Leftist Democrats Prepared To Shake Up Party In The House

Posted By: Mark Taylor November 8, 2018

By Lauren Gambino
The Guardian (11/6/18)

If Democrats reclaim the House on Tuesday night, the progressives in their midst are planning for anything but politics as usual on Capitol Hill.

Leaders of the House Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) have been laying the groundwork to transform what was described as a one-time “social club” and an “informal coalition” into a more powerful political force pushing the party to the left.

“We’ve always had the largest membership within the Democratic caucus, but we kind of had skinny, weak arms,” said CPC chairman Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin. “We didn’t have the muscle to flex because we didn’t have a structure to do that.”

The CPC, which was established by then congressman, now senator Bernie Sanders in response to the rise of liberal centrism in the early 1990s, has 78 members and currently represents more than one-third of the House Democratic caucus. Yet despite a large membership, the caucus has struggled in the past to leverage its numbers in a meaningful way.

Pocan said the caucus has become “more sophisticated and more hungry” in recent years. And next year, he predicts, the CPC will be “in a position to be a much more powerful entity” – a posture that could invite high-profile clashes with Democratic leadership.

His caucus will compete for influence with an equally ambitious coalition of moderate Democrats. The groups are already armed with dueling analyses of how the House majority may be won.

Moderates argue that a Democratic takeover will come from left-of-center candidates in Republican-leaning and conservative districts – not economic populists in the solidly liberal corners of the country. Progressive are making the case that a majority of the Democrats in competitive House races are running on at least one of plank of their economic platform and that their ideas can resonate in conservative America. …

Read the Rest

(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2017. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )

“The Commoner Call” is more than a news source -- it is an active tool of resistance and community-building. The information on this website is pulled from various sources and original content -- provided for you to put into action by forwarding to friends, contacts, and groups working to preserve the spirit of independence, compassionate human decency and peace. Stand strong. Resist!

The Commoner Call accepts no funding.
It is independently funded and provided for free.
All Commoner Call original cartoons, stories, and commentary are free for you to use to preserve and protect our Nation and the world for our children.

“The Commoner Call” is a free educational offering from the RoundRiver Institute LLC and is not receiving any financial support.
Please Note: This message may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this message is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.