Putting Together the Puzzle of the Progressive Path Forward:
A Defense & Analysis of the Future of Progressive Democrats And Why Progressives Need to Stay Engaged Through 2024
Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, America’s political history, the progressive movement, the true story about Gina Raimondo, and much more.
As we end this week, I could not help but react to the recent Trump immunity ruling by the US Supreme Court. For anyone who had thought the judicial system is rigged against Trump, this ruling could not have provided a stronger case to knock that conspiracy down unequivocally. For any future President who wants to assassinate their political opponents, suppress protesters, bribe officials, or overturn our elections using the executive branch and even violence, the Supreme Court has greenlighted you to do whatever you like.
The Supreme Court has shown how the judicial system is stacked against the powerless—the homeless, minorities, workers, consumers, and even the administrative state, and is stacked for right-wing mega donors like Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow, and GOP party elites like Donald Trump. The Supreme Court is a Kangaroo Court built by and for Trumpian conservatives.
Let me also talk a little bit more about the aftermath of President Biden’s debate performance. Frankly, not a lot of people see President Biden in action. It is now time people get to see Joe Biden more out there in public to talk about his good work and the danger of Trump—not just by having Biden surrogates.
Although a childhood stutter and brain aneurysm have affected his speaking abilities (particularly recently), it has proven not to incapacitate the President from doing a job that hasn’t been seen for decades in terms of legislative productivity and in terms of a deep legacy of other policy achievements. His presidency is a great capstone to his 50 years of public service.
I will take the choice of an experienced President any day of the week over a rambling lunatic who cannot accept the results of 2020 and rambles incessantly about sharks, boats, Barack Obama, and Nikki Haley (a.k.a., “Nancy Pelosi”).
And let me take this opportunity to address the press speculation about the highly unlikely (though not totally impossible) case that Gina Raimondo somehow winds up as the Democratic Party presidential nominee through an open convention—or that she somehow joins the ticket as VP. Raimondo has an extensive and unelectable track record of failure. More recently, she has faced even more questions about her Commerce Department CHIPS grant management. She is, frankly, the worst possible candidate Democrats could imaginably pick.
More to the point, all of her failings have been painstakingly documented both on this blog and in so many other places. The facts about Gina Raimondo will get out, and it will not end pretty for any national campaign she tries to launch. Never mind the most important presidential election of our lifetimes. She would lose, she could lose badly, and she could really put Rhode Island in play for Republicans. Remember that, Democrats: you will need every electoral college vote you can get, or you will get a second taste of insurrectionism in the White House.
Now to the main course of the progressive movement. Recently, I mentioned the NY-16 primary, and offered my analysis of that. To me, it represents a turning point. Not of retreat for the progressive movement, but for reform and rebuilding from the foundations. Politics is a game of addition, not subtraction, and that is something progressives will need to exploit and take advantage of over time.
To the bad news first. Progressive Democrats have blown several good opportunities to pick up seats over the years. Some are circumstances hard to control, like the fundraising deficits and lack of organizational sturdiness. That organizational trouble has been bolstered by the party establishment choosing to blacklist consulting firms and advocacy groups who back progressive challengers—and even some progressive incumbents.
Unfortunately, at the same time, they do not condemn dark money special interests who do the same thing to bolster Corporate Democrats against progressive lawmakers. That was how Henry Cuellar survived two intense primary challenges in 2020 and 2022. That is how Josh Gottheimer survives as a human fundraising machine. That is how people like Gregory Meeks with ethical problems don’t face strong primary challengers. That is how Summer Lee almost didn’t get elected the first time around. That is how people like Michael Bloomberg boost Clinton Democrats over progressive darlings (including a Capitol Police Officer who displayed his courage and valor on January 6, 2021).
Running statewide campaigns (for Senate especially, but also governorships) are even more challenging for progressive upstarts and grassroots figures in a post-Citizens United world. That is something we have seen in both 2020, 2022, and even now for that matter.
There are other instances that are less necessary and arguably more preventable. A notable number of congressional primary races have been decided by a small slice of voters in situations where the base fails to consolidate behind one figure. That is what happened in MA-04 in a 12 or 13-candidate field in 2020 that could have elected a firm pro-choice ally with a close relationship to notable political figures like now-MA Governor Maura Healey.
That is also what happened in NY-10, with a promising state legislator who would have made history for the disability rights community as the first Autistic member of Congress. These are just the most obvious examples from recent times.
These events are not how things have to be. We know because it did not happen to Vermont progressives. They were able to consolidate behind one candidate, and made history in the process with Congresswoman Becca Balint representing the state today as the first woman elected by her state’s voters. In another good example of what progressives could achieve if they stood together, Joe Biden himself likely would have not been the Democratic nominee, or President today, without the help of allies like Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and even Beto O’Rourke.
Here’s the good news. Right now, and even into the next session pending the 2024 elections, the progressive movement is still by-and-large on the march. The Congressional Progressive Caucus body is the largest in its 30+ year history when it was founded by 6 prominent leaders, including then-Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders. Senate Progressives hold significant sway now compared to the Clinton, and even the Obama, presidencies. Progressives are holding significant influence across almost all the state legislatures, regardless of the party who holds control of it. The fact is progressives hold a lot of power compared to 1992, 2008, and even 2016 and 2020, and it is for the better.
Let’s take a few examples of how progressives are not only anything but liabilities to the Democratic Party, but are actually more reliable assets than certain “moderate” & conservative Democrats (most notably, Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema). It was the progressives led by Sanders & Warren who promoted bold presidential agendas that have since become the basic framework of Build Back Better, including in the idea of having long-term investments into the middle & working classes of this country with the Rescue, Jobs, & Families Plans. Progressives stood by President Biden and applauded his Administration for leading those initiatives. “Centrists” like Manchin & Sinema stood in the way of that vision, and still are in our way. They couldn’t even support a meager $15 minimum wage bump.
Not just on kitchen table issues, but on our core freedoms & liberties we all cherish, it is the progressives standing with the Biden-Harris Administration to protect reproductive rights, pass gun safety legislation, codify marriage equality, implement ethics reforms, secure voting rights, and ensure all people are treated equally. When push comes to shove, some Democrats (like the House Group of Nine, or Manchinema), wouldn’t do the necessary work, whether it was even a simple filibuster carveout, reforming its use, or abolishing it. The Manchin & Sinema centrists let us down, not the progressives.
Here’s another example from a little farther back. It was progressives who saved the Affordable Care Act, in spite of the final bill falling way short of their ambitions. They pushed for healthcare reform to begin with, and with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, they were able to save it from defeat in a close 219-212 vote back in 2010 (hint hint, “centrist” Joe Lieberman was not very helpful on this either).
Now, let’s take all this in the broader picture. The Corporate Clinton politics of the 1990s is disappearing into the past because of the work of progressives across America. The Neoliberal Consensus that poisoned both political parties to special interests and dark money is starting to be dismantled brick-by-brick.
The notion that having the Democratic Party be much like the Republicans on most issues is a thing of the past. We have learned, albeit the hard way, that appeasing Republican Party politicians with top-down tax cuts, unnecessary deregulation, and empty environmentalism and rights & liberties rhetoric does not earn us more votes. It makes us lose votes, which is what Hillary Clinton was always good at from 1994 to 2016. Because the Biden Administration opened their ears to progressives, and because of all the arguments made about the failure of this doctrine, we have made tremendous progress in the last 4 years in reigning in unfettered capitalism, corporate legislative agendas, and political cronyism. Build Back Better is an important roadmap that deserves credit to President Biden, his team, and all those who worked on offering this type of progressive reformism to Washington DC for years and decades.
We also cannot forget how President Joe Biden was able to accomplish this and more. It is because “We the People” showed up for him. It was the base (including young voters) that made sure we were able to show the way in the last presidential election, and we need to do it again this time around in 2024 because everything is on the line.
Maybe the most important point, progressives are not radical. Having a universal healthcare system replace a broken system where we spend twice the amount of costs as other nations and bankrupt families and ruin lives is not a radical idea. It is not radical in most of Europe and it is not radical in this party, going back to Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who all supported healthcare reform—including a national health insurance program like single-payer healthcare.
Having an affordable and fair public education system from pre-K to college is not radical. Public education is something most nations devote a lot of time to. Until Reagan declared the government the sworn enemy of the American people, we did our part with an education system the world had long envied. Only in the United States do college tuition costs go up to $70,000, $75,000, and even $80,000 a year (not including room and board). Tuition is a fraction of that in most other nations.
Having a fair economy that makes the wealthy pay their fair share, holds lawbreakers accountable, and lifts up working families and the middle class is not a radical idea. It was not a radical idea to FDR, a member of a prosperous New York family, just as it wasn’t to LBJ, who began his days in poverty. That was the essence of both the New Deal & Great Society (and more).
Supporting small businesses, workers, and farmers, instead of well-connected economic elitists and Corporate America is not a radical idea. That is the fabric of our country’s founding as the underdog going up against great powers like Great Britain. It isn’t Wall Street we should look out for. It should be Main Street. That is something Hillary Clinton never understood—who no surprise never thought of including progressives in the conversation back in 2016.
Taking care of our Earth, for both our natural wildlife friends and for our communities and families, is not a radical idea. It was something we all understood with the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression and with the legacy of Earth Day. The pending climate crisis should reaffirm our commitment now.
Making long-term investments in job-creating programs and the social safety net is not a radical idea. You know what it is radical though? The “centrist” concept that we should cut social services in austere fashion and expand corporate welfare in our nation.
These are only a small handful of issues, but they make the case clear. The United States has seen the integrity of these proposals. And from past history, we know they have worked and can work again.
So here are my takeaways. Progressives bring a lot to the discussion. We have delivered, much more so than the centrists. We are not radicals, and yes, we are even pragmatists. Although we do not shrink away from our clear belief in core progressive values, we are an open tent that everyone is invited to join and be involved in.
Indeed, we should always strive to be an open tent, learning lessons from past shortcomings in places like Rhode Island.
We do this because—well, look; here’s the deal: politics is a realm of adding, not subtracting. And while our base enthusiasm is strong, we should continue to work towards delivering for the larger party and towards building a coalition we can all be proud of.