Progressive Power Learns & Grows
This isn’t some radical agenda — progressives are fighting for the President’s agenda, the Democratic agenda, the agenda people voted for. And we will deliver on it.
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Twitter, October 2, 2021
By Gregg Wall (10-2-2020)
This might not have been as dramatic as the Women’s March on Versailles, but when the history books are written, the House Progressive Caucus’ rebellion against highly corrupt centrist Dems – this week – may prove to be a key turning point.
On October 5, 1789, Parisian women -- faced with food scarcity, starving children, and escalating inflation over bread -- decided they had enough and marched upon Versailles. This key event helped kickoff the French Revolution, and King Louis XVI and the Queen Consort of France, Marie Antionette, were marched back to Paris, never to return to their Pleasuredome.
This week in America, the House Progressive Caucus, led by Representative Jayapal, decided that they had enough, and, w/ the nation facing food and fuel inflation, held their own rebellion. The Progressive Caucus told House Speaker Pelosi they would not pass the corporate welfare package (aka the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill), without first passing POTUS Biden’s New Deal legislation (the $3.5 trillion Human Infrastructure bill). The Progressive Caucus has not always been politically adroit, but having been burned many times before, finally took a hard line.
To be sure, the bipartisan infrastructure bill is not entirely bad; but the problem – as with all things bipartisan – is that it is corrupt, leans far more upon propping up a failed status quo, particularly in regards oil & gas energy, and is entirely inadequate for the times. That is to say, the bipartisan bill doesn’t hold a candle to the real deal, the New Deal package President Biden ran and won upon (specifically, the aforementioned $3.5 trillion Human Infrastructure, reconciliation bill).
With defeat at hand, POTUS Biden showed up on Capitol Hill and attempted to calm roiled legislative waters. Biden reversed the House Speaker -- who attempted to shaft the American people, progressives, and the Biden agenda, by pushing through the bipartisan bill -- and the President made clear, the Human Infrastructure bill must be a part of the overall package.
And speaking of history, this is the first President, since LBJ, that has attempted something on this order of magnitude. Finally, stepping up for the American people, who have long faced: the tyranny of a very ugly oligarchy, billionaire rule, a highly corrupt congress, and neoliberalism & globalism that has completely annihilated the American middle class & worker. Biden, indeed, knows his presidency is on the line; but more importantly, the pretense of American democracy, itself, is on the line (destitute as the institution is under a failed/purchased two-party system).
In short, the defects and decay of a highly corrupt – corporate – political centrism lie smoldering upon the ash heap of history throughout the West. See Germany’s defeat of the conservative, centrist CDU in Germany… and now, Greens are the kingmaker. In Canada, progressive Liberals - and Mr. Trudeau - just won re-election, but only with the help of the leftist, progressive NDP. And now, Progressives are flexing their muscle in the U.S. ... a direct reflection
But I digress. Within America, the parallels to pre-revolutionary France don’t end with the Women’s March… rising inflation and ever-increasing food costs were just part of the picture. King Louis XVI had also deregulated bread and the profiteers & speculators made a killing, on the heels of poor harvests, at the expense of French citizens and economic stability. Gee, sound familiar? The monarch and his court were corrupt, completely full of themselves, and bumbling. Not unlike the Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the U.S. Supreme Court? Mr. Louis had also driven his country deeply into debt, ironically enough, financing the American Revolution - just to stick it to the British. Today, America is deeply in debt, funding & financing empire, failed nation building, and endless war.
History doesn’t always match up, entirely, with the present, but it is said to often rhyme.
Vive la revolution !!!
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2021
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