[Peace-discuss] PDA: Help Elect Progressive Jamaal Bowman To Congress

[David Green]

AOC is an identitarian neoliberal confection, for sure. I will be very
careful about Justice Democrats, for many reasons, moving forward.

On Fri, Jun 5, 2020, 5:41 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> Robert Naiman wrote:
> > This is far and away the most plausible progressive Dem insurgency
> against
> > Pelosi-Hoyer right now. Justice Democrats and Working Families Party just
> > dropped 500 K on Bowman. The NY primary is June 23.
>
> The Justice Democrats congressional reps added $5T to the economy in
> overwhelming (if
> not unanimous) support for the CARES Act which was basically a big
> business bailout
> bill that contributed highly to the wealthiest individuals and businesses
> and did not
> include repeating cash payments to individuals (a UBI), did not include
> Medicare for
> All, and did not include a national jobs program -- three things that
> could have
> helped most Americans in the midst of a pandemic where many have lost
> their jobs (and
> thus whatever healthcare was tied to their employment). It's not clear how
> they'll
> pay rent and other bills.
>
> It only would have taken one Senator to put a hold on the CARES bill and
> use that
> time to inform the public about the ramifications of that bill, but no
> Senator did
> that, not even Justice Democrats-endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders
> later joined
> the rest of the Senate voting for the CARES bill. Generally, Sanders'
> latest run for
> POTUS seems to be a repeat of his sheepdogging 2016 run (see
> https://blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillaryfor more
> on that) in
> that both times he talked up some interesting points (not including his
> foreign
> policy) and then abandoned all of that talk and endorsed the DNC's
> preferred
> neocon/neolib candidate (then Hillary Clinton, now Joe Biden). Biden has
> announced
> that he'd veto any Medicare for All bill that cross his desk as President.
>
> The House Democrats even supported a voice vote to better hide a clearer
> indicator of
> how they voted. Some, like Ilhan Omar (D-MN) admit they voted for that
> bill even
> after listing so many reasons why that bill was known to be inadequate for
> the
> public, others like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) say vague things like
> how she
> doesn't 'support' that bill. But if you listen to the voice audio
> recording of the
> voice vote in the House, it's clear that the 'no' votes came from men
> (perhaps 2
> men). None of the Justice Democrats apparently have the strength to go up
> against
> Nancy Pelosi. AOC, for instance, voted for making Pelosi Speaker of the
> House despite
> that Pelosi is a known opponent of Medicare for All. AOC's choice helps
> AOC keep her
> Congressional appointments and make arm-waving speeches vaguely
> 'supporting' Medicare
> for All but never bringing a Medicare for All bill to the floor of the
> House for a
> vote. AOC and the other Justice Democrats have a big problem in that they
> are
> Democrats. It's not at all clear that Bowman will do anything differently
> or that
> that party is worth supporting at all.
>
> Recently Justice Democrat AOC said that "the Green New Deal does leave the
> door open
> for nuclear" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU8K402OK8) and that she's
> backing Joe
> Biden thus putting to rest any notion that she's anti-war or standing
> behind what she
> said in a previously delivered (well prior to endorsing Joe Biden in his
> 2020 POTUS
> race) speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ):
>
> > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Sexual assault is not a crime of passion. It
> is about
> > the abuse of power. And that is precisely why it is one of the most
> serious,
> > serious allegations anyone who cares to be a public servant can be
> accused of.
> > Sexual assault is about the abuse of power. It is always women who are
> > marginalized, it is the young, it is the interns, it is the immigrant,
> it is the
> > trans. They are always most at risk, because society listens to them the
> least.
> > And that is why a man believes that an elite education, a high income
> and his
> > rich friends can get away with sexual assaults. That is why I want to
> thank every
> > survivor that is here today that is allowing themselves and everyone in
> this
> > country to be re-traumatized over and over, because people and people
> like Dr.
> > Anita Hill, I mean people like Anita Hill and Dr. Ford have to sit there
> in front
> > of panels of eleven men. Could you imagine if Brett Kavanaugh had to sit
> in front
> > of a panel of eleven women of color, deciding his fate? Could you
> imagine? Could
> > you imagine?
>
> Here are some relevant critiques of AOC & other Justice Democrats from
> Jimmy Dore who
> has done a good job pointing out how the system works and the Democrats &
> Republicans
> have the same funders, so are effectively one party:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4P4YLxzXwk -- "AOC's Subservience To
> Pelosi & Party
> Exposed"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO4p5BoDjM -- "AOC Defends Party &
> Ignores Voter
> Suppression"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLo8GtAjIFo -- "AOC's Theatrics Hide Her
> Obedience to
> Pelosi & Party"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU8K402OK8 -- "AOC Now Open to NUCLEAR
> Green New Deal?"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwiP6JT3mQ -- "AOC Fails to Challenge
> Pelosi on New
> Stimulus Bill"
>
> David Johnson pointed to
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/politics/joe-biden-democrats-2020.html
> which said:
>
> > The New York Times reported that Biden was paid $200,000 to speak at a
> rally in
> > Benton Harbor, and he and the GOP were successful in their efforts, as
> incumbent
> > Fred Upton edged Democrat Matt Longjohn by four points.
> Jimmy Dore's reaction to that (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGeKIf8Sojc)
> also adds
> credence to why we ought not take any Democrats seriously.
>
>  From the aforementioned New York Times article:
>
> > But Mr. Biden's appearance in Michigan plainly set his lucrative
> personal
> > activities at odds with what some Democrats saw as his duty to the
> party, linking
> > him with a civic group seen as tilting to the right and undermining
> Democrats'
> > effort to defeat Mr. Upton, a powerful lawmaker who in 2017 helped craft
> a bill
> > to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
> Which means Joe Biden was helping someone work against legislation passed
> in Biden's
> administration when Biden was Vice President; legislation liberals would
> have us
> celebrate even though it did nothing to prevent 30 million people from
> receiving the
> healthcare they needed and does not get us closer to Medicare for All.
>
> This should quell any notion that the public should vote Biden into the
> presidency
> and then wait to pressure him on better legislation such as Medicare for
> All. Biden
> apparently goes where the money goes which means supporting HMOs when they
> draft
> legislation (such as the Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare") and when
> HMOs don't
> make enough money under the ACA Biden makes money working with those who
> want to
> repeal the ACA. Making Biden the "standards bearer" of the Democrats (to
> quote DNC
> lawyer Bruce Spiva) gives one clear reason to not trust the entire party.
>
> There's more discussion of Democrats' fecklessness and unresponsiveness to
> public
> needs in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_8BM7o1crI which is the latest
> CrossTalk in
> which Margaret Kimberley (from BlackAgendaReport.com), particularly at the
> end of the
> discussion (last 10 minutes).
>
> -J
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