{"id":4304,"date":"2020-12-30T14:35:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T14:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=144772"},"modified":"2020-12-30T14:35:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T14:35:40","slug":"for-the-first-time-the-progressive-caucus-will-have-real-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/30\/for-the-first-time-the-progressive-caucus-will-have-real-power\/","title":{"rendered":"For the First Time, the Progressive Caucus Will Have Real Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic major\u00adi\u00adty in the House is shap\u00ading up to be one of the most pro\u00adgres\u00adsive\u2009\u2014\u2009and par\u00adti\u00adsan\u2009\u2014\u2009ever, as mem\u00adbers of the 117th<\/sup> Con\u00adgress assume office Jan\u00adu\u00adary 3. While some mod\u00ader\u00adate Dems lost their House seats, the Con\u00adgres\u00adsion\u00adal Pro\u00adgres\u00adsive Cau\u00adcus (CPC) gained mem\u00adbers, includ\u00ading Reps. Jamaal Bow\u00adman (N.Y.) and Cori Bush (Mo.), both mem\u00adbers of the Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic Social\u00adists of America. <\/p>\n

Yes, Belt\u00adway pun\u00addits will belly\u00adache about the death of cross-par\u00adty comi\u00adty. But in Con\u00adgress, bipar\u00adti\u00adsan\u00adship does not serve the inter\u00adests of the major\u00adi\u00adty of Democ\u00adrats, espe\u00adcial\u00adly those who suf\u00adfer the effects of struc\u00adtur\u00adal racism and gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtional pover\u00adty. Look no fur\u00adther than three \u200b\u201ccrown\u00ading\u201d bipar\u00adti\u00adsan achieve\u00adments<\/a> of the 1990s: the 1994 crime bill, the Wel\u00adfare Reform Act of 1996 and the 1999 repeal of Glass-Stea\u00adgall bank reg\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion. The lat\u00adter came home to roost in 2008, enabling the finan\u00adcial cri\u00adsis. The George W. Bush administration\u2019s sub\u00adse\u00adquent $700 bil\u00adlion bank bailout res\u00adcued Wall Street but did noth\u00ading for the 10 mil\u00adlion fam\u00adi\u00adlies<\/a> who lost their homes. <\/p>\n

Fast for\u00adward 12 years and we are again head\u00aded toward eco\u00adnom\u00adic cat\u00ada\u00adstro\u00adphe. The Covid-19 pan\u00addem\u00adic and the expi\u00adra\u00adtion of pan\u00addem\u00adic-relat\u00aded unem\u00adploy\u00adment ben\u00ade\u00adfits will move 14 mil\u00adlion Amer\u00adi\u00adcans<\/a> one step clos\u00ader to deep pover\u00adty and home\u00adless\u00adness. This lev\u00adel of eco\u00adnom\u00adic des\u00adti\u00adtu\u00adtion has not been seen since the 1930s. <\/p>\n

One dif\u00adfer\u00adence between the Covid-19 Reces\u00adsion and the 2008 Great Reces\u00adsion is that pro\u00adgres\u00adsives in Con\u00adgress have since got\u00adten their act togeth\u00ader. The CPC has restruc\u00adtured itself<\/a> (start\u00ading Jan\u00adu\u00adary 3) into a dis\u00adci\u00adplined, small\u2011d demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic polit\u00adi\u00adcal oper\u00ada\u00adtion that will push pro\u00adgres\u00adsive leg\u00adis\u00adla\u00adtion on the inside while help\u00ading raise a ruckus on the outside. <\/p>\n

Under new rules approved in Novem\u00adber 2020, the CPC will no longer be led by two co-chairs<\/a>. For the 117th<\/sup> Con\u00adgress, Rep. Prami\u00adla Jaya\u00adpal (Wash.) will lead. Anoth\u00ader change requires mem\u00adbers to vote as a bloc on issues sup\u00adport\u00aded by two-thirds of the cau\u00adcus. Should a mem\u00adber fail to adhere to this rule at least 66% of the time, they could face expul\u00adsion. In addi\u00adtion, mem\u00adbers must attend CPC meet\u00adings and respond to requests from the cau\u00adcus whip (cur\u00adrent\u00adly Minnesota\u2019s Rep. Ilhan Omar) about where they stand on issues. <\/p>\n

If some CPC mem\u00adbers find the new rules unac\u00adcept\u00adable, no sweat. Jaya\u00adpal made clear she \u200b\u201cwould rather have peo\u00adple who are real\u00adly com\u00admit\u00adted to the Pro\u00adgres\u00adsive Cau\u00adcus in the cau\u00adcus and par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpat\u00ading rather than sort of just hav\u00ading it as a label.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Bow\u00adman greet\u00aded news of the reforms with a tweet<\/a>: \u200b\u201cReady to flex our mus\u00adcle and join the era of col\u00adlec\u00adtive pro\u00adgres\u00adsive power.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Congressional Progressive Caucus has restructured itself into a disciplined, small-d democratic political operation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jaya\u00adpal, who entered Con\u00adgress in 2016 (after a 20-year career as a com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty orga\u00adniz\u00ader), admits in an inter\u00adview<\/a> with Seattle\u2019s alter\u00adna\u00adtive week\u00adly, The Stranger, that it will become all but impos\u00adsi\u00adble to pass pro\u00adgres\u00adsive leg\u00adis\u00adla\u00adtion should Repub\u00adli\u00adcans con\u00adtrol the Sen\u00adate. \u200b\u201cThen we have to use an inside\/\u200boutside strat\u00ade\u00adgy like the one I was part of when we got Oba\u00adma to agree to [the Dream Act],\u201d Jaya\u00adpal says. \u200b\u201cWe may have to be the wind behind the sails that helps Joe Biden and Kamala Har\u00adris deliv\u00ader change through exec\u00adu\u00adtive action, if we can\u2019t do it legislatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic major\u00adi\u00adty in the House is so slim\u2009\u2014\u2009just 13 seats\u2009\u2014\u2009a unit\u00aded CPC could even extract the con\u00adces\u00adsions from House lead\u00ader\u00adship so des\u00adper\u00adate\u00adly need\u00aded right now: evic\u00adtion mora\u00adto\u00adri\u00adums, stu\u00addent debt relief, unem\u00adploy\u00adment assistance.<\/p>\n

These types of poli\u00adcies are anath\u00ade\u00adma to par\u00adty cen\u00adtrists, who appar\u00adent\u00adly would rather cap\u00adtain a sink\u00ading ship than sur\u00adren\u00adder any con\u00adtrol to par\u00adti\u00adsans in steer\u00adage. But pro\u00advid\u00ading actu\u00adal eco\u00adnom\u00adic relief is essen\u00adtial to pre\u00advent Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic loss\u00ades in the midterms and 2024. Move\u00adment-backed Democ\u00adrats must be dis\u00adci\u00adplined and orga\u00adnized in work\u00ading with the new pres\u00adi\u00addent, who inher\u00adits a crisis.<\/p>\n

Oth\u00ader\u00adwise, a ship\u00adwreck is imminent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic major\u00adi\u00adty in the House is shap\u00ading up to be one of the most pro\u00adgres\u00adsive\u2009\u2014\u2009and par\u00adti\u00adsan\u2009\u2014\u2009ever, as mem\u00adbers of the\u00a0117th\u00a0Con\u00adgress assume office Jan\u00adu\u00adary\u00a03. While some mod\u00ader\u00adate Dems\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4305,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions\/4305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}