Illinois progressives offer their agenda Crain's Chicago Business (blog) There's no agreement on a new state budget or anything close thereto. But there was agreement on one thing today, as progressive members of the Illinois House and Senateall Democratsoffered their vision of what's needed to fix the state. On the ... |
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Illinois progressives offer their agenda - Crain's Chicago Business (blog)
In the weeks after Donald Trump won last year's presidential election and Republicans kept control of Congress, Sarah Dohl, with a of friends and former Capitol Hill colleagues, wanted Americans mostly distraught Democrats to know that their voices could still be heard.
Not expecting much, they published online a 26-page document in mid-December, outlining a succinct idea: resist.
Its title, "Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda," quickly drew interest. George Takei, the actor who starred in the television series "Star Trek," posted a link to it on Twitter. So did former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who worked in the Clinton administration.
"We just had no idea it would turn into this huge movement," Dohl said Saturday. "We thought our moms might read it."
What at first started with a small group of young progressives batting around ideas on how to move forward under a Trump administration has blossomed into a national movement, known as Indivisible. The mission centers on grass-roots advocacy targeting members of Congress inclined to work with the new administration and those who, in Indivisible's view, don't do enough to oppose it.
In keeping with the loose structure of other movements such as Black Lives Matter, Indivisible isn't a hierarchical organization with a national headquarters and local chapters. Instead, it's a collection of groups committed to employing tactics and operating on principles shared by Indivisible's founders online.
Early on, the focus was attacking Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Members of the movement have caused representatives to flee town halls and, at times, cancel public events altogether. They've corralled constituents, visited district offices and made phone calls en masse demanding answers.
Not all people who flooded congressional town halls in recent weeks were part of or had even heard of Indivisible. But many were.
"Every member of Congress cares about how their constituents view them and the narrative being formed in their districts," said Dohl, who has held several jobs on Capitol Hill, including communications director for Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas. "And we're not just focused on Republicans. This is about Democrats standing up and having a spine and pushing back against Trump and Republicans."
A chapter in the published Indivisible guide is titled, "How your member of Congress thinks and how to use that to save Democracy." It offers a simple point:
"To influence your own Member of Congress (MoC), you have to understand one thing: every House member runs for office every two years and every Senator runs for election every six years. Functionally speaking, MoCs are always either running for office or getting ready for their next election a fact that shapes everything they do."
The strategy, said Dohl, echoes the tea party movement that sprang up in 2009. At the time, President Barack Obama's efforts to pass the Affordable Care Act caused a conservative uproar. Images of constituents, angered by the legislation and jabbing fingers in lawmakers' faces, filled television screens and front pages nationwide. The next election cycle, Democrats, who at the time had controlled both chambers of Congress, lost the House.
Now, members of the movement hope it's the reverse.
"We're seeing people who have never been involved in politics now motivated to speak up," said Ezra Levin, who came up with the idea for the online guide and is now president of Indivisible Guide, which recently registered as nonprofit group. He worked with Dohl on Capitol Hill in 2009, during the rise of the tea party.
On Saturday, the two celebrated the Repbublican collapse on health care. A day earlier, House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled a bill that would have repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act because it did not have enough support. Many in the Freedom Caucus, among the most conservative members of Congress, thought the bill did not dismantle the law enough. Democrats and moderate Republicans thought it went too far.
Levin credits Indivisible groups for influencing moderates such as Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican who represents a swing district in Virginia.
For weeks, Comstock declined requests from constituents some of whom are associated with Indivisible for an in-person town hall. Her Capitol Hill and district offices were also flooded with phone calls from constituents seeking more access to her.
On Friday, hours before the bill was pulled, Comstock said she would not support it.
"This is setting the tone for members of Congress to know that constituents are paying attention," Levin said. "And they're not going to stop. This is going forward for months and years."
Laynette Evans, a career coach and resume writer, is among the early organizers of Indivisible Reno.
The Reno group has about 1,100 Facebook members and has met a few of times to talk about how to get their representatives at all levels of government Democrats and Republicans alike to hear them out on issues including health care and immigration.
"It's putting politicians on notice," said Evans, a Democrat. "With the election of Donald Trump, I think more people are becoming engaged in politics and how our country is being governed."
In January, a day after Trump's inauguration, millions of people joined women's marches nationwide. As protests of Trump have ensued, several states have sought to pass legislation that would discourage or criminalize protest. And Trump has described protesters those at town halls or marching in the streets as paid professionals who specialize in disrupting Republicans.
After the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump has indicated he's ready to move on to other issues, such as tax reform.
Whatever the proposal, Trump and Republicans will probably face Indivisible, Levin said.
The resistance is not going away, he said.
Read more here:
Young progressives lead Indivisible, the resistance to Trump - MyAJC
The idea started with a public Google document.
In the weeks after Donald Trump won last years presidential election and Republicans kept control of Congress, Sarah Dohl, along with a handful of friends and former Capitol Hill colleagues, wanted Americans mostly distraught Democrats to know their voices could still be heard.
Not expecting much, they published online a 26-page document in mid-December, outlining a succinct idea: resist.
Its title, Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, quickly drew interest. George Takei, the actor who starred in the television series Star Trek, tweeted it to his 2.2 million followers. So, too, did former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who worked in the Clinton administration.
We just had no idea it would turn into this huge movement, Dohl, 33, said Saturday from her house in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. We thought our moms might read it.
What at first started with a small group of young progressives batting around ideas on how to move forward under a Trump administration has blossomed into a national movement, known as Indivisible. The mission centers on grass-roots advocacy targeting members of Congress inclined to work with the new administration and those who, in Indivisibles view, dont do enough to oppose it.
In keeping with the loose structure of other movements such as Black Lives Matter, Indivisible isnt a hierarchical organization with a national headquarters and local chapters. Instead, its a collection of groups committed to the same goal, employing tactics and operating on principles shared by Indivisibles founders online.
Early on, the focus was attacking Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Members of the movement have caused representatives to flee town halls and, at times, cancel public events altogether. Theyve corralled constituents, visited district offices and made phone calls en masse demanding answers.
Not all people who flooded congressional town halls in recent weeks were part of or had even heard of Indivisible. But many were.
Every member of Congress cares about how their constituents view them and the narrative being formed in their districts, said Dohl, who has held several jobs on Capitol Hill, including communications director for Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat, whose district includes parts of Austin, Texas. And were not just focused on Republicans. This is about Democrats standing up and having a spine and pushing back against Trump and Republicans.
A chapter within the Indivisible guide is titled How your member of Congress thinks and how to use that to save Democracy. It offers up a simple point:
To influence your own Member of Congress (MoC), you have to understand one thing: every House member runs for office every two years and every Senator runs for election every six years. Functionally speaking, MoCs are always either running for office or getting ready for their next election a fact that shapes everything they do.
The strategy, said Dohl, echoes the tea party movement that sprang up in 2009. At the time, President Obamas efforts to pass the Affordable Care Act caused a conservative uproar. Images of constituents, angered by the legislation and jabbing fingers in lawmakers faces, filled television screens and front pages nationwide. The next election cycle, Democrats, who at the time had controlled both chambers of Congress, lost the House.
Now, members of the movement hope its the reverse.
Were seeing people who have never been involved in politics now motivated to speak up, said Ezra Levin, who came up with the idea for the online guide and is now president of Indivisible Guide, which recently registered as nonprofit group. He worked with Dohl on Capitol Hill in 2009, during the rise of the tea party.
On Saturday, the two celebrated the GOP collapse on healthcare. A day earlier, House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled a bill that would have repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because it did not have enough support. Many in the Freedom Caucus, among the most conservative members of Congress, thought the bill did not dismantle Obamacare enough. Democrats and moderate Republicans thought it went too far.
Levin, 31, credits Indivisible groups for influencing moderates such as Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican who represents a swing district in Virginia.
For weeks, Comstock declined requests from constituents some of whom are associated with Indivisible for an in-person town hall. Her Capitol Hill and district offices were also flooded with phone calls from constituents seeking more access to her.
On Friday, hours before the bill was pulled, Comstock said she would not support it.
This is setting the tone for members of Congress to know that constituents are paying attention, Levin said. And theyre not going to stop. This is going forward for months and years.
Laynette Evans, 64, a career coach and resume writer, is among the early organizers of Indivisible Reno.
The Reno group has about 1,100 Facebook members and has met a handful of times in recent months to talk about how to get their representatives at all levels of government Democrats and Republicans alike to hear them out on issues including healthcare and immigration.
Its putting politicians on notice, said Evans, a Democrat. With the election of Donald Trump, I think more people are becoming engaged in politics and how our country is being governed.
In January, a day after Trumps inauguration, millions of people joined womens marches nationwide. As protests of Trump have ensued, several states have sought to pass legislation that would discourage or criminalize protest. And Trump has described protesters those at town halls or marching in the streets as paid professionals who specialize in disrupting Republicans.
After the failure to repeal of Obamacare, Trump has indicated hes ready to move on to other issues, such as tax reform.
Whatever the proposal, Trump and Republicans will probably face Indivisible, Levin said.
The resistance, Levin said, is not going away.
Twitter: @kurtisalee
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Meet Indivisible, the young progressives leading the resistance to ... - Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON In the wake of the Republicanfailure to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Friday, leading figures in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are rallying behind a single-payer health insurance and a raft of other bold reforms.
These lawmakers and grassroots leaders have long believed that the problems plaguing theAffordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, are rooted in the original health care laws attempt to accommodate, rather than gradually replace, the private, for-profit health insurance system.
Now that efforts to eliminate the law wholesale are effectively dead, they are again arguing that the best way to improve the countrys health care system is to confront the power of corporate health care providers more directly.
We have got to have the guts to take on the insurance companies and the drug companies and move forward toward a Medicare for all, single-payer program, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on MSNBCs All In with Chris Hayes on Friday night. And Ill be introducing legislation shortly to do that.
Sanders added on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday that he would absolutely seek President Donald Trumps cooperation on expanding Medicare and lowering prescription drug prices.
Even before the Republicans withdrew their Obamacare repeal bill, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee and a close Sanders ally, previewed this messageat a rally in defense of Obamacare on Thursday.
Dont just be satisfied with defeating Trumpcare set your sights on creating real Medicare for all! he told a cheering crowd of hundreds of activists. Ellison is a co-sponsor of a Medicare for all bill in the House.
Representatives of several major progressive organizations the Working Families Party, the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, Credo, Social Security Works and the National Nurses United all echoed this push in conversations with The Huffington Post on Friday and Saturday.
The problem is the insurance companies, Big Pharma theyre gonna come back and use the chaos to their advantage, predicted Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson. If Democrats go with a half-a-loaf policy, Republicans are going to blame them for the failures of Big Pharma.They have to immediately pivot to expanding Medicare.
During the debate over repeal, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) used some of his time during a Budget Committee hearing to note that if Trump wanted to follow through on his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something terrific, he could fall back on an idea Trump himself endorsed in a 2000 book: single-payer.
On Monday, Khanna said that now is the moment to drive the single-payer message home. To resist Trump, we need to play offense and not just defense, he told HuffPost.
As I pointed out in the Budget Committee hearing on Trumpcare a few weeks ago, Donald Trump supported a single payer system modeled after Canada in 2000 in his book [The America We Deserve], Khanna went on. He knows that is the only system that would fulfill his promise of more benefits, more coverage, and less costs. We should have every Democrat quoting Trump on a single-payer system as a mantra, and support Senator Sanders and Congressman Welch in their vision for Medicare for All, or at least, a public option. Senator Sanders is the leader of the Democratic Party currently in offering a conviction-based, affirmative vision. We should follow his direction.
Notwithstanding the support of the influential groups for the proposal and according to a May 2016 Gallup poll even a majority of the American people, Medicare-for-all legislation is a non-starter in the current Congress. Single-payer health insurance still lacks support from many, if not most, Democrats, let alone from the Republican lawmakers who control both chambers.
But the proactive strategy speaks to increasing confidence among progressives that if they stick to their ideals and build a grassroots movement around them, they will ultimately move the political spectrum in their direction.
It does take time for social change, said Chuck Idelson, communications director of National Nurses United, a 150,000-person labor union that has long advocated for a single-payer health insurance system.
NNU is partnering with Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress on an online petition campaign demanding that Democrats back Medicare for all. The union is also advocating for a state level single-payer plan that is making its way through the California legislature.
We didnt end slavery overnight, Idelson said. It took from Seneca Falls in 1848 til 1920 until women won the right to vote. But they only won it by building a movement.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that activists around the country urged their representatives over the weekend to get behind a single-payer program.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In the meantime, a potential benefit of this ambitious approach is whats known as shifting the Overton Window a political science term for the narrow range of acceptable political views at a given moment in time.
By adopting a position that is considered extreme by contemporary standards, politicians and activists can make more attainable policy goals start to seem reasonable by comparison.
That phenomenon already seems to be working in progressives favor.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the only one of Sanders Senate colleagues to endorse his presidential bid, discussed the possibility of lowering the Medicare eligibility age or empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices in his statement on the Republican bills collapse.
There are plenty of ideas already on the table that would make health care more affordable for working families, from a public option, to prescription drug negotiations, to offering older Americans the chance to buy into Medicare, Merkley said on Friday. Im happy to work with anyone, from either side of the aisle, to explore these or any other ideas that would improve health care for working Americans.
Lowering the Medicare eligibility age from its current level of 65 is a very interesting idea, because of the positive financial effect it would have on the Obamacare insurance exchanges, said Austin Frakt, a health economist for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
By allowing the oldest exchange participants to enroll in Medicare, lowering the Medicare age would relieve the health insurance marketplaces of some of their costliest customers, said Frakt, who also has academic posts at Boston University and Harvard.
It would reduce the premiums in those markets, he predicted. (Frakt noted, however, that absent measures to offset the cost of the additional beneficiaries, the change would increase Medicares financial burden.)
Social Security Works Lawson praised the idea as an incremental step toward Medicare for all.
Start by lowering the age to 62 and get it down to zero, he said.
Republicans, meanwhile, believe they can score points against Democrats on the issue.
We arent even 3 months into the 2018 cycle and House Democrats have already begun calling for a single-payer healthcare system, said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, in an email to reporters Monday.
Obamacare is collapsing as a result of [its] top-down, government centered approach and the Democrats only answer is more government, Hunt went on. The question remains, how many other Democrats will join the chorus to appease the activist base of the Party thats clamoring for far-left policies?
Another progressive policy gaining mainstream traction is legislation permitting the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, where the existing single-payer system keeps prices lower. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) was one of several Democratic senators to endure heavy criticism in January for helping block a resolution supporting drug importation. In late February, Booker became a co-sponsor of legislation Sanders introduced that would legalize prescription drug importation from Canada and other countries.
Trumptalked about getting tough with pharmaceutical companies over the price of prescription drugs as recently as early January.
But he has remained silent on the matter since his inauguration, including the 17-day period when he was trying to pass House Republicans Obamacare repeal bill. Whats more, the ordeal cast serious doubt on Trumps willingness to take on the GOPs ultraconservatives, who no doubt would oppose any form of government intervention to reduce drug prices.
Trump now claims he is counting on Democrats to negotiate over Obamacare on his terms, since, in his telling, the law is on the brink of collapse.
Obamacares insurance exchange markets have major problems in some states and regions, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office characterized them as stable overall.
Still, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) suggested in a CNN interview on Friday night that Democrats would be open to working with Trump and congressional Republicans on reforming the law.
Were not gloating that they failed. Were sad that they wont work with us to improve Obamacare, he said.
Murshed Zaheed, political director of Credo, warned Democratic leaders that any Democratic efforts to work with Republicans would not get any help from grassroots groups like his.
If Democrats want to push their version of so-called moderate proposals good luck to them, Zaheed said. I dont think anybody should be under any illusion that Schumer or [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi will get anything from collaborating with the right-wing extremists that control Congress.
Ryan Grim contributed reporting. This story was updated Monday to include comments from Khanna and Hunt.
See the article here:
Bernie Sanders, Top Progressives Announce New 'Medicare For All' Push - Huffington Post
After all, all of their sound and fury has resulted indrum roll herenothing!
Make that worse than nothing, especially if youre dealing with the mortal enemy of the progressive agendaFacts!
In 2010, in the first midterm elections after Barack Obama took office, the Democrat Party experienced some of the hugest losses since the Great Depression, with Republicans gaining 63 seats and a majority in the House, six seats in the Senate which expanded its minority, 680 seats in state legislatives, and 29 of the 50 state governorships.
Still, in their head-in-the-sand fashion, they ignored the losses and continued to believe that as long as they could, ahem, control the outcome of the big electionswith conservatives who had died but strangely reappeared after death as Democrats, and organizations like ACORN aiding and abetting their effortstheir poweractually abuse of powerwould go on forever.
After Mr. Obama was reelected in 2012, Democrats held control of the Senate and Republicans maintained their hefty lead in the House, as well as the majority of governorships. None of this mattered to Mr. Obama, whose contempt for the duly-elected Congress was matched by his arrogance in consistently bypassing this august body to foist his own Marxist agenda on an increasingly suspicious electorate.
The results of the November 2014 midterms were, by any measure, a catastrophe for the left. Republicans gained a total of 247 seats in the House of Representatives and 54 seats in the Senate, achieving the largest Republican majority in the U.S. Congress since the 71st Congress in 1929. In addition, the GOP won 31 governors races; Democrats 18. And Republican-controlled legislatures increased from 57 to 67, leaving Democrats in control of the smallest number of state legislatures since 1860.
While both midterms rejected the Progressive agenda, the clueless left still had enough blustery confidence in the Democrat Party to put up not one but two socialists for president in 2016: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
When it came to bashing Wall St., endorsing state-run medicine and education (Obamacare and Common Core), celebrating abortion on-demand, embracing the anti-American and anti-Semitic United Nations, railing against guns (while being protected for decades by men with guns), endorsing every treaty that has been disastrous for America, and advocating for every scheme of the globalist agenda, Hillary was your girl!
Unmistakable hints that the Progressive agenda might be coming to its ignominious end came over the course of the 18 months that Donald Trump ran for the presidency. During that time, candidate Trump, speaking to stadium-sized audiences, systematically attacked every one of Barack Obamas failed ideas, policies, and executive orders, which had been inflicted on Americans during the previous eight years, calling them disastrous, failures, and most important, bad for America. Among the items on his laundry list were:
But that is not all. With boldness, indeed fearlessness, never seen before in politics, candidate Trump took on the biased leftwing media and the fake news theyve spewed for decades, as well as the fake pollsters who followed their fellow sheep in pronouncing for month after month after month that candidate Trump would lose the election in a landslide.
All of this rang resoundingly true to Americans who lived outside of the East and Left coasts of America, those blue-state bastions of Progressives who love the goodies that freeloading communists and socialists always lovefree everything, from housing to schooling to education to medical care to illegal drivers licenses to illegal voting rights. Oh, not to omit a demonstrably low regard for America and American exceptionalism.
I personally laugh out loud when I hear of the uber-wealthy people from both coastsand their slavish echo chamber in the mediasending out tweets and e-mails from their privately-piloted planes bad-mouthing Wall Street and vilifying people who support secure borders, when none of these sanctimonious phonies would let a day go by without checking their spectacular bank accounts, having their armed body guards at-the-ready to protect them, and their valets and maids double-check that their home alarm systems were in perfect working order.
In the same way, I laugh when I see leftist relics like Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg from The View and their ilk in other leftist media cite Donald Trump from 15 years ago talking like a typical locker-room guy about women, when these self-appointed defenders of morality and womens rights have twisted themselves into labyrinthine knots to avoid mention of the quintessential abused woman of the 20th century, Hillary Clinton, and the degree to which her husband Bubbatheir herospit in Hillarys face every day and night for eight yearsas well as before and after his presidencywith his serial abuse, cheating, accusations of rape, and lying under oath about his sordid behavior.
Their hypocrisy should not only discredit them for all time, but also the so-called journalists like Mika (MSNBC) and Norah and Gail (CBS-TV) and Alisyn (CNN) and Rachel (MSNBC), and the other faux feminists who work for uber-rich male leftists, with their globalist agendas, running media empires for multimillion-dollar salariesits always about following the moneyand literally dictating what their employees say.
Hey, ladies, youre angry at President Trump, whose wife and daughter both run hugely successful businesses? Ivanka now has an office in the West Wing! Why are you angry at him instead of your cheap bosses? Why arent you running a channel or cable network yourselves? Pathetic!
But this is relatively small potatoes in comparison to the barrage of anti-Trump commentary these fake journalists regurgitated both before and after the election, including the false, go-nowhere Russian narrative. They should be the first to admit, but never will, that all of their efforts have resulted inanother drumroll herenothing!
President Trump is still filling stadiums and still accomplishing more every week than Barack Obama did in eight years. An article edited by Jim Kouri, founder of a homeland-security consulting firm and Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, First 50 Days a Major Victory for Americans, spells out a number of those accomplishments:
And that is not to omit:
There is so much more.but you get the picture. The left has thrown everything at candidate and now President Trump and nothing has stuck. Why? Because President Trump truly represents We the People. He cannot be bought or compromised or intimidated like most politicians, and he is still the smartest guy in the room!
I remember watching the returns come in on November 8th, with virtually every commentator on every network and cable channel pronouncing the inevitable conclusion.
At 8:30 p.m. on the East Coast, this is what I heard:
Its going to be an early night.probably over by 11 p.m.
I think this will be a landslide
There is simply no way that liberal states like Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania will ever vote for a Republicannever been done.
On and on blathered the experts!
But they were all wrong!
What were seeing today is the result of what happens when a grown up steps in to save the mess that out-of-control Progressive children routinely make. Tooth fairies and unicorns and the glamorization of brutal regimes run by megalomaniacs like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the Castro brothers in Cuba and the mullahs in Iranall of which leftists support!are antithetical to freedom and prosperity and everything else that America stands for.
President Trump effectively destroyed his opponents identitieseverything they think, believe in, embrace, base their behavior on, agree with their friends and partners about, everything that animates their entire lives. What weve been witnessing is their pitiful reactions.
To them I saywithout a shred of sympathy for their offensive, classless and seditious behaviorBoo Hoo!
The rest is here:
Boo-Hoo to the in decline, whining Progressives! - Canada Free Press