This Is What Happens When You Fight
And some good weed news!
Welcome to a Wednesday night edition of Progressives Everywhere!
It was an incredibly busy day today and there’s a whole lot to talk about, including some important stories that have flown under the radar, so let’s get to it.
But first, thank you to our latest crowdfunding donors: David, Julia, and Karen!
Important News You Need to Know
Let’s start with some national headlines and then go down to important state stories on drugs, poverty, the minimum wage, and more!
The Stimulus May Just Be Salvaged
It’s sort of amazing to see what happens when you actually put up a fight.
This week, after Democratic leadership agreed to the framework of a stimulus deal without any direct cash assistance to the hundred million Americans drowning in debt and on the verge of financial calamity, the Congressional Progressive Caucus took a stand and said that its members would not vote for that bill or any other that didn’t include survival payments (as they’re now calling them). Further, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock continued to weaponize the issue in ads, speeches, and social media posts. The drumbeat and pressure grew louder, Democratic leadership was forced to change its demands, and presto, it’s looking like the next stimulus bill will indeed have those payments.
The deal isn’t perfect by any stretch. The checks will likely be $600 or $700, a far cry from the still-puny $1200 that went out in March (Canadians are getting $2000 a month in unemployment benefits!). It’s unclear who will qualify — using a 2019 tax return means test would be catastrophic — and local economies will have to wait at least 45 days for desperately needed cash injections, which is horrifying. The unemployment topper will only be $300 a week now, as opposed to the $600 a week stipulated in the CARES Act. But still, between the survival payments and the lack of corporate liability shields, it’s a far better deal than what Democratic leadership was willing to accept just a few days ago.
It should also be pointed out that McConnell is giving in on this because, in his own words, “Kelly [Loeffler] and David [Perdue] are getting hammered” on the GOP’s refusal to agree to cash assistance. That’s what actual political pressure looks like — and it shouldn’t be surprising at all.
Over the last month, I’ve been insisting that Democrats need to take a stand on the stimulus and that the two Senate candidates in Georgia should run on direct payments. People often push back and say that Democrats need to be “realistic,” but that’s really just a code word for surrender. For the last 40 years, the Democratic base has been told that real change isn’t possible, that progress has to come in drips and drabs. Maybe that was true in the Reagan era, but it’s clear that people are now desperate for a transformative overhaul of what has become a gross autocracy.
It will likely take new leadership for Democrats to really take the ambitious, combative stance that’s required right now. Unfortunately, the party has done little in Congress to groom a new generation of leaders. The three top Democrats in the House are over 80 years old, while Chuck Schumer, at 70, is the young buck of the Capitol Hill leadership team. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained in this new podcast, there’s a huge gap in experience on the hill, and it’s in large part due to Dems’ refusal to rotate committee chairmanships. Republicans, by the way, enforce term limits on chairmanships so that they don’t have this problem.
Still, let’s enjoy this minor victory and use it as inspiration for what will likely be two very bruising years.
He’s the Wooooooorst
Shoutout to Ron Johnson for his impressive surge to the top of the Most Contemptible Republican in the Senate Not Names Mitch McConnell List! The Wisconsin Windbag held a stunt hearing about “voter fraud” today and filled it with specious witnesses who peddled some tired nonsense about election security. Fittingly, the only moment from the hearing that went viral was Johnson getting torn apart by newly re-elected Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking committee member.
Last week, I helped Johnson’s main Democratic challenger, the progressive County Executive Thomas Nelson, with a fun ad that capitalized on Johnson’s unintentional goofiness. This week, I wrote and produced this much more solemn spot:
I’m volunteering for Thomas Nelson because I really believe in him and his campaign. It takes a lot for me to say that — I only endorse so many people! — and I really recommend pitching in to his campaign:
The Future is Weed
There are a few issues that when put to state ballot initiatives seem to transcend political parties:
Expanding government healthcare (ie Medicaid and Medicare)
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour
Legalizing marijuana
For the most part, I’ve focused on the first two issues, but the third one may be the most popular of all — a whopping 68% of Americans were in favor of legalizing weed in a November survey.
Last month, five very different states voted to legalize some form of marijuana on Election Day. Voters in Arizona, New Jersey, and Montana all voted to legalize recreational cannabis, voters in Mississippi gave the thumbs up to medical marijuana, and eager smokers in South Dakota approved both medical and recreational marijuana. There is almost nothing a majority of voters in each of those states are likely to agree on, but weed won with overwhelming margins everywhere, including Mississippi, where approval took 58% of the vote.
Already, businesses are flocking to get in on the burgeoning medical marijuana industry in the deep south state. In fact, while progressive political organizing has been hollowed out there, the weed business is a hotbed of activism. The organizations that banded together to pass Initiative 65 this November have now formed the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, which will act as a sort of Chamber of Commerce and industry oversight body for the weed business there.
The state is supposed to work out the regulations and other details, with an August 21st start date the goal. Unfortunately, in a state run by far-right Republicans, there are people who are trying to burn the whole thing down before it gets started:
Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler opposed Initiative 65 because it limits cities’ ability to regulate the location of medical marijuana businesses. The Republican mayor sued the state days before the election, arguing that the initiative was not properly on the ballot because of the number of signatures gathered.
Butler, who is obviously a buzzkill and narc, is trying to get the thing thrown out on a technicality. We’ll see how that goes.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only Democrat who holds a statewide office, is using legalizing marijuana as a campaign fundraising tool. Fried may run for governor in 2022, and if she does, she could make legalizing weed a major component of her platform. Activists in the state may also push it as a ballot amendment, and after Democrats in the state foolishly ran away from the minimum wage increase on the ballot this year, they’d be smart to openly embrace a popular ballot initiative next time around.
In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman could run for the top job in a few years, and if he does, he’s definitely going to make weed a priority:
After making the massive mistake of not really running on any policy other than “Donald Trump is bad” and some vague promises for “affordable” healthcare, Democrats need to do a much better job of identifying winning issues and championing them at both the national and local level. Legalizing weed should be at least near the top of that list, especially as states look to create revenue in the wake of this economic devastation.
As I mentioned, Medicaid expansion is another one of those issues that Democrats should make a defining part of their platforms in the dozen states where it’s still possible. Republicans in South Carolina might just beat them to it.
Republicans Are Terrorists
Another thing I get grief for is constantly saying “Republicans are terrorists.” I’m not sure why it’s controversial, given just how much obvious effort they put into wrecking democracy and ensuring Americans die of hunger, disease, and gun violence, but people just seem to wince at the “terrorist” word. After today’s news, though, I think it’s going to be hard for anyone to argue that the GOP isn’t basically a wealthy cult bent on mass destruction.
Simply put, the Trump administration did everything it could to make sure as many Americans as possible became infected with COVID-19, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives in the pursuit of a thinly veiled socioeconomic and ethnic cleansing campaign. Instead of me block quoting the entire thing, I suggest going to read the story, which is disturbing but not surprising.
The White House is of course distancing themselves from Alexander, but the policies they pursued and rhetoric they used speak for themselves. And slowly but surely, people are warming to the “Republicans are terrorists” thing:
Quibis
Georgia runoffs: Did you really think I’d go an entire issue without a Georgia update! I don’t want to read too far into early voting (we did that in November, didn’t always work out so well), so take this with a grain of salt, but the numbers look pretty decent thus far.
How much will Wall Street control the Biden administration?: This piece at the American Prospect gives a nice rundown of the various contenders for the major unfilled financial regulatory jobs. There are some Clinton-era names in there, but the list also has some contenders that would make advocates of tighter regulations very happy.
Michigan minimum: While many states are going to see their minimum wages go up at least a little bit in 2021, Michigan’s will not rise a single cent due to the formula that governs it. Simply put, unemployment was just too high this year.
Just horrible: It’s not some out-of-touch ideology that has us fighting for more direct stimulus relief, but instead the hard reality that 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since June alone.
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"Another thing I get grief for is constantly saying “Republicans are terrorists.” I’m not sure why it’s controversial, given just how much obvious effort they put into wrecking democracy and ensuring Americans die of hunger, disease, and gun violence, but people just seem to wince at the “terrorist” word."
^This kind of rhetoric is not progressive. Democracy is messy, even terroristic sometimes. A true 'progressive' would base their 'progressivism' and hope for humanity on solving democracy through democracy, not supplanting it with technocratic managers. The people must lead! But they must also learn how to lead! There is no shortcut
https://beforethedawn.substack.com/p/reasons-why-the-left-must-start-learning
You've completely lost my eyeballs by putting the expanded distribution of marijuana in your Top Three progressive priorities. This is why high people should not even be writing about policy.