Thanks! This sounds like something that needs to be pushed for at the same time. But in the midst of a pandemic #MedicareForAll is uniquely useful as a tool of political theater. People dismiss #ForceTheVote as 'performative' as if that's a weakness...
https://twitter.com/AdamGreen/status/1340380263373795328
and not a strength & intentional part of it & something that has been used historically to shift the conversation / Overton Window & make concrete changes. Given the enormous documented popularity of #m4a, watching politicians vote against it has the drama that watching...
... politicians vote against a green energy jobs bill, which is just as important as #m4a, lacks. This doesn't apply to you Adam but a lot of critics of the force the vote are doing this unhelpful scolding of people who are getting excited about #ForceTheVote as not serious...
organizers or activists who don't do the heavy lifting, pavement pounding, phone-banking that's so thankless & desperately needed.These things are indeed sorely needed but it's also so obvious and shows a total lack of understanding about how organizing & activism work...
You don't deride people who aren't politically engaged on the level of activism & organizing for not "doing the work." You meet them where they're at, you utilize them as they currently are. And sure, try to recruit them into activism and/ or organizing. But imagine how this...
would have turned out through history. It's actually the very self-indulgent, purity politics & counterproductive behavior that #ForceTheVote critics accuse Force The Voters of. By the way, disagreeing w/ forcing the vote is fine. Just talk about it based on its merritts, go...
through it & address the concerns. You can argue that the performative nature of it is not going to land or whatever, but pretending that doing something performative is on its face bad misses the point. Also, you may be mad at the way some people are framing this as a moral...
failing or proof that politicians are corrupt sell-outs. So, say that, look at whether there's use in pushing them in a way that's less adversarial and then do it that way. If you do that then you're actually shaping the substance and tone of the discussion & empowering...
the politicians who WANT/NEED to be made "made" to this, a la FDR. Also, let's not get more upset about stuff that's being said about powerful politicians by people online as we are about the state of the world. One more thing I will say is that the discourse around forcing...
Women of Color members of congress to 'Do The Work.' Yes, the squad is made up by women of color. It's infantilizing to protect them from political demands. If you don't like the tone of some of the things being said about them they make the demands in the tone you prefer. And...
let's also remember that neither Mark Pocan nor Marie Newman is a person of color. But, yes, the majority of the progressive para-squad are people of color. If we focus more on the way they're treated than the way the countless powerless people of color who aren't members...
of congress are treated and, literally, condemned to death, what are we doing? We had this problem under Obama. I did it. I wrote more about the racist attacks on him than I did about the racist drones he oversaw or the racist way he let the banks off the hook. Wasn't good.
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