Bernie Sanders is drawing tens of thousands of people to his rallies. Stars are performing for his crowds, unlike other candidates who have been told not to use their music. His message is still resonating throughout the nation, and especially with young people who are looking at matters like health care, education, and gun control with a different regard for these topics than that of their parents and grandparents. They are tired of the same philosophies that gave us cowboys and Indians and greed is good.
Those are things the Justice Democrats are changing. They are taking on the big money candidates for seats currently held by both Republicans and establishment Democrats. The main difference between the establishment wing that is pushing Joe Biden, and the progressive wing that is pushing Bernie Sanders, is that the candidates on the progressive side do not accept corporate donations. The contention is that these types of donations give special interest groups some extra access to members of Congress, and they send in lobbyists whose job it is to convince them that they only need sign on to get future support.
That creates an uncertainty about someone's convictions when a vote is controversial. Shortly after the 2016 election, for example, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar sponsored an amendment to a bill. The amendment would allow Americans to purchase prescription medications from abroad. It failed when thirteen Democrats voted against the amendment, including Cory Booker. This bill would have passed in the GOP-controlled Senate because twelve Republicans voted for it. Each of the thirteen Democrats who voted against it had taken donations from the pharmaceutical lobby.
No matter what logic they offer for voting the way they voted, their explanations are tainted with those donations. Both of my Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, voted against the amendment, also. When I emailed them to explain why they voted the way they voted, Murray did not respond, and Cantwell sent me a form response that told me how important my support is needed to continue fighting the Republicans. Neither of them will have my support again because they did not vote for my interests.
Speaking of fighting the Republicans, several Republicans are being challenged by progressive candidates who look and think a lot more like their constituencies than the incumbents. Lindsey Graham is being challenged by Jaime Harrison in South Carolina, Steve Daines will face off against Wilmot Collins in Montana, and Mitch McConnell will go to battle against decorated veteran Amy McGrath in Kentucky. If these candidates win these seats, the three new additions to the party will be Justice Democrats. They will each have a say in the party politics, and the numbers between the two factions will be even closer, with the momentum clearly on the side of the young people who will soon be taking over the party.
However, the transition will come more quickly if the Justice Democrats can unseat incumbent Democrats in primaries, like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ayanna Pressley did in 2018. Progressive candidates are challenging three Democratic incumbents in New York, including Jamaal Bowman who is endorsed by the Justice Democrats and Zephyr Teachout in his race against Eliot Engel. Jessica Cisneros has received the endorsement of AOC in her primary challenge against Henry Cuellar in Texas. Nancy Pelosi will be facing a primary challenge against Shahid Buttar who has the support of the Justice Democrats and Preston Picus, a school teacher who ran against Pelosi in 2016 as an independent.
Running against incumbents is difficult, and especially so when the party will only support the incumbent's campaign. However, as progressive candidates begin to take the power to make policy decisions within the party, we will see incumbents deciding to not run rather than to swim against the tide that is shifting politics in America. They will know they cannot win when the independent voters start showing up to rally with their challengers.
The progressive wing of the party is not doing this covertly. The Justice Democrats are making it known that they intend to take over the identity of the Democratic party. The only question left for the establishment wing is whether or not they would rather sabotage the chances of taking over the executive branch in 2020, or welcome in the young people whose lives depend on progressive policies moving forward immediately and who will not vote for anyone who takes corporate money.
