1. There's a lot of wishful lefty thinking going on right now. The young generation isn't necessarily progressive. Gillum supported fast track corporate trade authority. Pressley opposed Medicare for All. Beto supported bank deregulation.
2. The crevices where power really lives in America is in the arcane technical boring stuff about banks, trade, monopoly rules - aka big money. That's not excitable stuff right now. What someone does when you're not looking is who they are.
3. Capuano was an old white man bigot about Kaepernick. He also has a 20 year record of voting against wars and fighting bank deregulation when no one is looking. Both matter. Or do they? If you believe Capuano's record was not important then you are saying you will serve power.
4. This new movement has figured out two important things. First is how to run black and female candidates effectively, and second is how to run without corporate money. Those are essential. But there's an underlying question - what will people do when you're not looking?
5. I assume I'm going to lose followers on this thread. I always do when I point out that the Watergate babies ideology is still powerful, and apply that lens. But make no mistake, this movement has not broken from that ideology yet. These leaders will lead you.
6. Anyone who isn't talking about breaking up Google and Amazon is not addressing the center of power in America. Period. There's a reason Bezos is worth $150B. Bernie's mentioned him while missing the point. But right now the corporate world is far more 'progressive' than you.
7. Capuano was past his prime. Being a politician is a job and he wasn't good at it. Gillum and Pressley and Beto are clearly excellent politicians. The question isn't on them. It's on you. What do *you* believe? They respond to that.
8. I was part of a political movement in the mid-2000s. We were subverted by plutocrats. Most of those I worked with ended up serving power in one way or another. Movements get subverted. Will this one? It's an open question.
9. Guess who set the stage for those dead bodies in Puerto Rico? Hedge funds. In 2016 the PROMESA bill was moving through Congress and you were not paying attention. I was told of warnings about the electric grid then. That was when it mattered.
10. Many of the problems people get upset about now show up in those boring, arcane, not-fun areas of finance years before they show up as dead bodies. Flint is a story of municipal finance and trade. Health care is a story of monopoly power. Etc. This is how power works.
11. What I'm saying is that racism that we see at work in Puerto Rico happened in 2016 when progressives voted for the PROMESA bill, which everyone saw as technical. You have to be as energized about that kind of abuse of power, not when it's too late.
12. I'll just note that when activists were in the street dealing live-streaming in Ferguson, the NAACP was submitting comment letters trying to get rid of net neutrality. The boring policy choice is connected to fundamental liberties. huffingtonpost.com/dr-jason-johns…
