Tag Archives: progressive politics

Hot Take: Montgomery Bus Boycott Was Also a Strike

Politics, Uncategorized, , , ,

Hot take:

The Montgomery Bus Boycott also had aspects of a strike.

They didn’t just withhold their patronage and money. They withheld their participation in the monopoly over buses held by the Montgomery city government within city limits, and, by extension, denied the bus system and its drivers the ability to deliver services to other residents. Among the reactions by city officials against the boycott was a ban on any bus charging less than the city government’s bus line. The city government and segregationist residents felt entitled to Black residents’ participation enough to brutalize those who boycotted and avoided the bus line.

A boycott only becomes effective when goes from mere avoidance of patronage to outright kneecapping when it harms its ability to deliver its goods and services to other people. But then can we call it a boycott?

And that’s what I’m thinking about regarding the #Strike4BlackLives. The players are denying sports, entertainment and perhaps more to a public and White House which feels incredibly entitled to their performance and presence, hence the attacks against those players who knelt and the admonishments to “shut up and play”.

Denying comfort to those who feel entitled to one’s participation feels more like a strike than a boycott. And that denial will be painful, maybe even more painful than the protests on the street. And that’s the point.

I look forward to seeing what comes from this strike.

Medicaid Expansion Comes to Oklahoma, Hopefully to Missouri Next Month

Politics, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

The successful Oklahoma vote on Medicaid expansion, State Question 802, may be a resounding success, but it was overestimated in how wide the margin would be between Yes and No. Pollsters predicted a 60-40 Yes vote, but it barely passed at 50-49. A few points, and how they apply to the Missouri Medicaid expansion vote on August 11:

  • That those 7 counties in which Yes was the majority only sustained half of the total statewide Yes vote. 49% of the Yes vote came from all of the other 70 counties in the state, even the border counties. So that is another reminder that land doesn’t vote, and campaigning to the cities in a state where the urban population at the last census was 66% is not a good idea.
  • That the vote largely reflected income patterns across the state, a bit more so than urban-rural setting. Research is showing that the richest 200 precincts in the state voted in the minority for SQ802, while the poorest 200 precincts voted in the majority for the same, even as both groups of precincts are largely split between urban and rural precincts.
  • That voter suppression played a role in the final vote. Besides the antagonism of Governor Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma Republicans and Americans for Prosperity against the initiative, this primary was impacted by the Oklahoma Legislature passing new requirements for notarizations on absentee ballots, even after the State Supreme Court threw out the requirement as unconstitutional. There’s also the fact that 200k less Oklahomans turned out for this primary than the 2018 primary, when Oklahomans voted 60-40 in favor of medical marijuana.

Also, a crucial minority of Republicans voted for Medicaid expansion, pushing #SQ802 over the top in a state where Trump won 60-30 and Stitt won by more than 10 points. This result shows that the support for these ballot initiatives has swingier, more elastic votes among both party bases than how they vote in elections.

So this brings me to Missouri, which will vote on Medicaid expansion on the August 4 gubernatorial primary ballot. Missouri has a higher urban-to-rural population ratio than Oklahoma, the same as Idaho (which also passed Medicaid expansion 60-40 in 2018), and has had a similar tendency to vote for progressive measures such as nonpartisan redistricting and medical marijuana. But Oklahoma’s razor-thin margin shows that advocates for Medicaid expansion must work for this vote this month. Also, Missouri has the same requirements about absentee voting as does Oklahoma, and the same Republican legislative opposition against Medicaid expansion.

I have family in the St. Louis area, and their health would stand to gain from a Yes vote.

Tools and Theaters for Progressive Federalism

Politics, Politics2, Uncategorized, ,

Reading more about “progressive federalism”, or using “states’ rights” to enact progressive policy. Might have to put “progressive federalism” in your vocabulary. 

Honestly, it’s hard for me to come to grips with it because of the abuse of “states’ rights” and the greater trust. Progressives and liberals have invested so much trust into federal, national remedies as a matter of ending the “patchwork quilt” of some states having more progressive laws on an issue than other states. So many key rulings liberalizing society have come from SCOTUS throwing a wrench into prohibitive state laws. Now we have to abandon this and go fight within the states as a matter of tact in fighting the White House? It sickens me that this is how this century’s civil rights advances will have to be determined, but here we are. 

I also don’t think we can truly exercise progressive federalism without “initiative & referendum” (I&R) at the state level. Almost all of the states which have I&R are west of the Mississippi, and except for two states in the South, no other Southern states east of the Mississippi allow civilians to draw up petitions and gather signatures to put questions on the ballot. Some liberalizing laws at the state level have come from I&R, especially on decriminalizing/legalizing cannabis and regulating gerrymandering. With conservative supermajorities in state legislatures, we will have to make some deals to make I&R more available to the rest of the South. 

Progressive federalists must be willing to fight at any and every level for every possible tool to enact empowering reforms. The era of relying on SCOTUS and White House EOs to make key progressive decisions is over, but it shouldn’t mean that we’re on our own.

Atlanta/Fulton County as a Theater for Progressive Federalism

An example of progressive federalism as an act of dissent: Atlanta. 

When Atlanta City Council passed cannabis decriminalization (or, more precisely, “defelonization”), political leaders at the state level spoke out against the reform, claiming that only the state government can decriminalize it. When I asked him about it, even Rep. Calvin Smyre, our State House Dean, noted his opposition to cities taking this lead. 

But is there a state law mandating that a city has to use its resources to enforce state law? And should Democrats run away from, or embrace, cities and counties scaling down their resources from being used to enforce state law to the letter?

Now, even Fulton County has followed Atlanta and South Fulton city in defelonizing cannabis. And as both the largest city and largest county in Georgia, there should be a “spillover” effect to other parts of Metro Atlanta. 

Maybe we should embrace this municipal rebellion, because it calls the Georgia anti-cannabis lobby’s bluff, calls them to put up or shut up. This can apply to sanctuary cities, cities with non-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people, local minimum wage hikes, city ID cards, etc. If we can’t dissent municipally, how can we show our policy work at the state level? If we can’t dissent state-wise, how can we propel progressive change at the federal level?

Let’s embrace the spirit of dissent of Atlanta and Fulton County as a policy for more Georgia cities, and take charge of the political conversation.

Black Lives in Progressive Federalism

It’s thrilling and stressful that African-American activists will now be even more cognizant and promotive of the role of local political power in , as we don’t have the ear of Republicans or conservatives who are ascendant in the federal level of government. But even during the Obama years, the Bush years, the Clinton years, those who advocated for 

Progressive Federalism Reader

You know what I saw a lack of last year?

1-on-1 video debates/discussions between the most hardcore of both Hillary supporters and Bernie supporters.

We continue to litigate last year in remote textual debates, but not in person, not in real time.

We’re talking about impeachment when we don’t even have fully-acceptable candidates to lead Dems to a majority in Congress.

Get your shit together, progressives and liberals. talk to each other! Reach out!

The Phoenix John Brown Gun Club. The Huey P. Newton Gun Club of Dallas. The Socialist Rifle Association. Redneck Revolt. New Black Panthers. Brown Berets. Liberal Gun Club.

I’ve only held and used a gun once. It seems like the in-thing to ditch gun control and just go stockpile some ammo.

I also think about the admonishments who blame gun control and “identity politics” for Democrats losing so much power to reactionaries in “Middle America”/”white working class America”.

Maybe this left-wing gun culture should be embraced in the same way the GOP has embraced right-wing gun culture?

How do you think this will play out?

Cheri Honkala Should Win PA’s HD197

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

Democrats deserve to lose #HD197 to Green write-in #CheriHonkala, due to repeat Dem corruption. #MyUnpopularOpinion #papol #p2

I’m serious. The one who comes out smelling like roses in the HD197 race is Honkala.

Campaigners for the Democrat who sought to be named on the ballot but ended up a write-in, Emilio Vasquez, are already being accused of abetting voter intimidation. The two predecessors in office, both Democrats, resigned from office due to corruption charges. The GOP candidate who was the sole candidate on the ballot, Lucinda Little, left the Dems because of their corruption.

Now we know that the GOP lost this race, but Friday 3/31 will reveal which write-in won. I hope the Dems lose this seat to the Green write-in. The Dems deserve to lose this race. Honkala should be the first Green member of the PA General Assembly. #papol

What a #DemExit Could Look Like

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

#DemExit folks who are looking for a left-wing alternative party after yesterday can either join the Greens, Rocky Anderson’s Justice Party, Kshama Sawant’s Socialist Alternative, or build yet another party.

Out of all the alternatives, the Green Party is the only one with ballot access in at least 4+ states. As of this year, they have access in 19 states, with chapters in all 50 states, 3 of which are currently unaffiliated.

Oh, and if you want to be a viable party at all, you’ll need chapters in all 3,142 counties and county-equivalents in the US (threshold 1,571). You’ll have to build that all by yourselves. Otherwise, you’ll have no presence in the Electoral College vote.

Good luck.

 

Thirst for Purging

Politics, Uncategorized, ,

Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

So the GOP have the perfect, most on-message political party in 2017. They cut out most of the voters who don’t fit their ideas, cowed the ones who remained, and now carry the nation on a narrow path which will benefit a smaller, privileged portion of the population.

The Tea Party and its predecessors defined themselves by how much they drove away White moderates from the GOP through purity tests. The result of their zealotry, combined with massive gerrymandering, is the incoming dominant status quo.

Being “better/more inclusive than the Tea Party”, combined with being massively distracted from gerrymandering, left us with a terrible Democratic Party. We screwed ourselves. The Obama-Clinton coalition is dying.

Meanwhile, born-again Berniecrats like Nina Turner are preaching fire and brimstone at progressive tent revivals. Berniecrats, now drunk with schadenfreude and motivated by revenge, threaten to make it exciting, thrilling and headline-grabbing to be a progressive in opposition. What they lack in respectability, they replenish with ideological consistency and bombast. In the age of Trump, the American people crave both, and those who want stability are in the minority.

So I’m OK with the progressive sentiment of purging/cowing the centrists and neoliberals from the Democratic Party. I look forward to it.

The liberals are on different agendas than the progressives. The sooner we accept that, the sooner that we will stop walking on each others’ feet.

There’s a reason why the Liberal and NDP parties are separate parties in Canada. They share many goals, but really can’t stand each other. Same here in the U.S.

The DNC chair contest between Keith Ellison and Tom Perez is a proxy fight between progressives and liberals. The Democratic primary showed that this fight has been brewing for a long time, at least since the former DLC became the bulwark against left-wing populists back in the 80s.

Let it play out.

Over the next two years, if you are a progressive or liberal elected official who needs a website, or if you are looking for a website+mailing list+social media for your progressive or liberal campaign or activist group, please hit me up.

I don’t know if I have enough life experience to run for office, but I sure enough can cook up a communications platform for you. I can also write press releases.

Progressives, liberals and democratic socialists, please. And maybe pirates.