Progressive Breakfast: People's Summit Drives New Wave of Progressive Candidates

Isaiah Poole

People’s Summit Drives New Wave of Progressive Candidates

The theme of the People’s Summit in Chicago was “beyond resistance.” Jim Keady, a restaurant owner and activist with the New Jersey Organizing Project, believes he can win in his state's fourth district by throwing out the traditional “centrist” playbook political consultants say he needs. He was among dozens of current and prospective political candidates at the Summit striving to build upon the opposition to the Trump administration a drive toward taking real governing power.

People’s Summit

Inspired by Sanders, activists in Chicago push Democrats to left — or out of the way. Chicago Tribune: “Nearly one year after effectively conceding the Democratic presidential nomination, (Bernie) Sanders was the star of this year’s People’s Summit, which has quickly become the country’s largest progressive political conference. At least 4,000 people trekked to Chicago for a weekend of teach-ins, panels and dance parties. In a Saturday-night speech, Sanders planned to tell activists to charge ahead because ‘ideas that, just a few years ago, seemed radical and unattainable, are now part of Main Street discussion.'”

Sanders urges alternatives to Republican policies. WaPo: “’People have got to understand that we’re at a pivotal moment in American history, and it’s not clear which way we’ll go,’ Sanders said in an interview. ‘There’s an enormous potential to improve peoples’ lives; on the other hand, there’s an opening for an austerity economy where everybody but the top 1 percent gets poorer. I will do my best to make people to understand that this is a 12-month-a-year operation, not about an election every four years.’”

Democrats in split-screen: The base wants it all. The party wants to win. NYT: “Democrats are facing a widening breach in their party, as liberal activists dream of transforming the health care system and impeaching President Trump, while candidates in hard-fought elections ask wary voters merely for a fresh chance at governing.
The growing tension… was on vivid, split-screen display over the weekend. In Chicago, Senator Bernie Sanders led a revival-style meeting of his progressive devotees, while in Atlanta, Democrats made a final push to seize a traditionally Republican congressional district.”

Sanders urges progressives to seek more electoral wins. Reuters: “Buoyed by the British Labour Party election gains this week, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday urged a summit of progressive activists who propelled his presidential candidacy to ramp up efforts to win elections and help remake a Democratic Party he deemed a failure. ‘They won those seats by standing up to the ruling class,’ he said, referring to the British elections and citing wins by progressive U.S. candidates in several state and local races while writing off losses as evidence liberal progressives could still be competitive even in conservative states.”

Lawsuits & Intimidation

AGs of MD and DC to sue Trump for emoluments violations. WaPo:“Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland say they will sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since moving into the White House. The lawsuit, the first of its kind brought by government entities, centers on the fact that Trump chose to retain ownership of his company when he became president.”

Ex-prosecutor Bharara refused Trump’s call, got fired next day. HuffPost: “President Donald Trump fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara the day after the prosecutor refused to return a call from him…Bharara said he viewed direct contact from the president to himself, as a law-enforcement official, to be an inappropriate breach of protocol and reported it to the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 9. ‘Twenty-two hours later, I was fired, Bharara said.”

Puerto Rico votes for statehood, but needs Congress to act. MassLive: “Puerto Rico’s governor announced that the U.S. territory has overwhelmingly chosen statehood in a nonbinding referendum Sunday held amid a deep economic crisis that has sparked an exodus of islanders to the U.S. mainland. U.S. Congress, however, has final say in any changes to the island’s political status… The referendum coincides with the 100th anniversary of the United States granting U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans, though they are barred from voting in presidential elections and have only one congressional representative with limited voting powers.”

We are not broke: trashing the austerity lies. TruthOut: “The wealthiest of the wealthy using tax dodges and offshore safehouses to hide their money from the tax man is an international phenomenon, to be sure, but the issue takes on a decidedly unique slant here in the United States. It was confirmed in the original reporting on the Panama Papers last year that hundreds of the wealthiest US citizens enjoy the privileges of offshore cash havens, even as the new government in Washington pleads abject poverty while seeking to bleed the poorest among us for the benefit of the richest.”

More from OurFuture.org:

Working Together in a Time of Crisis. Tobita Chow: “We live in a time of crisis. Billionaires and white nationalists have gone from lobbying the White House to living in the White House. Time and again, the One Percent have tried to divide us. Together, we can defeat them.”

Trump Offers Fool’s Gold to Fund Infrastructure. Leo Gerard:“A falsely-funded infrastructure program is a massive broken promise. America needs real improvements to roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, water systems and railways. That requires a commitment of real tax dollars, not the relinquishment of America’s public assets to profit-seeking private Wall Street entities. Americans should not be charged twice for maintenance of the public good, once through tax breaks to investors and again in outrageous tolls and fees the investors charge.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more