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In New York City #39;s Transformed Political Era, Progressives Take Major Posts Under Mayor de
One week after the inauguration of new mayor Bill de Blasio, Melissa Mark-Viverito has been elected Speaker of the New York City Council. Democracy Now! co...

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In New York City's Transformed Political Era, Progressives Take Major Posts Under Mayor de - Video

This Democratic Party Is Going Nowhere. Can Progressives Take it Over and Change the World?
This Democratic Party Is Going Nowhere. Can Progressives Take it Over and Change the World?

By: Awsd121

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This Democratic Party Is Going Nowhere. Can Progressives Take it Over and Change the World? - Video

Wisconsin Progress is a state-based organization that recruits, trains, and develops candidates at the local and state level. Wisconsin Progress is committed to making Wisconsin a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Nov. 4's results were obviously not everything that progressives were hoping for. However, many strong progressive champions were elected to the state Legislature across Wisconsin. This includes two new state senators: Janis Ringhand in Janesville and Janet Bewley in Ashland. Last Tuesday also saw the election of four new progressive state Assembly members under the age of 35, which means we now have 10 Democrats under 35 serving in the Legislature. The youth movement among progressives is alive and well.

Progressives have important work to do to rebuild our infrastructure. This will not happen overnight. If we want to be successful, we must first focus on recruiting and electing champions to local office. Mayors, county board supervisors, town board chairs, and school board members all serve as an important check on conservative overreach coming from the state Capitol. They are the officials who have to endure the consequences of the policies created by the Republican majority. In the years to come, we must rely on these local elected officials to provide a voice for progressives and to make it clear that decisions made in Madison affect Wisconsinites every day.

Our local elected officials are also the bench of future candidates who will run for higher office. We must focus our efforts on electing smart, energetic progressives to local offices in rural and suburban communities across the state, as well as in our cities. We must prepare them once they are elected to be effective and forward thinking. And we must continue to help them develop so that they can successfully make the jump from local office to legislative office in Madison. It is a blueprint that Republicans nationally have been following for decades, and we have only just begun to implement in the Badger State.

Since our founding five years ago, Wisconsin Progress has recruited, trained and helped elect hundreds of progressive leaders to local political offices around the state, and we are committed to redoubling that effort moving forward. This April alone, we will be working in critical local elections around the state to elect progressives to 29 city council chambers, 17 village/town boards, 30 school boards, three county executive offices and 10 mayoral offices. With less than a month until the official start of the 2015 spring election season, Wisconsin Progress knows that the important work of rebuilding starts now.

We all have the opportunity to make Wisconsin a better place to live, work and raise a family. We ask that you take a step forward run for local office, and become a voice for our progressive values. And if you need a hand, Wisconsin Progress is here to help.

Scott Spector is executive director of Wisconsin Progress.

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Scott Spector: To rebuild, progressives must step forward and run for local office

Members of the City Councils Progressive Caucus and liberal activists converged on the steps of City Hall to argue that the NYPDsnew policy of issuing summonses instead of making arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana does not go far enoughand to push a new bill that would require cops to identify themselves upon making a stop and to explicitly request permission before searching a citizen.

Mayor Bill de Blasios left-leaning allies in the Council argued that the new protocol for civilians caught carrying 25 grams or less of marijuana does nothing to end disproportionate stops and searches of minorities. Studies have shown that whites are more likely to use marijuana, but nonwhites account for roughly 86 percent of weed-related arrests.

Theres nothing progressive with replacing one form of discrimination with another. Were replacing racially discriminatory arrests with racially discriminatory summonses. So it may be progress, but it aint progressive, said Councilman Ritchie Torres, a co-sponsor of the Right to Know Act.

We cannot improve police-community relations without first improving the on-the-ground interactions between police and civilians. And so we are introducing legislation that would bring greateraccountability, that would bring greater transparency, greater constitutionality to the day-to-day interactions between officers and civilians, he added.

Mr. Torres and the bills otheradvocates stressed that the law would not apply to cases where an officer already has a warrant or has probable cause to suspecta crime, and claimed that it simply affirms Fourth Amendment protections of privacycomparing it to the Supreme Court-mandated Miranda Rights which police are required to read upon making an arrest.

Were not creating a new right, were affirming a right that has existed in our constitution and our legal tradition, said Mr. Torres.

Curiously, Mr. Torres praised Mr. de Blasios and Mr. Brattons new approach to marijuana just three days ago.

By implementing a new policy of issuing a summons rather than arresting New Yorkers for possessing small amounts of marijuana, the mayor and commissioner have taken a significant step towards ensuring fewer New Yorkers face the consequences that arrest records bring, Mr. Torres said on November 10 in a joint statement with Councilmen Carlos Menchaca, Donovan Richards and Antonio Reynosoall of whom came out today in support of the Right to Know Act. We commend the Mayor and Commissioner for this move, and we will continue to monitor its implementation Todays announcement will make substantial progress towards rebuilding that relationship.

The Right to Know Act islargely identical to provisions Councilman Brad Lander proposed as part of last years Community Safety Act, which established an inspector general to oversee the NYPD and created new legal limitations on the use of stop-and-frisk. Mr. Landers recommendations, however, were left on the cutting room flooruntil now.

Mr. Torres said the bill had 22 of the 26 votes it would need to pass the Council and make it to Mr. de Blasios desk.The mayor and the police department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Progressives Push Consent as Antidote to Racial Bias in Drug Stops

The big post-election consensus is that Democrats believe, asTheNew York Timesput it, they were missing a broad economic message to enthuse supporters and convert some independents.

So what would that missing narrative be? The point of a narrative is to give people an explanation of what they are experiencing that includes what is wrong, who is responsible, and what we can do about it.

Take a look at two explanations of whats happening that are very similar but different in important ways.

The first, from Republican message guru Frank Luntz, writing inThe New York Times: [F]rom the reddest rural towns to the bluest big cities, the sentiment is the same. People say Washington is broken and on the decline, that government no longer works for them only for the rich and powerful.

The second, from Democratic message advisors James Carville and Stan Greenberg, along with Page Gardner: People believe that the rich are using their influence to rig the system so the economy works for them but not the middle class.

The big difference here is how the common sentiment among Americans that the rich call the shots is framed to suggest a solution. By focusing on the government, Luntz sets up the Republican push for limited government. Or as successful Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst said in a debate, When Washington is picking winners and losers, its almost always our Iowa middle-class families that lose.

For Carville, Greenberg, and Gardner, the focus is on the economy being rigged. Or as one ad for Oregons Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley said, It is Jeff leading the fight to hold Wall Street and big banks accountable when they prey on working families and small businesses.

Merkley won and so did Ernst. The explanation, according to progressive pundits, is that Democrats like Merkley who used a populist message which means they connected peoples economic concerns to the rich and powerful who are responsible were successful while Dems who ran away from that message lost. As someone who has been leading theProgressive Economic Narrative(PEN) project, I really wanted to believe that. But as it seemed too easy, I decided to look at some campaigns and see whether it was spin or the truth. It turns out to be the truth.

The first case I looked at was Minnesota Democrat Al Frankens campaign. After eking out a victory in the great Democratic year of 2008, Franken won handily this year, even as Republicans took over the Minnesota House of Representatives. Imagine my smile when I quickly found Franken ads based on the key value statement in ourProgressive Economic Narrative, We all do better when we all do better. This was also a key theme of Minnesotas great progressive senator, Paul Wellstone.

Frankens progressive populism makes a key distinction when he uses the key word in that values phrase, all. As he says in another ad, I work for all Minnesotans. Wall Street wasnt happy about that. But I dont work for Wall Street. I work for you.

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Progressives overlooked winning formula: How Democrats can rebound in 2016