MONDAY
Bernie Sanders Is Fed Up With Republican Obstruction—and Democratic Caution
“If Republicans don’t want to cooperate,” he says, “then, yes, we have to move forward without them.”
By John Nichols
JUNE 4, 2021
PHOTOGRAPH -- Bernie
Sanders. (Caroline Brehman / CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Bernie Sanders
ran for president promising a political revolution. When he did not secure the
Democratic nomination, the unapologetic progressive immediately threw in as a
supporter of a more moderate Democrat, Joe Biden, and became an ardent advocate
for his former rival.
But that does
not mean that Sanders has lost his revolutionary zeal.
In recent days,
the independent senator from Vermont has become the highest-profile and most
enthusiastic congressional champion of the argument that Senate Democrats must
use their narrow majority to enact a transformational agenda. Sanders has made
it clear that he is pleased by the ambitions of the White House when it comes
to strategies like those outlined in the president’s initial proposal for an
American Jobs Plan. But he has been equally clear in recent days about his
frustration with the deference many Democrats continue to show to Republicans
who are delaying and disrupting the governing process.
The Biden
administration has been engaged in a delicate dance of negotiations with a
small group of Republican senators, maintaining the faint hopes of reaching
an agreement to approve the president’s infrastructure proposal. Republicans,
some Democrats, and many pundits who are unable to get over the delusion of
“bipartisanship,” have suggested that compromise is necessary to enact a more
modest proposal.
But Sanders
isn’t having it.
“If
Republicans don’t want to cooperate and help us seriously address the many
crises we’re facing today,” he says, “then, yes, we have to move forward
without them to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of
good-paying, union jobs.”
This is about
much more than the usual wrangling between Democrats and Republicans. Sanders
has a longer and more ambitious history of working with Republicans who really
want to get things done—on issues ranging from fair trade to protecting civil
liberties and auditing the Pentagon—than the vast majority of congressional
Democrats. But the senator is unwilling to play the fool. If Republicans
fail to bargain in good faith, he is prepared to abandon negotiations and start
governing.
That’s an
emerging view on the part of progressives, who argue that the handful of Senate
Republicans who are talking with Biden—and who have proposed weak-willed
alternatives to the president’s agenda—are not taking the discussion about the
American Jobs Plan seriously. Activists with the Sunrise Movement gathered
outside the White House Friday to call for approval of “the boldest version of
the American Jobs Plan.” “No Compromise, No Excuses,” declares the group.
“Democrats must take their power seriously and stop negotiating with a GOP who
is not serious about climate action or delivering for the American people.”
Sanders is
delivering a similar message with interviews, statements, and social media
messages that suggest the time to act has arrived.
When CNN’s Wolf
Blitzer floated a case for continued negotiations and compromises on the part
of Democrats, the senator shot it down.
“The
Republicans say they’re on board with a lot of President Biden’s plan when it
comes to ‘traditional’ infrastructure—roads, bridges, airports, stuff like
that,” argued Blitzer. “Are you and other progressives denying President Biden
potentially a bipartisan ‘win’ by including all of the other issues that you’re
labeling infrastructure that Republicans say is not really traditional
infrastructure?”
The Senate
Budget Committee chair answered with facts, rather than wishful thinking.
“According to
the experts in our country, the American Society of Civil Engineers, what the
Republicans are proposing for ‘traditional’ infrastructure is only a fraction
of what we need,” said Sanders. “I think every American understands that our
roads, and our bridges, our water systems, all of that, is really crumbing
before our eyes. I’m a former mayor, and what I know is that, unless you invest
in infrastructure, it’s only going to get worse—and it’s only going to be more
expensive. We now have the opportunity to create millions of good-paying, often
union jobs rebuilding our infrastructure. What the Republicans are talking
about is totally inadequate.”
Totally
inadequate. And totally antidemocratic.
As Sanders and
his fellow progressives note, Democrats won the presidency, control of the
House of Representatives, and control of the Senate in the 2020 election cycle.
Now, under any reasonable measure of how the system is supposed to work, the
Democrats ought to be governing. And if filibuster reform is required to
jump-start the process, so be it.
Echoing the
urgency of more than 100 groups that on Thursday declared, “We cannot allow the
filibuster to stand in the way of progress or imperil the health of our
democracy,” Sanders says, “The U.S. Senate is the only institution in the world
where a vote of 59-41 can be considered a defeat instead of a huge victory.
Enough is enough. Let us change the outdated rules of the Senate, end the
filibuster and pass a bold agenda for working families with a majority vote.”
1 DESPITE THE HEADLINES, THE GATES FOUNDATION HAS EVADED SCRUTINY
2 WHEN SENSITIVITY BECOMES CENSORSHIP
3 THE MISEDUCATION OF WHITE CHILDREN
4 HOUSE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR ANSWERS ON US INVOLVEMENT IN BRAZIL
5 AMLO HAS BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE WORLD—FOR MEXICO, HE’S BEEN FAR WORSE
John Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and the author of the new book The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace's Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics (Verso). He’s also the author of Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America, from Nation Books, and co-author, with Robert W. McChesney, of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.
For Reprints and Permissions, click here.
THE NATION AS A NEWS AND
OPINION SOURCE, FROM ALLSIDES.COM
The Nation has
a Left media bias. The Nation describes itself on its website as, "Principled.
Progressive. The Nation speaks truth to power to build a more just society ...
[The Nation] empowers readers to fight for justice and equality for all ... We
argue that dissent is patriotic and we hold the powerful to account, no matter
their political persuasion."
The Nation has
been dubbed "the most widely read weekly journal of progressive political
and cultural news, opinion, and analysis." [Source: Wikipedia]
The Nation
endorsed socialist Bernie Sanders for President in 2016.
Some summer
2018 headlines featured on The Nation included, "Judge Kavanaugh: An
Originalist With a New — and Terrifying — Interpretation of Executive Power,"
"These 5 Trump Policies Are Leading Us Toward Economic Chaos,"
"Trump's War on Children," and "The Republican Congress Isn't
Even Pretending to Do Its Job."
About The
Nation
The Nation is the oldest
continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical,
devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the
left." Founded on July 6, 1865, it is published by The Nation Company,
L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City. Source: Wikipedia
Funding,
Financing, and Ownership
Note: Funding
and ownership is not taken into account when determining AllSides Media Bias
Ratings. While it's true ownership and financial interests can affect what goes
to print, our bias ratings are determined by assessing the bias of content
only. We provide financial and ownership information as an FYI to our readers.
The Nation is
sustained in part by a group of more than 30,000 donors called Nation Builders,
who donate funds to the periodical above and beyond their annual subscription
fees.
Updated
November 23, 2020
Authors who
have written for The Nation
John Nichols,
Jimmy Tobias, Elie Mystal
This list is
provided by our.news. It is a beta feature and may not be 100%
accurate.
ENVIRONMENT ON
A TIPPING POINT
Ocean temperatures breaking records
Share: Whatsapp
Ocean temperatures breaking records
OUR STAFF REPORT
January 14, 2021
ISLAMABAD - Even
with the COVID-19-related small dip in global carbon emissions due to
limited travel and other activities, the ocean temperatures continued a
trend of breaking records in 2020. A new study, authored by 20 scientists from
13 institutes around the world, reported the highest ocean temperatures since
1955 from surface level to a depth of 2,000 meters.
The report is
published recently in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences and concluded
with a plea to the policymakers and others to consider the lasting damage
warmer oceans can cause as they attempt to mitigate the effects of climate
change.“
Over 90% of the
excess heat due to global warming is absorbed by the oceans, so ocean
warming is a direct indicator of global warming — the warming we have
measured paints a picture of long-term global warming,” said Lijing
Cheng, lead paper author and associate professor with the International
Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences at the Institute of Atmospheric
Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Cheng is
also affiliated with CAS’s Center for Ocean Mega-Science. “However, due
to the ocean’s delayed response to global warming, the trends of ocean
change will persist at least for several decades, so societies need to
adapt to the now unavoidable consequences of our unabated warming. But there is
still time to take action and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases.”
MEET LEE CARTER, A
SITTING REPRESENTATIVE IN THE VIRGINIA STATE HOUSE, WHO IS NOW RUNNING FOR
GOVERNOR. HE IS A FORMER WORKER FOR BERNIE SANDERS. HIS BACKGROUND IS NOT THE TYPICAL ONE FOR POLITICS, BUT IN A DEMOCRACY HE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO TAKE HIS PLACE IN LINE. HIS VOTING RECORD IN THE HOUSE IS THE RIGHT SORT FOR MY TASTES AND HE SHOWS THE ENERGY THAT IS NEEDED. I WISH HIM WELL.
Carter for Governor - For the Rest of Us
Lee Carter is
running for Governor of Virginia to fight for the millions of Virginians
whose voices and interests have gone unheard by career politicians,
lobbyists, corporate executives, and the political class at large.
The widespread
suffering and economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated
what poor and working Virginians have known for too long: our system doesn't
work for most of us, and it's time for a transformation.
About Lee
Lee is not a
typical politician. An electronics repairman by trade and enlisted Marine
Corps veteran, Lee has represented the people of Manassas and Prince
William County since 2018 in Virginia’s House of Delegates.
In his two terms, Lee has introduced bills to legalize cannabis, expunge records, end cash bail, abolish the death penalty, cap insulin copays, reform workers comp, allow teacher strikes, formalize worker cooperatives, ban corporate campaign contributions, and repeal the anti-union "right to work" law.
A NEW
GENERATION OF PROPHETS HAVE EMERGED FOR THE SAME OLD PROBLEMS, AND THEY ARE INCREASINGLY MORE ACTIVE
NOW. I DO HOPE THAT THIS TIME CHANGE WILL TAKE HOLD AND GROW MORE WIDELY. WE REALLY
DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT TO MITIGATE THE WORLDWIDE WARMING THAT IS
DEMONSTRABLY OCCURRING ALREADY. LISTEN TO THIS CBS SPECIAL.
Reverb: Generation Climate, 25:41 MIN.
6,701 views • Oct 22, 2020
CBS News
3.73M subscribers
A generation
that grew up witnessing a world with a rapidly changing climate is coming of
age. Now, Gen Z climate activists are bringing a sense of urgency to mobilizing
social and political movements across the nation. As the world is running out
of time, these young activists have made it their mission to fight for its
future.
CBSN Originals
is our premium documentary series that is sure to challenge your views on this
and a variety of other issues. See our full series library at
http://cbsnews.com/cbsnoriginals.
END OF JUNE 7
MONDAY
**** ****
**** ****
No comments:
Post a Comment