[Peace] Yemen Champ @RoKhanna Bashes NAFTA in IL. He Running for POTUS?

[Robert Naiman]

Please vote in the poll.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/9/2091026/-Yemen-Champ-RoKhanna-Bashes-NAFTA-in-IL-He-Running-for-POTUS

*Yemen Champ @RoKhanna Bashes NAFTA in IL. He Running for POTUS?*

Look what our friend @RoKhanna is doing! He’s in Illinois, the Land of
Lincoln, “by the rivers gently flowing,” near the City of the Big
Shoulders, in America’s industrial heartland, bashing NAFTA and trade with
China <https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/1512272406970343428>.

All good stuff, of course. Red meat for the BernieBros. Especially the ones
from Illinois, who spent Quality Time with the locked-out Staley workers in
Decatur
<http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/shop/staley-the-fight-for-a-new-american-labor-movement-steven-k-ashby-cj-hawking>
.

But Curious Minds want to know: what does this have to do with @RoKhanna’s
export-oriented, high-tech, Silicon Valley House district in California? Is
someone we know thinking about running for POTUS in 2024 if Biden doesn’t
run for re-election, as many Democrats think he won’t
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-of-americans-doubt-biden-will-run-in-2024-wsj-poll-shows-11647349654>?
While, of course, plausibly denying all previous denials
<https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/17/sanders-khanna-presidential-bid-2024-00018017>,
as one does? [“Only the true Messiah denies his divinity
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW8fDw8VzKI>,” as they say.]

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: “But Bob! What does this
have to do with the BernieRo-Jayapal-DeFazio Yemen War Powers Resolution
<https://twitter.com/USProgressives/status/1507432639392845833>? What does
this have to do with ending the Yemen war?”

Well, first, let’s look at this juncture from the vantage point of the
interests of people trying to pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution
<https://twitter.com/USProgressives/status/1507432639392845833> and end the
Yemen war. When we’re trying to end a war in the U.S. political system, it
never hurts to Hitch Our Wagon to a Star. That’s why long-haired hippie
anti-war activists went “Clean for Gene” for Eugene McCarthy against LBJ in
1968, to end the Vietnam War. That’s why we knocked on doors for Dennis
Kucinich in Ames, Iowa in 2004, to end the Iraq war. “If it was wrong to
go, it’s wrong to stay!” That’s why we knocked on doors in Connecticut for
Ned Lamont against Joe Lieberman in August 2006, to end the Iraq war.
That’s why we knocked on doors for Obama in Indiana against Hillary-McCain
in 2008, to end the Iraq war and prevent the Iran war. That’s why we
knocked on doors for Bernie with Keith Ellison in Waterloo, Iowa in 2016,
why we made seven BernieJourneys to New Hampshire in 2020, why we made five
JamaalJourneys to New York City to defeat #EndlessWar House Foreign
Affairs Chair Eliot Engel. To end the U.S. wars and prevent new ones. If we
want to shut down the Yemen war for good, it sure wouldn’t hurt to have a
Presidential candidate who’s been our Champion on Yemen War Powers since
before he introduced the first Yemen War Powers Resolution in 2017, who was
the first House member to go after the unconstitutional Pentagon refueling
of Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen in the middle of their bombing runs. As Father
of our Constitution James Madison wrote in Federalist 51
<https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/federalist-no-51>,
“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” to serve the public
interest.

Now let’s look at the juncture from the vantage point of the interests of
@RoKhanna. Suppose that @RoKhanna is thinking about running for POTUS in
2024 if Biden doesn’t run for re-election, despite plausibly denying all
previous denials, as one does. He’s going to want to have a Signature
Foreign Policy Accomplishment. Like - for example - passing the Yemen War
Powers Resolution
<https://twitter.com/USProgressives/status/1507432639392845833>, getting
Biden to sign it, and ending the Yemen war for good.

When Uncle Bernie ran for POTUS in 2016, whenever U.S. political
journalists tried to change the channel from Bernie Agenda to U.S. foreign
policy, Uncle Bernie would immediately try to change the channel back to
Bernie Agenda. The Serious Journalists who care about U.S. foreign policy
did not approve of that at all. Team Bernie took big hits in the Lamestream
Media for that. So, as Bernie was preparing to run for POTUS again in 2020,
he was shopping around for a Foreign Policy Thing he could trot out when
some Serious Journalist asked him what his foreign policy was.

As good fortune would have it, around that time some BernieBros were
working with @RoKhanna on the Yemen War Powers Resolution in the House. And
getting shut down by House leadership, as usual. So the BernieBros trying
to end the Yemen war went to Bernie and said: “We heard you’re looking for
a Foreign Policy Thing to show the Lamestream Media that you have a foreign
policy. We’ve got a Yemen War Powers Resolution we’re working on with
@RoKhanna in the House. We’re getting shut down by the House leadership -
as usual - and we don’t have a Senate sponsor yet. Would you like to take
our Yemen War Powers Resolution for a spin in the Senate?” It was like
peanut butter and chocolate. One hand washes the other. Ambition must serve
the public interest.

So suppose @RoKhanna passes the Yemen War Powers Resolution
<https://twitter.com/USProgressives/status/1507432639392845833>, gets Biden
to sign it, ends the Yemen war. That would be a damn good credential for
POTUS, don’t you think? Then, when the Serious Journalists demand to know
what his Serious Foreign Policy Credentials are, @RoKhanna can say, “Well,
I ended the Yemen war. What is that, chopped liver?” OK, so it’s not
inventing the internet. But saving starving Yemeni children from
Saudi-imposed famine would give him some serious bragging rights. “Ain’t
braggin’ if it’s true.”
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