Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category

‘Sleazy backroom deal’: Progressives tangle one more time with Manchin – POLITICO

This is a tale of two houses, said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), slamming Schumer and Manchins agreement to take up permitting reform in exchange for his vote on the party-line bill as a sleazy backroom deal.

Its all shaping up as Democrats last big internal fight before the midterms, a rare remaining sore point for a party thats largely and finally united on everything from abortion to the economy to same-sex marriage. And after nearly an entire Congress defined by the 50-50 Senate, the House is taking a starring role: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pledging to vote against the permitting bill if its linked with government funding, but lower-chamber progressives are offering the main intraparty resistance to Manchins plan.

The Senate is planning to pass a short-term funding bill with permitting reform attached just before the Sept. 30 deadline, daring Grijalva and his allies to risk a shutdown fight over the issue, according to multiple Democrats familiar with the plan. In an interview on Monday, Manchin seemed unworried about the fate of his proposal: I would think that common sense would have to kick in sooner or later.

The text of Manchins permitting bill is not yet public, but senior Democrats in both chambers are downplaying the chances of disaster. Several lawmakers and aides said they believe there is a path to an amended deal that can win over Grijalva and other House Democrats while keeping Manchin on board.

One key motivator: Many clean energy advocates say a permitting deal as envisioned by Manchins initial framework would benefit renewable projects, including wind and solar generation, even if it would also accelerate some fossil-fuel pipelines, such as the long-stalled Mountain Valley natural gas line that originates in the senators home state.

Permitting reform, as Manchin put it, means were able to have the energy security that our country needs now. Referring to new transmission lines for renewable energy, he added: And as we move towards the transition [to clean energy], youre able to do that with the infrastructure its going to take. ... I would like to think people are being practical and not being political.

President Joe Biden hands the pen he used to sign the Democrats' landmark climate change and health care bill to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer watches in the White House in Washington, Aug. 16, 2022.|Susan Walsh/AP Photo

The West Virginia centrist said he understands if House Democrats are still steaming over the downsizing he exacted upon their original party-line domestic agenda. Yet liberals across the Capitol vow their opposition to his plan is not retribution for two years of Manchin-induced headaches from his reshaping of the $1 trillion-plus Build Back Better bill into the smaller Inflation Reduction Act, to the Houses forced swallowing of last years bipartisan infrastructure bill, derided by some on the left as basically a Republican effort.

Instead, House Democrats say its all about what they see as an environmentally hazardous permitting deal that undercuts some of the climate provisions they won in this summers new law.

Still, a few Democrats admit theyre relishing their chance to hold some leverage over the West Virginian.

Its about time, quipped retiring Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who joined about 70 Democrats in urging party leadership to keep Manchins bill separate from government funding.

Its a pretty important vote and we shouldnt play games with it to make it impossible to defeat, Yarmuth said, adding that he and other House Democrats never signed off. Thats totally Schumers deal. Im not bound by Schumers agreement.

Theres another big incentive to limit the blast radius of the permitting fight. Democrats are entering the pre-midterms stretch with a singular focus on avoiding self-inflicted political wounds, including the potential for a shutdown. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he needs to see the permitting text before he can say whether hell support it, but urged his party to be strategic about picking fights that could endanger a government funding patch.

It could be that people are looking for leverage, Murphy said of Democrats positioning. Or it could be that House members are still cross at Joe Manchin.

If the permitting push does hitch a ride on the Senates funding bill this month, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) hinted at the steep climb and possible education campaign that skeptical Democrats in his chamber might need to sign on.

Theres no doubt its controversial, Hoyer told Bloomberg TV of Manchins permitting plan on Monday. And well have to convince our members that the language that is brought over does not undermine our environment.

Manchin said Schumer and Pelosi are standing firm in their commitments to him: I believe exactly what theyve told me they see exactly what this country needs and why we need to make sure that we have to be the superpower of the world. He said he was buoyed by the Monday release of a competing permitting reform bill by dozens of Senate Republicans as a show of bipartisan support for his ideas.

The road to an eventual permitting law is still looking bumpy, with some of the nations most vocal environmental groups galvanized into their own missives opposing what they called a fossil fuel wish list that would perpetrate environmental racism, among other effects. Some climate activist groups have already staged protests.

In a recent interview, Grijalva wouldnt say whether he and other progressives were willing to take the whole ship down and trigger a standoff over government funding. But he said that any Manchin-led permitting bill would face a great deal of resistance without significant changes.

And while Democrats cheered their summers huge climate gains in the Manchin-crafted party-line bill, plenty of progressives feel they owe him nothing on the separate issue of energy permits. Huffman said that while some of the bill could end up being good policy, he stressed that it needed to be considered in the light of the day not in some back room with Joe Manchin.

Beyond Sanders, progressives on the Senate side are staying out of the fray for now and calling for a pragmatic approach. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), whos already backed the permitting deal, said that disagreements within the Democratic coalition are natural, but like it or not, in order to build the kind of clean energy we want, we are going to have to change some federal laws.

Josh Siegel contributed to this report.

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'Sleazy backroom deal': Progressives tangle one more time with Manchin - POLITICO

Healey inches toward historic first in Massachusetts as progressives get steamrolled – POLITICO

Healey, if she wins, would also be the states first openly gay female governor. And she will run for governor on a two-woman ticket with Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who cruised through her three-way Democratic primary for the No. 2 spot on Tuesday setting up Massachusetts as one of three states that may elect women to both offices this year at the same time. In Arkansas, Republicans nominated Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor and Leslie Rutledge for lieutenant governor. And in Ohio, Democrats are running Nan Whaley and Cheryl Stephens.

With your help, for the first time, Massachusetts will elect the first governor and lieutenant governor on an all-woman ticket, Driscoll told supporters after declaring victory Tuesday night. Thats right not one, but two women in the corner office.

Further down the ballot, former Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell would become the first Black woman elected attorney general if she defeats Republican Jay McMahon in November. Campbell and Rayla Campbell, a Republican running a long-shot campaign for secretary of state against seven-term Democratic incumbent Bill Galvin, said they made history Tuesday night as the first Black women nominees for statewide office in Massachusetts.

Treasurer Deb Goldberg is unopposed in her reelection bid. And state Sen. Diana DiZoglio is one step closer to the auditors office after defeating her Democratic primary rival, Chris Dempsey, on Tuesday.

It is kind of stunning that, despite our progressive reputation, Massachusetts has never elected a woman governor and we have never had women really set to lead the commonwealth across the highest offices, Amanda Hunter, executive director of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which advocates for women in politics, said in an interview. This is a major turning point.

But heated general-election battles will need to be fought first. Diehls victory over more moderate Republican Chris Doughty tees up the gubernatorial contest to be a referendum on Trumps legacy in a state that twice handed him some of his biggest defeats.

And the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts is littered with losses after Tuesdays primaries. While they cheer the likelihood of shattering several glass ceilings in November, progressive activists who won major victories in recent years with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Sen. Ed Markey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are smarting after their statewide candidates fell short.

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Daz, who ran to Healeys left in a battle between two progressives, dropped out of the Democratic primary in June. Quentin Palfrey, who won the state partys endorsement for attorney general, ended up exiting the race a week before the primary to back Andrea Campbell. Three other candidates backed by major progressive groups Dempsey, state Rep. Tami Gouveia for lieutenant governor and Tanisha Sullivan for secretary of state all lost Tuesday night.

They generally lacked either campaign cash, name recognition in a low-interest primary, slick outreach operations, or all three. Chang-Daz proved unable to compete with the near-universal recognition Healey, a two-term attorney general, had with Democratic primary voters or her massive campaign coffer. Healey entered the general election with more than $4.7 million.

Palfrey, despite being the state Democratic Partys 2018 nominee for lieutenant governor, trailed in polling against Andrea Campbell, who was coming off a third-place finish in last years Boston mayoral race, and Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor attorney and former U.S. Senate candidate who poured $9.3 million of her own money into her campaign. Sullivan and Gouveia never advertised on television.

Weve had candidates in recent years whove done a lot of really great progressive agenda-setting, but also spent a lot of time laying their groundwork, Jonathan Cohn, policy director for Progressive Massachusetts, said in an interview. One of the problems this cycle is there arent that many candidates who have done that.

To be clear, Healey is a progressive just not one whos as far left as some activists in Massachusetts wanted.

But Cohn and other progressives say theyll take Healey if it means retaking the corner office from Republicans who have held it for the better part of 30 years and breaking some barriers along the way.

Massachusetts is no stranger to electing women: Former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy became the first to win one of the states six constitutional offices in 1986, followed by former Treasurer Shannon OBrien in 1999. In 2001, Jane Swift stepped up as acting governor when then-Gov. Paul Cellucci resigned to become U.S. ambassador to Canada.

But two decades after Swift, Massachusetts has lagged behind many other states. Nine states have sitting female governors. Thirty of the 45 women who have served as governor across 31 states were elected to the job, while the rest were appointed or took on the role through constitutional succession, according to Rutgers Universitys Center for American Women and Politics.

This state has always had a reputation of being pretty parochial and stuck to people who look more like me: white, Irish and male, former state Democratic Party Chair Phil Johnston said in an interview. So this represents a radical departure that I think should be celebrated. Its great progress in Massachusetts.

While the Republican primary for lieutenant governor was too close to call early Wednesday morning, Driscolls victory on the Democratic side guarantees the general election will be a contest between two female candidates. And the bevy of women running for statewide office comes a year after voters saw four women, including Andrea Campbell, lead the field for Boston mayor.

Even just seeing multiple women running for these positions, it helps to break down a lot of long-held stereotypes that voters have, explained Hunter, of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation. We know from our research that when we ask voters to picture a governor, a majority still picture a man. Just seeing different examples of what a candidate looks like helps voters expand that perception in their mind for the future.

This potential banner year for female candidates at the statewide level in Massachusetts comes as the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to upend five decades of constitutional access to abortion drives women in some states to register to vote in droves.

While abortion is enshrined in state law in Massachusetts, Democrats from Healey on down the ballot have made clear through stump speeches and television ads that they will be champions for reproductive rights. And they argue that their Republican opponents wont be in a state where 78 percent of residents believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Women are energized, Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) said in an interview. And this election, more than any other I can think of, has such ramifications for women.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the last name of Amanda Hunter, the executive director of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation.

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Healey inches toward historic first in Massachusetts as progressives get steamrolled - POLITICO

Dont be duped by progressives | News, Sports, Jobs – The Steubenville Herald-Star

To the editor:

Dont be duped by progressive dopes. Bidens Inflation Reduction Act helps millions with medical concerns? Remember the keep-your-doctor medical plan. If moron Biden says inflation is zero, why do we need a trillion dollars Inflation Reduction Act? He claims to save families $1,800 a year. Bidens inflation, gas prices and higher taxes cost families $8,000 a year. Oh, you have to buy a $70,000 electric car to save $1,800. Do you think new IRS agents carrying guns are there to send your refunds faster?

Biden allowing fentanyl into America killing 100,000 a year, more than twice those killed in Vietnam in 12 years but has done nothing to control smuggling or the borders.

Biden wants you to take public transportation. Hows that going to work for you? Walk a few blocks, get on bus, get off blocks from work and walk the rest of the way. Good luck finding a bus route to serve you. What if you work out of town? Morality does not depend on progressive or woke ravings. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.

Bidens dimwitted press secretary states there are no unvaccinated people walking across our border. Shes stupid or a liar, and probably both, as most progressives are. How is it no competent Democrat wants Biden to campaign with them?

Illegal aliens are housed in $700-a-night hotels in New York City, while veterans sleep under bridges. Here is an example of corrupt Dumbocrats thinking: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California says all cars be electric by 2035. On Tuesday, he ordered residents not to charge cars and reduce power usage because the electric grid cant produce enough power. Heres stupid on steroids, but Biden holds California up as his prize example for America. Does this scare you? It should. Whats the difference between California and Titanic? Titanic had its lights on when it sank.

Valley progressives must drink from the same bucket. Gas isnt lower because of liar Biden. Its because people cant afford to drive so demand goes down and supply rises. Basic economics, which progressives dont grasp. Gas at $3.72 is still $1.60 higher after Brandon took office. Dont accept their new normal.

Where do valley progressives get their facts and figures Bidens dimwitted press secretary? Valley progressives are as intelligent as she. These dummies refuse to acknowledge Bidens failed economy and how its hurting all valley families.

Linda Caputos letter GOP suppressing our rights (Aug. 27), states Republicans suppressing voter rights. Where? She doesnt name one place, or say how. She supports open borders. How many illegal aliens will she take into her home? Another of her scare tactics: Republicans will kill Social Security. Theyve been saying this for 50 years. Defend Hunter, the smartest man Joe knows, to us.

Valley progressives defend mindless Bidens policies. That should scare you.

Barry Bardone

Bloomingdale

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Dont be duped by progressives | News, Sports, Jobs - The Steubenville Herald-Star

Meet the Rhode Island Progressives Taking on the Democratic Establishment – The Nation

Illustration by Victor Juhasz.

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When one of Jennifer Rourkes opponents in a critical Rhode Island state Senate race violently attacked her at a late June abortion rights rally in Providence, she was shocked. I didnt see it coming, Rourke recalls. When I looked to the left, [Jeann Lugo] was punching me in the face. Lugo, an off-duty Providence police officer, struck Rourke repeatedly, leaving her with impaired hearing.1

Chaos ensued. It was dark. People were yelling. State Senator Jeanine Calkin, a friend and fellow activist who was toward the back of the crowd of 1,500, called gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown, who was near the front with Rourke, to ask what was going on.2

I know something happened because I saw all this movement, and then I just saw Co-op bodies swarm around Jennifer, Calkin says. Everyone came out of the crowd and just surrounded her.3

Brown assured Calkin that Rourke was safe. The members of the Rhode Island Political Cooperative had their candidates back. My family was right there for me, Rourke says of the people who rushed to protect her as she was being assaulted.4

The Co-op, as everyone calls it, is a political movement that is all about defending its candidates, the hundreds of activists who pour long hours into its campaigns, and the long-neglected Rhode Island communities where it is renewing electoral politics as a vehicle for transformative change. One of the most remarkable political initiatives in modern American politicsand already one of the most successfulthe Co-op is addressing the great challenge of an electoral moment in which divide-and-conquer campaigning, viscerally negative television advertising funded by corporations and billionaires, and fake news stories about dubious wedge issues have left voters feeling disconnected from politics. This grassroots group in the nations smallest state is restoring a sense of community to elections by making a commitment that no candidate will stand alone in the fight against the most powerful political and economic interests in the state and nation. Theres such a strong, entrenched, corrupt Democratic Party machine here in Rhode Island, Calkin explains. We asked: How do we build our own machine that gives resources and knowledge and training and everything a candidate whos never run before needs to win elections? Our answer was that we had to do it ourselves. So thats what we did.5

Formed in 2019 with the audacious goal of upending the historically corrupt, corporate-aligned politics of Rhode Island, the Co-op is not a traditional campaign organization, not a political action committee, and not a political party. Its a movement with big ideas for expanding access to health care, raising wages, and tackling climate change in the Ocean State. But its biggest idea is that the Democratic Party can be moved away from its centrist and corporate moorings to become a genuinely progressive force in politics. That prospect has relevance for progressives in Rhode Island and a lot of other states. It also has relevance at the federal level of a country where the fight to make the Democratic Party a force for fundamental change is an ongoing struggle.6 Current Issue

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The Co-op is currently running more than two dozen candidates in Rhode Islands September 13 primaries for statewide posts and legislative offices. Its goal is to build on the success of the 2020 campaign, which saw eight Democratic candidates who were endorsed by the group win hard-fought primaries, a result that led WPRI-TV, the local CBS affiliate, to report that the progressives really came out strong with a lot of energy.7

A number of Co-op candidates are all but certain to win this year. Others face uphill battles. There are no assurances that the group will be able to deliver on its promise to provide Rhode Island with A Whole New Government. But if the Co-op achieves the sort of breakthroughs that candidates and organizers say are possibleparticularly in legislative racesit promises to make Rhode Island the kind of laboratory of democracy that US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis suggested 90 years ago would position states as the generators of big ideas for how to solve national problems.8

Jennifer Rourke, who has emerged as a key leader in the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, is running in state Senate District 29. (Courtesy of the Rourke campaign)

Although most of the attention on the battle for control of the nations 50 statehouses centers on the partisan fight between Democrats and Republicans, the Rhode Island competition is a reminder that even when Democrats are in charge, they are not necessarily champions of progressive policies. That has long been an issue of concern in Rhode Island, a state that has not backed a Republican for president since 1984 and where the Democratic congressional delegation includes Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a star of the Judiciary Committee and a favorite of liberals nationwide. Despite their current domination of the state capitol, Rhode Island Democrats have a history of compromising with corporate interests and of blocking progressive social initiatives.9

A survey of state legislatures conducted by political scientists Boris Shor and Nolan McCarty over an almost 20-year period, from the 1990s to the 2010s, found that there was significantly less ideological disagreement between Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Rhode Island than in other states. But Rhode Island has not exactly been a beacon of enlightened bipartisanship. A 2014 New York Times review of the Shor-McCarty survey noted, Its common for Republican officials in heavily Democratic Northeastern states to be moderates. What makes Rhode Island stand out is the number of conservatives within its Democratic legislative supermajority. The median Democrat in Rhode Island was more conservative than in all but 13 state legislatures, scoring directly between Georgia and Indiana and far to the right of those in Connecticut or Massachusetts.10

As the parties have moved further apart in recent years, Rhode Islands Democratic legislative leaders have remained outliers: A striking number of the partys top members earn high marks from anti-abortion groups and the National Rifle Association.11

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While moderate Republicans and an independent (Lincoln Chafee) have occasionally held Rhode Islands governorship in recent decades, the Democrats have controlled both chambers of the state legislature since 1958. And theyve often enjoyed supermajorities, making the legislature the defining force in the governance of the state. Yet instead of delivering for the people in a state where almost 12 percent of residents live below the poverty line, where housing prices are skyrocketing, and where income inequality is a serious issue, Rhode Islands legislative Democrats have distinguished themselves by their close ties to the business community, compromises on social issues, and questionable ethics. Multiple legislators, including a former speaker of the state House and a House Finance Committee chair, have been jailed in the past decade on charges of influence peddling, bribery, and raiding campaign funds. The Democratic-controlled legislature passed a voter ID law that was so strict that Republicans in other states have cited it as a model for their voter-suppression initiatives. Some Rhode Island Democratic legislators still tout their A ratings from the NRA, and even after the mass shootings this spring in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Tex., Rhode Island legislators did not respond to calls from their constituents for an assault weapons ban.12

There are Democrats who are anti-abortion, there are Democrats that are pro-gun in our legislature. Theyve been around forever. They call themselves Democrats, but they are really Republicansright-wing Republicansin everything but name, says Ellie Wyatt, a retired high school special education teacher who has long been active in local and state Democratic politics. Wyatt, who turned out on a scorching hot Saturday morning in late July for the launch of the Co-ops door-to-door canvas drive in North Providence, says, Changing the legislature is the key to changing politics in Rhode Island, and the way to change the legislature is by winning these Democratic primaries for the state House and the Senate.13

Wyatt has been working for years to move her states Democratic Party in a progressive direction. That Saturday morning, she was surrounded by young activists who were using phone apps to identify the doors they would knock on over the next few hours. This combination of the old-school, people-powered politics of neighborhood and community with new technology is central to the Co-ops campaigning strategy. The candidates the group endorses refuse corporate money and take positions on tax policy that are unlikely to attract contributions from wealthy donors. As Calkin, a cochair of the Co-op and one of its most successful candidates, says, Im fighting for Rhode Islands working families, not corporate lobbyists or party bosses. To wage that fight, says organizer A.J. Braverman, the Co-op has developed a model for campaigning in which dozens, sometimes hundreds, of activists show up whenever one of its candidates needs to gather signatures to get on the ballot or knock on a few thousand doors before Election Day. Or is threatenedas Rourke was on the night of June 24, shortly after the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision that overturned the protections for abortion rights established in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Running by yourself is not fun, Rourke says. But with the Co-op, youre not running alone. You have a community that shares ideas, that shows up when you need help, that is there for you when youre in a tough spot.14

Bernie Sanderss 2016 campaign provided a political origin story for Rhode Island state Senator Jeanine Calkin, a cofounder of the Co-op. (Scott Eisen / Getty Images)

A relative newcomer to electoral politics, like most other Co-op candidates, Rourke was encouraged by Calkin and others to take on the overwhelming task of challenging powerful Rhode Island Senate majority leader Michael McCaffrey in 2018 and again in 2020. McCaffrey, a social conservative who opposed a 2019 measure to create a state-based protection for abortion rights, had served in the legislature since 1995 and had frequently run unopposed in past primaries. Rourke, a mother of four who campaigned while helping several of her kids manage education at home during the pandemic, came within 550 votes of beating the incumbent. Following the playbook of the Co-op, where she has emerged as a key leader, Rourke kept right on campaigning. She expected to face McCaffrey again in this years primary and then to take on Republican nominee Jeann Lugo in November. But then Lugo struck her at the abortion rights rally. Arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct, Lugo ended his campaign amid the flurry of national media attention that the assault attracted. The incident also focused attention on McCaffreys record of taking anti-choice positions, and within days he announced that he, too, would exit the race.15

But McCaffrey didnt exit politics. He joined other top Democrats in helping a local union official get on the primary ballot. Within a week, Rourkes campaign had revealed that the new contenders Facebook profile featured a picture of the white candidate wearing blackface and another with Fox News personality Tucker Carlson. He had also liked a Facebook page titled Support Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson is the police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., on August 9, 2014. This guy calls himself a Democrat! says an outraged Rourke. As she outlines the support for her opponent by members of Rhode Islands Democratic establishment on the summer afternoon when I meet with Co-op activists, Matt Brown, the gubernatorial candidate, listens with mounting frustration. Thats how far they are willing to go, he says. To go out and support a guy who wore blackface in order to defeat a Black woman who is running for the legislature is beyond the pale.16

The problem, Brown says, is that this is who they are. They have held on to power for so long that they feel they dont have to change. Thats what were up against.17

Brown is a dynamic activist with deep roots in the civil rights and peace movementshis mother went into labor while attending a protest against the Vietnam War in 1969. He was elected as Rhode Islands secretary of state at the age of 32, and in 2018, he won a third of the vote when he mounted an underfunded but energetic progressive primary challenge to the corporate-aligned incumbent Democratic governor, Gina Raimondo. Ive been fighting with this party most of my life, Brown says as he knocks on doors in a Providence precinct where he is greeted warmly by voters. But Im definitely not doing it alone this time.18

When Brown ran for governor four years ago, one of his few supporters in the statehouse was Calkin, who, like hundreds of political figures across the countryincluding Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)has a political origin story linked to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanderss 2016 presidential campaign. Out of her two-story home on a leafy side street in Warwick, Calkin began organizing for Sanders in 2015 and played a big role in helping the senator win the state with 55 percent of the vote in April of the following year. Inspired to run for the state Senate, Calkin beat a Democratic incumbent who had served in the legislature for more than 20 years. That was the easy part. The hard part came when she joined the legislature as a progressive in a chamber controlled by conservative Democrats such as McCaffrey and current Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, who was first elected in 1980 and who until recently boasted about his A rating from the NRA. She immediately ran into roadblocks and opposition.19

Calkin grew so frustrated that she, Rourke, and some allies came up with what they called Project Chicxulub. Chicxulub is the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs, she says. We were thinking like DINOsDemocrats in Name Onlyso it made perfect sense to me. It made perfect sense to Brown as well, who became a cochair, with Calkin and Rourke, of the Rhode Island Political Cooperative.20

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At their first meeting, Brown recalls, we took out the list of legislators and said, Who do we have to beat? They began to recruit grassroots candidates, many of them neighborhood and union activists who had never thought of running for elected office, and they havent stopped since. Were on a mission, Brown says. Were going to take out the leadership. Were going to win a governing majority for the people.21

The Rhode Island Political Cooperative is running more than two dozen progressive candidates in the states September 13 primaries. (The Rhode Island Political Cooperative)

The Co-op has pursued that mission with a politics built on personal relationships, a support structure designed to assure that candidates have the strategic help and resources they need, and shared values. Candidates sign on as supporters of a platform that they pledge to implement if elected: a $19-an-hour minimum wage, a state-based Medicare for All health care system, a plan to cap rents and build 10,000 affordable homes, and a Rhode Island Green New Deal that would make the state a leader in reaching net-zero emissions by 2040.22

The Co-op is not the only progressive project that is focusing on these sorts of issues at the state and local levels. Other groupssuch as the Vermont Progressive Party, Reclaim Chicago, and the Courage California coalitionrecognized the need to challenge entrenched Democratic machines and have built meaningful movements to do so. But the Co-op, which is part of a network of state-based progressive political projects known as Renew U.S., has been strikingly ambitious. And it has already enjoyed considerable success when it comes to upending Rhode Island politics. Its candidates dislodged powerful incumbents such as Democratic state Senate Finance Committee chair William Conley, who represented East Providence. Conley lost his race to Cynthia Mendes, a working-class single mom who once supplemented her income by cleaning the mansions of millionaires in the ber-expensive enclave of Newport. Were not going to stop until weve replaced every corporate sell-out politician in this state with leaders who will stand up for our communities, Mendes said after the primary win that assured she would become a state senator.23

Now Mendes is running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Brown and as part of a slate that includes candidates such as registered nurse Lenny Cioe, who is challenging Senate President Ruggerio. My opponent says, Youre a politician, Cioe says as he knocks on doors in his North Providence neighborhood with Brown. I say, No, Im a nurse that wants to change politics. Cioe almost beat Ruggerio in 2020, and hes running hard to finish the job this year.24

Whether Brown ends up in the governors mansion is an open question. Brown and Mendes are being outspent in their races by candidates with ties to the party organizationwhich has endorsed incumbent Governor Dan McKee, who inherited the job when former governor Raimondo became President Bidens secretary of commerce, and Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, who replaced McKeeand by other contenders with sufficient personal wealth to fund free-spending television advertising campaigns. Yet they have a message thats in tune with what pundits in Rhode Island and nationwide have identified as a populist moment. For decades, the people in power have fought for giant corporations and the ultra-wealthy, declares their manifesto. Matt and Cynthia are doing things differently. They are not taking any money from corporate lobbyists, corporate PACs, or fossil fuel executives. Instead, they are running alongside dozens of candidatesnurses, teachers, social workers, people who have spent their lives fighting for their communitiesto build a whole new government.25

When I meet with Mendes in a second-floor workspace above a bustling downtown Providence street, she is taking a quick break between campaign stops to read a few pages from a favorite book by Audre Lorde. The poet and civil rights activist once wrote that for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.26

Theres not a lot of time for poetry reading on the campaign trail. But Mendes is always looking for ways to frame the message that the people of Rhode Island have the power to transform the politics of their state and their nation. The first step is the work of imagination, Mendes says. Were building a movement of people who recognize that it doesnt have to be this way.27

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Meet the Rhode Island Progressives Taking on the Democratic Establishment - The Nation

An anti-Semitism expert says that progressives ‘have the right to exclude Zionists’ – Middle East Monitor

A leading expert on anti-Semitism has said that university campus groups "have the right to exclude Zionists." Writing in the Times of Israel, Kenneth Stern argued that, although it may be "hurtful" and counterproductive, the right of progressive groups to exclude advocates of the occupation state must be respected. Stern is the US attorney who took the lead in drafting the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

His intervention follows the growing debate around the exclusion of Zionist students from progressive spaces. Founded on the ethno-nationalist ideals of Zionism, Israel has long been viewed in progressive circles as a racist country that advocates settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing. This view has become more widespread in recent times after major human rights groups accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid.

With Zionism increasingly being viewed as a racist, imperialist ideology, groups advocating for equality, human rights, the rights of minorities and progressive values, in general, are more frequently excluding supporters of Israel from their spaces. This has happened despite protests that Zionism and affinity with the apartheid state are intrinsic parts of Jewish identity. Critics, however, have long questioned this argument and rejected the claim that a political ideology should be treated as a "protective category" in the same way as gender, religion and race are.

The recent row over the IHRA definition is largely a demand by pro-Israel groups for wider society to support their claim that Zionism and support for the state of Israel be accepted as such a category. It is a form of exceptionalist pleading which is rejected wholesale when other groups in society make similar demands. For instance, the political ideology of "Islamism" or the desire to create an "Islamic State" are not only violently opposed and condemned, but any Muslim who insists that their political views and religion be granted special protection is also dismissed out of hand, and rightly so.

A similar example would be if India's far-right BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and advocates of Hindutva, said that it is racist and anti-Hindu to question their demand to create an exclusively Hindu state. As is becoming increasingly clear, in their quest to refashion India as a Hindu state, Hindutva extremists have placed themselves on a collision course with the country's secular constitution. No amount of special pleading that India is the only Hindu state in the world should make any difference, but the goal is still no less than the reformation of India as an ethno-religious state affording special rights and privileges to Hindus within a multi-tier system of citizenship. The model state that such Hindus aspire to replicate is Israel. The parallel between the two ideologies is a powerful illustration of the special status granted to Zionism.

Israel and its supporters are granted a privilege that is not extended to any other political community. Public bodies and private institutions across the Western world have not only agreed to their demand, but have also adopted the supposedly "working definition" of anti-Semitism produced by the IHRA that conflates legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism with anti-Jew racism.

Although Stern does not compare Zionism and its equivalent ideologies around the world, he insists on treating Israel and its founding ideology in the same way as any other political ideology and its followers. The right to criticise freely without being labelled a racist should be preserved, he maintains. He admits that Zionism itself is a contested term but, nevertheless, the feelings about what Zionism means personally for some Jews should not be an excuse to crack down on freedom of speech by labelling people "anti-Semites" for criticising Israel's founding ideology.

Commenting on the different perceptions of Zionism and the reasons why progressives exclude supporters of Israel, Stern said: "Some progressive students may understand Zionism as a term for Israel's treatment of Palestinians; others may understand Zionism as most Jewish students do the right of Jews to self-determination in their historic homeland."

He explained that a significant and growing number of Jews are "agnostic" about Zionism or are anti-Zionist, which appears to suggest that Zionism and affinity with Israel is not as important to Jewish identity as pro-Israel groups claim.

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"Anti-Zionist students may feel that letting a Zionist work among them is the equivalent of overlooking whether someone is a Nazi," said Stern, "just as some Jewish organisations might feel that letting Jews in who support the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is overlooking anti-Semitism." He disagrees with both assertions, but people on campus must be allowed to define their politics.

Wrestling with the central question of the piece in the Times of Israel whether it is anti-Semitic to exclude Zionists from progressive spaces Stern defends the right of progressive groups to be selective. "If a group decides that in order to be a member, one has to have a particular view of Israel and Zionism, the right to make that decision must be respected. Those not invited in, even though exclusion hurts, can find other ways to express themselves, including by creating new groups and coalitions."

Stern has been critical of the way that the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism has been employed by pro-Israel groups against critics of the apartheid state. His latest intervention is another defence of freedom of association and speech against what many say is a crackdown on pro-Palestine voices and the dangers of conflating anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

"Jewish groups have used the definition as a weapon to say anti-Zionist expressions are inherently anti-Semitic and must be suppressed," wrote Stern in the Times of Israel two years ago. Concerns raised by him then highlight the claim that the fight against anti-Semitism, as American Jewish commentator Peter Beinart believes, has "lost its way".

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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An anti-Semitism expert says that progressives 'have the right to exclude Zionists' - Middle East Monitor