Team Blue PAC sounds good, right? Don't be fooled; it isn't. Three exceptionally bad status quo Democrats in the House started it to protect conservative incumbents from being primaried from the left.
The inspiration for Speaker-in-waiting Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Blue Dog Josh Gottheimer (NJ) and New Dem Terri Sewell (AL) is the fear that what AOC, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush did to corporate Democrats Joe Crowley, Eliot Engel and Lacy Clay could happen to them as well-- and their cronies.
Yesterday they announced they will raise money to protect incumbents-- generally ones who are disliked enough so as to be unable to raise their own grassroots money-- being primaried by progressives. One Blue America-endorsed progressive, Jason Call, is running in a northwest Washington state district held by corporate New Dem Rick Larsen. Call wasn't surprised by the toxic new PAC.
"The establishment of the Democratic Party," he said, "is simply codifying what they have held as an objective for the last thirty years-- serving corporate interests... The only difference between the right wing of the Democratic Party and the actual Republicans is they give lip service to social equality and environmental concerns, while standing in the way of the measures that would actually change the systems of oppression. Now that a fraction of their power in the party is being challenged by the progressive left, buoyed by a public that is coming to terms with both the economic and social failures of crony capitalism, they are of course going to pull out all the stops to prevent those challenges."
"But," he continued, "here’s the thing. They can’t stop progress. One way or another, change will come. People are waking up to a planet that is literally on fire, and even young people who consider themselves Republicans are no longer seeing the boogeyman threat of socialism as a real thing. In their efforts to prevent change, the establishment is going to further expose their deception... They can’t keep the pretense up for much longer. So to the new Team Blue PAC, I say 'game on'-- we’re not backing down and we’re not bowing out."
Another one of our endorsed candidates, Ally Dalsimer in northern Virginia, agrees. "PACs like this," she said, "defend the worst among the Democratic caucus, those most likely to stand against actually passing progressive legislation. Dark money in politics is the root of every problem we face, which is why I will introduce my Conflicts of Interest Act on the house floor the first day I am in office. This bill will comprehensively look at every corporate donation each sitting Congressperson receives, and force representatives to abstain from any vote in which one of their corporate donors is directly involved. Votes like this would mean that my opponent, who takes more money from the Pro-War Industry, would not be able to vote for us to wage war against another nation as he so frequently does. Nor would it allow him to vote against Universal Healthcare coverage as he took thousands from the for-profit healthcare industry. With legislation like this, a new PAC funding the worst of the legislature would be kneecapped, as most of those lawmakers would have very little ability to vote on anything of substance."
Thanks for always doing what you can to make this a better world,
Howie, for the entire Blue America team
