📰 The Majority Report is a daily, political talk show, and 5x award-winning progressive news outlet, which brings you longform conversations, accurate assessments, thoughtful commentary, and incredibly useful indepth analysis of politics and policy. The Majority Report is a must, for navigating our current political landscape.
[ The Majority Report with Sam Seder ]
[ The Majority Report with Sam Seder ]
Sam Seder, Michael Brooks, Jamie Peck, Matt Lech, and Brendan Finn all provide individual insights, unique outlooks, and historical context to the news of the day, without the typical inherent rightwing bias of the major corporate media outlets of the 1%.
🌊 The Progressive Wave Is Here ! Today’s Progressives are the Defibrillator of Democracy . . . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sometimes, as we rethink and reframe our perception, we can hone our rhetoric with precision. As we navigate the shifts within our political landscape, we no longer have the luxury of cynicism or apathy. …actually, we never did. So, with clarity and vision, make way for progressives, the defibrillator of democracy. The corporatists will lose. As the Third Way Corporate Democrats cling to power, progressives like Bernie, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Brand New Congress candidates propose time tested solutions. From Northern Europe (Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc... ) to the United States’ New Deal economy (of the 50’s and 60’s), these democratic-socialist policies have been proven to work. These “socialists” or New Deal Democrats (Social Democrats) are ideologically centrists when compared to history and the rest of the world. In other words, they’re far from extreme. Don't fall for corporate media propaganda. We will fix the economy, and we will win! The winning Blue Wave strategy is the Progressive Wave. The Blue Wave is here because the Progressive Wave is here.
The progressive wave is here in the U.S. today. If you don’t see it, you just might be dedicated to self-deception. Progressives have been winning in local elections all around the country. We are in the midst of an anti-authoritarian leftist movement. Even though, the bigots on the right have been rallied by Trump’s openly racist rhetoric, leftwing policies are just as effectively rallying the left. Obama was voted in to be the next FDR (well, the next non-racist anti-war FDR), but instead we got a Reagan Democrat in 2008, and then lost 1000 seats throughout his term. We haven’t had a true progressive in the White House since LBJ. Obama referenced FDR when he asked the public to make him pass progressive legislation. Apparently, Occupy wasn’t enough.
Trump's zero compassion policies are fascist! Tell your right-wing family members they've lost their moral compass. If they don't respect your opinion, you have nothing to lose. We have everything to lose by being silent.
📰 The Overton Window stands at the edge of fascism, but we can fight back! Don’t let it move one iota to the right. The corporate media is in part responsible for normalizing corporatism, which has led us to fascism. Of course, Democrats are better than Republicans, but Democrats have also played their part in leading us to fascism.
Bill Clinton’s Third Way officially declared Democrats as being center-left on social issues, while being center-right on economic policy. …as the center moves further to the right. This is the Neoliberal Era, an era in which the Democratic Party has betrayed the Left. The party has betrayed the working class. For the past four decades the party has betrayed its base. This has been a losing strategy. In 2016, the Democrats couldn’t even beat the easiest candidate to beat. Trump campaigned to the left of Hillary on a number of issues. He was lying, of course, but it shows that even a fake populist can beat an establishment corporatist.
The general election in 2016, was an election between the least popular candidate and the second least popular candidate. ...and the one with less votes won, in a democracy so weak, it produced an undemocratic result. The U.S. population is far to the left of D.C. on practically every issue. So, between a racist and a corporatist, there was no one to rally the left. …but, there was during the democratic primaries. Bernie Sanders was polled to beat Republicans, a year before the election, six months before, during, after, and since the election. Practically all of the polling results show that, dollar for dollar, Progressives are better candidates, because their policies are inline with the public. The establishment media still continues to dismiss the most popular politician as having never had a chance.
So once again, in 2020 as in 2016, the real fight will be in the Democratic Primary Elections. We know that 40% of the electorate are Independents, who would vote for a Progressive over a conservative. And, 30% are Democrats, who would also vote for a Progressive in the General, making it very unlikely for a Republican to win. Independents do not want to vote for a corporate centrist. So, it’s up to the voters on the left to ignore the corporate media, and pick a winning candidate for once. The time is now to speak the truth and push for truly effective progressive policies. All of the data shows that progressive policies bring about more peace, equality, and a strong stable economy. And, our best bet in defeating the right-wing’s rising fascist wave, is with a strong left-wing progressive wave.
This election hit me hard. I had planned on writing a piece about what strategy Progressives should take when dealing with a center-right Clinton Administration. Needless to say, that piece went straight out the window around 9:30ish Tuesday night. 11/8/2016. It's a night I don't think I'll ever forget. I sat and watched in horror as the most dangerous demagogue to ever run for President of the United States received the necessary number of electoral college votes to claim the office. I honestly couldn't believe it was happening. How could we elect this spray tan monster to the highest office in the country, and arguably the most powerful position in the world? I'm still not quite sure.
To be honest, this whole election cycle was about so much more than a Trump victory and a Clinton loss. This election was about lies, manipulation, hate, fear, anger, ignorance, and hubris. The thing that really stood out to me, maybe above all else, was the stunning way in which the Democratic Party simply ignored the voices of millions of people. They did this willfully and with full knowledge of what they were doing. They thought they could coast to victory on rhetoric about Donald Trump, while intentionally not discussing or highlighting policy. Some of the reason they may have done that is because half of Clinton's policies would have been very beneficial to party and financial elites. I'm positive she would have pushed for TPP, and more intervention in relation to foreign policy.
Countless pieces have been written about the policies of the Clinton campaign and the horrifying and non-existent policies of the Trump campaign (now administration, I suppose) so I don't want to relitigate the election. I want to focus on where we go from here. After a couple of days of wallowing in the mire of the reality of th situation, I began to see small slivers of hope in the future. This is not the way I hoped things would have played out, but I do believe there can be a small island of good in this ocean of darkness. First: let's dismantle the establishment of the Democratic Party and rebuild it. The Clintons, and even Obama (to an extent) have spent 20 years talking the party to the right. That time has now passed. Their way was an abject failure. There is no way around that truth for the remains of the party now, so this is our time to change it.
Second: We need to organize and make our voices heard. There is one truth that rings louder now than ever before: SILENCE IS DANGEROUS. We cannot be silent. Every group that is non- white, male, or christian is going to be under vicious attack and we cannot stand by and allow it to happen. We need to continue to protest, we need to continue to speak out, but most of all we need to get out and fucking VOTE. Vote for progressives in local, state, and national election. If you can, go out and run for something. Work to change local governance, and work to build a real progressive movement to take back the Congress in 2018, and the White house in 2020.
Third: This is the most important one, get money out of politics. Real change will be nearly impossible as long as there is an unlimited flow of money into politics. Trump has said he wants to "drain the cesspool" of corruption in Washington, but anyone with half a brain knows he won't do a damn thing about it, but we can do something about it. We can change the status quo. For more in depth information and an action plan visit www.wolf-pac.com .
Of course, I am sure many people have a million other valid ideas as well, these are just a launching point. I find them to be a good motivator to keep me from losing sight of the goal of a more fair and just society.
Now that all of that is out of the way I want to leave you with these thoughts. This is going to be a tough time for those of us who do not fall into the traditional power group of white christian men. It is also going to be hell for anyone with a conscience, but life does indeed go on. This whole election and its aftermath have reminded me how much I love this country and how much I hurt when it doesn't live up to the ideals I have always attributed to it.
I want everyone to remember how powerful love is. No matter how much hate is thrown our way, we must continue to love one another. To those in the African American community, I love you and will stand proudly with you as we go through these next few years. To those in the LGBTQ community, I love you and will stand and fight with you to make sure you keep your rights and are respected as you deserve. To the Hispanic and Latino community, of which I am a member, we must stand together with the other communities and I believe they will stand with us, because they love us too. Together we can persevere, we can be the change that we so desire. Together we can make the world a little less dim.
As a parting gift, I'll leave you with my favorite scene from Synecdoche, New York. I'm not sure why, but it always makes me feel better.
