The democrats are a waste

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Tom Perez B/K/M? This poll is closed.
B	77	25.50%
K	160	52.98%
M	65	21.52%
Total:	229 votes

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Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Glazier posted:

So progressive!

For Nebraska and with a policy that was guaranteed to pass? Yeah.

But hey, who gives a gently caress about the activists on the ground who supported him or the rest of his record. Cast them all out of the party!

charlie slowly whittling down the article so hopefully you'll read it instead of being a reactionary dope posted:

Mello successfully led the fight to overturn Republican Governor Pete Ricketts�s veto of a bill permitting young people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to obtain a driver�s license. Last year, he again put together a coalition that managed to reverse another of Ricketts�s vetoes�this time of a bill allowing young undocumented immigrants to apply for professional or commercial licenses. In Nebraska, which resettled more refugees per capita in 2016 than any other state, that kind of leadership stands out. As does Mello�s outspoken emphasis�unusual in a state dominated by Big Agriculture, and which still gets most of its energy from coal�on fighting climate change and protecting the environment. Likewise his record on LGBTQ issues, including a call for a law to ban discrimination in housing and employment. With strong union support from firefighters, teachers, and city workers, the Sierra Club�s enthusiastic endorsement, and the backing of an array of Democratic heavyweights, from former senator Ben Nelson to former Maryland governor Martin O�Malley, Mello was beginning to look like the party�s best chance for a win after disappointments in Kansas and Georgia.

(..)

�I would have appreciated it if NARAL had taken the time to talk to some of us on the ground� regarding Mello, said Megan Hunt, an Omaha reproductive-rights activist.

(...)

What�s more interesting is what happened next�and what didn�t. In 2012, Mello voted with Planned Parenthood on two out of three bills tracked by the group�and was excused from voting on the third. After that, Mello, who had become the influential chair of the state legislature�s budget committee, voted with Planned Parenthood 100 percent of the time. By 2015, the group was celebrating a �fourth straight year�without enacting any new abortion restrictions in Nebraska, thanks largely to committed women�s health advocates engaged in the legislative process.�

Hunt, who spent much of the past week lobbying the legislature, is one such activist. Another is her friend Sofia Jawed-Wessel, who teaches sexual health at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Long before The Wall Street Journal made it an issue, Mello had asked Jawed-Wessel to speak at Thursday�s rally. �You know the slogan �Women�s rights are human rights�? Well, women�s rights are economic rights, too,� said Jawed-Wessel, to cheers from the crowd.

(...)

But in Omaha, the DNC�s response was greeted with dismay. �It was Heath�s credibility with pro-life legislators that enabled him to take mandatory ultrasounds off the table and substitute a bill that stated that women had a choice to have one and to see the image,� said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, of the ultrasound legislation. The competing bill not only required ultrasounds before an abortion; it also required clinics to position the screen so that women would be forced to view the fetus.

�I wish the national organizations would respect the relationship we have been nurturing, instead of just assuming we don�t know what we�re doing,� Jawed-Wessel told me afterward. �Then they might have reframed their statement in a way that added momentum to someone we consider a strong ally.�

That last part may be hard for someone in Washington�or New York�to understand. All of the women I spoke with here were well acquainted with Mello�s personal opposition to abortion. But they also knew that while remaining true to his beliefs and his Catholic faith, he has been a public defender of Planned Parenthood, one who has shifted his efforts from blocking abortion to helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies by supporting comprehensive sex education and access to contraception

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jul 31, 2017

# ? Jul 31, 2017 17:50

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# ? May 20, 2024 15:46

Eggplant Squire: Aug 14, 2003

Inescapable Duck posted:

Even if any of the 'BernieBro' strawman actually existed, they'd still be better and more reliable allies for social justice than establishment Democrats have proven to be.

Seriously. All of the complaining about these Bernie bro strawmen but the centrist Democrat allies by their own messaging are willing to make pragmatic choices (translation do what conservatives want) to win elections. It was only a matter of time before the moved from the economic part to the social. This needs to be denounced strongly by everyone in the party or it's going to end up being really damaging.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 17:52

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

charlie slowly whittling down the article so hopefully you'll read it instead of being a reactionary dope posted:

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