(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What Hakeem Jeffries Represents [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-11-18 War On Progressives For the past two years, moderate democrats have been angry. And Progressives are the target. -NV dem party basically quit and moved elsewhere when some DSA people won interparty elections. It didn’t end up losing the senate race, but may have lost the close governor’s race. -AIPAC spent unusual amounts of money in primaries to stop progressives -Blaming progressives for actions around the reconstruction bill. Including lying that “the squad voted against fixing pipes”. In the real world, progressives were pushing for the full bill, including child care, more action to lower emissions, and other goodies. -David Shor, Matt Yeglesias, and other pundits suggesting that global warming be abandoned as a goal. Or trans rights, or abortion be abandoned as an electoral strategy. -Angry and nonsensical internet commentary. Such as -–Anger at Elizabeth Warren endorsing pro-abortion candidates in primaries. Link. –-Only south Carolina/Southern Democrats are Real Democrats. Link. –-Anger at progressives “primarying democrats” or ‘trying to take over the party”. Which is the point of elections. A few comments on an earlier Hakeem Jeffries post express this view. –-Emotional manipulation with demographics. Using nonwhite voters to push against progressives. Such as claiming that Latinx would scare latinos away. Turns out they stayed voting dem anyway. The target of anger: progressives seeking power and using power. Play a role outside of supporting a moderate who “isn’t too bad”, or actually fight over a law instead of compromising, or taking steps to change laws or budgets instead of wishing for things, and lots of people get angry. Clearly there is a social expectation, that progressives are lower status, and therefore do not deserve power. Daily Kos does the same thing. In a passive aggressive, forced positivity way. Why do this? Seems like lots of reasons. Corruption, such as the cryptocurrency guy who just got arrested. Old people’s resentment of change, or spoiled boomer’s resentment of anything that isn’t them. Hearing too much news. Just the general abusiveness that pervades politics right now. Over and over, we see that hippy punching is a terrible idea. The resulting policies are inferior. That should finish things right there. Most of us don’t work in politics, so inferior policies performed poorly are the only thing that matters. But it also hurts in elections. The particularly hostile New York and Florida dem parties lost quite badly this election. Partly be repeating Republican lines about out of control crime. More generally, punching left hurts democrats, Republicans call dems socialist woke marxists no matter what. Which is effective if people see socialist woke marxist as a bad thing. Jeffries Jeffries is been part of this problem. Hes made public comments attacking “socialists.” or squad members. Made a big deal about creating a PAC to oppose primary challenges. Which is a pathetic reason to support a politician. Also pro-Israel, which is never a good sign. Has come up a lot in recent primaries. Why support progressives. The Jeffries arguments are part of a larger fight. Progressives vs. people opposed to them. So always good to remind why you should support the lefties. -The policy is better. Global warming is a major problem, we want it solved fast. A lot of police spending clearly seems a waste of money. Which supports a toxic, dangerous organizational culture with too much influence. Single payer health care is generally cheaper. ACA was a known compromise when passed, it can always be improved or replaced with something better. Supporting these, and supporting other politicians who support these, defines progressive or moderate, -–Policy arguments aren’t between several similarly good options, not worrying about the politica spectrum. Instead, they are a useful “progressive” option, and a watered down moderate option. Or oppositional. Like drilling more oil. Or hiring more police. Yes, moderates, to own the lefties, will support inferior health are. Or pollution. These are not the best people. -Some policies aren’t considered progressive or moderate. Like impeaching the m*therf*cker. Or building more housing. The same people supporting progressive policies also come around on these. Or already supported them. -Winning elections. Want democrats to win? Sell socialism, woke, left, liberal, as good things. Get people liking blue areas. Repeat your own stories, not Republican ones. Moderates fail to do this. And resources spent attacking progressives are not spent attacking conservatives. What to do about the speakership and congress It’s hard to say who should be speaker. I don’t work for congress, I’m not in congress, a lot of behind the scenes work goes into it. Its not something most people on this site know. I doubt the vast majority of people praising Jeffries would have picked him as a random congressman before being chosen and promoted for leadership. What I do know is that we want to support progressives in upcoming primaries. Meaning people like Cuellar in his 13% win in the district need to go. Other random races had primaries this past year, those need to be supported in 2024. Same goes if a presidential primary happens, or upcoming senate runs. And lower level races. Congressional races presumably lead to choosing a new majority leader, by people in a better position to know who to pick. Hopefully. Hippy punching/left punching gets attacked whenever it happens. Such as me mentioning the New York and Florida incompetence. Or bringing up the lying and nonsense commentary. The post mentions Jeffries, but isn’t really about him. It’s about passing programs that are useful for all of us. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/18/2137172/-What-Hakeem-Jeffries-Represents Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/