At the one-day "We the People" forum in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Sen. Kamala Harris joined three other Democratic senators, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Democratic Reps Luis Gutiérrez. and Pramila Jayapal, as each of them gave short speeches and answered questions from the audience of about 1,000 participants.
Julia Conley at Common Dreams writes—'We Must Do More Than Resist': Bold, Progressive Agenda Championed at #WeThePeople Summit:
Speaking to hundreds of grassroots organizers at the We the People Summit in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers displayed their shift to the left on a number of causes that progressives say politicians must embrace and fight for, in order to win enthusiastic support in upcoming elections.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) all spoke at the gathering, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). [...]
At the summit, hosted by a number of progressive groups including [Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Communications Workers of America, Center for Popular Democracy Action, Demos Action, MoveOn, People’s Action, 32BJ SEIU, Working Families Party, PICO National Network, Caring Across Generations, National Domestic Workers Alliance, New York Communities for Change, Faith in Action Fund, Sierra Club, 350 Action, Indivisible and United We Dream], public officials and advocates alike spoke in favor of a forward-thinking agenda.
"We are here to send a message to the leaders of the Democratic party: we must do more than resist, and put forward an agenda that puts Main Street before Wall Street," said Chris Shelton, president of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), which co-hosted the event. "Stand with us, not with Wall Street!"
"We're not just pulling the party to the left. We're pulling the party into the future," said Heather McGhee, president of Demos and one of the event's moderators. "This is what Democracy looks like." [...]
There is brief coverage here of each of the senator’s remarks.
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“Reagan 's story of freedom superficially alludes to the Founding Fathers, but its substance comes from the Gilded Age, devised by apologists for the robber barons. It is posed abstractly as the freedom of the individual from government control a Jeffersonian ideal at the roots of our Bill of Rights, to be sure. But what it meant in politics a century later, and still means today, is the freedom to accumulate wealth without social or democratic responsibilities and license to buy the political system right out from everyone else.”
~~Bill Moyers, For America’s Sake speech, December 12, 2006.
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2010—Helen Thomas and the veneer of civilization:
There is great sadness at the end of Helen Thomas's long and valuable career. Her nasty comments allowed her critics their final moment of triumph. As if all the good she had done, speaking truth to power, attempting to hold presidents accountable when so many of her supposed peers were resorting to mere sniveling sycophancy, was for naught. Every good she had attempted could be dismissed. She had revealed a latent bigotry. It was that for which she would be remembered.
There is no excusing Thomas's comments. They were hateful, insensitive, and historically obtuse. That she had never before publicly revealed that side of herself is irrelevant. That she is very elderly and may have been emotionally exhausted matters not a whit. Those comments made her immediate retirement necessary. There was no going back. The entire episode called to mind the forced retirement of baseball executive Al Campanis a couple decades earlier.
Campanis also was toward the end of a long, distinguished career. Campanis also will be remembered less for all the good he did than for the way his career ended. Campanis had played baseball with Jackie Robinson. In the many years after his playing career, he had worked for the organization that had integrated baseball, and he had helped nurture the careers of many young black players. But on live television, one night, he made what were indisputably vile, racist comments. He had never before revealed such bigotry. He was elderly, and on that night he appeared to be a bit worse for alcohol. Friends and colleagues, many of them black, defended his honor and integrity. But his words could not be ignored. The meaning of his words could not be ignored.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The North Korea "deal." How do you cover news that may or may not have happened? Greg Dworkin & Joan McCarter do their level best, plus update us on the latest Obamacare lawsuit, the immigration bill fight and discharge petition, and election results.
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