VOICE IN WASHINGTON: Standing Their Ground, Progressives Are Changing The Paradigm
“If you won't listen to the people — the everyday people in your communities — who are we representing?” Cori Bush asks
Yes, everybody — or at least all Democrats — are clearly tired in the fight trying to get the Build Back Better Act passed.
It's been weeks of a long slog with most Democrats apparently behind a bill, negotiating with hold-out Democrats Sens Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, whose support is crucial to get any measure over the finish line.
And conventional wisdom holds that, if only the progressives had caved, we would have had a deal by now.
But they haven't.
And it's powerful.
An appearance Tuesday on CNN by House progressives, Reps Cori Bush (D-Mo) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) demonstrates not only why they shouldn't simply roll over for Manchin and Sinema on the Build Back Better Act — but how strong progressives are truly changing the overall paradigm of American politics.
For Bush and Bowman, it's about making the federal government responsive to the needs of everyday Americans.
“I hate that we continue to cut resources to our most vulnerable communities while continuing to respond to special interests and what they want us to do in Congress,” said Bowman.
Both lawmakers noted that they haven't been invited to the negotiations themselves, and they find that unfortunate.
They've lived the same lives as those in their home districts, Bush said.
“If you won't listen to the people — the everyday people in your communities — who are we representing?” she asked. “Our title is 'representative,’ so why don't we have people who represent the broad mass of our country at those tables?”
Congresswoman Bush not only is fundamentally correct, but at once shows where our government has gone so terribly wrong these last several decades — and how to get it back on track: Simply represent the broad mass of our country.
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Why do we pay big bucks to these Obstructionists who block American Progress? That big-ass chunk of molded cheese blocking progress is not caring for American rights of the constitution. What’s he holding onto the toilet of OUR house when he is just there to show his ass. Kentucky is backward in knowing what to demand from their representative. Maybe they don’t know what their representative was hired to do for them. To this day McConnell is still a freeloader on the congressional payroll while young men and women Kentuckians have no dental health care. Your representative in Kentucky is holding up my goods, services, my right to clean water, our rights to safe bridges, and infrastructure. “When you’re walking on our way of life, you’re walking on the fighting side of me.”