Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category

Biden draws ire of GOP, progressives with call to boost OPEC output | TheHill – The Hill

The Biden administration managed to draw criticism from both Republicans and progressives last week when it called on other countries to produce more oil amid high gasoline prices in the U.S.

Environmentalists rebuked the White House for encouraging the use of more fossil fuels at a time when the effects of climate change are intensifying, while Republicans responded by arguing President BidenJoe BidenBriahna Joy Gray: Democrats playing 'game of chicken' with infrastructure bills Overnight Defense: Top general acknowledges intel missed speed of Afghan collapse Overnight Health Care: US to start booster shots on Sept. 20 | Biden to require COVID-19 vaccination of all nursing home staff | Democrats embrace COVID mandates in governor races MOREs energy policies have increased Americas reliance on foreign oil.

The progressives see the hypocrisy in President Bidens action just like we do, House Republican Whip Steve ScaliseStephen (Steve) Joseph ScaliseOvernight Energy: US bans use of pesticide tied to health problems in children Biden draws ire of GOP, progressives with call to boost OPEC output Taliban seize power as Washington debates what went wrong MORE (La.) said in an interview Tuesday.

President Biden said he would be a uniter and I guess he has because hes uniting conservatives and progressives who are all pointing out that his energy strategy is incredibly anti-American and foolish, Scalise said.

Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversitys Climate Law Institute, said the choice should not be between calling for increased production or Americans shouldering higher gas prices.

The way to give people relief from gas prices is not to expand oil production, because that will extend the life of a dying industry and it will maximize damage to our climate and to peoples lives and to their livelihoods, she said. What the Biden administration needs to do is give people direct relief when needed, like Congress did during the pandemic.

White House national security adviser Jake SullivanJake SullivanAfghanistan disaster puts intelligence under scrutiny Overnight Energy: US bans use of pesticide tied to health problems in children Former Afghan women's soccer captain: Take down photos, 'get rid of your national team uniform' MORE last week saidOPEC's recent steps on increased production weren't sufficient.

While OPEC+ recently agreed to production increases, these increases will not fully offset previous production cuts that OPEC+ imposed during the pandemic until well into 2022, Sullivan said in a statement. At a critical moment in the global recovery, this is simply not enough.

President Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump, he added.

The Biden administration has defended its decision, reiterating its commitment to tackling climate change while pointing out that OPEC has the ability to impact global supply and push down prices.

But OPEC isnt beholden to the U.S. and has no obligation to abide by its requests.Reuters reported on Monday that OPEC and its allies dont believe they need to release oil more quickly.

Nevertheless, the administrations push for increased output drew swift pushback from Republicans, who used it to hammer Bidens energy agenda.

We actually succeeded in largely cutting ourselves off from OPEC ... to now heading in a direction where were going to become dependent on China and OPEC, Rep. Garret GravesGarret Neal GravesBiden draws ire of GOP, progressives with call to boost OPEC output Some Democrats put activism over climate action OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Supreme Court rules that pipeline can seize land from New Jersey | Study: EPA underestimated methane emissions from oil and gas development | Kevin McCarthy sets up task forces on climate, other issues MORE (R-La.) told The Hill.

The stupidity behind this couldnt be any greater, he added.

Republicans pointed to policies that would not have had an immediate impact on oil supply, like the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, but ones they say highlight the administrations hostility to the fossil fuel industry.

The Keystone decision, along with others like the administrations now-enjoined pause on new oil and gas leases, was highlighted in a letter to Biden on Monday by 24 Republican lawmakers criticizing the OPEC comments.

Your Administrations domestic oil and gas development policies are hurting American consumers and workers, are contrary to an America First energy agenda, the lawmakers wrote in a letter led by Sen. James InhofeJames (Jim) Mountain InhofeBiden draws ire of GOP, progressives with call to boost OPEC output Republicans are the 21st-century Know-Nothing Party Overnight Defense: Biden administration expands Afghan refugee program | Culture war comes for female draft registration | US launches third Somalia strike in recent weeks MORE (R-Okla.).

The Keystone XL pipeline expansion was only about 8 percent built when Biden revoked a major permit for it, and it wouldve brought Canadian oil to the U.S. instead of increasing domestic production. The more recent leasing pausing would not impact energy production until next year at the earliest, according to the Energy Information Administration.

But Scalise argued that such actions send important signals to the market.

There are futures that are involved in this as well, and when people know that for the next three years Americas not going to be competing on the world market for oil, it allows a smaller group of countries and OPEC to control the price, he said.

For progressives, the administrations OPEC comments were equally frustrating.

Siegel, of the Center for Biological Diversity, invoked the dire warnings in the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The disconnect couldnt be starker, Siegel said. One day the U.N. secretary-general says this climate report is a code red alert for humanity and must be the death knell for fossil fuels ... and then two days later the Biden administration urges OPEC to increase oil production.

The progressive environmentalist group Sunrise Movement, which has frequently pressured the administration on climate issues, also invoked the IPCC report.

"Biden can't be the climate leader he thinks he is if he's lobbying oil states to produce more fossil fuels, said campaign director Deirdre Shelly. We must ask Biden, what are your real priorities?

Instead of lobbying oil states, Biden should be addressing the root cause of this crisis, which is our dependence on fossil fuels," she added.

A White House official defended the OPEC comments by reiterating the administrations commitment to climate change while also pushing to make sure people dont have to pay too much at the pump.

We have to do two things at once: Achieve our climate goals while ensuring the energy transition accounts for the interests of the middle class and meet global energy needs as the economy recovers from the pandemic, the official said in an email to The Hill.

OPEC+ has the power to impact supply now. Global energy markets affect energy prices at home and OPEC+ accounts for a significant portion of the worlds oil production, the official added.

That has been the longstanding case which is why we are continuing engagement, like previous Administrations, with relevant OPEC+ members on the importance of competitive, well-functioning markets and doing more to support the ongoing recovery.

For Americans who are more concerned about gas prices than either climate change or energy independence, the administrations move may look better than doing nothing at all.

When prices are low, voters are happy and theyre not asking questions about why prices are low. ... When prices are high, theyre not happy, and thats when they begin asking questions, said GOP strategist Doug Heye, while adding that the move made Biden look weak.

Numerous presidents have called for other countries to release more oil into the market, but to some GOP opponents, the main difference is that Biden is looking to move the U.S. in a different direction than that of his Republican predecessors.

Their policies were a hell of a lot better, Graves said of former Presidents Trump and George W. Bush. This is night and day.

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Biden draws ire of GOP, progressives with call to boost OPEC output | TheHill - The Hill

Progressives last stand in Afghanistan – Alton Telegraph

While President Biden tries to blame Donald Trump or even Afghans themselves for the collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the real lesson is the failure of progressive policies there. The unmitigated disaster for Americas armchair nation-builders is reminiscent of Custers Last Stand in 1876, when the inept U.S. colonels entire force was slaughtered by enemy Indian tribes.

Missing in action for days, Biden finally emerged to pretend that the problem is Afghans supposedly not having the will to fight. This was after the Afghan president handpicked by liberals, an American-educated academic with progressive political beliefs, had fled the country in a helicopter.

Just a few weeks ago, the progressive chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, had defended indoctrinating U.S. soldiers in the tenets of critical race theory. He pompously declared to Congress, I want to understand white rage and Im white.

Trump was blistering in his criticism of Milley back then, declaring that General Milley ought to resign, and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our military from the leftist radicals who hate our country and flag.

General George Patton, our finest and toughest field commander of the 20th century, believed in reincarnation. One thing we know for certain: Patton did not return as General Milley.

No doubt disliked by Afghan soldiers as much as he is here, in July Milley misled the public by declaring to reporters that the Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight and defend their country. But defend their country for whom: Biden and his ideological twin who quickly abandoned his post and fled?

The departed Afghan president Ashraf Ghani was installed as president by liberals after a disputed election that took months to resolve. Like Biden, President Ghani is an elderly, low-energy man who promoted progressive policies having little connection with reality or what the Afghan people want and believe in.

Like Biden, President Ghani failed to attract genuine support among ordinary Afghans as Trump does so well with many Americans. The equivalent of woke ideologies and policies were being pushed on that rugged country, and of course no Afghans would risk their lives to defend what they do not believe in.

Feminist policies were being imposed on Afghans who have a deep-rooted patriarchal culture that is the opposite of what liberals demand. The vast majority of adult Afghan men cannot read or write, yet liberals insisted on building schools to indoctrinate Afghan girls and young women with secular progressive beliefs.

For those old enough to remember the fall of Saigon, as the last U.S. helicopter lifted off the roof of the U.S. embassy, that horror was repeated as Afghans clung to U.S. transport planes while they taxied down the runway. Deaths by people dropping off the departing airplanes trigger painful reminders of victims falling from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Biden seems to have timed his pullout from Afghanistan, not to minimize deaths and destruction, but to facilitate photo-ops for him on the upcoming 20-year anniversary of 9/11. Instead, on Sept. 11 Americans will need to be on high alert for a potential copycat attack, either here or in European countries that foolishly admitted too many Muslim immigrants from hostile countries.

Trump responded by properly calling for Bidens resignation, before China and other rogue nations exploit his weakness as the Taliban just did. The same European leaders who enjoyed treating Trump with disdain probably now wish he never left the White House, as Europe prepares to be overrun by Afghan refugees.

Do you miss me yet? Trump asked last week, and with each passing day we miss him more. In four entire years of Trumps leadership nothing like this catastrophe occurred, and barely six months into the presidency of Biden the wheels are already coming off.

The coming flood of refugees from Afghanistan may be what liberals really want, just as they have tolerated over a million impoverished migrants crossing our southern border. This was another monthly surge in July of illegal aliens pouring in, with record-high levels of COVID among them.

To be clear, Afghanistan is not a defeat for Americas brave soldiers and Marines, who served so courageously in Afghanistan under terrible and frightening conditions. In late 2001, merely 3,000 American troops swiftly accomplished what seemed impossible, by seizing control of the country from Al Qaeda for harboring 9/11 terrorists.

But progressives and an effete occupant of the White House have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. This failure was not on the battlefield, but in the misguided ideology of those who attempted to impose political correctness on a country that is the antithesis of it.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

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Progressives last stand in Afghanistan - Alton Telegraph

3 takeaways from the 2020 Census that Texas progressives need to know – Progress Texas

Toplines and Key Points:

What does the state of Texas actually look like? Thanks to the 2020 census results that dropped last week, we finally have an idea of how our Lone Star community has changed over the last ten years. The census data has major implications for voting rights, redistricting, and the political future of Texas over the next decade. Its a lot of information, so we laid out three takeaways that Texas progressives need to know.

While Texas has added 4 million new residents over the last decade, that growth has been disproportionately concentrated in our states urban areas. Over the last decade, only 14 cities in the country grew by over 100,000 residents. Five of those cities are in Texas Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Suburban populations exploded as well, with Frisco, McKinney, New Braunfels, and Conroe landing in the top ten fastest growing cities in the nation.

But as urban areas have boomed, rural counties across the state are experiencing population decline. Over half of Texas counties lost residents in the last decade, with 143 shrinking in size since 2010. Both Texas residents and transplants are moving into our states largest metros, sounding alarms for Republicans hoping to keep control of our state over the next ten years.

Over the last decade, Texas has added a lot more blueberries in the tomato soup. Democratic gains in our state have largely been driven by our urban areas, which have only grown larger in the last election cycles. Thats why Democrats have picked up dozens of Texas House seats, several congressional seats, and many more local positions. Its also why Republicans are targeting urban areas in their voter suppression schemes.

In the first Texas legislative session, Republicans specifically created voting restrictions that would only apply to counties with over one million people. Theyve also targeted voter access initiatives put into place in Harris County, attempting to outlaw measures that made it easier for Houston residents to access the ballot box. Its no coincidence that these areas are often the most diverse in the state, as the GOP ramps up their efforts to target voters of color.

In the last decade, Texas gained the most people of any state in the nation, with people of color making up 95% of that growth. Texas gained 11 Hispanic residents for each white resident, making Hispanic Texans half a percentage point away from becoming the largest demographic group in our state. The Black and Asian populations also grew considerably, as Asian population growth outnumbered white population growth by nearly 3 to 1.

Texans of color dont just vote Democratic, and no vote can ever be taken for granted. But its no secret that the Texas GOP is scared of what can happen when communities of color turn out just take a look at their voter suppression efforts over the last year. Since the first Texas legislative session began in May, Republicans have tried targeting souls to the polls, empowering partisan poll watchers, singling out voters receiving assistance in the polling place, and restricting drive-thru voting and vote-by-mail. Its also a near certainty that Republicans will try to gerrymander our districts to limit the voting power of Texans of color, as they have done repeatedly in past redistricting cycles.

The new Texans in our state are bringing with them two shiny new congressional districts that are sure to be the subject of a long redistricting battle over the next few years. Unfortunately, with Republicans still in control of the Texas state government, the GOP is in charge of drawing what our maps look like over the next ten years. But that doesnt mean progressives cant fight back against racial discrimination and partisan gerrymandering.

The massive population growth driven by people of color will make it difficult for the GOP to draw two new Republican seats without racial discrimination according to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, theres simply no way for them to add two more GOP seats in Texas without racially gerrymandering based on this Census Data. Of course, theyll try anyway. Courts have found that Texas targeted communities of color in every redistricting cycle in the last half-century, and this year will be no different.

Encourage your federal representatives to pass voting rights legislation that includes a ban on partisan gerrymandering. Follow our Twitter and Facebook to stay updated on opportunities to testify on redistricting, as Gov. Abbott will likely bring lawmakers back to the state capitol for a redistricting special session. And contact your state representatives to let them know that Texans deserve fair and equitable legislative maps.

The census has shown us what Texas progressives already know we are a rapidly growing, diverse state targeted by voter suppression and gerrymandering. Now, its time to organize to make our government look like the people of Texas!

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3 takeaways from the 2020 Census that Texas progressives need to know - Progress Texas

Progressive Joe Magee Wins Burlington Ward 3 Special Election – WAMC

A progressive has won Tuesdays special election for the seat vacated by a fellow progressive on the Burlington, Vermont City Council.

In May, Ward 3 Progressive City Councilor Brian Pine resigned his seat after his appointment to lead the Burlington Community and Economic Development Office was ratified. Three people ran in Tuesdays special election for the seat: Independent Owen Milne, Progressive Joe Magee and Republican Christopher-Aaron Felker.

Turnout was low with 22 percent of eligible voters, or 1,011 ballots, cast in the ward. Progressive Magee won.

We had a message of raising the minimum wage here in Burlington and advocating for more affordable housing that I think resonated with a lot of folks.

Party Chair Josh Wronski says the Ward 3 seat has been held by a Progressive since the 1980s and is historically a big part of the partys base.

Joe ran on a very clear platform of continuing to advance a progressive agenda and advocating for policies that will make Burlington more affordable, things like living wages for working class people.

According to the unofficial results released by the city clerks office Magee received 475 votes, Milne 397 and Felker 136. That means Magees two challengers combined received nearly 6 percent more of the vote.

Former Republican city council president Republican Kurt Wright says the Progressively controlled council should pay attention to what he considers a close result.

In a ward thats very left, very dominated by Progressives and has been for many decades, the results certainly did not produce a mandate for the Progressives or Joe Magee." Wright continues "So no question Joe Magee is the winner. Hell join the council. But theres a message actually for the Progressives there. More people voted against their candidate and voted for candidates that have had different views on policing and public safety than they do.

But Progressive Chair Wronski downplays the numbers showing Magee behind the combined numbers of his challengers.

Were looking at an 8 percent margin and there are close elections all the time. This is certainly not the closest election weve had in Ward 3 even, " said Wronski. "Its just part of politics and this was a very low turn out election. And we typically dont do as well when turn outs low.

Wright, meanwhile, believes that the results are tied to growing public safety concerns after Progressives on the council approved a cap on the number of police officers.

Its really compromised public safety and its going to get worse. This group of city councilors are really much farther left and are really in some ways certainly in regard to policing I think are you know somewhat militant and extremist.

Magee says he heard from a lot of voters who said while community safety is important, it was not their priority.

I think a lot of folks recognize that we do need to continue to transition away from status quo policing. And you know I think theres a conversation that we need to have about the changes that need to be made in the police department as we continue to invest in mental health services here in Burlington and other community supports that meet peoples most basic needs.

Middlebury College Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson says public safety has been the dominant issue throughout the city this summer. Magees win, he says, superficially represents progressive continuity on the city council.

It would be wise probably for Progressives be a little bit cautious about how they respond to the upcoming report on policing and staffing and especially how they speak about what theyre trying to do.

Magee will serve until the end of the current term April 4th, 2022.

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Progressive Joe Magee Wins Burlington Ward 3 Special Election - WAMC

What’s the Gap Between Progressive Politics and Communities of Color in New York City? – Gotham Gazette

Eric Adams in Brooklyn (photo: office of Eric Adams)

When Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams won the Democratic mayoral primary, to some it signalled a rebuke of the growing progressive movement in the city and called into question whether more left-wing candidates can win in communities of color. After recent years of electing an increasing number of progressives in local, state, and federal elections, New York City had chosen a moderate NYPD veteran and one-time Republican as its likely next mayor.

Older Black and Latino voters flocked to Adams, who is Black and pitched a message of restoring order and public safety while also pursuing police reform, as younger voters of color mostly cast their votes with avowedly progressive candidates who finished no better than third.

But to activists, experts, and elected officials, the question of a possible political divide in communities of color is far more nuanced and doesnt easily break down along generational, ethnic, or even ideological grounds.

Some, including Adams himself, see something of a mixed message: while Adams calls himself progressive and indeed much of his background and platform could be characterized as such, he has also framed his own win as a set-back for the citys leftists. Adams has often drawn a distinction between long-time liberals active in city politics like himself and younger activists, some of whom have helped grow the city branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has helped elect a growing list of legislators at all three levels of government. Social media does not pick a candidate," Adams argued repeatedly. "People on social security pick a candidate.

In the mayoral primary, progressive officials and activists largely wound up rallying behind Maya Wiley, a Black civil rights attorney who ran on reinvesting $1 billion in police funding into community programs, clashed with Adams at times on public safety policies, and received the second most first-rank votes but ultimately finished third in the ranked-choice runoff. While Wiley was unable to break through or best Adams in many communities of color across the five boroughs, she was also at major disadvantages to him going into the race, including never having run for office before and running a much shorter campaign, raising far less money than Adams. But, Adams ran a very strong race, dominating in the vast majority of areas with larger populations of Black and Latino voters.

Overall, the citys consequential primary election wasnt by any stretch a death knell for the progressive left. Progressives notched several major victories in races almost certain to determine much of the next city government class that will take office in January.

City Council Member Brad Lander, the furthest left candidate in his race, won citywide in the Democratic comptroller primary though he performed far better in white neighborhoods than in communities of color. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a staunch progressive, is sailing to an easy reelection in his citywide post. Alvin Bragg, a former chief Deputy New York Attorney General who was endorsed by several prominent progressive groups and individuals, won the Democratic nomination for Manhattan District Attorney. Antonio Reynoso, one of the lefts rising stars, won the Democratic primary to succeed Adams as Brooklyn Borough President.

And the City Council will see its next class include many progressive members, a number of whom were backed by the Working Families Party and progressive advocacy groups, with two endorsed by the New York City branch of the Democratic Socialists of America though the NYC-DSA lost its other four Council races. Another socialist won a Harlem Council primary without the DSAs official support.

While Adams may stand out for his combination of pro-business, pro-real estate, pro-charter school, and tough-on-crime positions, he also ran on progressive ideas like reforming the police department in a number of ways, improving access to city services and benefits, upzoning wealthier communities to add and integrate housing, and closing racial disparities in health and education through a wide variety of measures. Though not always taking the left-most stances, Adams has also promised what could be categorized as progressive policies on transit and more.

That the mayoral race was dominated by the more centrist candidates was evident from early polls. Adams and entrepreneur Andrew Yang who largely ran as a moderate though he also supported several progressive policies both emerged at or near the top and remained there until former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, another moderate on certain high-profile leftist priorities like divesting from the police, surged late in the race to end up in second place, narrowly losing to Adams. Wiley, former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, became the progressive candidate with any chance to win but could not pull the needed white voters from Garcia or Black and Latino voters from Adams. She finished third and Yang, who dominated in neighborhoods with large Asian populations, followed a distant fourth.

What set the candidates in the center apart from those on the left was, most prominently, their positions on policing and public safety, which became the top overall concern for primary voters during the race given what was an ongoing spike in gun violence. The race carried echoes of the intense 2020 debate spurred by the Defund the NYPD movement after the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and larger Black Lives Matter movement that refocused on police abuses in the five boroughs.

Though they subscribed to a number of reforms and elements of a holistic approach to public safety, Adams, Garcia, and Yang -- three of the top four finishers -- all opposed significant reductions to police funding or sweeping removal of police from responding to certain issues like mental health crises or homelessness.

Adams experience as an NYPD officer and his willingness to defend the police department from budgetary cuts while also speaking of the need for police accountability gave him credibility with many primary voters, especially middle-aged and older voters who want a strong but fair police presence. Progressives too spoke of the need to tackle violent crime but advocated at the same time for diverting funds away from police and into communities in need through programs addressing root causes.

Adams promises both, though his formula is more moderate than those promoted by Wiley, progressive activists, and others. Throughout the campaign Wiley criticized Adams stances on policing and stood by her public safety plan that called for shifting $1 billion from the NYPD (she repeatedly declined to use defund nomenclature) and investing in communities, including trauma-informed care.

Those distinctions between the candidates in ideology and messaging may have made key differences with the Democratic primary electorate.

According to an NY1/Ipsos Poll released June 7, out of 876 likely Democratic voters, 24% identified as more progressive or left-leaning than the Democratic Party, 22% said they were more centrist or conservative, and 52% said they were generally in line with the Democratic Party.

Nationally, white voters are trending towards identifying as liberal at higher rates than Black or Hispanic voters. According to a Gallup poll from February 2019, between 2001 and 2018, non-Hispanic white Democrats who identified as liberal rose from 34% to 54%. Among Hispanic Democrats, that increase was 9 points, from 29% to 38%, and eight points among Black Democrats, from 25% to 33%.

According to the poll, between 2013-2018, among Democrats who identified as liberal, 65% were white, 17% were Black and 13% Hispanic. Among moderate Democrats, 52% were white, 28% were Black and 16% were Hispanic. White voters made up 40% of conservative Democrats, while Black voters stood at 35% and Hispanic voters at 22%.

An analysis in June by FiveThirtyEight based on four recent Democratic primaries (the 2016 presidential, governor and lieutenant governor primary in 2018 and the attorney general primary that same year) found that major parts of the Bronx, Central and Eastern Brooklyn, and Southeast Queens all home to majority Black and Latino communities tended to vote for establishment Democrats over progressive outsiders.

Adams was propelled to victory by those communities, the moderate Black and Latino voters in Central and Eastern Brooklyn, Southeast Queens, and almost the entire Bronx. Moderate white voters in parts of Eastern Queens, Staten Islands North Shore, and in Southern Brooklyn also tilted towards him, according to an election map of in-person votes created by Steve Romalewski, director of the mapping service at Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center.

According to data provided to the New York Times by John Mollenkopf, director of the CUNY Graduate Center for Urban Research, during in-person voting, Adams won in census tracts that are home to a majority or plurality of white voters without college degrees and those with a majority of Black voters without college degrees.

Garcia swept almost all of Manhattan, large parts of Staten Island, and white neighborhoods in the northwestern Bronx. Wiley won in several gentrifying neighborhoods with younger voters including the East Village in Manhattan, Astoria, Long Island City, and Steinway in Queens, and Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene, and parts of Park Slope in Brooklyn. Garcia was favored by college-educated white voters whereas Wiley was supported by Black and Hispanic voters with college degrees, according to Mollenkopf.

Areas of Brooklyn where Wiley, Lander, and Reynoso did especially well have been hotbeds of the ascendent left, including neighborhoods represented by Black and Latino socialist state legislators like State Senators Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport. Parts of Queens where Wiley and Lander did well are also represented or soon to be by a number of democratic socialist politicians who are people of color, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- who endorsed Lander early in the comptroller race and Wiley late in the mayoral race -- and Tiffany Cabn, who just won a City Council primary. Meanwhile, Lander and Wiley did well in some parts of Harlem, where socialist Kristin Richardson Jordan, with Lander's backing, won a close primary victory over City Council Member Bill Perkins.

Adams victory created no shortage of speculation and punditry -- including from Adams himself -- that the city was experiencing a backlash against the Defund the NYPD movement and that progressive candidates did not have a winning message with communities of color. Adams has repeatedly described himself as a progressive even as he has denounced the defund movement as unrealistic and dangerous (and at times conflating it with the much smaller police abolition movement).

I believe that you cant run cities based on slogans, and because youre able to handle your Twitter handle, does not mean you can handle the complexities of running the cities in America, he said in a July 13 appearance on ABCs The View. I am the progressive candidate. And being progressive is not only talking about closing Rikers Island, its closing the pipeline that feeds Rikers Island.

Others were quick to point out that the chips dont fall neatly, just like last year. When the City Council voted on a budget that was meant to cut the NYPDs budget by hundreds of millions, several Council members of color like Reynoso, Carlina Rivera, Inez Barron, Donovan Richards (now Queens Borough President), and Carlos Menchaca supported those cuts, and voted against the budget because it did not go far enough in shifting funding from the NYPD (the source of about $10 billion in city spending per year). They were backed by a legion of Black, Latino, Asian, and white activists, a mix of young and older, some who had been advocating for more limited policing for years, if not decades.

On the other side were conservative and moderate Republicans and Democrats who wanted to safeguard the NYPD from interference and divestment. That group included several Black Council members such as Laurie Cumbo and Adrienne Adams -- both of whom later endorsed Eric Adams for mayor -- who agreed with many calls for police reform but insisted that their own communities were calling for more and better policing.

What a lot of us recognized was that in some areas of New York City, shooting and criminal activity were on the rise and the hashtag, Defund the NYPD, doesnt speak to that tragedy or to the residents who are affected by it, said Council Member Adams, in an interview in August 2020.

Cumbo, in particular, argued vociferously against activists leading the defund effort, claiming that the movement was being hijacked by white progressives seeking to uproot Black political power. The progressive agenda did not align with the practical concerns of Black and brown New Yorkers, she insisted, and the crime and violence affecting neighborhoods of color could not be curbed with fewer police officers on the beat. It's not sexy to talk about hiring, training, staffing, integrating a new public safety program...That's not hashtagable, Cumbo said in August last year, following the passage of the contentious budget.

Activists, including some who have been involved for decades, have a different view, of course.

The term defund I think was oftentimes branded by and shaped by quote-unquote progressives, many of color, many Black, many white, said Mark Winston Griffith, executive director of the Brooklyn Movement Center and a longtime police reform activist in Central Brooklyn and citywide. And I would say that the idea of dismantling the carceral system, starving it of oxygen and resources is nothing new and it's something that Black people, low- and moderate-income people have been talking about and been thinking about for generations.

The conversation around defunding the NYPD became un-nuanced as opponents sought to delegitimize the movement, Winston Griffith said. Indeed, Adams, along with Cumbo, was among those who painted the movement as being led by white activists and young socialists, effectively erasing the work of the many Black leaders involved, some of whom -- including individuals who just won City Council races as Adams won the mayoral primary -- have spoken out assertively in response. Public Advocate Williams endorsed Wiley for mayor in large part because of the difference between her and Adams views on public safety, he said.

As Winston Griffith noted, the disconnect between younger and older voters in communities of color in their attitudes towards police funding and public safety is personified by Adams. He is one of these Black elected officials who are very much tied to the status quo, and are able to paint the conversation around defund in a way that minimizes Black consensus around it and paints it as a white gentrifier issue, Winston Griffith said.

Every generation and every movement has a dynamic where younger people are pushing up against the status quo, and older people and people who are fully tied to that status quo are going to discredit what those young people are saying and pushing for, he added.

Adams recently portrayed his primary win as one opposed by socialists everywhere. Im no longer running against candidates. Im running against a movement. All across the country, the DSA socialists are mobilizing to stop Eric Adams, he said at a fundraiser co-hosted by Republican City Council Member Eric Ulrich of Queens, according to the New York Post. Ulrich was among the Council members who voted against last years budget because they believed it cut too much from the NYPD budget. One of the NYC-DSAs top priorities is a major defunding of the NYPD.

A key example of the ideological diversity in communities of color is the multigenerational membership of the New York Working Families Party, said Sochie Nnaemeka, state director of the progressive party that does organizing, advocacy, and endorsements. They include older members from the first generation of ACORN, the now defunct international left-progressive group, and younger members who have been energized in recent years by leaders such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.

Voters are complex beings with complex views that don't always map themselves on to a perfect ideological platform, Nnaemeka said in an interview. She noted that support for Adams was predicated in part on his support for police accountability and reform, which hes been known for by some for decades, even if he was more moderate than other candidates running in the primary. That is not nothing. That is already a more progressive position and thats already an anti-establishment position that voters embraced, she said.

Among other planks, Adams has pledged to rid the NYPD of bad cops through multiple policies and quickly improve police-community relations, including by giving local communities more say in choosing their local commanders.

Nnaemeka pointed to progressive victories in Central Brooklyn and even outside the city. For instance, India Walton, a socialist candidate who won the Democratic mayoral primary in Buffalo, and two candidates who staunchly supported the Black Lives Matter movement winning primaries for the City Council in Rochester. I think that there is a story generally about voters rejecting establishment frameworks, rejecting austerity narratives, rejecting unaccountable policing, and looking for the best messengers to carry forward that vision, but there is a lot more alignment around the kind of world that people want than the headlines say, Nnaemeka added.

While many Working Families Party-backed candidates were unsuccessful across the New York City primaries, its candidates -- almost all of them progressives of color -- won a number of seats. That included Williams, Lander, Reynoso, and a slew of City Council candidates who ran on leftist platforms that included cutting police department funding to invest more in community and social programs. Many of those candidates were also backed by progressive groups like Make the Road Action, New York Immigration Coalition Action, and others, as well as progressive labor unions like 1199 SEIU. DSA candidates Cabn, who wants to eventually dismantle the police department, and Alexa Aviles won their primaries in Queens and Brooklyn, respectively. But several DSA City Council candidates running in more moderate districts performed much more poorly and lost.

Progressive candidates themselves have pushed back against the suggestion that progressivism was losing steam. Wiley, in a Q&A with reporters after her concession speech, pointed to Landers and Braggs primary victories. I don't see this in a limited framework that says it is only about who gets 20,000 more votes, that's not what it is to have a discussion about how we come out, not just of a historic crisis, but of all the crises that predated covid and that's what we have demonstrated, Wiley said.

Public Advocate Williams similarly disputed the theory that voters, particularly voters of color, lost faith in progressive ideas or dont subscribe to them to begin with. In an appearance on the Max Politics podcast on July 7, he said, [I] wanna reject this notion that any election is a repudiation of anything because I met from Buffalo to Brooklyn Borough Hall, with so many people elected to important positions that have been saying the things I've been saying for quite some time.

He said candidates and elected officials need to have a more holistic conversation, particularly about defund and public safety. Stop focusing on the word or hashtag, he said. Our jobs as leaders are not to tell activists how to express their trauma. Let them do that. Our job as leaders is to take that trauma, that pain and turn it into real policy. And I've never heard anyone say defund public safety. So we have to figure out what the people need, and how do we turn that into real structural change.

Lander and Cabn said similar things about explaining their views on shifting funds from the police to other services when talking with some voters on the campaign trail, arguing that it is about presenting the broader plan for how to achieve public safety and why police should have a more limited role.

What reverberates through all those views, from Nnaemeka to Williams and others, is that media narratives and campaign rhetoric flattened the mayoral race into a dichotomy of public safety versus disorder, with the former equated with more moderate candidates and the latter painted as the desire or eventual consequence of progressive politics. That narrative served to silence progressive voices calling for structural change they say would create more safety while reinforcing knee-jerk reactionary politics, said Jawanza Williams, director of organizing for VOCAL-NY, a nonprofit group. I think because that was effective for Eric Adams, I think he will likely not be a progressive mayor, he said.

Progressive ideas and progressive policies are unilaterally popular, he argued. When you support people with housing, support people with nutritional assistance like SNAP, when you support people with cash assistance whenever they're struggling, when you support people in these kinds of robust, secure, concrete economic and social ways, people love and appreciate these kinds of programs. What people get confused by and divided by is the sort of perceptions and the politics of the issues.

Is there a divide between working class, moderate Black communities and progressivism? said Jawanza Williams, The debate isn't actually that. Its being presented as that by moderates, by conservatives, by people that are interested in defunding our social services.

I think this generational divide is partly because there's a narrative in the mainstream media that there's this massive crime wave despite the fact that it's not really supported by the facts and figures, said Michael Whitesides, an NYC-DSA spokesperson. Poll after poll, we see that strong socialist policies like free universal health care, real affordable housing are very popular. I think that the challenge is just translating that into votes in the next election, they said.

Gabe Tobias of Our City PAC, which was created to promote progressive candidates in the citys 2021 elections, doesnt think the Adams win is a trend away from progressivism -- either nationally or locally in New York -- arguing that both President Biden and Adams did not shy away from pitching themselves as progressives. Theres not an ad that doesnt mention police reform, doesnt mention racism in the NYPD, Tobias said of Adams. These are progressive talking points.

He also mentioned the downfall of the Yang campaign, attributing it in part to Yangs shift from what he called a happy progressive to a more conservative candidate who touted endorsements from uniformed unions including the Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Captains Endowment Association and maligned homeless New Yorkers.

Senator Brisport, a member of DSA who previously challenged Cumbo for City Council, was elected last year to the 25th Senate District, filling a seat held by retiring Democrat Velmanette Montgomery, who was close with the party establishment and together backed an unsuccessful chosen successor. He is one of several young progressives of color, including several democratic socialists, elected to the state Legislature in the last two election cycles, buoying the progressive movement across the city.

I think it really comes down to hope versus jadedness, Brisport said, insisting that a generational exists across different communities. Younger voters who vote more progressive because they believe through politics we can radically alter our world and older voters who do not."

The voters who chose Adams did so because he is a known quantity, Brisport said. Maybe he wont promise the moon but they know him.

Originally posted here:
What's the Gap Between Progressive Politics and Communities of Color in New York City? - Gotham Gazette