A Political Earthquake: Alexandra Rojas Of Justice Democrats Talks Of Recent Progressive Wins

 

By Michael Moore
Rumble (8/6/20)

At the forefront of the movement to elect progressive Democrats who are not tied to Wall Street and who are of, by and for the working class, is a group called Justice Democrats. At the forefront of Justice Democrats is their 25-year old Executive Director and co-founder, Alexandra Rojas. She joins Michael to discuss Cori Bush’s monumental upset in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, Rashida Tlaib’s landslide victory in Detroit, which upcoming races we should be following, and how to mobilize the progressive left for November 3rd and beyond.

Do you know a working class hero in your town that you think should run for office? Nominate them to become a Justice Democrat! https://justicedemocrats.com/nominate/

  • Find out more about Justice Democrats here: https://justicedemocrats.com/

 

  • Support Alex Morse For Congress in Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District: https://alexmorseforcongress.com/

Link To 56-Minute Audio

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Progressive Democrats See Wave Of Victories: ‘The Squad keeps getting bigger’

By Daniel Strauss & Lauren Gambino
The Guardian (8/8/20)

Progressive Democrats are enjoying a wave of victories in federal primaries across the country with some especially notable triumphs for Black activist candidates.

Those successes, candidates and strategists say, are due to a mixture of broad energy from the Black Lives Matter movement, failure of conventional policy remedies to meet the moment and a rock-solid infrastructure of progressive organizations.

The latest victory came in Missouri on the same night the state voted to expand Medicaid – a longtime liberal goal. Cori Bush, a liberal activist and registered nurse, defeated the 10-term congressman William Lacy Clay in the Democratic primary.

A few days later Marquita Bradshaw, an environmental justice activist, became the first Black woman to win the Democratic party’s nomination in Tennessee. In the process of Bradshaw’s surprise victory she defeated James Mackler, the preferred candidate of Senate Democrats’ national campaign arm.

Both candidates ran on positions familiar to the progressive community: racial justice, Medicare for All and environmental justice. The victories by the candidates, both Black women, are the latest in a strong of upsets liberals have enjoyed this year. …

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Cori Bush Has Proved Progressives Are Gaining Strength – And That Gives Me Hope

The Squad is only getting stronger.

By Arwa Mahdawi
The Guardian (8/8/20)

Cori Bush used to be homeless – now she’s on her way to the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday the nurse, pastor and Black Lives Matters activist defeated the powerful long-term incumbent William Lacy Clay, a centrist, in Missouri’s Democratic primary election. As Bush’s district is heavily Democratic, the progressive activist is almost guaranteed to win in November, and will become the first black woman to represent Missouri in Congress.

When Bush won a very strange thing happened to me: I felt a glimmer of hope. It has been hard to feel hopeful about politics lately. The pandemic has accelerated already unconscionable inequality: billionaires have seen their wealth surge while the poor get poorer. The inequality we’re seeing now, of course, is nothing compared with the hell that the climate crisis will unleash. And yet the Democratic establishment doesn’t seem to see the urgency of the moment. They keep telling progressives to calm down and carry on with business as usual; that incrementalism rather than bold ideas are the way forward. That you must water down your progressive views if you want to connect with the American voter.

Refusing to cater to corporate interests

Bush refused to do that. She refused to water down her views on defunding the police; she refused to cater to corporate interests; and she refused to be cowed by underhand attacks. When Clay criticized Bush for being sympathetic towards the non-violent Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law, she did not back down. “Cori Bush has always been sympathetic to the BDS movement, and she stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people, just as they have stood in solidarity with Black Americans fighting for their own lives,” her campaign said days before the election.

Clay, who is part of a half-century political dynasty, levelled a number of disgusting personal attacks against Bush. His campaign circulated a mailer stating that Bush had failed to pay taxes four times, been evicted three times and had her nursing license suspended. But Bush’s personal history is exactly why we need her in politics. We need politicians who understand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and get caught up in a cycle of predatory loans. …

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  • STUNNING: Marquita Bradshaw WINS In HUGE Democratic Primary in Tennessee — Marquita Bradshaw scored a victory on Thursday! Ana Kasparian and Jayar Jackson discuss on The Young Turks. Link To 8-Minute Video