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Former vice president Joe Biden holds a rally ahead of the Nevada Democratic Caucuses on January 10, 2020. (Trevor Bexon / Shutterstock)

EDITORS NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvels column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrinas column here.

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Last week exposed both the poison and the promise of America. Not surprisingly, the poisonWednesdays riot at the Capitol by a mostly white mob that looked, as Mike Davis noted, much like a big biker gang dressed as circus performers and war-surplus barbariansreceived global attention. Meanwhile, the promisethe stunning election of an African American and a Jew to represent Georgia in the Senatewas virtually lost in the universal condemnation of the mob and President Trump. Yet, while prosecution of the perpetrators and repudiation of Trump are imperative, the incoming Biden administration should focus on building on the success in Georgia.

Democrats wins last week demonstrated that, with intensive organizing and passionate mobilization, the emerging majority can overcome both historical and current obstruction. As Eric Foner wrote for The Nation, Georgias history includes the 1915 lynching of the Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank, the turn of populist Tom Watson into a rabid racist and anti-Semite in wake of electoral defeat, and the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 in which white mobs killed between 25 and 40 African Americans. Wednesdays runoff resulted from a 1963 law that required office seekers to receive more than 50 percent of votes, a measure enacted to block the victory of a Black-supported candidate if several conservatives split the white vote. More recently, the states beleaguered Republican Party has systematically deployed modern mechanisms to suppress the vote, from purging the voter rolls to reducing early voting days to closing polling places.

Overcoming these obstacles required extraordinary long-term organizing, led by Stacey Abrams and LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter among others, courageous candidates and a majority of Georgians rejecting Republicans hysterical claims that a GOP-controlled Senate was the last redoubt against radical socialism. But the victories of the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s historic church, and Jon Ossoff were more than symbolic. They displaced Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the master of obstruction, as majority leader and elevated Democrats to Senate control and committee chairmanships. That Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will likely head the Budget Committee demonstrates the sea change involved.

Read the full text of Katrinas column here.

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Progressives Know How to Turn the Page on the Trump Years. Biden Should Listen. - The Nation

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Covid-19, mass unemployment, police violence, a burning planet, and a defeated president refusing to concede made 2020 the year Americans couldnt wait to end. Yet 2020 also saw a heroic pandemic response by frontline workers, mass protests against systemic racism, and a growing recognition of the necessity for big agendas: cash payments to the unemployed, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal. The most valuable progressives of 2020 kept hope alive with activism, ideas, and music to inspire transformational change in 2021.1

(Cheriss May / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Stacey Abrams2

When Abrams announced on December 14 that Georgias 16 electoral votes had been cast for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, applause erupted for the first Democratic presidential win in the state since 1992and for Abrams, the 2018 gubernatorial candidate who had argued all along that voter mobilization could flip swing states against Donald Trump. With her group Fair Fight, Abrams championed voter registration and mobilization drives in Georgia, Wisconsin, and other battleground states. They figured out how to draw new Black, Latinx, and Asian American voters to the polls, circumvent voter suppression, and navigate the challenges of a pandemic election, with a savvy emphasis on mail-in voting, early voting, and safe in-person voting on Election Day that will be a national model going forward. That merits applause. And the cheering will be even louder in 2022 if, as many suspect, Abrams runs for (and wins) Georgias governorship.3

(Jeff Kowalsky / AFP)

Bernie Sanders4

The senator from Vermont didnt receive the Democratic nomination in 2020, as seemed possible after his New Hampshire and Nevada wins briefly made him the front-runner in the primary race. Sanders did, however, play a critical role in securing the presidency for the Democratsworking with Biden to establish unity task forces that framed the partys agenda, and arguing relentlessly that Trump was an existential threat to democracy who must be removed from office. Sanders closed the year with a courageous effort to secure $2,000 checks for Americans who are struggling to get by in a pandemic-ravaged economy. That fight will continue in 2021, and Sanders will no doubt continue to be the Senates boldest battler for economic, social, and racial justice; for the planet; and for peace.5

(Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Ilhan Omar6

As the representative from the Minneapolis district where George Floyds death during a brutal arrest in May sparked nationwide protests, Omar immediately recognized that this police killing of a Black man was part of a broader crisis. We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system, she announced. We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, in the air we breathe. Trump staked his bid to win Minnesota on a campaign that viciously attacked Omars challenge to systemic racism. The congresswoman responded with a turnout drive that boosted Democratic numbers in her district and helped Biden sweep the state.7

(Office of Rashida Tlaib)

Rashida Tlaibs Justice for All Act8

A civil rights lawyer with Detroits Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice before her election to Congress, Tlaib wants to put the teeth back into civil rights laws that have been undermined by conservative courts determined to give corporations and the government a license to discriminate if they just use the right code words and proxies for race, gender, and other aspects of who we are. The Michigan Democrats new Justice for All Act seeks to guarantee that victims of discrimination can vindicate their rights in the courts by restoring and expanding the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. National Lawyers Guild president Elena Cohen says legislation like Tlaibs is sorely needed in order to protect all people of this country.9

(Steve Apps / Wisconsin State Journal via AP)

Josh Kaul10

When Trump threatened to use federal agents to crack down on Black Lives Matter protests in cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsins attorney general decried the presidents fascist tactics, including his demonization of immigrants, his attacks on communities with large minority populations and the elected representatives of those communities, the blatantly illegal use of force against protesters near the White House, and the deployment of secret federal police to Portland, Ore. He pledged to take any appropriate legal action to prevent agents from interfering with peaceful protests, stating, I dont use the phrase fascist tactics lightly. But there is no more accurate way to describe this administrations repeated resort to and incitement of racism, xenophobia, and violence.11

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Native Vote, Menikanaehkem12

Voting is sacred. My people know that. We were not universally granted the right to vote until 1962, said Representative Deb Haaland, a tribal citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico who is now Bidens nominee for interior secretary, speaking at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Grassroots organizing by groups working in tribal communities and outreach by Every Native Vote Counts, a national campaign of the nonpartisan group Native Votes, boosted turnout in swing states like Arizona and Wisconsin. Wisconsins Menikanaehkem focused on Menominee County, which shares boundaries with the Menominee Indian Reservation. In November, the county saw the sharpest swing to the Democratic ticket of any in the state and produced the highest support for Biden82 percent. Increased turnout by Indigenous voters mattered in Wisconsin, where Democrats won by just 20,682 votes.13

Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA)14

Trump won Arizona by more than 90,000 votes in 2016, but he lost it by 10,457 votes in 2020. What changed? The Arizona Republic reported that increased turnout among Latinx voters was critical for Democrats, as 63% of their votes went to Biden and 36% to Trump, according to exit polls. Many unions and grassroots organizations contributed to the turnout spike. One of the most innovative was LUCHA, a group born in the struggle against anti-immigrant laws, which in cooperation with Seed the Vote and Peoples Action embraced an innovative deep-canvassing strategy designed to reach out to undecided and conflicted voters and engage in real conversations. It worked.15

American Constitution Society, Alliance for Justice, Demand Justice16

To counter the Federalist Societys relentless drive to pack the federal bench with right-wing activists, the American Constitution Society, led by former senator Russ Feingold, came up with a plan to jump-start the Biden-Harris administrations judicial selection process. Immediately after the election, the ACS delivered a list of hundreds of qualified prospects that would bring diversity to the courts. The Alliance for Justice, led by nomination expert Nan Aron, and allied groups also provided a list of potential nominees. And Brian Fallon and the crew at Demand Justice were already formulating strategies to get Bidens nominees confirmed.17

Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez18

When former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, once a key fundraiser and power broker in Bill Clintons administration, was floated for a top job under Biden, Rodriguez, the Chicago alderwoman and member of the City Councils powerful caucus of Democratic Socialists, penned a scathing letter putting him on a DO NOT HIRE list. That letter evolved into a petition to Biden signed by thousands of Chicagoans, which recalled that Emanuel covered up the 2014 police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and closed 50 elementary schools. The petition stated, If you want to root out systemic racism, defend democracy, and build a society that leaves no one behindall worthy goals mentioned in your victory speechwe can think of few people worse for the job than the man who earned the nickname Mayor 1%. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Representative-elect Jamaal Bowman amplified the themes as the outcry went national. The pushback showed how progressives can and must put pressure on the new administration.19

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Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan and the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus20

Faced with a pandemic and an economic meltdown, Wisconsins Pocan argued in May, Increasing defense spending now would be a slap in the face to the families of [those who] have died from this virus. Pocan and Californias Lee rallied 93 House votes for a July amendment to cut Pentagon spending by 10 percent; Vermonts Bernie Sanders secured 23 Senate votes. Lee and Pocan then formed the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus. Lee, who was recently honored by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft for her long struggle to move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy, has warned that warped budget priorities harm Black and brown people the most. We cant keep spending billions for weapons while leaving our people defenseless against COVID, she said.21

Fair and Just Prosecution22

The ranks of progressive prosecutors swelled in November with the elections of George Gascon in Los Angeles, Monique Worrell in Orlando, Fla., and Jos Garza in Austin, Tex. Nationwide, innovative district attorneys are generating fresh ideas for police accountability, ending mass incarceration, reforming drug laws, and addressing systemic racism. Fair and Just Prosecution brings them together to share strategies for moving away from past incarceration-driven approaches and advancing new thinking that promotes prevention and diversion and increases fairness.23

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Bonnie Castillo24

Unions were on the front lines of the pandemic, protecting their members and their communities as Covid-19 swept America. No labor leader battled harder than Castillo, a registered nurse and the executive director of National Nurses United. Starting in January, the union demanded that nurses get protective gear to save their own lives and the lives of their patients. NNU forced hospitals to change policies, demonstrated outside the White House, and kept an eye on the big picture. Explaining that so much injustice in our society is amplified by Covid-19, Castillo decried the racial inequities of a for-profit health care system and championed Medicare for All. As legendary United Farm Workers union leader Dolores Huerta said, Bonnie does not just work to heal patients; she works to heal society.25

Zephyr Teachout, Jennifer Taub, Stephanie Kelton26

Recovery from the many crises of 2020 will require bold thinking, and three great public intellectuals provide it with books that challenge monopoly power, neoliberalism, and corruption. Teachouts Break Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom From Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money (All Points Books) argues for trust-busting as a necessary response to inequality, climate change, the consolidation of economic power, and the systemic disenfranchisement of women, immigrants, and people of color. Taubs Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime (Viking) explains that the crimes of the billionaire class are never victimless. Keltons The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the Peoples Economy (Public Affairs) provides an antidote to deficit hawks who claim theres not enough money for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.27

Amy Hanauer28

Since taking over in 2019 as executive director of Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Hanauer has been calling out the economic fallacies that pass for policy in Washington. When Senate Republicans gamed the Covid-19 relief debates, Hanauer warned, Senator McConnell is circulating a hoax of a plan withtwo enormous giveaways to corporations: a liability shield for companies whose policies contribute to their employees getting sick, and a tax deduction for business meals. Making the connection between regressive tax policies and rising inequality, Hanauer and her team crunch numbers and build arguments for taxing the rich and lifting up the working class.29

Hood to the Holler30

When Louisville Black Lives Matter activists and their allies demanded justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker shot and killed during a police raid, Kentucky legislator Charles Booker joined them on the streets. He didnt stop there. Booker took the racial justice message to rural Kentucky, mounting a campaign that almost had him winning the Democratic nomination to run against Mitch McConnell. After the primary, Booker formed Hood to the Holler, a grassroots movement to build a new Southern strategy that breaks down barriers to discussions of racial justice and generational poverty.31

Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger32

Commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation to celebrate the 2019 centennial of Seegers birth, the always innovative string quartet and talented vocalists like Maria Arnal, Sam Amidon, and Aoife ODonovan reimagined the folk singers songbook and added numbers from artists influenced by his radical humanity. Long Time Passing (Smithsonian Folkways) is both musically and politically brilliant. Its version of Zoe Mulfords The President Sang Amazing Grace, featuring the Ethiopian American singer Meklit, achieves the rare feat of being painful, beautiful, and healing at the same time.33

(Julien Hekimian / Getty Images)

Janelle Mones Turntables34

Turntables ignites with the singers call for a different vision with a new dream and this promise: We kicking out the old regime. Written for Stacey Abramss voting rights documentary, All In: The Fight for Democracy, the song (and a brilliant accompanying video with a spoken-word invocation from James Baldwin) aligns history with a new generations demands for systemic change. Its release capped a remarkable year for Mone, which began with a riveting Academy Awards performance that saw her celebrating Black History Month and pioneering women before declaring, Im so proud to stand here as a Black queer artist telling stories.35

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These Progressives Helped Keep Hope Alive in 2020and Prepare Us for 2021 - The Nation

"Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has raised almost half a million dollars in corporate PAC money from the healthcare industry, the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. On top of that, he's raised more money from health care professionals than all but two members of Congress," said John Kokoris, 8th District Coordinator of Schaumburg Area Progressives at the Patients Over Profits rally on January 9, 2021, where we mobilized over 60 people from around the district to march in solidarity for Medicare for All.

Schaumburg Area Progressives is a grassroots group in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, which evolved from being a local Bernie volunteer group hosting a great deal of campaign events and building a community.

After Bernie's campaign ended, we were determined to stay in the fight. We built our own structure which was key in the freedom and guidance in making our actions effective. We continued the same vision to strive for social, economic, and environmental justice. We see other local and national progressive groups like Democratic Socialists of America and Our Revolution, as allies fighting together for a common cause. Per our organizational structure, we empower other volunteers to become leaders and to develop their own initiative with clear goals and deadlines, while we guide them and help gather resources necessary.

It was critical to have a good program champion like John Kokoris be willing to come forward and take the lead on building a ground game for CD-IL 08. Particularly, he took initiative to collaborate with many other organizations in and around the district, as well as a potential progressive challenger, and this is what is making us successful.

We coordinated a Schaumburg Area Progressives group call with the Congressman, where 5 of us requested his support for Medicare For All and asked him to sign the pledge, to reject campaign contributions over $200 from executives, lobbyists, and PACs affiliated with the hospital, insurance, and pharma corporations. We wrote a letter in response back to him. Following, we organized a Holiday Letter Writing Party where we wrote Congressman Krishnamoorthi over 30 letters sharing personal stories of how this insurance system has negatively affected many of us. We asked him multiple ways to continue the conversation. He still did not get back to us. We also organized a presence at Congressman Krishnamoorthi's townhall where 6 of our volunteers jumped on the call with hours notice, and one of us challenged him on his healthcare stance. It did not change his mind. Days after the new Congress was sworn in, we then went on to plan a Patients Over Profits march, our biggest event yet.

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We had powerful speakers share their healthcare stories including Sheila Rawat, Co-Chair of Schaumburg Area Progressives, who said she got surprise bills after a traumatic medical procedure she didnt want to remember, Ovais Sualeh, a constituent, Dan Bailey, a nurse, who worked at a clinic where specialists only came on a volunteer basis few and far between, which resulted in patients not getting treatment they needed including those who endured intense pain, Hale Landes, a labor activist, Dr. Shannon Rotolo, a pharmacist, and John, the 8th District Coordinator. Undeterred by the cold and snow in the beginning of the winter season, we then marched 0.8 miles to the Congressmans office, chanting, Raja, Represent Us! and Healthcare is a Human Right! to hand deliver the Illinois Single Payer Coalition pledge.

"We, Schaumburg Area Progressives and our allies, are making our voices loud and clear that the people of the 8th Congressional District are calling on Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi to sign this pledge and show us that money does not belong in politics," Co-chair Sheila Rawat stated, just outside his office building, moments before Co-chair Elisa Devlin and 8th District Coordinator John Kokoris delivered the pledge.

Schaumburg Area Progressives plans to hold more protests in the coming months, hoping to double the size of the crowd, and if even after that he does not sign the pledge and start advocating for single payer, then we hope to ultimately find and work with a challenger. We found it very effective to focus on one pressing issue and bring progressive groups together. It is our hope that progressive groups in other districts across the nation will follow suit to hold our politicians accountable to the needs of the people. We would love to help other progressive leaders do just that.

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How We Came to Build A Progressive Ground Game - Common Dreams

Antonio Lpez, a first-year Ph.D. student in modern thought and literature and newly elected East Palo Alto city councilmember, and Forest Peterson M.S. 07 ENGR 15 Ph.D. 20, a postdoctoral fellow in civil engineering, are among Stanford affiliates running to be Assembly District Delegates (ADDs) in this years Assembly District Election Meetings (ADEM) elections. If elected, Lpez, Peterson and 12 other winning candidates from Assembly District 24 will influence the direction of the California Democratic Party by voting on resolutions, electing leadership, informing endorsements and directly impacting the party platform.

Lpez and Peterson are joined on their slate, the North Star Progressive Democrats, by Mountain View city councilmember Sally Lieber 00, chair of the Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission Cari Templeton M.A. 17 and former Stegner Fellow Essy Stone, along with nine other candidates.

14 ADDs seven of whom must be self-identified females and seven who are not in each California district are elected in ADEMs, which occur every two years. Though candidates may run with a slate, voters select candidates individually. Due to COVID-19, voting is taking place by mail this year. Voters, who could request mail-in ballots until January 11, now have until January 27 to return them.

Members of the North Star Progressive Democrats are among 42 candidates vying for the 14 seats in Assembly District 24, which encompasses Stanford.

Peterson is particularly energized by the prospect of representing the Stanford community. One of the founding members of SCOPE 2035, a student activist group focused on housing equity, he aspires to fight for the interests of Stanford workers, many of whom do not live in the district due to a lack of affordable housing.

At Stanford University, as far as I know, we havent elected a delegate so to speak, Peterson said. I happen to be somebody that does live near campus. I am in this district. And so I can be the voice for the workers at Stanford.

The slate has five main priorities: equitable COVID recovery; justice and equity; human rights; democracy, inclusion, representation and empowerment; and climate emergency. Its members, who have coalesced around shared progressive values, have varying degrees of political experience. Some, like Lpez, are newly elected to local government. Others, like Lieber, have been entrenched in local politics for years.

Lieber began her political career when she was first elected to the Mountain View city council as a 37 year-old Stanford senior. She was again elected to the city council this fall and has also served as mayor of Mountain View, a county commissioner, and for three terms in the State Assembly. She has also been an ADD.

Lieber believes that the ADEMs are essential to showing community members that they have table stakes in the Democratic Party. Voters are eager for political transformation, she said, especially in terms of issues like environmental accountability, student debt relief and universal basic income, among others.

This is an opportunity to move our state Democratic Party in a more progressive direction, Lieber said. Were a progressive, grassroots slate who each have experience in our own domains.

In addition to electing 14 ADDs, each California district will also elect an Executive Board (E-Board) member, who represents their community at E-Board meetings. Each ADD candidate indicates whether they want to serve as E-Board representative, and the position goes to the overall top vote getter in each district, provided that they are willing to fulfill the role. E-Board members meet more frequently and are responsible for conducting party business that occurs between the conventions in which all ADDs participate. In presidential election years, this includes electing members to the Democratic National Committee. Lieber and Democratic activist Steve Chessin are the only North Star Progressive Democrats running for the E-Board position.

Templeton, who worked at Google for over a decade before earning her masters degree at Stanford, is no stranger to this process.

Templeton first ran to be an ADD in 2017, when she was the first runner-up but was later able to participate after one of the districts seven female delegates moved. She ran again in 2019 and was defeated, but was ultimately appointed by assemblymember Marc Berman. Templeton was also a Bernie Sanders delegate at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, where she cast protest votes in support of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.

Im really excited to be running again, Templeton said. Our district is so lucky to have so many really great, qualified people that want to run, so its always competitive here.

If elected, Templeton hopes to push for the slates priorities by supporting Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, housing equity and the abolition of ICE. One of the most powerful aspects of being an ADD, Templeton believes, is ones ability to have a statewide and even a national impact. Building local networks and starting conversations, she said, is ultimately what leads to concrete change.

Lpez, too, believes that as an ADD, he can use local experiences to influence policies statewide. As an East Palo Alto city councilmember, he is keenly aware of the challenges that so many communities, particularly low-income communities and communities of color, are currently facing. By voicing his ideas with ADDs and party leaders, he strives to be a champion for similar communities across the state.

Additionally, Lpez hopes to be an agent of change by sharing Stanfords wealth of knowledge and resources. He considers Stanford a crucial partner and stakeholder, especially in the wake of COVID-19. In his role as city councilmember, Lpez recently collaborated with a Stanford doctor who helped him create an informative video to combat vaccine misinformation.

Just being immersed in this amazing, powerful environment of education is only going to enhance my ability to facilitate important change, Lpez said.

At Stanford and beyond, Lpez has encountered young people who are disappointed with mainstream politics. When progressive leaders like representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are met with opposition by party establishment, Lpez said, this signals to young progressives that the party is business as usual. Theyre neoliberal, theyre concerned with mainstream politics and not the ideas of the vast majority of the people.

But he urged the disillusioned not to give up.

I invite people to have hope that we can reform the Democratic Party, Lpez said. That they arent just the party of corporate politics and the big wigs and of the wealthy, but they can be a party of the people. And that is exactly the mission and values that we bring to the table.

Contact Georgia Rosenberg at georgiar at stanford.edu.

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Stanford affiliates run with progressive slate in District 24 - The Stanford Daily

Whats a trend going on in the U.S. or abroad that doesnt get enough attention? I have a Ph.D. in American history, so I tend to take the long view. I think our current political system is splintering. The media pays a lot of attention to divisions between moderate and progressive Democrats, but doesnt pay enough attention to divisions among Republicans. Well see realignments in the coming years, which is why progressives push a broadly popular anti-corruption, pro-democracy, pro-worker agenda.

What are you watching for in the Biden presidency? $2 trillion in clean energy spending on infrastructure and jobs, a restoration of Americas reputation in the eyes of the world and accountability for Trump and his family.

Whats a fun fact that people in Washington might not know about you? I love childrens literature because teaching kids to imagine a radically different world is critical for our future, and so I wrote a childrens book called I Can Change Everything. Also, I have three kids ages 4 and under, and I am tired literally all of the time.

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BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Progressive - Politico