Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
About the Democratic Party's resurgence, fom Katrina vanden Heuvel at "The Washington Post": [View all]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-the-resistance-isnt-failing-at-the-voting-booth-heres-where-its-winning/2017/05/30/36bf9aa6-44d2-11e7-98cd-af64b4fe2dfc_story.html?utm_term=.21a20417436e-----------------------------
No, the ‘resistance’ isn’t failing at the voting booth. Here’s where it’s winning."
SNIP
Also notable in these victories is the growing infrastructure of progressive groups engaged in supporting transformative candidates. Our Revolution, an offshoot of the Sanders campaign, isn’t alone in the field. Working Families Party, MoveOn.org and many other groups all raise money, volunteers and attention for progressive champions.
These candidates are not your standard Democrats. Like Sanders, they are campaigning for bold change. They pledge an end to corruption. They support aggressive public action for working people — $15 minimum wage, investment in infrastructure, renewal of public education and making public college tuition free. This is now increasingly reflected at the national level as well, with Democratic legislators coming out for a $15 minimum wage, a major infrastructure jobs agenda and progressive tax reform.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the insurgency’s death are premature. In reality, it has just begun to build. Activists continue to flood Republican town meetings. GOP health-care and budget plans generate ever-greater opposition. Democrats’ victories at the state and local level may well augur what is yet to come.
Democrats start from a very deep hole, having lost more than 900 state legislative seats over the past eight years, leaving Republicans in complete control of 23 states. With Trump in the White House and the right dominating Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, capital-D and small-d democrats have every reason to despair. The Democratic Party apparatus still seems hidebound and timid. But the resistance is real. And the demand for fundamental change sparked by the Sanders insurgency is still building inside and outside the Democratic Party. Republicans are entrenched, backed by big money and a sophisticated right-wing infrastructure. But progressives are mobilized and just may be turning from protest to power.
--------------
SNIP
Also notable in these victories is the growing infrastructure of progressive groups engaged in supporting transformative candidates. Our Revolution, an offshoot of the Sanders campaign, isn’t alone in the field. Working Families Party, MoveOn.org and many other groups all raise money, volunteers and attention for progressive champions.
These candidates are not your standard Democrats. Like Sanders, they are campaigning for bold change. They pledge an end to corruption. They support aggressive public action for working people — $15 minimum wage, investment in infrastructure, renewal of public education and making public college tuition free. This is now increasingly reflected at the national level as well, with Democratic legislators coming out for a $15 minimum wage, a major infrastructure jobs agenda and progressive tax reform.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the insurgency’s death are premature. In reality, it has just begun to build. Activists continue to flood Republican town meetings. GOP health-care and budget plans generate ever-greater opposition. Democrats’ victories at the state and local level may well augur what is yet to come.
Democrats start from a very deep hole, having lost more than 900 state legislative seats over the past eight years, leaving Republicans in complete control of 23 states. With Trump in the White House and the right dominating Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, capital-D and small-d democrats have every reason to despair. The Democratic Party apparatus still seems hidebound and timid. But the resistance is real. And the demand for fundamental change sparked by the Sanders insurgency is still building inside and outside the Democratic Party. Republicans are entrenched, backed by big money and a sophisticated right-wing infrastructure. But progressives are mobilized and just may be turning from protest to power.
--------------
More at link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-the-resistance-isnt-failing-at-the-voting-booth-heres-where-its-winning/2017/05/30/36bf9aa6-44d2-11e7-98cd-af64b4fe2dfc_story.html?utm_term=.21a20417436e
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
