AOC’s Revolt Against DCCC Is “Exactly What We Need,” Say Progressive Democrats

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AOC’s Revolt Against DCCC Is “Exactly What We Need,” Say Progressive Democrats
by Jon Queally
January 13, 2020
Common Dreams

PHOTO: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chants with housing and environmental advocates before a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on November 14, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
For bucking a key arm of the Democratic Party establishment that has stood in the way of attracting and supporting progressive candidates, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) received applause over the weekend after she announced the launch of a new political action committee designed to directly challenge the power of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by helping insurgent, left-leaning challengers like herself take on both Republican incumbents and centrist Democrats.

“The rumors are true,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Saturday. “Today we’re announcing the Courage to Change PAC — and we need your help. We are pushing the envelope in D.C. by rewarding those who reject lobbyist money, fight for working families, and welcome newcomers.”

According to the PAC’s first fundraising push:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ✔
@AOC

I give quite a bit to fellow Dems - we’ve fundraised over $300,000 for others (more than my “dues”), w/ over 50% going to swing seats.

DCCC made clear that they will blacklist any org that helps progressive candidates like me. I can choose not to fund that kind of exclusion. 

https://twitter.com/marisa_schul…/status/1215652173683531776 …

Marisa Schultz @marisa_schultz

SCOOP: @AOC withholding $250,000 in "dues" from the Democratic party in protest and building her own grassroots fundraising for progressives instead
AOC riles Dems by refusing to pay party dues, bankrolling colleagues' opponents 

https://fxn.ws/39Q2bzg #FoxNews

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In an interview with Fox News, Ocasio-Cortez further defended her decision by saying, “I don’t see the sense in giving a quarter-million dollars to an organization that has clearly told people like me that we’re not welcome.”

AOC’s efforts to stand up the DCCC was championed by many of her fellow progressives:

Brand New Congress ✔
@BrandNew535
🔥🔥The DCCC requires outrageous "dues" while actively undermining primaries and working against grassroots progressive candidates. We've seen it firsthand. @AOC's candor and honesty is exactly what we need to see more of in Congress! 

#BlueNoMatterWhoWontDo 
#BrandNewCongress https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1215730737900638208 …


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ✔
@AOC

I give quite a bit to fellow Dems - we’ve fundraised over $300,000 for others (more than my “dues”), w/ over 50% going to swing seats.

DCCC made clear that they will blacklist any org that helps progressive candidates like me. I can choose not to fund that kind of exclusion. https://twitter.com/marisa_schul…/status/1215652173683531776 …

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James J. Zogby ✔
@jjz1600

Many reasons @AOC is right not to “pay dues” to the DCCC. 1. It’s decisionmaking is opaque & undemocratic. 2. It’s a “pay for play” scam -the more Members give, the better their assignments) 3. They punish consultants who support challengers & only give “jobs” to their buddies

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The Washington Post reported Sunday afternoon that Courage to Change had raised more than $150,000 after approximately 24 hours of fundraising, money that would go directly to help progressive House candidates in the 2020 primaries and general election.

“There is a robust infrastructure set up to maintain and defend the Democratic majority, and to support moderate Democrats, and often that infrastructure is running against progressive in blue districts,” Corbin Trent, a former staffer for Ocasio-Cortez and now a spokesperson for the new PAC, told the Post. “So what we’re looking to do is to make sure that progressive candidates and incumbents have the support that they need to back policies that are going to improve the lives of everyday Americans.”
In a tweet on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez said, “Thank you to everyone contributing to this effort so far — this is a big deal. Help us build a war chest to support progressive red-to-blue seats, bold incumbents, and newcomers to Congress alike.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jon Queally is senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

PHOTO: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chants with housing and environmental advocates before a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on November 14, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Ralph Nader and Cornel West To Lead a Democratic Party Primary Challenge Against President Obama in 2012

http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=3032

All,

While it's obviously clear that a serious primary challenge to Obama is not politically possible and can't possibly work on a practical level in 2012, it's still another ominous and significant sign that the President's re-election campaign is in serious trouble overall given the fierce and vicious opposition of the right and the growing deep demoralization, disaffection, and alienation on the left. While most of Obama's progressive and liberal base and coalition remains generally intact on the surface, it is still not clear at this point if the overall turnout of these voters will be as large, reliable, and secure as it was in 2008. It thus should be noted that if there is at least a 7-10% decrease in the voter turnout of his base (and a corresponding increase in turnout among Republicans and Tea Party voters) Obama could very easily lose his bid for re-election next year...Stay tuned...

Kofi

September 19, 2011

RALPH NADER CORNEL WEST UNVEIL PROPOSAL TO CHALLENGE OBAMA IN PRIMARIES

Progressive leaders led by Ralph Nader and Cornel West unveiled a proposal today to challenge President Obama in the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries in 2012.

The proposal, which has been endorsed by over 45 distinguished leaders, seeks to have a slate of six candidates run against President Obama, each representing a field in which Obama has never clearly staked a progressive claim or where he has drifted toward the corporatist right.

“Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored,” said Ralph Nader.

“The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters,” Nader said.

A letter is being sent to a list of distinguished elected officials, civic leaders, prominent members of academia and the NGO community who represent the fields of labor, poverty, military and foreign policy, health insurance and care, the environment, financial regulation, consumer protection, and civil, political and human rights/empowerment.

The list of potential candidates also includes progressive democrats who have held national and state office and have fought for progressive reforms.

“We need to put strong democratic pressure on President Obama in the name of poor and working people” said Cornel West, author and Professor at Princeton University. “His administration has tilted too much toward Wall Street, we need policies that empower Main Street.”

The letter pronounces that without primary challengers, President Obama will never have to seriously articulate and defend his beliefs to his own party. Given the dangers our nation faces, that option is unacceptable.

“It’s time for the White House to get into the trench with organized labor and lend a hand. We know what we need, and we don’t need another campaign speech,” said Chris Townsend Political Action Director, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. “The absence of discussion or debate about the failed strategies of this administration only emboldens the corporate onslaught.”

The letter points to numerous decisions that have drawn criticism from Obama’s own Democratic Party including his decision to bail out Wall Street’s most profitable firms while failing to push for effective prosecution of the criminal behavior that triggered the recession, escalating the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan while simultaneously engaging in a unilateral war in Libya, his decision to extend the Bush era tax cuts, and his acquiescence to Republican extortion during the recent debt ceiling negotiations.

“Robust debate on the crucial issues facing our nation, including global environmental devastation, should characterize all races for national public office and the Democratic presidential primaries are no exception,” said Brent Blackwelder, President Emeritus of Friends of the Earth. “The public needs to hear whether a second term Obama will be like the first term Obama, or perhaps more like the 2008 presidential candidate Obama or something else altogether.”

The list of prominent leaders receiving the letter is being kept private as a courtesy.

Here’s a partial list of endorsees:

James Abourezk
Former U.S. Senator, South Dakota
Gar Alperovitz, Professor University of Maryland, Co-Founder Democracy Collaborative
Norman Birnbaum
Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University Law Center
Dr. Brent Blackwelder
President Emeritus of Friends of the Earth
Ellen H. Brown
Lawyer and Author of Web of Debt
Edgar Stuart Cahn
Professor of Law, University of the District of Columbia
Co-founder Legal Services for the Poor
Pat Choate
1996 Reform Party Vice President Candidate
Charles Cray
Director of the Center for Corporate Policy
Peter Coyote
Actor, Author and Director
Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director, Organic Consumers Association
Charles Derber, Professor, Boston College
Ronnie Dugger
Founder, Alliance for Democracy
John Fullerton
President, Capital Institute
Rebecca and James Goodman, Northwood Farm
Randy Hayes
Director, Foundation Earth
Rainforest Action Network Founder
Chris Hedges
Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist of the New York Times and Author
Hazel Henderson,
Author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
President, Ethical Markets Media, LLC.
Jean Houston
Psychologist, Anthropologist and Author of The Possible Human and The
Possible Society
Nicholas Johnson
Former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission
Former Administrator, Federal Maritime Commission
Alan F. Kay
Author of Spot the Spin and Locating Consensus for Democracy
Harry Kelber
The Labor Educator
Andrew Kimbrell
Executive Director, Center for Food Safety&
International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA)
Jonathan Kozol
Educator, Author of Savage Inequalities
Lewis Lapham
Former Editor, Harper’s Magazine
Leland Lehrman, Partner, Fund Balance
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor, Tikkun Magazine
Chair, Network of Spiritual Progressives
Dr. Richard Lippin, MD
Physician Forecaster, Board Certified in Preventive Medicine and
Advocate for both Individual and Institutional Prevention
Robert D. Manning
Founder and CEO, Responsible Debt Relief Institute
Author of Credit Card Nation
Dr. Samuel Metz, MD
Mad As Hell Doctors, founding member
Physicians for a National Health Plan, member of Portland chapter
Carol Miller, Community Activist, New Mexico
E. Ethelbert Miller, Board Chair Institute for Policy Studies

Ralph Nader
Citizen Advocate
Michael Parenti
Author
John Passacantando
Former Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
Erich Pica
President of Friends of the Earth
Vijay Prashad
Author and Professor, Trinity College
Nomi Prins
Author and former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs
Marcus Raskin
Author of The Common Good and former White House Advisor
Andy Shallal
“Democracy’s Restauranteur” and Owner of Bus Boys& Poets
Michelle Shocked
Musician
David Swanson
Author, War is a Lie
Chris Townsend
Political Action Director, United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America (UE)
Gore Vidal
Author and Political Activist
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Chair, The Shalom Center
Harvey Wasserman
Author of Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth
Cornel West
Professor and Author of Race Matters
Quentin D. Young MD
National Coordinator, Physicians for a National Health Program