Progressive Politics

So I’m nearing 40 and I’ve been a progressive / leftist now for over 20 years.

I remember getting pepper sprayed by capitol police for protesting the Iraq war and the halcyon days of thinking George W Bush would go down as our dumbest president.

I saw Obama capture the imagination of a progressive generation promising hope and change and then getting into office and giving us a heritage foundation plan that further entrenched the insurance industry into a dysfunctional for-profit healthcare system.

The entire time the democratic faithful have said, “vote blue no matter who” and the pragmatic progressive and democratic allies that want a party that cares about the issues they care about have gone “more and better democrats”

For two decades of my life I’ve been told the way to get policies that don’t just favor the ultra rich at the expense of everyone else is to elect more democrats and have these fights in the primary. Don’t split the vote by having progressives run outside the party, that will end in ruin. 20 years later we can name every progressive fire brand by name because the party only lets us have a few.

I’ve watched this strategy fail over and over. I think it might be time for the progressives and further left elements to make our own party. I look back now and think, I’d much rather have spent the last 20 years building a viable alternative, but if 20 years ago was the best time to start, the second best time is right now.

The democrats have failed in every imaginable way, and when the greatest test came along, would they defend the constitution and hold a bunch of fascists accountable. They failed. They dithered, they let bygones be bygones, they dragged their feet. And the fascists emboldened by this lack of consequences are now enjoying the cancerous fruits of their labor.