"This victory belongs to the voters who made clear that our district cannot be bought," said Wahab, who will serve out the remainder of former Rep. Eric Swalwell's term.
Probably because until now it there wasn’t a reasonable expectation to win. Before the last cycle or two, the few progressive candidates that had the resources to run tended to get plowed under in the primaries and rarely saw the light of day by the time the general elections rolled around. That will hopefully change now because of victories like this and the fact that progressives are now seen to be winning in primaries around the country, even against established, old-guard democrats. Many more progressive hopefuls may now see a realistic path to office and throw their hats into the ring allowing even more establishment dems to be rousted from office.
As you can see, I’m very hopeful that this is the start of something big. I know that there are many things that could derail this, not the least of which is the authoritarian take over of the federal government, but hope is what I got, so I’m clinging to it. If the nation survives another election or two, we could see huge changes in this country.
But we only have one flavour of progressive, and it’s not going to play everywhere. We need a broad coalition of left populists, of populists, real ones not fake ones that scapegoat which is what the establishment associates with populism, arguing popular is the enemy and in this country that chooses leaders based on popular votes we have to make sure we are unpopular.
We need populists that fit their districts, and for most of the country that means we need white candidates. At least 60 some percent should be white, as 60 some percent of the population is.
Why is there not a single white populist in the party? Bernie doesn’t count at this point. Universal health care is a majority position for instance. A vast majority last I heard. Breaking up trusts and monopolies that artificially inflate costs is a majority position. Charging the rich taxes is a majority position. Living wages are as well although that one is more prone to fuckery.
We need to organize, and to cooperate on what we agree on, while combatting organized interests turning us against each other. We are played like a fiddle, by Israel, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Corporations and their Trade Groups, because we aren’t organized.
That’s a great question I don’t know the answer to. It might be that many left-leaning folks are disillusioned with the political system at large and choose to disengage. The country does have a fantastically low voter participation rate, which itself says things about the citizens’ faith in the system. I’m hopeful that current events, and victories like this one, will push more hopefuls to run as challengers.
To do that we need a range of populist candidates for all regions. We only have inner city populists, and not that many really.
Why do we not have more challengers? There isn’t a lack of left populists in any area in this country. Don’t think they couldn’t win.
Probably because until now it there wasn’t a reasonable expectation to win. Before the last cycle or two, the few progressive candidates that had the resources to run tended to get plowed under in the primaries and rarely saw the light of day by the time the general elections rolled around. That will hopefully change now because of victories like this and the fact that progressives are now seen to be winning in primaries around the country, even against established, old-guard democrats. Many more progressive hopefuls may now see a realistic path to office and throw their hats into the ring allowing even more establishment dems to be rousted from office.
As you can see, I’m very hopeful that this is the start of something big. I know that there are many things that could derail this, not the least of which is the authoritarian take over of the federal government, but hope is what I got, so I’m clinging to it. If the nation survives another election or two, we could see huge changes in this country.
But we only have one flavour of progressive, and it’s not going to play everywhere. We need a broad coalition of left populists, of populists, real ones not fake ones that scapegoat which is what the establishment associates with populism, arguing popular is the enemy and in this country that chooses leaders based on popular votes we have to make sure we are unpopular.
We need populists that fit their districts, and for most of the country that means we need white candidates. At least 60 some percent should be white, as 60 some percent of the population is.
Why is there not a single white populist in the party? Bernie doesn’t count at this point. Universal health care is a majority position for instance. A vast majority last I heard. Breaking up trusts and monopolies that artificially inflate costs is a majority position. Charging the rich taxes is a majority position. Living wages are as well although that one is more prone to fuckery.
We need to organize, and to cooperate on what we agree on, while combatting organized interests turning us against each other. We are played like a fiddle, by Israel, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Corporations and their Trade Groups, because we aren’t organized.
That’s a great question I don’t know the answer to. It might be that many left-leaning folks are disillusioned with the political system at large and choose to disengage. The country does have a fantastically low voter participation rate, which itself says things about the citizens’ faith in the system. I’m hopeful that current events, and victories like this one, will push more hopefuls to run as challengers.