Progressives in the U.S. are losing the battle

MIAMI – It’s an important election year. Something we tend to say every year now.

Right here in Florida we can see the different camps planning and strategizing, and the favored candidates fattening war chests with contributions for the coming wars. The battles fought will not entail guns and bombs necessarily, but ideas and movements, political parties and philosophies, and the overpowering influence of special interests in this country.

For true progressives, the battle seems Sisyphean. And although I am a strong believer in never saying never, we keep getting pushback from both Republicans and Democrats. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 may be the perfect example. The first black president, who’d promised hope and change, did alter some things, no doubt, but all under the old order. The financial crisis and his handling of it, for example, proved that the powers that be in this country were not ready for the change Obama seemed to promise with his flowery rhetoric. And now with Trump at the helm, some will tell you that even the George W. Bush presidency was not so bad…

It is not a Democrat or Republican problem. Surely, and in 2018, almost every single Republican in power is on the wrong side of… well, most everything. Greed and the accumulation of money, at the expense of the most vulnerable, seem to be their guiding light. The Democrats are a bit better, yes. But if you look closely, they answer to many of the same actors.

In other words, I’ve given up any hope I may have had about Republicans. Sadly, I’m coming to believe the same of the Democrats. I’ve watched closely how they work right here in Miami. It’s true they’re a much better option than Republicans — but the establishment that rules the Democrats, the ones you may not see but who lurk behind the scene, is as greedy as the one on the other side of the political aisle. With them, we seem to always face the axiomatic “lesser of two evils.”

Let’s see

Back in 2017, and looking forward to the 2018 political calendar, I began to see signs of hope of what may have been the silver lining in the Trump catastrophe we’re living under. There was talk of a possible “blue wave.” In other words, Democrats taking back at least the House of Representatives, and thereby becoming the bothersome, tinny pebble in Trump’s shoe. From there, 2020 and the White House.

Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a smart politician and an electoral winner since she first ran for State House in 1982, saw the writing on the wall and decided to retire on her own terms. Her congressional district has turned more Democrat in the recent past and Trump haters were out to avenge the 2016 election.

Opportunity and timing, key ingredients for political success, came knocking and numerous young and well-prepared home-grown (progressive) Democrats jumped into the race to replace Ros-Lehtinen in Washington. There was a problem, though. Establishment Democrats were fearful of results these fresh faces were looking for in the nation’s capital.

[For a better understanding, check out Bernie Sander, circa 2016…]

You see, if Democrats win back the House, Nancy Pelosi, 78, and all her influence (or better yet, all who influence her), would like to regain her powerful Speaker’s post. With a new wave of Democrats coming in, most not committed to Pelosi, and not necessarily favored by ‘establishment’ Democrats, the Party preferred to handpick who they’d like to see represent the Party.

So it was no surprise to see Donna Shalala, also in her late 70s and who answers to the neoliberal Clinton-Obama branch of the Democrats, jump into the Ros-Lehtinen district at the last minute. A district that last year looked like a sure winner for a new up-and-coming, young and progressive Democrat.

[Warning: The Ros-Lehtinen district has a large Jewish constituency, as well as a great number of Hispanics. Over the years (and Ileana has been there since 1990), many District 27 constituents have gotten used to communicating directly with their member of Congress — in Spanish. Good luck to Donna with that one… And I’m not sure how the name Shalala, of Lebanese descent, will play in the district.] 

Republicans may yet win this election.

Also in the Miami area, there’s the case of Dr. Alina Valdes, a Cuban American raised and educated in New York City. This would not have been Dr. Valdes’ first rodeo. She ran against Mario Diaz-Balart in 2016 and had started a campaign to challenge him again this November.

I’ve never met Dr. Valdes. But I bet you she has never received the backing of the Democratic Party stalwarts. In my opinion, and that’s looking at her platform closely, Dr. Valdes just doesn’t have the “right stuff” to please a Party that might have helped her with money, for example, in a race that in 2018 is winnable. It is race against a candidate who has enabled Donald Trump every step of the way, including endorsing the president’s plan to undo Obamacare — in a district where nearly 100,000 Diaz-Balart constituents depend on the Affordable Care Act for their health insurance.

The problem is, though, that Dr. Valdes is not a prolific fundraiser. She’s busy helping people. And she does not bow down to special interests who may not look too kindly on a platform that calls for immigration reform and “welcoming people to our shores so that the melting pot will continue to provide diversity”; health care as a human right; and environmental husbandry and not ignoring climate change — especially in a state so affected by both.

Dr. Valdes just recently dropped out of the south Florida Congressional District 25 race when former Party-backed judge Mary Barzee Flores switched races to challenge Diaz-Balart. Valdes has vowed to help the judge in her quest. Again, it was no surprise to see her switch races (she had been running in the 27th District) when Shalala jumped in. Nobody’s told me, but… I don’t doubt somebody from the Democratic Party suggested the move with promises to help.

Progressive Democrats are not faring well across the country. They are NOT getting help from the established Party — who controls the purse strings. Because, you see, the Democratic Party wants us to believe that they are the party of the people, of the dispossessed and down on their luck, of the workers, of minorities, of those in need of health care… When in fact, the Democratic Party is just another political organization that today heeds orders that come from special interests — the groups that help them attain power, and keep it. At the expense of those they purport to represent.

I still hope for a blue wave in November. The other option may ruin this country forever. But based on their rejection of the new, more modern and progressive generation of politicians, I see Democrats winning much less than they expect to.

And Districts 25 and 27 right here in Miami, both races that Democrats should win, may see losses because the Democrat running seemed more like a Republican than the agent of change real, small-d democrats are looking for.