Progressive Democrat who ousted establishment-backed congressman says he's 'right in alignment' with

[George II]

Source: CNN

By Rachel Janfaza, CNN

Updated 12:05 PM ET, Mon July 20, 2020

Washington (CNN)A progressive Democrat who ousted a longtime establishment congressman in a New York primary earlier this month said Monday that he's "right in alignment" with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who is running as a moderate Democrat.

The comments by Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal who defeated House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, underline a recognition by Democrats across the ideological spectrum that avoiding the intra-party fractures that helped sink Hillary Clinton in 2016 will be necessary to beat Donald Trump this November.

"In this moment, we're dealing with the second biggest crisis since the Great Depression. We have to get people back to work, we got to get a handle on this pandemic. And I'm right in alignment with Joe Biden in fighting those fights as well as fighting for racial and economic justice in all its forms," Bowman told CNN's John Berman on "New Day" Monday morning.

In particular, Bowman cited a policy platform crafted by allies of Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that was unveiled earlier this month and represents an effort by the former vice president to include progressive priorities in his general election campaign.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/20/politics/jamaal-bowman-eliot-engel-cnntv/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29

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The comments by Jamaal Bowman.....underline a recognition by Democrats across the ideological spectrum that avoiding the intra-party fractures that helped sink Hillary Clinton in 2016 will be necessary to beat Donald Trump this November.

[Thekaspervote]

1. Well, that's good news and smart politically. Biden will have long coattails

[LiberalLovinLug]

2. See? Progressives aren't that scary

[NurseJackie]

3. Who said they were scary?

[riversedge]

4. trumpy

[LizBeth]

8. Destructive, short sighted, rigid, lack of concern. Scary? Nah. They just helped to put us where we

are today.

[Gore1FL]

17. You are thinking of Republicans. nt

[LizBeth]

19. Hm.

[George II]

5. Some.

[LizBeth]

7. They do not own the word progressive.

[LiberalLovinLug]

10. lol

[LakeArenal]

9. I'm very liberal and progressive and I have been Joe forever.

[grantcart]

15. J agree there is nothing scary about either Pres Obama or VP Joe Biden

[Cha]

22. Touche'

[LizBeth]

6. We asked, begged, pleaded that they not do it in 2016 if nothing then the SC but they felt total

destruction better than protecting the supreme court and women rights. I will not forget. This is on them. Too.

[jorgevlorgan]

11. After the unity platform, every progressive should be

...now

[PatrickforO]

12. Yep. Good for Jamaal. We're ALL in alignment with Biden at this time.

We can argue policy later. Right now we need to exorcise the demons from the White House and Senate.

[jorgevlorgan]

13. At this point anybody not in alignment with him is more or less pro fascist

The stakes right now cannot be messed with.

[mjvpi]

14. The Biden camp has done a fine job...

.... of including/incorporating progressive values in their policy platform. Trump is bringing us Dems all together, but Biden’s making sure that we can all vote FOR something not simply against Trump.

[beastie boy]

16. This puts Progressive Bowman right in alignment with Establishment Biden, no?

Memo to CNN: time to find new and more accurate labels to slap on Democrats.

My humble suggestion: Democrats.

[betsuni]

18. Absolutely. The use of "progressive" meaning anti-establishment with the establishment

being Democrats (insinuating they aren't progressive) needs to stop. Public figures who promoted that crap should be ashamed of themselves.

[Tommymac]

20. Bravo!

I salute Jamaal, I'm a left progressive Dem most years - except this one.

This year I am a Democrat

.

[GulfCoast66]

21. It's been a while since I've posted this. But for many democrats Progressive is just too loaded

Before you attack me, please google Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Bilbo and especially Huey Long. They were all famous and successful progressives.

They were awful and my dad was a journalist who fought against their legacy. And they were the original progressives. They favored strong government, but were horrible racist. In my opinion this is why self titled progressives are never accepted by Older African Americans in the South. They remember.

The early progressive movement was just poison. It was like trump on steroids. Government help for white folks and repression for African Americans. FDR wanted Social Security for all Americans. But Southern Progressives of the time insisted they would only vote for it if it excluded farm and domestic workers. Guess what all African Americans did?

Obviously no one on DU who calls themselves progressive feel this way. I actually agree with most of you on policy. But the history of the title...

But I’m dumbfounded that we are all, correctly pushing against symbols that represent of our racist past while so many on the far left happily accept a label that was originally connected to extreme racist.

I know this may piss people off. But please read up on the history of the progressive movement and then tell me if you are still cool with the title.

Me? I’m a Liberal Democrat when talking to Americans. A Social Democrat when talking to people who understand what it mean. I will never call myself a progressive. It would demean my fathers legacy.

[mdbl]

23. You are correct. Today, I don't allow racists to claim the term progressiive.

Hopefully the true progressives remain. Those that you cite would have followed the racism to the republican party. I look at the term progressive differently as it didn't matter what a racist called him/herself, they went where they were comfortable in their negative views. That's how southern states went from blue to bright red.

[betsuni]

24. Anyone who self-describes as "progressive" -- I'm not sure what they mean and am cautious.

Sometimes they mean they're liberals, sometimes they mean they hate Democrats because they think they're anti-establishment and Democrats are establishment, same as Republicans. The latter don't know Democratic policies.

[R B Garr]

25. This is the main reason to keep an eye on them -- to see what they will say against

our own party as we've seen before...

So this is great news from this newbie!