Unity without policy has nothing to coalesce around. Reagan said, "Where's the beef?" It is well and good to talk about unity, but unity around what? Try some substance. 1. Universal Health Care. 2. Comprehensive environmental protection that regulates poisons and promotes ecosystem health. 3. Campaign finance reform that prevents corporate and wealthy donors from dominating candidates. 4. Education financing and independence. Reduce or eliminate student debt. 5. Civil rights laws and enforcement (reject white Christian nationalism). 6. Accept climate change as real and adjust energy policies to act to drawdown carbon. 7. Emphasize freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the separation of church at state. 8. Break up monopolies and oligarchies to free up creative freedom. Eliminate stock buyback and limit stock payments to CEOs. 9. Tax reform, reinstitute a graduated income tax that heavily hits the wealthy. 10. Eliminate the cap on SS and Medicaid payroll taxes. Once you have some policies around which to rally, the unity will come. You won't get the desired coalition working together unless you have goals, and means to get to those goals, articulated.
I feel like Corbin has articulated the substance pretty well, centered on a government that builds to make life easier for the vast majority, rather than maintaining a corrupt system of extraction. Also that keeping the policy points fairly simple helps build a bigger tent and makes messaging easier. (Mamdani built his campaign around 3 things). Being a long-time progressive, I would favor these 3:
1. Medicare for all - or a comparable plan
2. Campaign Finance Reform - starting with a pledge by our candidates to commit to small donor fundraising only (which should become a major selling point around ending the corruption and double-dealing)
3. Green new deal and other infrastructure initiatives
As Corbin has outlined, once the movement has gained enough seats in congress (as well as the presidency) our power to enact deeper changes (like ending CITIZENS UNITED). will grow.
Another item that might not be top of these lists, but something that needed to be corrected long ago is allowing Independent voters to vote in primaries! Not allowing this particular voting pool to participate in selecting candidates simply because they are neither Democrat or Republican should have been corrected (!) long ago. Frankly, way back when I registered as Democrat - THAT was the main reason! I have many disagreements with the party establishment - more so now than before.
Right on. Zero sum behaviors for 4k years have all but ended humanity as a viable animal, and that animal has taken its home down the rabbit hole with extinction at the bottom. Winning is now and always has been Losing. You never see wildlife with one winner and 31 losers. Forests do not count how many beech it takes to defeat the pines.
Community succeeds. Hierarchy fails, mightily. Take a long look around at THIS human world. It might as well ALL be Gaza. Ukraine, as badly battered as it is, defines community, with Do Nothing Europe sitting on its many hands all around, all individually covering their own asses WITHIN a mock Union. Wow, impressive, huh?
The U in USA does not exist. Every state plays zero sum. Why? Right now it is because the Powerful are so because of the Massive Traction that monetary influence gives them. Blackstone owns so many different kinds of enterprises you might think it is the NEW Republic, when, in fact, it is the Road to Perdition, because nothing about Blackstone is united except the Power Monarchy of the controlling board and major holders, maybe 1 percent of the investors.
It is not a matter of Wanting Unity, it is a matter of Not Surviving without IT. Here is the rub. Social Media is NOT uniting anyone. Anonymity is nothing more than Jung's Shadow Self, and its Wetiko, its toxic mind virus, is MSM.
We humans have always LIED. We are a weak and petty species, hoping against hope to just get a little more mature each 1000 years or so. Denial is a LIE. Procrastination is a LIE. Ambition is the engine of LIES. What drives ambition? Security from having any TRUTH revealed about you/me/us. Another LIE.
Right now, at every level of interactions, humans are being drowned in LIES. Top-down hierarchy, no matter what kind, gifts the LIAR with huge advantage, and the MSM in any society is just another top-down monarchy.
Your points are salient, but to bring them home requires unity, Corbin's push, which is not new, just more elusive than ever due to the overwhelming propaganda power of MSM. To unite means to defy divisions, to sacrifice the greed and the fears of Self and see the world as others see it, and see ourselves as others see us.
The Cult of Personality needs nothing but Fear and Lies to succeed. Only I can fix it. Fix what? That void is filled with propaganda and the wetiko of the Shadow Self. Gaza, an ancient grievance with no real basis has been turned into Horror by the Lies of the Cult of Personality, and its ultimate goal is the Security of Singularity. In other words, SLAVERY for all but the Shadows, who are not as united as Corbin thinks. I have, for my entire life, watched the oligarchs Eat Each Other. Zero Sum. One winner? NO. All losers.
Unity cannot be centered around a cult of personality, or a dream/nightmare of Singularity. Yes, we are part of a great whole of life, but MSM will convince us we are NOT.
The only real Singularity is recognizing that without all else we are the Nothing but Singular Shadows. Are humans now in any position to admit this and find their collective will to Survive? I see it in the crowds, in the small conversations everywhere, in the day-to-day behaviors of persons everywhere. I Never see it in the Cult of Personality.
Politics has become the Shadow Self, the toxic mind virus of Wetiko. Glued together by the LIES of MSM. MSM is the Political Class, little Caesars looking for victims to pounce on. They care nothing for anyone, especially each other. Watch them, and do the opposite of what they do, and we will find unity, perhaps before the Centurions gun us down.
What comes first, by my lights, is to get humanity informed about how overshoot has us facing imminent life or death. If even billionaires know their survival was at stake, that should get their attention. Then we could deal with policy changes.
I am a big fan of Overshoot, by William Catton (hopefully I got the spelling write). The only problem is that most people don't know what you are talking about when you bring it up. I am used to giving full 75 minute lectures on the topic. Are you familiar with Nate Hagens and The Great Simplification? Worth listening to.
I don't attribute overshoot to any author but is the generic word being used for overstepping planetary boundaries, and I use it carefully, aware that many don't know it. My first and foremost advocacy is to inform everyone about the danger we are in, so we stop hurting each other and work together to do what we can to save ourselves. Nate Hagens is great -- although he identified me as a stalker to someone he interviewed after I'd introduced myself and suggested he have me on his podcast.
Agreed. And I love this list, but I also think it needs to be perceived in a different way. My progressive eyes see this list and say, right on. But then I read the list through the eyes of my MAHA sister, I wonder how it could be revamped to appeal to others, but still accomplish the same goals. For example, climate change as a phrase needs to go. If you make climate issues into health issues, they will have wider appeal. I think MAHA can be commandeered into an environmental issue pretty easily. You just have to meet them on the issues where agreement can be found. They hate pesticides in their food, so start there and build. Move to microplastics, and then air pollution, and then corporate control of elections and universal health care. It isn't the issues that need to change, it is the starting point. You have to break into their algorithm before that can hear how these issues all connect. And honestly, the algorithm is a problem. We are all trapped in echo chambers so even if you (Corbin) got a new unified movement going, who is going to hear about it?
Agreed. I would think to focus on 3-5 issues that are fairly non-controversial among us progressives. Though all of your list is attractive, I would say 3, 6, and 7 (with 7 including civil rights and all the other provisions of the Constitution that are currently being trampled -- the Emoluments Clause, e.g.) are at present the most significant that are likely to win universal support.
Sure I would support a coordinated slate that was functioning as a coordinated movement. By that I mean a movement that can grow, that others can join, that non-candidate partner organizations can embrace and their members ("us," presumably) can work to support with and within the momentum of our own organizations, be they civic, religious, etc.
I'm tired of sawed off shotgun requests from countless groups that have me on mailing lists, all asking me individually for donations every day. That didn't do anything to prevent this moment, and it isn't going to do anything to get us out of this moment.
Yes! Engaging the various organizations could be huge. We all agree on the obvious failures of the 2 major parties. This feels like a call to progressives to acknowledge our own failures and try something new. The left is famous for "eating its own". But there is so much more that unites us than the relatively small differences of opinion. Especially when we are on the brink of losing our ability to have democratic politics at all.
It seems that these are the stakes:
What we have to GAIN - a MUCH better, more democratic, just, equitable and human world.
What we have to LOSE - any remaining semblance of freedom, and instead a life under a fanatic dictatorship.
It's 1854. Major Whig Senators, Sumner, Chase, Seward, and various Whig House Members, decide it is time to stop negotiating or hanging around with Cotton Whigs or those Whigs who don't understand the power of the Slaveocracy. They look carefully at the Whig Party and see it is a hollowed out husk. They know, too, that stopping the expansion of slavery is one most voting Americans (meaning most white folks, and some blacks in northern states) want. They connect the dots from slavery to other issues: Free Men, Free Soil, Free Labor. They form a new party more than simply a third party: The Republican Party. It catches on like wildfire across the North and West, where a majority of voters live.
Today, the big issue that allows us to connect foreign to domestic policies is the Oligarchy. It is why we can't have nice things. It is past time for existing progressives in Congress to be the leaders the antislavery Whigs were in 1854. In 1854, there was no instant communication. Today, progressives in Congress have 100 million followers already. One can say, "Well, look how complex ballot access is today compared to 1854." Okay, but the progressives in Congress have $100-150 million in cash right now. Think how much and how fast the unknown special election candidates raised in Florida and I forget where else in a matter of weeks. They will have $200 million to defeat whatever Marc Elias (who the DNC hires to harass Green Party ballot accessors) can throw at them.
I called for this months ago, and people laughed or said I was crazy. It may be too late to start now for 2026, but I think it can happen pretty fast, and in time for most States' party and candidate deadlines.
Corbin, your essays have been great in diagnosing the hollowed shell that is the Democratic Party, a party which has an apparatus of big donors and their handmaiden consulting class people, who care more about lining their pockets and would rather lose to fascism than win with social democracy. You are now saying there has to be a coalition of the movements with the candidates. This will most effectively happen if the modern progressives take the step the antislavery Whigs took. We cannot do this ourselves in the grass roots. We can only do this with leadership to follow and whom we will continue to hold the leaders' feet to the fires. New people will also pop up, you know, like the one time Congressman from Illinois who came back into politics in the late 1850s, Abe Lincoln.
We have an even more urgent danger now: Trump seems to be close to invoking the Insurrection Act, by provoking peaceful protestors to do violent things (like throwing sandwiches!) and claiming the military is needed to "quell the insurrection." As I was thinking WTH we could do--they have an army, we don't--I remembered Gandhi and MLK. They led the oppressed people in non-violent resistance, and it was a mightier force than an army. If we could turn out by the thousands, sit peacefully, sing, not respond when they attack, we could prevail. I just don't know if most people have the discipline to do that. And we would need a charismatic figure to encourage people to do it. I disagree with you about Bernie--I think he IS doing all he can nationally, appeals to all ages, and could be the hub of small donations.'
I know this isn't your topic today, but if we don't stop this military action and soon, nothing else will matter.
Kathy, “If we could turn out by the thousands” — that could be October 18! All across the country there are over 2500 peaceful protests planned. We need 3 million plus people to get out and oppose what’s happening to our people! Combine that with the political coalition that Corbin’s talking about, and we could have real people power.
Thanks to Trump there’s a stable full of young progressive candidates running this year at the local-level and next year at the national level. Maybe the solution to the dilemma your article discusses lies in reaching out to those candidates on the front end of their campaign, before they win, instead of waiting for them to win and then trying to get them to work together.
Yes, I would support a progressive slate. But I don't want more texts and more email requests for money. I want a website I can visit and share with my friends. The website should list goals for the progressive caucus, and provide campaign funds only to candidates who sign on and who state those goals in their campaign materials. Of course there would need to be a provision for ad hoc legislation that a majority of this caucus supports.
Bernie has endorsed and will again. AOC has helped other candidates. It’s less about their actions than the problem that we haven’t found a way to organize within the DP. Here Iager’s with you. My suggestion: The Progressive Caucus should become a real faction like a separate party would be in a European Parliament—with a program and organization on the ground.
There is a substantial grass roots progressive movement (NOT WOKE Either). Bernie Sanders won the 2016 Democratic Primary and the 2020 Democratic Primary. The Corrupt Establishment with the help of the establishment FAKENEWS MEDIA MAFIA (CNN MSNBC ABC NBC CBS FOX) on one side and (NEWSMAX, One Americas Voice, and OAN) on the other side, along with the Billionaire THUGS stole the Democratic Nominations from him, and anointed a hated Hillary Clinton and Uninspiring Demented IDIOT Joe Biden. During the 2016 Primary Sanders (Like Trump) was garnering crowds in the tens of thousands at his rallies. Hillary Clinton came to Boston and had trouble filling a hotel function room. Biden's rallies were like ghostly gatherings. They were dead. Nobody wanted or liked Hillary Clinton at that time. They buried IDIOT Biden in 10 person debates where he didn't have to do much but SPOUT LOUDLY and FORCIBLY one or two lines during the debate from a script he was given. All you saw on MAFIA FAKENEWS TV was Biden's EMPTY words and how he was the prohibitive favorite, even though he was NOT THE PROHIBITIVE FAVORITE. Bernie Sanders was kicking Biden Ass in every poll that was not rigged. The DNC establishment never reported on a single poll Bernie was winning. The entire Compromised DNC crew NEED TO GO!
The CORRUPT BILLIONAIRE OWNED MEDIA ARE THE ENEMY. People(SHEEP) watching the nightly news are like the lamb being lead to the slaughter. They believe anchors like David Muir when he comes on the air Lies, Manipulates, Misleads, and Twists the truth into an alternate reality. Muir and others in his ilk on the Mafia Media make it all appear so professional and serious like he is being truthful and credible. He is NOT credible. He is a clown puppet doing the work of cowardly Billionaires who hide in the background and PAY these useful IDIOTS do their dirty work.
The media use to expose billionaires who were corrupt, unethical, greedy and basically Evil. Now they turn the focus of the sheep on anything and everything but the real ENEMY......The TOP 1%!
I would absolutely get back in the game to support a cohort that resembles the one you describe. I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I stopped investing much time, effort or funds in our party several years ago.
I get lots of endorsements from Bernie and squad members of new candidates. They are trying to back each other. But I also get a giant wash of hundreds of requests for money every day. There is no way to know whi ch candidates are for what agenda. There's no way to identify what policies each is for (nor guarantee they'll actually fulfill them once in office).
Maybe we should compile a spreadsheet of candidates with their platforms. Also, include a pledge to fight for what they promise if elected in the agreement. (Though I would make no corporate or big $ donations a requirement, which would, I hope, eliminate the pressure to cave).
While there’s lots to like in your collective thoughts here, and unity.. my growing suspicion is that no one recognizes, talks about, or challenges the bedrock foundation & presumption: that national harmony or even “workability” of a single national political scheme (even with theoretical “unity”) is scale independent. and Geographically and ‘values’ independent. We are now a nation of 340M+ extremely heterogeneous, scarcely governable people, largely mesmerized / intoxicated with techno-optimism. All the examples of this national experiment of ‘working’ are taken from a past we’ve left far behind, in pace, density, resource consumption, and most importantly, in the Exceptional American’s notion of self-interest. We have our work cut out for us.
Some good ideas here, once I got past this paragraph [see below] with which I can’t agree. I donated to Bernie’s and AOC’s candidates long before the DNC found and slammed me with tons of text messages. Ro Khanna supports progressive candidates and he, like Bernie before him, has spent a lot of time on Thom Hartmann’s radio show. Thom favors taking over the Democratic Party and the Progressive Caucus should be key.
“Ro Khanna cannot do this alone. Bernie Sanders cannot do this alone. AOC cannot do this alone. But they aren’t working together. They have this fundamental belief that they’re fighting to represent their states and districts, and that’s where their obligation ends.”
I agree with you Kate. I get notices, helpful information, and analysis about issues, legislation, policies, etc. from AOC, Presley, Bernie, Jayapal, and other progressives even though I'm not in their districts. Of course they can and do prioritize their voting constituents' needs (duh!), but it is a falsehood to say they address issues strictly within their locales. On the other hand what I get from my Representative (Schrier) is nothing but form letters unresponsive to the issues I submit to her office. The Schriers and Fettermans of Congress is who Corbin is describing and should be calling out not the progressive wing of the party.
The problem is that there are a couple ways to create unity. The current GOP has found one: rally around a messianic figure (dark though he may be) and be willing to sacrifice anything, including your own humanity, for the cause. Clearly, that is antithetical to what Democrats, especially Progressives, stand for.
So what is the alternative? Rally around a *policy* that all can embrace. Another commenter has listed about a dozen proposed policies — all of them great. But that’s probably too complex -- it would complicate and divide the messaging. Let’s pick one or two and give it our all. Historically, it has been “the economy stupid!”. That’s even substantially what Trump ran on last year (apart from all the hate).
I’ve been increasingly warming up to an organization “Patriotic Millionaires” who have put forth a simple four-point plan largely addressing tax policy that goes straight to the heart of mainstream America’s concerns. For more detail, see “The Money Agenda: America250”
… accordingly, we ought to rally around a simple philosophy and message: “A government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich” ends today", to once again restore a government that works for ALL people. Failing that, we just accede to oligarchy and authoritarianism.
Unity without policy has nothing to coalesce around. Reagan said, "Where's the beef?" It is well and good to talk about unity, but unity around what? Try some substance. 1. Universal Health Care. 2. Comprehensive environmental protection that regulates poisons and promotes ecosystem health. 3. Campaign finance reform that prevents corporate and wealthy donors from dominating candidates. 4. Education financing and independence. Reduce or eliminate student debt. 5. Civil rights laws and enforcement (reject white Christian nationalism). 6. Accept climate change as real and adjust energy policies to act to drawdown carbon. 7. Emphasize freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the separation of church at state. 8. Break up monopolies and oligarchies to free up creative freedom. Eliminate stock buyback and limit stock payments to CEOs. 9. Tax reform, reinstitute a graduated income tax that heavily hits the wealthy. 10. Eliminate the cap on SS and Medicaid payroll taxes. Once you have some policies around which to rally, the unity will come. You won't get the desired coalition working together unless you have goals, and means to get to those goals, articulated.
I feel like Corbin has articulated the substance pretty well, centered on a government that builds to make life easier for the vast majority, rather than maintaining a corrupt system of extraction. Also that keeping the policy points fairly simple helps build a bigger tent and makes messaging easier. (Mamdani built his campaign around 3 things). Being a long-time progressive, I would favor these 3:
1. Medicare for all - or a comparable plan
2. Campaign Finance Reform - starting with a pledge by our candidates to commit to small donor fundraising only (which should become a major selling point around ending the corruption and double-dealing)
3. Green new deal and other infrastructure initiatives
As Corbin has outlined, once the movement has gained enough seats in congress (as well as the presidency) our power to enact deeper changes (like ending CITIZENS UNITED). will grow.
Another item that might not be top of these lists, but something that needed to be corrected long ago is allowing Independent voters to vote in primaries! Not allowing this particular voting pool to participate in selecting candidates simply because they are neither Democrat or Republican should have been corrected (!) long ago. Frankly, way back when I registered as Democrat - THAT was the main reason! I have many disagreements with the party establishment - more so now than before.
Right on. Zero sum behaviors for 4k years have all but ended humanity as a viable animal, and that animal has taken its home down the rabbit hole with extinction at the bottom. Winning is now and always has been Losing. You never see wildlife with one winner and 31 losers. Forests do not count how many beech it takes to defeat the pines.
Community succeeds. Hierarchy fails, mightily. Take a long look around at THIS human world. It might as well ALL be Gaza. Ukraine, as badly battered as it is, defines community, with Do Nothing Europe sitting on its many hands all around, all individually covering their own asses WITHIN a mock Union. Wow, impressive, huh?
The U in USA does not exist. Every state plays zero sum. Why? Right now it is because the Powerful are so because of the Massive Traction that monetary influence gives them. Blackstone owns so many different kinds of enterprises you might think it is the NEW Republic, when, in fact, it is the Road to Perdition, because nothing about Blackstone is united except the Power Monarchy of the controlling board and major holders, maybe 1 percent of the investors.
It is not a matter of Wanting Unity, it is a matter of Not Surviving without IT. Here is the rub. Social Media is NOT uniting anyone. Anonymity is nothing more than Jung's Shadow Self, and its Wetiko, its toxic mind virus, is MSM.
We humans have always LIED. We are a weak and petty species, hoping against hope to just get a little more mature each 1000 years or so. Denial is a LIE. Procrastination is a LIE. Ambition is the engine of LIES. What drives ambition? Security from having any TRUTH revealed about you/me/us. Another LIE.
Right now, at every level of interactions, humans are being drowned in LIES. Top-down hierarchy, no matter what kind, gifts the LIAR with huge advantage, and the MSM in any society is just another top-down monarchy.
Your points are salient, but to bring them home requires unity, Corbin's push, which is not new, just more elusive than ever due to the overwhelming propaganda power of MSM. To unite means to defy divisions, to sacrifice the greed and the fears of Self and see the world as others see it, and see ourselves as others see us.
The Cult of Personality needs nothing but Fear and Lies to succeed. Only I can fix it. Fix what? That void is filled with propaganda and the wetiko of the Shadow Self. Gaza, an ancient grievance with no real basis has been turned into Horror by the Lies of the Cult of Personality, and its ultimate goal is the Security of Singularity. In other words, SLAVERY for all but the Shadows, who are not as united as Corbin thinks. I have, for my entire life, watched the oligarchs Eat Each Other. Zero Sum. One winner? NO. All losers.
Unity cannot be centered around a cult of personality, or a dream/nightmare of Singularity. Yes, we are part of a great whole of life, but MSM will convince us we are NOT.
The only real Singularity is recognizing that without all else we are the Nothing but Singular Shadows. Are humans now in any position to admit this and find their collective will to Survive? I see it in the crowds, in the small conversations everywhere, in the day-to-day behaviors of persons everywhere. I Never see it in the Cult of Personality.
Politics has become the Shadow Self, the toxic mind virus of Wetiko. Glued together by the LIES of MSM. MSM is the Political Class, little Caesars looking for victims to pounce on. They care nothing for anyone, especially each other. Watch them, and do the opposite of what they do, and we will find unity, perhaps before the Centurions gun us down.
What comes first, by my lights, is to get humanity informed about how overshoot has us facing imminent life or death. If even billionaires know their survival was at stake, that should get their attention. Then we could deal with policy changes.
I am a big fan of Overshoot, by William Catton (hopefully I got the spelling write). The only problem is that most people don't know what you are talking about when you bring it up. I am used to giving full 75 minute lectures on the topic. Are you familiar with Nate Hagens and The Great Simplification? Worth listening to.
I don't attribute overshoot to any author but is the generic word being used for overstepping planetary boundaries, and I use it carefully, aware that many don't know it. My first and foremost advocacy is to inform everyone about the danger we are in, so we stop hurting each other and work together to do what we can to save ourselves. Nate Hagens is great -- although he identified me as a stalker to someone he interviewed after I'd introduced myself and suggested he have me on his podcast.
Agreed. And I love this list, but I also think it needs to be perceived in a different way. My progressive eyes see this list and say, right on. But then I read the list through the eyes of my MAHA sister, I wonder how it could be revamped to appeal to others, but still accomplish the same goals. For example, climate change as a phrase needs to go. If you make climate issues into health issues, they will have wider appeal. I think MAHA can be commandeered into an environmental issue pretty easily. You just have to meet them on the issues where agreement can be found. They hate pesticides in their food, so start there and build. Move to microplastics, and then air pollution, and then corporate control of elections and universal health care. It isn't the issues that need to change, it is the starting point. You have to break into their algorithm before that can hear how these issues all connect. And honestly, the algorithm is a problem. We are all trapped in echo chambers so even if you (Corbin) got a new unified movement going, who is going to hear about it?
Agreed. I would think to focus on 3-5 issues that are fairly non-controversial among us progressives. Though all of your list is attractive, I would say 3, 6, and 7 (with 7 including civil rights and all the other provisions of the Constitution that are currently being trampled -- the Emoluments Clause, e.g.) are at present the most significant that are likely to win universal support.
Sure I would support a coordinated slate that was functioning as a coordinated movement. By that I mean a movement that can grow, that others can join, that non-candidate partner organizations can embrace and their members ("us," presumably) can work to support with and within the momentum of our own organizations, be they civic, religious, etc.
I'm tired of sawed off shotgun requests from countless groups that have me on mailing lists, all asking me individually for donations every day. That didn't do anything to prevent this moment, and it isn't going to do anything to get us out of this moment.
I'm willing to show up for the opposite of that.
Yes! Engaging the various organizations could be huge. We all agree on the obvious failures of the 2 major parties. This feels like a call to progressives to acknowledge our own failures and try something new. The left is famous for "eating its own". But there is so much more that unites us than the relatively small differences of opinion. Especially when we are on the brink of losing our ability to have democratic politics at all.
It seems that these are the stakes:
What we have to GAIN - a MUCH better, more democratic, just, equitable and human world.
What we have to LOSE - any remaining semblance of freedom, and instead a life under a fanatic dictatorship.
It's 1854. Major Whig Senators, Sumner, Chase, Seward, and various Whig House Members, decide it is time to stop negotiating or hanging around with Cotton Whigs or those Whigs who don't understand the power of the Slaveocracy. They look carefully at the Whig Party and see it is a hollowed out husk. They know, too, that stopping the expansion of slavery is one most voting Americans (meaning most white folks, and some blacks in northern states) want. They connect the dots from slavery to other issues: Free Men, Free Soil, Free Labor. They form a new party more than simply a third party: The Republican Party. It catches on like wildfire across the North and West, where a majority of voters live.
Today, the big issue that allows us to connect foreign to domestic policies is the Oligarchy. It is why we can't have nice things. It is past time for existing progressives in Congress to be the leaders the antislavery Whigs were in 1854. In 1854, there was no instant communication. Today, progressives in Congress have 100 million followers already. One can say, "Well, look how complex ballot access is today compared to 1854." Okay, but the progressives in Congress have $100-150 million in cash right now. Think how much and how fast the unknown special election candidates raised in Florida and I forget where else in a matter of weeks. They will have $200 million to defeat whatever Marc Elias (who the DNC hires to harass Green Party ballot accessors) can throw at them.
I called for this months ago, and people laughed or said I was crazy. It may be too late to start now for 2026, but I think it can happen pretty fast, and in time for most States' party and candidate deadlines.
Corbin, your essays have been great in diagnosing the hollowed shell that is the Democratic Party, a party which has an apparatus of big donors and their handmaiden consulting class people, who care more about lining their pockets and would rather lose to fascism than win with social democracy. You are now saying there has to be a coalition of the movements with the candidates. This will most effectively happen if the modern progressives take the step the antislavery Whigs took. We cannot do this ourselves in the grass roots. We can only do this with leadership to follow and whom we will continue to hold the leaders' feet to the fires. New people will also pop up, you know, like the one time Congressman from Illinois who came back into politics in the late 1850s, Abe Lincoln.
We have an even more urgent danger now: Trump seems to be close to invoking the Insurrection Act, by provoking peaceful protestors to do violent things (like throwing sandwiches!) and claiming the military is needed to "quell the insurrection." As I was thinking WTH we could do--they have an army, we don't--I remembered Gandhi and MLK. They led the oppressed people in non-violent resistance, and it was a mightier force than an army. If we could turn out by the thousands, sit peacefully, sing, not respond when they attack, we could prevail. I just don't know if most people have the discipline to do that. And we would need a charismatic figure to encourage people to do it. I disagree with you about Bernie--I think he IS doing all he can nationally, appeals to all ages, and could be the hub of small donations.'
I know this isn't your topic today, but if we don't stop this military action and soon, nothing else will matter.
Kathy, “If we could turn out by the thousands” — that could be October 18! All across the country there are over 2500 peaceful protests planned. We need 3 million plus people to get out and oppose what’s happening to our people! Combine that with the political coalition that Corbin’s talking about, and we could have real people power.
Thanks to Trump there’s a stable full of young progressive candidates running this year at the local-level and next year at the national level. Maybe the solution to the dilemma your article discusses lies in reaching out to those candidates on the front end of their campaign, before they win, instead of waiting for them to win and then trying to get them to work together.
Yes, I would support a progressive slate. But I don't want more texts and more email requests for money. I want a website I can visit and share with my friends. The website should list goals for the progressive caucus, and provide campaign funds only to candidates who sign on and who state those goals in their campaign materials. Of course there would need to be a provision for ad hoc legislation that a majority of this caucus supports.
Bernie has endorsed and will again. AOC has helped other candidates. It’s less about their actions than the problem that we haven’t found a way to organize within the DP. Here Iager’s with you. My suggestion: The Progressive Caucus should become a real faction like a separate party would be in a European Parliament—with a program and organization on the ground.
Totally agree on a unified vision, goals, and coordination among candidates. Isn’t that what a party is supposed to do?
We need movement to topple the DNC leadership. An insurgent effort to reshape the party.
Sounds daunting, but is probably less daunting than doing it outside the party structure.
You said it yourself in this piece, the reason Bernie, AOC, et al don’t coordinate is in deference to the party.
Think of it as the proving ground for the movement. If we can’t transform the DNC, then how do we expect to transform the country as a whole.
There is a substantial grass roots progressive movement (NOT WOKE Either). Bernie Sanders won the 2016 Democratic Primary and the 2020 Democratic Primary. The Corrupt Establishment with the help of the establishment FAKENEWS MEDIA MAFIA (CNN MSNBC ABC NBC CBS FOX) on one side and (NEWSMAX, One Americas Voice, and OAN) on the other side, along with the Billionaire THUGS stole the Democratic Nominations from him, and anointed a hated Hillary Clinton and Uninspiring Demented IDIOT Joe Biden. During the 2016 Primary Sanders (Like Trump) was garnering crowds in the tens of thousands at his rallies. Hillary Clinton came to Boston and had trouble filling a hotel function room. Biden's rallies were like ghostly gatherings. They were dead. Nobody wanted or liked Hillary Clinton at that time. They buried IDIOT Biden in 10 person debates where he didn't have to do much but SPOUT LOUDLY and FORCIBLY one or two lines during the debate from a script he was given. All you saw on MAFIA FAKENEWS TV was Biden's EMPTY words and how he was the prohibitive favorite, even though he was NOT THE PROHIBITIVE FAVORITE. Bernie Sanders was kicking Biden Ass in every poll that was not rigged. The DNC establishment never reported on a single poll Bernie was winning. The entire Compromised DNC crew NEED TO GO!
The CORRUPT BILLIONAIRE OWNED MEDIA ARE THE ENEMY. People(SHEEP) watching the nightly news are like the lamb being lead to the slaughter. They believe anchors like David Muir when he comes on the air Lies, Manipulates, Misleads, and Twists the truth into an alternate reality. Muir and others in his ilk on the Mafia Media make it all appear so professional and serious like he is being truthful and credible. He is NOT credible. He is a clown puppet doing the work of cowardly Billionaires who hide in the background and PAY these useful IDIOTS do their dirty work.
The media use to expose billionaires who were corrupt, unethical, greedy and basically Evil. Now they turn the focus of the sheep on anything and everything but the real ENEMY......The TOP 1%!
I would absolutely get back in the game to support a cohort that resembles the one you describe. I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I stopped investing much time, effort or funds in our party several years ago.
I get lots of endorsements from Bernie and squad members of new candidates. They are trying to back each other. But I also get a giant wash of hundreds of requests for money every day. There is no way to know whi ch candidates are for what agenda. There's no way to identify what policies each is for (nor guarantee they'll actually fulfill them once in office).
Maybe we should compile a spreadsheet of candidates with their platforms. Also, include a pledge to fight for what they promise if elected in the agreement. (Though I would make no corporate or big $ donations a requirement, which would, I hope, eliminate the pressure to cave).
While there’s lots to like in your collective thoughts here, and unity.. my growing suspicion is that no one recognizes, talks about, or challenges the bedrock foundation & presumption: that national harmony or even “workability” of a single national political scheme (even with theoretical “unity”) is scale independent. and Geographically and ‘values’ independent. We are now a nation of 340M+ extremely heterogeneous, scarcely governable people, largely mesmerized / intoxicated with techno-optimism. All the examples of this national experiment of ‘working’ are taken from a past we’ve left far behind, in pace, density, resource consumption, and most importantly, in the Exceptional American’s notion of self-interest. We have our work cut out for us.
No one even knows if the 2026 elections will be "free and fair" let alone if Trump is going to step down for the 2028 elections.
I definitely would support a builder movement. I’m from Michigan and I have written Abdul el Sayed about your plan.
Some good ideas here, once I got past this paragraph [see below] with which I can’t agree. I donated to Bernie’s and AOC’s candidates long before the DNC found and slammed me with tons of text messages. Ro Khanna supports progressive candidates and he, like Bernie before him, has spent a lot of time on Thom Hartmann’s radio show. Thom favors taking over the Democratic Party and the Progressive Caucus should be key.
“Ro Khanna cannot do this alone. Bernie Sanders cannot do this alone. AOC cannot do this alone. But they aren’t working together. They have this fundamental belief that they’re fighting to represent their states and districts, and that’s where their obligation ends.”
I agree with you Kate. I get notices, helpful information, and analysis about issues, legislation, policies, etc. from AOC, Presley, Bernie, Jayapal, and other progressives even though I'm not in their districts. Of course they can and do prioritize their voting constituents' needs (duh!), but it is a falsehood to say they address issues strictly within their locales. On the other hand what I get from my Representative (Schrier) is nothing but form letters unresponsive to the issues I submit to her office. The Schriers and Fettermans of Congress is who Corbin is describing and should be calling out not the progressive wing of the party.
The problem is that there are a couple ways to create unity. The current GOP has found one: rally around a messianic figure (dark though he may be) and be willing to sacrifice anything, including your own humanity, for the cause. Clearly, that is antithetical to what Democrats, especially Progressives, stand for.
So what is the alternative? Rally around a *policy* that all can embrace. Another commenter has listed about a dozen proposed policies — all of them great. But that’s probably too complex -- it would complicate and divide the messaging. Let’s pick one or two and give it our all. Historically, it has been “the economy stupid!”. That’s even substantially what Trump ran on last year (apart from all the hate).
I’ve been increasingly warming up to an organization “Patriotic Millionaires” who have put forth a simple four-point plan largely addressing tax policy that goes straight to the heart of mainstream America’s concerns. For more detail, see “The Money Agenda: America250”
https://patrioticmillionaires.org/perspectives/america-250-the-money-agenda/
… accordingly, we ought to rally around a simple philosophy and message: “A government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich” ends today", to once again restore a government that works for ALL people. Failing that, we just accede to oligarchy and authoritarianism.