise moderation as the path to victory. But, Lake’s poll found, that’s not what voters in those districts actually want.

Almost three-quarters of the voters surveyed, for instance, supported “Medicare for All.” Policies dealing with cheaper prescription drugs, infrastructure, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and cracking down on Wall Street, are exceedingly popular with swing and surge voters alike, the survey found.

Lake’s memo claims, “These policies not only motivate the progressive base, but make voters more likely to support Democrats. A majority of voters (52 percent) said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate talking about the progressive policies we mentioned, while only 26 percent would be less likely.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said on Tuesday that that the poll shows Democrats “can have that blue tsunami,” not just a blue wave, if they lean into progressive policies and messaging. The results show enthusiastic support for progressive policies in 30 swing districts, mostly held by Republican incumbents. “Our polling shows running as a bold progressive is a political winner,” Jayapal, vice chair of CPC, said on a press call.

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Wink's picture

C-99 polling.
@gjohnsit
Get twenty of us, or so, to poll our neighborhoods. And get at least 20 responses from those 'hoods.
Just two questions...
1. If the presidential election were held today would you vote for Trump or (the Democrat)?
2. Are you in favor of Medicare For All? Yes / No / Maybe

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink

... 1. If the presidential election were held today would you vote for Trump or (the Democrat)? ...

Just wondering, why not include an 'or other' option on the survey, if only to introduce the idea that people shouldn't be reduced to two carefully and privately controlled options?

As long as everyone thinks in terms of the Two-Party Trap and continues to automatically present only these two options - and other parties are presented only in relation to these as '3rd parties' as though all merely generic 'others' rather than being based on potentially any principles (or none, like the corporate Parties, bitter-lol) at all - it will continue the programmed mind-set that must be escaped, as a start toward democracy. Corporate political control is not 'inevitable' and it depends upon the manufactured consent of the people conditioned to knee-jerk reject other options potentially better serving their interests, which means we have to overcome conditioning within ourselves by rejecting their PR and their terms, the latter in both senses.

Doesn't it open up potentials for change which many might now be ready to consider, and wouldn't it also be interesting and important to see how many might choose a President outside of the corporate Parties, given a decent alternative and a situation in which their votes actually counted? Or at least start some more seriously considering as a possibility something previously not much brought up and strongly discouraged by internet and other propagandists. I really do feel strongly that we need to start using each opportunity to counter the limitations we've been programmed to place upon ourselves.

Edited for the traditional letter-typo, this naturally leaping out at me just after hitting 'post'... must be sneaky Russian typos... and some additional text, above.

And edited again for another letter-typo, previously present but, again missed until waiting for this to post. Any others can stand as 'creative spelling' or something, lol. Retracting that to fix a typo in this. I should probably wait until I can see straight to post... but that may not be for months, lol.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Wink's picture

@Ellen North

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink @Wink I'd have the poll say:
1: if voting were mandatory and you faced jail time if you didn't vote, would you vote for Trump, the Democrat, Libertarian, Green Party or other?
2: Do you support Ranked Choice Voting? yes, no, undecided
3: Do you support Single Payer Healthcare? yes, no, undecided

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Wink's picture

Just need another 19 or so that want to bang on doors.
@Battle of Blair Mountain
I would think 100 houses would get us 20 responses. About 3-4 hours work each month, one hour per week.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

divineorder's picture

@gjohnsit

Over at TOP rec list post VERY EXCITED about new Senate ACA bill because ya know...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Kucinich for Governor
#Kucinich4Ohio

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Beware the bullshit factories.

@Timmethy2.0 That certainly would explode a few heads! Here is hope that it happens.

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But when I checked their ballot, it only had candidates for the Water Reclamation District.
None for Governor, Attorney-General, Cook County Board or any Congressional race.
So I voted (D) and had a voice in the top races besides taking down the corrupt Berrios.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.