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Peter Beinart has an excellent essayin The Atlantic on how the American Left has shifted on immigration. Just a decade ago, he writes, progressive intellectuals such as Glenn Greenwald, Paul Krugman, and even Barack Obama at least acknowledged the costs of immigration. In fact, Krugman outright stated that, Realistically, well need to reduce the inflow of low-skill immigrants.

I would add to those examples the New York Times editorial from 2000, Hasty Call for Amnesty, which declares, Amnesty would undermine the integrity of the countrys immigration laws and would depress the wages of its lowest-paid native-born workers. Far from sounding progressive to our 2017 ears, this is the kind of statement that might get a speaker disinvited from a college campus these days.

The strange marriage of progressivism and mass immigration has always puzzled me. Last month, I wrote an articlefor RealClearPolicy showing that progressive and high-immigration California is failing by progressives own standards. California has the nations highest poverty rate, its math and reading scores rank near the bottom, and its communities suffer from low levels of social trust. These problems have many causes, but mass low-skill immigration has clearly exacerbated them. Two questions for progressives follow. First, if the nations leader in blue-state governance cannot mitigate the problems related to mass immigration, which state will? Second, and more broadly, how does immigration move us closer to the egalitarian, cooperative, and science-loving society that progressives envision?

I never received any answers to these questions, but maybe the Beinart article points to one: Immigrants and the organizations that lobby for them are now an important Democratic-party constituency. As a result, boosting immigration has itself become a progressive cause, even if it means the old-fashioned vision of egalitarian communities has to be permanently set aside. This is a major political realignment, and yet another example of how mass immigration fundamentally changes nations.

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Immigration Has Changed the Progressive Movement - National Review

Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history beginsor which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdomLucifer. Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals.

Alinsky wrote the playbook for todays progressive movement. It is not at all impossible to see the hate that exists in the progressive movement when you consider the author of their playbook, Alinsky, used Satan as his shining example of success using radical tactics.

Last week a mad man opened fire on several sitting members of Congress critically injuring the House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Unlike a 1954 attack on House representatives, this attack came from one of our own, not a group of Puerto Rican nationalists. Scalises attacker was a guy from Illinois.

The 1954 incident injured five members of the House and actually occurred on the House floor when four members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party opened fire from the visitors gallery. The assailants were fighting a war for Puerto Ricos political independence while the House was debating, coincidentally, an immigration bill.

The man from Illinois, on the other hand, was born and bred in the United States. He was a union member and a supporter of Bernie Sanders. Sanders openly apologized for his actions, but it wasnt Sanders fault. The fault lies in the ridiculous ramp up of political vitriol and the violent past of the leftist movement.

The problem with this guy from Illinois, aside from a reported tendency to act violently, was his political indoctrination through the union. The union has had a long history of violence from their beginnings during the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of the Communist Party to their days of being in cahoots with the mafia. Most famously, mobster Jimmy Hoffa ran the Teamsters.

While the mafias grip has waned since the government crackdowns in the late 1980s, it doesnt mean their tactics are all that dramatically different. Theyve simply adopted the same playbook the radical left has been using for years. Alinsky was a guy whose core belief was that Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society. If one were to project the democratic way of life in the form of a musical score, its major theme would be the harmony of dissonance.

There are a lot of new players in the political game since the 2008 elections. Its a good thing when you consider the new people who are getting active in our political process. Unfortunately, it is also can be a bad thing when you consider the political hatred that came with it.

The fringes of political thought have dominated our political debate in recent years. Consider the swing of the same political electorate that delivered the extreme political views of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, taking a moderate position is doomed to have one labeled as an in-name only participant (not to be confused with calling out candidates who have seemingly switched teams for political gain).

Since the 2016 election, the anti-Trump rhetoric has been over the top. Its a national embarrassment the way the left has done everything from stage Shakespearean remakes showing the assassination of Trump (in lieu of Julius Caesar) to a downward-spiraling comedienne holding his severed head for the cameras. Clearly the unions and progressives were not behind last weeks attack nor were they involved in any way, shape, or form. They are, however, responsible for the language of hate thrown at any concept that remotely smells like a conservative idea.

The labor movement has been racked with violence since its beginning. The progressive movement and its Alinsky-like tactics are not far behind. Combine Alinskys lessons along with the irrational attacks against, not just the policies of a sitting president but staged against his very life, theyve created the environment for at least one kook to go unhinged.

Tim McCumber is a resident of Merrimac.

It really is time for the left to ramp down the hateful rhetoric and violent displays against our president. If they do not stop, the attack on House representatives is just the starting point. It is likely to get a lot worse.

Lest we forget the very first radicalor end up in the same place.

Continued here:
TIM MCCUMBER: Progressives and the first radical | Opinion ... - La Crosse Tribune

Laura Weber Davis/WDET

Stephen Henderson (left) with Faith Fowler (middle) and Nick Hood III(right)

Many of the major progressive movements of our nation were rooted in the church. Political strategy centered around moral obligation came from religious groups that pushed for an end to slavery, equal rights for women, and an end to Jim Crow laws. But over the past few decades the message of religious obligation and morality has been largely won-over by the Conservative movement. The Republican Party has benefited greatly from the support of the conservative church, which has found political inroads with an anti-abortion, anti-LGBT, evangelicalbase.

But new humanist movements are afoot that have invigorated the liberal church with discussions at the fore over the value of Black and immigrant lives, and the future health of ourplanet.

Can progressive churches and religious messages find their way back into political and social prominence in a way that shapes the future of our country? Or are progressive movements now owned primarily by secularAmerica?

Laurie Goodstein, national religion correspondent for theNew York Times, recently published an article titled Liberals Fighting for their Faith: Seeking to Break Rights Grip on Nations Moral Agenda. Goodstein joins Stephen Henderson onDetroit Todayto discuss the role of faith inpolitics.

Goodstein says after President Donald Trump was elected, she noticed religious people wanting to make their presence known at marches andprotests.

I think what theyre saying is that they want to bring a moral language to the debate, Goodstein says. People of faith and the clergy, she says,believe they have language that can help the country decipherright from wrong.

The conversation continues withRev. Faith Fowler, executive director ofCass Community Social Servicesand pastor ofCass Community United Methodist ChurchandRev. Nick Hood III, pastor and senior minister of thePlymouth United Church of Christ, both inDetroit.

I think the challenge for today is that 65 or 70 percent of Americans dont go to church, says Hood. The people in the progressive movement who are driving the liberal politics right now, many of them are not in church The other issue is that many of the churches in Detroit are fighting for survival [because they] cant pay their water billSo I dont think the church has really forsaken the politics. Its kind of a sleepinggiant.

Many Detroit churches are struggling to stay open, but according to Fowler, theyre still driving charitable work in theircommunities.

Almost every church in the city of Detroit is doing somethingbecause theyre surrounded by such great need, says Fowler. At one of our main campuses, the poverty rate is over 44%, so those mercy ministries are important. But so are justice ministries Part of the problem is if churches receive government money, they feel very limited in what they can do as it relates to justice ministries because your funding comes from the government, the separation of church and state, and all that kind ofthing.

Click on the audio player above to hear the fullconversation.

Jake Neher/WDET

First Unitarian Universalist Church inMidtownDetroit

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Can Religious Progressives Become A Political Force Again? - WDET

Sen. Bernie Sanders has spoken out against the progressive lefts ongoing efforts to suppress free speech on campus, stating that it only contributes to rising political tensions in the United States.

Sanders statements come in the wake of James Hodgkinsons mass shooting of GOP congressmen during a morning baseball practice in Alexandria, VA, which hospitalized Majority Whip Steve Scalise and wounded several others. Following the shooting, Sanders deplored Hodgkinsons actions, describing the violence as despicable and unacceptable in our society.

I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms. Real change can only come about through non-violent action, and anything else runs against our most deeply held American values, said Sanders at the time.

Speaking on CBS, Sanders said that efforts to suppress free speech contributed to the rising tide of political violence.

Look, freedom of speech, the right to dissent, the right to protest, that is what America is about, he said, per PJ Media. And, politically, every leader in this country, every American has got to stand up against any form of violence. That is unacceptable. And I certainly hope and pray that Representative Scalise has a full recovery from the tragedy that took place.

The senator stated that people have a right to speak on campus, even if their speech is considered disagreeable or problematic. In February, leftist activists at UC Berkeley shut down a speech by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos using violence.

And you have a right, if you are on a college campus, not to attend. You have a right to ask hard questions about the speaker if you disagree with him or her, Sanders said. But what why should we be afraid of somebody coming on a campus or anyplace else and speaking? You have a right to protest. But I dont quite understand why anybody thinks it is a good idea to deny somebody else the right to express his or her point of view.

What is very clear is, we are in a contentious and difficult political moment in our countrys history, he added. I have very grave concerns about the Trump agenda right now.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at@stillgray on Twitterand onFacebook.

Link:
Bernie Sanders Tells Progressives to Stop Suppressing Free Speech on College Campuses - Heat Street

ATLANTA The call came earlier than last time for the Jon Ossoff campaign: The Democrat failed to prevail in the special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District. After the 30-year-old declared defeat, Democratic and progressive leaders said there was nothing more they could have done to beat out Karen Handel, the victorious Republican, in the traditionally conservative district.

With a historic commitment of money and people, Democrats and progressive groups drew a lower level of support for Ossoff on Tuesday night than he attracted in the April primary.

In the campaign's final days, the Democratic National Committee sent 40 staffers and interns to Tuesday's special elections in Georgia and South Carolina, a party aide said. A majority of those party operatives went to Georgia, the aide noted, saying the support was "a significant amount" of staff members for the DNC to commit to a House race.

A progressive organizer in Georgia said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party's campaign arm in the House, sent at least a dozen staffers to the Georgia race, including Steve Sisneros, a high-ranking DCCC official.

The crowd of supporters at Jon Ossoff's campaign headquarters in Atlanta on Tuesday night

"As we look towards key races in 2017 and 2018, its clear that the enthusiasmfor Democratsis growing across the country," said Sabrina Singh, the DNC's deputy communications director, in a statement. A DCCC spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DCCC alone spent $5 million backing Ossoff's House bid. Tuesday's failure is made more painful by the outpouring of support among local grassroots groups, some of which pointed fingers at the national party for failing to effectively support Ossoff.

Ossoff cited those groups in his concession speech. "It's not been about me. It's about you," Ossoff said, citing the more than 12,000 people who volunteered on his campaign. As he paused in his address to the crowd of supporters, a woman shouted: "Someone has to lead us!"

Isaac Bloom, the national organizing director for Indivisible, said in an interview that he was proud of the work done by grassroots groups he helped coordinate with. "Indivisible Georgia left it all on the field," Bloom said. "No matter what happened tonight, we are changing the map for 2018."

Supporter Jan Yanes, center, cries as Democratic candidate for 6th Congressional District Jon Ossoff concedes to Republican Karen Handel at his election night party in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Adrienne Lever, campaign director for SwingLeft, canvassed for Ossoff and coordinated with her organization's 200 phone banks around the country to push Ossoff toward victory. Lever, who worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, was optimistic going into the evening, but later said the Georgia 6th would always be "a very difficult race" for Democrats.

"The fact we had an opportunity to play here says a lot about the state of politics," Lever said. Her organization's 300,000 volunteers work to push Republican-held House districts toward Democrats. SwingLeft is currently targeting 63 districts nationwide, Lever said.

Of those districts, the Georgia 6th "was, by no means, the closest district and the most viable district for Democrats to win," Lever said.

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Democrats and progressives on Jon Ossoff's defeat: We "left it all on the field" - Mic