Democrats must become TRULY PROGRESSIVE and reject pressure toward “moderation” that merely tweaks the status quo and rebuffs voters who want REAL PROGRESS.

For many years some people have arisen within the Democratic Party and tried to push it toward becoming TRULY PROGRESSIVE.  Whenever this happens, some other people — both within the mainstream Democratic Party and within the mainstream media — urge the Democratic Party to be more moderate instead of progressive.

This is happening now again after the November 2018 midterm election.  Progressives achieved great victories.  Progressives want a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, a $15/hour minimum wage, and other strong reforms.

But middle-of-the-road Democrats and mainstream media are pushing back.  They think bold progressivism is too bold.  But bold progressivism is exactly what the voters want!  Middle-of-the-road Hillary Clinton failed to inspire voters — especially the young people and first-time voters that the Democrats need to attract and inspire and activate if they want to win.

Bernie Sanders really did attract, inspire and activate voters — especially young and first-time voters — but the mainstream Democratic Party did many sneaky things to elbow him aside.  During 2015 and 2016 the institutional Democratic Party did many sneaky things to SUPPORT TRUMP in becoming the Republicans’ nominee because they thought he would be easy to defeat in November 2016.  The institutional Democratic Party’s sneaky manipulations backfired on them.  VOTERS WANTED A POPULIST INSTEAD OF A MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROADER.  Since the Democratic Party refused to hear the public’s anger at “politics as usual,” Hillary Clinton lost and the angry, disaffected voters elected a wacko instead of the “well qualified” Hillary Clinton.

VOTERS WANT BOLD PROGRESSIVE CHANGES, but the institutional Democratic Party keeps refusing to serve the voters, so VOTERS REPLACE MODERATE DEMOCRATS — even with Republicans — because the institutional Democratic Party is tone-deaf and serves its funders instead of the voters.

In 1992 Bill Clinton ran for president promising “hope” and “change.”  After inspiring voters to elect him, he betrayed those promises and governed as if he were a middle-of-the-road Republican.  He continued the older George Bush’s extremely cruel war against Iraq (brutal economic sanctions and vigorous bombing).  He pushed Congress to expand the federal death penalty and take away defendants’ rights.  He supported Wall Street’s greedy desire to de-regulate the banks by repealing the 1930s-era Glass-Steagall act (and setting the stage for the 2007-2008 economic crash that resulted directly from his action).  He de-regulated big business’s TV and telecommunications companies and repealed the Fairness Doctrine.  He adopted Republicans’ cruel scheme to destroy welfare for poor families (and took credit for “ending welfare as we know it”) and thrust millions of families into worse poverty.  The list goes on and on.

What happened to “hope”?  The only “changes” Bill Clinton accomplished were bad ones.

CLINTON AND HIS DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY IN CONGRESS ASSAULTED OUR NATION WITH BAD POLICIES INSTEAD OF PROGRESSIVE ONES.  VOTERS PUNISHED CLINTON AND THE DEMOCRATS BY ELECTING NEWT GINGRICH’S RIGHT-WING REPUBLICANS TO CONGRESS.

After 8 years of George W. Bush’s abuses, Barack Obama campaigned for President promising “hope” and “change.”  Voters elected him, but OBAMA GOVERNED LIKE A MODERATE REPUBLICAN, JUST AS CLINTON HAD DONE:

• Obama continued Dick Cheney’s brutal “war on terror” and expanded it into many, many more countries.
• Obama vastly increased the “drone wars.”
• Obama bailed out the banks that had crashed our economy.
• Obama refused to prosecute any of the banking officials who had committed serious crimes.
• Obama failed to help the victims of those banks’ greed and crimes.
• Obama signed legislation to allow oil companies to export crude oil for the first time in 40 years.  This enables and stimulates oil companies to “Drill, baby, drill” and sell more oil to be burned in the world.
• Obama’s official energy policy was “All of the Above.”  Sure, conservation would be OK.  But Obama also supported fracking, nuclear, and everything else.
• Obama sabotaged the Copenhagen climate summit and deceived the world into blaming China.
• Obama’s nominee for the Federal Communications Commission is the person who pushed the FCC to ABOLISH “Net Neutrality.”
• After campaigning on a promise to restore our constitutional rights, Obama prosecuted MORE dissidents under the 1917 Espionage Act than ALL PREVIOUS presidents combined.
• After saying he wanted to abolish all nuclear weapons, Obama yielded to Senate Republicans and agreed to REPLACE ALL OF THE U.S.’s NUCLEAR WEAPONS, MISSILES, SUBMARINES AND BOMBERS — at a cost that will far exceed $1 TRILLION.
• After getting organized labor’s help to elect Obama in 2008, he REFUSED — and the Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate REFUSED — to support organized labor’s strong #1 priority:  The “card check” system for empowering workers to form unions.  Obama and most of the House and Senate Democrats — including their leaders — simply rebuffed organized labor.
• Just like Clinton passed legislation that Republicans had been promoting, Obama pushed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was based on Republican Mitt Romney’s plan for Massachusetts, and which in turn was based on the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s plan.  This further empowers insurance companies and Big Pharma instead of the real solution — Universal Single-Payer — and Obama even refused to allow the moderate “public option” in his legislation.  The ACA leaves tens of millions of Americans with no health care, and it utterly fails to control costs.  It even PROHIBITS the federal government from negotiating with Big Pharma to reduce drug prices.
• The list goes on and on.

OBAMA AND HIS DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY IN CONGRESS ASSAULTED OUR NATION WITH BAD POLICIES INSTEAD OF PROGRESSIVE ONES.  VOTERS PUNISHED OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS BY ELECTING “TEA PARTY” REPUBLICANS TO CONGRESS.

Now the same “moderate” people who prevented progressive political changes — the same “moderate” people who antagonized voters and caused right-wing Republicans to be elected — are now criticizing the few progressives in Congress and the few progressives running for President.  If those “moderates” get their way, VOTERS WILL KNOW THAT THE INSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPPOSES THEM, so they will vote for Republicans.

PROGRESSIVES MUST STAKE OUT BOLD POSITIONS THAT WILL ATTRACT VOTERS!