We’re Not Asking For Much: Here’s Why We Progressives Can’t Stand The Current National Democratic Party

“I need you all to help us play defense,” [Tom] Perez pleaded with the crowd. “This is the most dangerous time of our lifetime.”

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By Mark L. Taylor
The Commoner Call (5/25/17)

The above quote was taken from the story below regarding the recent contentious California State Democratic Convention. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez made his frantic plea as he was trying to tamp down a raucous crowd giving voice to the growing discontent of the progressive wing of the party. After a primary season of DNC deceit, duplicity and double-dealing progressives are no longer buying what the corporate democrats are selling.

We’re not asking for much.

We just want the same kind of universal single-payer health care for all that other western industrialized nations manage to provide for their citizens. We want what the children in those nations receive: free public education from pre-K to graduate school. We want public wealth redirected from ugly military adventures and tax breaks for the already grotesquely wealthy. The truth is, there is plenty of money. It’s just in the wrong hands.

We want environmental and workplace protections that ensure a decent quality of life. We want meaningful banking reform and oversight that begins – begins – with a whole gang of criminal Wall Street grifters, thieves and bunko artists prosecuted and contemplating their sociopathic ways in federal penitentiaries.

When Tom Perez whines “I need you all to play defense” I say to hell with Tom Perez. This is not a time for defense. Enough with wobbly-kneed corporate democratic party defense. It is time to go on the OFFENSE.

We want a justice system unlike the rich man’s “Just-Us” system that condemns a poor shoplifter to incarceration while letting crooked corporate executives – and their entitled, pricky little criminal children – left free to prey on new victims. We want the cap on the Social Security income investment lifted – completely. In fact, you bastards, we want the rich taxed until their teeth ache as they return the national wealth and profit the working people of this nation have produced and they have stolen.

We’re not asking for much.

We’re certainly not buying the armpit warm gruel offered up by milquetoast corporate dems like Rep. Ron Kind who talk the talk about progressive reform but never deliver yet somehow manage to be very active in supposedly democratic groups underwritten by Wall Street gazillionaires. We are tired of supporting dem pols who suckle off the Goldman Sachs teat; pocketing fees for one hour of bullshit that would equal five or eight years of income for the average family.

We’re not asking for much.

In fact, we’re not asking for anything. We are demanding all of the above … and more, including a restoration of a government by and for the people of this nation. We demand a political party that values the future of our children, equality of opportunity, fair competition in the marketplace, honor in public service, a restored environment and steadfast defense of the Bill of Rights.

We are demanding the end to the surveillance of the growing police state and all our stupid, bloody, fruitless war making.

When Tom Perez whines “I need you all to play defense” I say to hell with Tom Perez. This is not a time for defense. Enough with wobbly-kneed corporate democratic party ‘defense’. It is time to go on the OFFENSE. It’s time to stop wondering what the fascists will permit us to have and go toe-to-toe in defense of our government, nation, land and future.

So dem ‘leaders’, lead follow or get the hell out of the way.

The times call for courage and everyone has a choice to make.

Here’s an updated version of an old time union song that puts the central question every democrat, every progressive, every American needs to answer…

6-Minute Video

(Commoner Call commentary by Mark L. Taylor, 2017. For other commentary by the author, link here. Open source and free to use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )

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Anti-Corporate Protesters Drown Out Democratic Party Chair Tom Perez With Chants Of “Liar!”

By Winona Dimeo-Ediger
In These Times (5/20/17)

The first night of the California Democratic Convention got off to a dramatic start when Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez’s speech was drowned out by boos and raucous protest.

The commotion started a few minutes before 6p.m. on Friday, as Democrats from around the state gathered in the lobby of the Sacramento Convention Center to await the Chairman’s Welcome Reception, headlined by Perez.

Inside, delegates sipped wine and mingled near small buffet tables. Outside, hundreds of protesters—many of whom were delegates themselves—marched on the plaza within view of the reception area, waving signs that read, “Healthcare is a human right,” “Healthcare not warfare,” and “Single payer NOW.” Chants of “Hey, hey, ho, ho, corporate Dems have got to go!” echoed off the windows and could be heard clearly by delegates gathered inside.

The rally, organized by Campaign for A Healthy California, a coalition working with the California Nurses Association (CNA) to push for statewide single-payer healthcare, spontaneously moved inside as current Democratic State Chair John Burton introduced Perez. Protesters lined the stairwell directly above the stage and packed the balconies, unfurling banners in support of environmental protections and healthcare for all. The DNC chair’s opening remarks were drowned out by boos and screams of “Liar!” and “Hot air!” Burton stood to the side of the stage, clearly distressed by the upheaval.

“We are booing because we feel Perez is part of the establishment that keeps co-opting the progressive movement,” said Gilbert Feliciano, 36, a delegate from North Hollywood who took part in the protest. “The corporatists have an ally with Tom Perez. We felt like it was important to come and voice our discontent.”

“I need you all to help us play defense,” Perez pleaded with the crowd. “This is the most dangerous time of our lifetime.”

The Convention was expected to be contentious, with a deepening divide in the party nationally and a tight race for state chair that many California Democrats see as a timely chance to move the party to the left. Many of the protesters at the reception voiced support for Kimberly Ellis, an organizer backed by Our Revolution (a progressive movement sparked by Bernie Sanders’ campaign) and CNA. Ellis is running against the party’s current vice chair, Eric Bauman, who came under fire last year when it was revealed that his political consulting firm received more than $100,000 from the pharmaceutical industry. …

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