Jimmy Dore went from being a YouTube-based comedian to a vital public intellectual at the end of 2020 with his #ForcetheVote campaign to get the Progressive Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives to use its numbers to leverage a vote on Medicare For All!
The idea is simple. Because of the poor showing of House Democrats in November, their majority has narrowed to a razor-thin number of votes. A handful of true Progressives should withhold support for another Nancy Pelosi speakership unless she brings Medicare For All! to a vote.
A completely sensible idea, nonetheless one publicly rejected by Progressive superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) because she thinks that Medicare For All! would lose such a floor vote. But that's exactly the point -- to spotlight how completely out of touch the people's house is with the people. A super-majority supports Medicare For All! A floor vote will shine a bright light and provide the opportunity to challenge no-voting representatives in the next election.
If House Progressives can't force a vote on publicly-funded healthcare in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, the U.S. body count for which will approach half a million by spring, then they are not politicians who merit support. Subsequently, I have cancelled my regular contributions to AOC and Rashida Tlaib on ActBlue.
Anyhow, a little bit of good news at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. Even if Pelosi is reelected as speaker today without Progressives flexing their muscles Jimmy Dore has done us all an enormous favor. He has exposed impostors on the left edge of the Democratic Party. Both branches of the duopoly need to be confronted, challenged, and, if necessary, destroyed to bring about a closer alignment between politicians and public sentiment. People want publicly-funded healthcare. People want an end to overseas military adventures. Yet one would never know by looking at Congress and the White House.
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