progressive politics
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Jamaal Bowman Wants to Reimagine the Democratic Party
Jamaal Bowman believes the Democratic Party needs a makeover. That’s why he’s been so outspoken over former President Barack Obama’s anti-defund the police remarks. Of course, he’s not dissing the first negro-in-chief. Bowman just believes Obama isn’t a relevant voice who can speak to the millions of people who rose up this summer after the…
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Democrats Have a Messaging Problem. Will They Do the Work to Fix It?
More than three weeks after Democrats’ disappointing showing on Election Day, party leadership is still arguing over what went wrong. Beyond winning the White House—and activists argue that had it not been for their activism and street-level organizing, Democrats would have lost that race, too—there aren’t too many bright sides. They expected to expand on…
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Black Voters Are the Most Influential Voting Bloc in the Country. Their Generational and Regional Differences Are Worth Exploring
The immediate wake of Super Tuesday went more or less as predicted: some jubilation, some anger, and a lot of punditry on overdrive as those invested in the Democratic presidential nomination collectively recalibrated where the race now stands. Southern states turned out for former Vice President Joe Biden, pushing him to the front of the…
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What Tennessee—and the Country—Can Learn from London Lamar, the State's Youngest Black Woman Lawmaker
By the time Tennessee representative London Lamar tells me she’s “a softy and a sweet person,” she had already removed all doubt. The ambitious lawmaker—the youngest black woman in the Tennessee state House by more than 30 years—has a demeanor that reminds me of spiced honey: sweet and soothing, but not afraid to kick. She’s…
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Banging From the Inside: Activist Cat Brooks Runs to Become Oakland’s First Black Woman Mayor
Oakland, Calif., has long been a bastion of historical and cultural reverie in blackness. The “Detroit of the West” holds a special place in African-American esteem: Oakland incubated a nascent Black Panther Party; gave us Hieroglyphics, Too Short, and MC Hammer; and nurtured icons such as Elaine Brown, Zedanya, and Killmonger. It even has its…
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Chicago Activist Rides Progressive Wave in Mayor's Race
Ja’Mal Green is standing inside the entrance of the 87th Street Metra station, on Chicago’s Southside, with a fist full of business cards, telling passersby that he wants to run the city. “Hello. My name is Ja’Mal Green, and I’m running for mayor,” he says. Sometimes he stops mid-sentence, because some commuters dash past him…
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The Progressive Revolution Is Being Led by a Black Woman
If Nina Turner is tired and stressed out when I catch up with her in April, in her cluttered, Washington, D.C., office at Our Revolution, she doesn’t show it. She rarely works less than 12 hours a day, and her hectic schedule essentially keeps her on a plane; she has just flown into D.C. after…
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Ala. Mayoral Candidate Randall Woodfin Is a Sign of the Growing Progressive Movement in the South
Randall Woodfin believes any political revolution that takes off across the nation starts in cities like his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., where he is running as a progressive candidate for mayor. Sure, Donald Trump literally encouraged local police to abuse people in their custody, but the people with real power to ensure that doesn’t happen…