Progressive Political News

We recently wrote about many of the reasons Bernie Sanders lost the 2020 Democratic Primary and one of the most prominent reasons for his defeat was his reluctance to be much tougher on his rivals, which they were with him. Sanders sustained a slew of attacks from his competitors in the Democratic field, most of the attacks were based on fear-mongering about the high price for his policies. Virtually every candidate attacked Sanders on the cost of Medicare for All, using the 'huge cost' of such a policy to scare voters into being against the policy, consistently screaming "it costs $30 trillion!" The price tag is actually somewhere around $17 trillion, also conveniently left out are the facts that this is the cost over ten years and that Medicare for All actually costs substantially less than the current American healthcare system. Medicare for All is estimated to save anywhere from $303 billion to $2 trillion over the course of the next ten years, if implement...

MSNBC's "The Last Word" host Lawrence O'Donnell describes his politics as a "practical European socialist", which essentially boils down to being a nordic-style social democrat, usually in favour of a mixed economy with a generous welfare state and has defended his positions on MSNBC news shows that typically frown upon stepping outside the neoliberal bubble. O'Donnell is no progressive hero in the context of american politics, sometimes scolding progressive politicians whenever they mildly criticize the Democratic Party, such as when Bernie Sanders tweeted about having to take on the Democratic establishment as well as Republicans, O'Donnell decided to concern troll Sanders by claiming that the Democratic establishment wouldn't pass Sanders' proposals if he wasn't nice to them. Over the course of the last few months an old video of O'Donnell explaining how to move the Democratic Party further left and how the party treats the p...

Unless someone is able to invent a way to travel back in time, preferably to around the time of the Nevada Caucus, we will unfortunately never experience a Bernie Sanders presidency. A variety of reasons were offered for Sanders' surprising exit from the 2020 Democratic Primary, including the ridiculous claims that his campaign staff, particularly Briahna Joy Gray and David Sirota, were primarily responsible or the laughable assertion that Sanders didn't portray himself as "patriotic" enough, supposedly Sanders not wearing an American flag pin is one of the main reasons for his defeat. However, there are more rational reasons for Sanders defeat. The most prevalent reason offered was Sanders reluctance to get dirty and push back, much like his previously mentioned campaign staff did. Throughout the primary Sanders annoyed his supporters as he would constantly refer to Joe Biden as "my good friend, Joe" after arguing that Joe Biden's policies wer...

A recent ninety minute recording of a meeting President Donald Trump had with Lev Parnas - an American businessman who is currently under fire regarding the Trump-Ukraine situation for allegedly surveilling and making threats against the US Ambassador to Ukraine - has been leaked and one of the topics they discussed was the 2016 election and Bernie Sanders. During the conversation, which was recorded in 2018, there was a segment regarding the 2016 election and Hillary Clinton's VP pick, which we now know was Tim Kaine. The recording starts off by one of Trump's guests stating: " They rigged it, Bernie would have beaten Hillary " to which another guest agreed because their wasn't the same level of public repudiation towards Bernie Sanders as there is towards Clinton. More can be heard, as another guest saying that " millenials were right there for Bernie ". Now in jumps Donald Trump to state that: " If Bernie would have been Vice President...

The Iowa caucuses are finally here and Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls, currently sitting atop the RealClearPolitics polling averages in both Iowa and New Hampshire, which are the first two states to vote in the Democratic Primary. According to the RCP polling averages in both states, Sanders has an average lead of 4 points in Iowa and 9 points in New Hampshire. Sanders support fluctuated in late 2019 after a minor heart scare which led to several pundits claiming that Sanders was done and he would soon be dropping out, but of course we now see that Sanders has become even more invigorated. In the caucuses, any candidate that does not reach 15% of the vote in the first round of voting will be eliminated and their voters will then be able to back another candidate who has reached that 15% threshold. This is extremely good news for not just Bernie Sanders but Joe Biden as well as the only candidates who are currently polling above 15% are: Bernie; 24.2%, Biden; 20.2%, But...

At a recent Bernie Sanders campaign rally in Iowa, Sanders surrogate Rashida Tlaib caused controversy when instead of quieting a crowd that was booing Hillary Clinton when she was mentioned by name, Tlaib instead stated: " No we're gonna boo, we're gonna boo. When we win the haters will shut up. " This angered the media class and voters that wouldn't have even supported Sanders in the first place. The 'Very Serious People' of online Democratic discourse slammed Tlaib, claiming that she was being divisive and harming Sanders chances in the upcoming primary. Some went a step further, claiming that Tlaib wasn't a true ally to women and their struggles if she was jabbing at Hillary Clinton, while others made videos screaming " f*ck Rashida Tlaib " into the camera for their Twitter bubble and others want her to be primaried and removed from Congress. This has come after Hillary Clinton has spent the last few years trashing Bernie Sanders at ...

Bernie Sanders supporters have a multitude of criticisms of cable news shows, ranging from them being the supposed gatekeepers of the establishment to the networks being in cahoots with the corporate interests that fund their shows, hence the apprehension to actual progressive politics and the likelihood of both a higher tax bill and losing of their stranglehold on American politics. Chris Matthews, host of 'Hardball' on MSNBC is one of the premier anti-Sanders pundits on what is considered the premier anti-Sanders news network. Matthews has previously asked Joe Biden surrogate John Kerry " how big of a threat would Bernie Sanders be to the country ?" However, Matthews has well and truly outdone himself now. While Matthews was on another MSNBC show, Morning Joe, he proposed the ridiculous question of which Democratic Primary candidate would get out of their car and help you should you be involved in a car accident. Matthews stated: " It's sort of like...

Detractors of 2020 Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders often point to his online supporters and their apparent harassment of people on Twitter. You often hear the phrase " I like Bernie, I support his policies, but his supporters really put me off ." This has been a running theme since the 2016 election with constant focus on supposed 'Bernie Bros' apparently harassing anyone who dare say a bad word about him. For the majority of the time it follows a very similar pattern. Sanders is constantly criticised, sometimes fairly of course, but the majority of time you'll find it to be a prominent liberal saying something outlandish about Sanders, claiming him to be a russian plant, a sexist, racist, having policies that 'only benefit straight white people', a communist and is repeatedly compared to Trump. This is when Sanders supporters push back, this is the supposed 'harassment' - responding to bad faith criticism such as Sanders being compared to ...

Jim Messina, a former President Obama and UK Conservative Party adviser has recently come out against Bernie Sanders and claimed that the Vermont Senator would not be able to win a general election against sitting President Donald Trump and further mentioned that Democrats would "struggle" if Sanders was the nominee. So, who exactly is Jim Messina and why should we trust his opinion? Messina was hired as Obama's national chief of staff in 2008 and was key in his election victory that year as he controlled a $750M budget and also worked for Obama's 2012 campaign but subsequently left in 2011 and begun giving paid corporate seminars and speeches to companies such as Apple, Facebook, Zynga, Google, Microsoft and DreamWorks. Furthermore, in August 2013, Messina signed on as a paid consultant to the UK Conservative Party to work for both David Cameron's and Theresa May's campaigns in 2013 and 2017 respectively. Seemingly, Messina's advice didn't seem ...

Recent reports have been released, supposedly from people within the Warren campaign, claiming that during a 2018 private meeting over dinner between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Sanders told Warren that a woman could not win the presidency in 2020. According to the releases, the two discussed their 2020 plans and both agreed that they both planned to enter the presidential race and Warren mentioned if she thought a female candidate could win the presidency, to which Bernie supposedly told Warren that a women wouldn't be able to win in 2020. Hours after initial news reporting on the subject Warren released a statement in which she stated that Sanders told her that a woman would not be able to win the presidency, leading to claims of sexism and news reports claiming that Sanders has always had a "gender problem". Sanders camp, specifically campaign manager Faiz Shakir, spoke to reporters, saying that this was a lie, Sanders did after all encourage Elizabeth...

Jason Johnson, who contributes to MSNBC and The Root, has spent the majority of the 2020 election cycle going to war with Bernie Sanders supporters on Twitter. Johnson is repeatedly negative towards Sanders and his presidential aspirations, garnering obvious pushback from Sanders' supporters. Following this, David Doel, host of progressive Youtube show The Rational National, recently produced a video of Johnson's comments about Sanders in early 2019 and the beginning of 2020. The video begins with Johnson's remarks about Sanders while on Morning Joe on the 2nd of January 2020, in which Johnson stated that he believed that Sanders supporters were not supporting him for policy reasons, just that his supporters saw him as some kind of Democratic saviour, also claiming that his supporters couldn't be convinced with policy arguments as all of Sanders' supporters are just "Bernie or bust type people". Now, I could tell you from personal experience that t...

Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib endorse Bernie Sanders for President. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are three quarters of a group of relatively new and incredibly popular Congresswomen known as "The Squad", and they dominated the news cycles during Tuesday's Democratic Primary debate when it was announced that they would all be endorsing Bernie Sanders' 2020 Presidential bid. Ayanna Pressley, the fourth member of "The Squad" has said that  she is not endorsing any Democratic candidate  just yet. The news broke when CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked Sanders a question about his recent health issues - this was after the debate moderators hadn't called on Sanders for an answer to several questions, such as gun control and the opioid crisis - to which Sanders responded "I'm healthy, I'm feeling great, but I would like to respond to that question." He then proceeded to give ...

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has had to endure an abundance of criticism during his two attempts to enter the Oval Office, such as the cost of his major policy proposals (Medicare For All, $15/hr minimum wage or Universal Childcare etc) and those are legitimate concerns to have and you would hope that Sanders could answer those questions. However, should you spend far too much time on social media like I do, you’ll soon notice the anti-Sanders enclaves that will use anything and everything, no matter how ridiculous, to hinder his presidential chances - including using the image above to suggest he’s either racially insensitive or just a racist in general.  As you can see, Sanders is pictured above posing for a photo with a black man while Bernie holds the fried chicken that, we assume, the man cooked. And I don’t see a problem here. Should I? Because I don’t. I could stare at this picture and literally just see two dudes smiling and holding a piec...

Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters really are incredible, any political objection to Hillary is a result your deeply held misogyny, she was apparently "entitled" to each and every vote from those who described themselves as anything else but a Trump supporter, any legitimate criticism of her or her politics is the result of "Russian disinformation campaigns" and now Hillary is apparently of the same moral standing as notable religious figures. One person, Sam, decided to place Hillary Clinton above Jesus due to some of the good work that her foundation has done, which is true, the foundation has done wonderful work such as allowing  nine million  people gain access to lower-cost AIDS medication. Credit where credit is due. But.. Jesus? Really, Sam? Speaking of the Clinton Foundation and without going off into the weird land of right-wing conspiracies, investigations into the Foundation found what was essentially a pay-to-play racket in place.  Moth...

Whenever Bernie Sanders is attacked on policy or either being supposedly racist and sexist, - still no explanation as to how - his supporters are by his side more often than not. However, two recent statements that Sanders made has drawn the ire of even his most loyal supporters. Firstly, with the subject of immigrant child separation and abolishing ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) dominating news headlines, even most centrist Democrats and Sanders supporters are united in their wishes to abolish ICE, but Sanders couldn't join the club when asked the question by Jake Tapper during a  CNN interview . When asked by Jake Tapper if he would join the calls of fellow Democrats such as Cynthia Nixon to abolish ICE, he tapped danced around the question, instead saying that Trump and Congress should work to make sure that what we see today with the separation of children and their parents is put to an end. His supporters didn't agree with this stance, with arguments ...

Polls that were undertaken by polling organisation Gallup have produced some rather worrying signs for both major political parties in America and good news for smaller, lesser known parties. The polls, which were published in January 2018, show that the number of Americans who indentify as Independents has seen its largest ever increase a year out of a presidential election. As you can see pictured above, the number of Independents has been increasing sharply since Gallup's recording began pre-1989, and very rarely dipping below the numbers of Democrats or Republicans. Gallup also mentions how decreases in Independents is usually a result of people choosing to back the candidate with either a (D) or (R) next to their name as they vote for someone that resembles their ideas as closely as possible. The large increase in Independents also spells bad news for both parties, however. Ever since Barack Obama's historical 2008 victory, the number of American Independents has bee...

Bernie Sanders often deals with objections to his presidential aspirations from all sides of the political spectrum, those on the Right who believe Sanders wants to turn America into some kind of Communist dictatorship, Centrist Democrats who label Bernie as racist, sexist and unable to win a general election, with people from the Left who suggest that he isn't progressive enough. However, one particular critique of Sanders is both extremely exaggerated and in some cases, a flat out lie. Venture over to Twitter and read the tweets of people who use the '#NeverBernie' and '#StillWithHer' hashtags and you'll notice a similar theme: "Bernie Sanders cannot appeal to People of Colour". It must be mentioned that Sanders does indeed have a problem marketing his message to groups of non-white Americans that he will need to win over in order to fulfill those aforementioned presidential aspirations, but this is a hurdle that Sanders should be able to conqu...

Self appointed Hillary Clinton and People of Colour defender Candice Aiston took a short break from likening Hillary Clinton to Jesus and claiming that Democrats were literally 'entitled' to the votes of minority groups in order to write a truly awful  article   suggesting that Bernie Sanders supporters essentially target aforementioned minority groups who do not share their politics and dig up old tweets which could be seen as controversial in order to "silence women and POC". We will now take great delight in explaining how Candice is being extremely disingenuous when discussing the interactions between Democrats and left-wing accounts on social media. Firstly, it must be said that some of the tweets from left-wing accounts Candice uses to back up her stance are extremely worrying, whether they happen to be in jest or not. Two tweets stick out, one suggesting that the "RIP Candice Aiston" Twitter Trend could be relating to her death and another calling...