he Young Turks organization, along with many other progressive media outlets, has made no secret of being highly displeased by the Democratic Party. In an effort to revitalize liberals and combat rising corporatism and neoliberalism in American politics, the network announced the creation of a new political wing of the party, called Justice Democrats. The announcement came during a segment of “The Young Turks” show Monday.
After tracing some of the history of progressive politics in the U.S., host Cenk Uygur argued that the Democratic Party has suffered a “hostile takeover” by corporate interests. “If you base all the campaigns on money, and the other guys take more corporate money than you do, and you agree to that system,” he said, “of course that leads to failure and ruin. And we are in ruin.”
Uygur then laid out how Americans can “take the Democratic Party back.”
“We’re going to run strong progressives, and we are launching today something that will represent not the donors, not the multinational corporations, but just us,” Uygur said. “From now on there will be a new wing of the Democratic Party, and it will be the Justice Democrats.”
Who makes up the Justice Democrats? Uygur, of course, as well as Kyle Kulinski, who hosts an online program on the Secular Talk Radio Network.
“But there is a whole other component,” Uygur said. “A significant portion of Bernie Sanders’ team, that ran that wonderful campaign, is now with Justice Democrats.”
The platform of Justice Democrats is posted on the group’s website. Uygur explained that the Justice Democrats will put forward candidates who don’t take corporate money and don’t blindly follow party lines.
But what about Democratic Party unity? “We will not unify behind Democrats who don’t represent us,” Uygur said. “If your claim is that you actually want unity, great! Then unify behind us.”
3 Comments
Fairbssays...I find the history of how the Dems got here interesting. This isn't something I know much about. Is it accurate?
Personally, I'd like to see a third (and more) party. I think the Independents which are a majority in number could come together around a platform and be a force. Bluntly, fuck both the Dems and the Republicans.
One more point is that I don't think the state of the Democratic party is as dire as Cerk suggests. There were still 3 million more votes for Hillary without a fifty state strategy and with horrible gerrymandering and vote suppression.
MilkmanDansays...Hmm. I'm 8:40 into the video, and I like the concept so far, but "JustIceDemocrats.com" seems a bit problematic in a "penisland.com" sort of way.
**edit**
OK, that caveat stands, but I like the idea. And I think that the core concept is that the internet changes things. Twenty, thirty years ago, people knew which general party platform they agreed with, and generally supported the candidates associated with that party. There wasn't enough individual scrutiny to pick up on wolves in sheep's clothing. Well, that is definitely different now, but the game is still being played largely the same way. Rock the boat and change that up.
I hope they get some traction.
siftbotsays...Moving this video to enoch's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.
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